Look 120: Sit around in your underwear
Fellow angler,
It has been quite a week (or however long it’s been since I last posted). A few highlights:
1. I’m unemployed. My boss quit and the company decided to get rid of my team. While it’s a shame to be unemployed in a society where basic needs such as housing, health insurance, and retirement savings are so closely tied to having a full-time job, I am glad that I’ll have time to enjoy life. It’s also an important time to enjoy the waning daylight. To quote an author who famously hasn’t been able to finish his books either, “winter is coming.”
2. I did my civic duty and showed up for jury duty last week. After five hours waiting to be called, I spent over two hours getting interviewed in the courtroom alongside other potential jurors. The case involved alleged gun trafficking, wire taps, testimony from undercover cops, and who knows what other juicy details. I wasn’t chosen, though I don’t mind. I would have had to show up basically every weekday, all day, until Thanksgiving. That would closely resemble the schedule of a full-time job. As per point #1, I’m happy to have time off during the day.
3. You won’t all care about this, but the damned Mets are doing everything in their power not to qualify for the playoffs. They’ve played 14 games in September and lost nine of them. They have been sucking with such force that I hear Hoover is studying them in an effort to create the strongest vacuum ever built.
This doesn’t make me like the Mets any less. In fact, I was at the game last night. I’ll be there again tomorrow for a daytime game. That’s something I can do as part of the unemployed masses. I’ll put on my 2000s-era Mets jersey, buy a (veggie) hotdog plus maybe peanuts, and score the game like the cool guy I am. Because even if the Mets suck, I know they have what it takes to eke their way into the playoffs and hold out until the most heartbreaking moment possible before getting eliminated.
Funemployment Passing time
Some things I’ve been doing since my unemployment started:
I watched an anime called Hakaba Kitaro (Graveyard Kitaro), based on a manga I like (English book link) by an author I really like, Shigeru Mizuki. I wish I could read Japanese just so I could read more of his books. For those interested, consider Showa, Mizuki’s history of WWII. He includes his first-hand account of the war (he fought and lost an arm) but also covers general history. There is beautiful artwork, characters from his other books appear in a fun way, and it’s not often that we in the US get to read a history of WWII from a Japanese perspective.
I started watching Bob and Margaret, an animated show about a middle-aged couple. It started with this short, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1994.
I’ve made a lot of miso soup with udon. I have been experimenting with a recipe I made up and eating lots of noodles. This coincides with me finding a good Japanese market, which also sells a natto I like (score).
I’m watching the September Grand Sumo tournament. If you’re unaware, sumo is a heckin good time. It’s a simple sport that’s quick and easy to understand. The wrestlers are incredibly fast and strong (obligatory Twilight reference) with crazy good agility and flexibility. The tournament lasts 15 days, and you can watch daily highlights through NHK World.
I’m cheering for the Black Ferns (New Zealand) in the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Rugby is a great sport and New Zealand is a great country. Their semifinal match is on Friday.
I attended a talk and spoke to one of my favorite current authors, Agustina Bazterrica. She’s best known for Tender Is the Flesh, though I think I preferred her most recent novel, The Unworthy. She’s very smart and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her talk. I got her to laugh (more of a chuckle) and unintentionally complimented her in a way that made her stop signing to thank me multiple times. Then I told her I’m writing a book and she should watch out for it. She was obviously very excited. Great success.
I’ve eaten multiple diner meals. NYC doesn’t really have the classic trolley car diners that I grew up with in New England, but there isn’t much that I love more than a good diner. (My current diner of choice is Cobble Hill Coffee Shop.) When I was younger, I thought that I wanted to become a diner chef (I still think about it). I remember sitting at counters and being awed by the speed and skill these chefs displayed. The way a chef could handle the rush hour crowd while maintaining multiple conversations with people at the bar felt like magic to a simpleton like me. Here’s a video of a classic diner chef, Spider Osgood, should you also desire magic. (I learned about Osgood at a talk I attended on the history of diners.)
What about that novel?
Lest you think I’ve forgotten that this is a newsletter about writing, yes, I have been working on my book. Edits are moving slowly, but they are coming together.
My primary goal during unemployment is to get back into some good habits: get regular and sufficient sleep, do 2-3 weekly workouts, eat 3 daily meals, read every day, hit 8,000 daily steps. My secondary goal is to finish the next draft of my manuscript. I’m confident it’ll happen.
I’ve also started thinking about characters and settings for a second novel. I don’t know if this will actually become my second novel, but the idea involves characters in the same world as my first. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it — to the point that I was annoyed with how much it popped into my mind — so I had to start writing notes.
Title song
This week’s post is brought to you by Shotgun Willie, a song by the man, the legend, Willie Nelson.
If you’re unfamiliar with this song — and I know you are — it’s short, simple, and a bit silly. Here are the first three lines:
Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear Biting on a bullet and pulling out all of his hair Shotgun Willie's got all of his family there
However, this song was a turning point in Willie Nelson’s career. By the time he released this song and the Shotgun Willie album in 1973, he’d already spent a full decade trying to make his type of music and having producers stifle him by forcing him to fit the sound and style of classic Nashville country music (yuck). His albums sold poorly, but live shows with his backing band, The Family, were rollicking affairs featuring sell-out crowds. (The record company mostly didn’t allow The Family to appear on Willie’s records.)
That changed because Willie changed record labels, negotiated for more creative freedom, and led off his next album with Shotgun Willie. It doesn’t look like much more than a doodle, but as he explained, “I thought of it more as clearing my throat.” It represented a big step in the direction he wanted to move artistically.
Then he released Phases and Stages, a fantastic concept album, but still faced pushback from the record label. He was able to move to another label, where he negotiated full control over his music. His next album, Red Headed Stranger, catapulted him into superstardom and cemented him as a leading figure in the outlaw country movement — a push to move country music away from the highly produced and sanitized lyrics of the Nashville sound (yuck).
Premium subscribers may recall from my 2024 year-end wrap-up that 15 of my top 25 songs were from Red Headed Stranger (specifically the Live From Austin City Limits version). I don’t want to spoil any upcoming posts for this year, but that’s still my most played album by far.
Anyway, this is all my roundabout way of saying that just as Shotgun Willie was a necessary throat-clearing before Willie Nelson could realize his full artistic vision, I can’t help but feel this period of unemployment could serve as a time for me to clear the phlegm and take a big step toward the writing life I want to live. And if you’re reading this, wondering whether you could also use a throat-clear, why not follow Shotgun Willie’s example: Sit around in your underwear for a while and see where it takes you.
Until next time,
Happy fishing!