I used to watch a lot of Late Night television. Conan, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel... I watched them all flipping between the best bits and guest interviews. One thing I've really missed though is the musical guests. I've found quite a bit of music from just watching the bands on these shows.
I didn't really watch a lot of the 'hot' bands. Instead I'd keep my eyes and ears out for newer sounds.
Well, now that I get home around 11PM and wind down in front of the tube for an hour or so, I can now at least watch the headlining shows. Last night I was in a particularly good mood because I heard about my brother's interview (more on that later), so I stayed up late enough to check out the band playing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.... Preservation Hall Jazz Band. And um... WOW!
To say that I liked what I heard would be an understatement. First off, this isn't some top 40 pop tripe. This is an actual New Orleans Jazz Band with some chops.
I'm not particularly into this style of Jazz, but when it's played right there is no escaping that loud bombastic style. It doesn't sneak into your ear or brain, it breaks down the door, sets up shop and commands your undivided attention. Without noticing I found my toes tapping. My hands were tapping out the beat on my lap and my head was nodding in time with the song. The performance included some great dancers and I wanted to jump up and join in... the music was that infectious. I know it won't be everybody's cup of tea, but I just had to share it here:
And here is the studio track (to an appropriately funny animation):
It really reminded me of a piece I saw on Studio 60:
The emotional impact between these songs obviously go in different directions, but they both just dive in and take me over.
About my brother's interview. He had a great interview to be a maintenance man at a local YMCA camp. This camp is huge at over 1200 acres and surrounds a public lake. The lake may be public, but since the camp completely surrounds it it is the next best thing to a private lake.
Now normally I'd be excited for anybody getting an interview, but I was and am still particularly excited for my brother. You see, he's not the average worker. My brother has a work ethic without rival. He honestly beleives that working hard is everybody's responsibility. At KMart (where he currently works and were I used to to work) that just isn't expected. So he gets understandably upset when he isn't rewarded or even hardly acknowledged for his effort. Hell... he's twice the worker that I was and I was twice the worker than any other worker at the place. He's that good.
So obviously he want's to get out of there. But his skill set, and experience don't translate well to a resume. The best way to qualify my brother's experiences is as a computer tech (with no work history in the field for the past 10 years), or as a handyman (with no direct work experience). As a handyman my brother has kept up our house ever since my dad passed on. Before that he was the maintenance man at our parent's rental property. He's done (and continues to do) everything from installing new light switches to plumbing and electrical work.
As for my Brother's passions... well he loves working outside. He loves using both his hands and his mind and learning new things.
So with that in mind I never expected him to find a position that he would both be good at and could utilize all of his skills. Until now. Being part of a 4 man team maintaining this huge camp could tap into all of his maintenance skills as well as afford him the chance to learn new skills. They have their own stable of horses (about 100) and grow their own hay for them. My brother's never really been into animal handling, although he does love animals, and he's never learned anything about farming... so not only can he use what he already knows, he can learn and excel at these new skills.
From his telling, the Interview went wonderfully. They're looking for a hard worker, someone who has skills but isn't afriad to learn new things, someone who can enjoy working in a camp like atmosphere, and someone who wouldn't be looking to leave anytime soon.
I swear, if I were to make up a dream job for my brother, this would be it. Hopefully my next post will be me bragging about him getting the job!
No comments:
Post a Comment