#11

The Offices of Jim Trainer
3923 Run of the Oaks Drive#G
Austin, TX 78704

G. Razas
Lap of the Empire
Hippie Town, USA
 
6/11/11
Hola hermano-
 
When I was 25 I was the foreman of a demolition crew.  There were about 25 of us:  black and Puerto Rican men working for a day wage.  We had to demolish, disassemble, shovel, haul and clear out the remnants of an old candy factory in North Philly.  They don’t call it “North Philly” anymore.  10th&Hamilton is “Northern Liberties” now and the old candy factory rents “loft-living” to people who make more money than you and me.   
 
Now I work as a caretaker for a quadriplegic named Robin.  It takes me about an hour and a half to get him settled in bed.  Some people have more courage than we ever will.  Saturday night after putting Robin to bed I went to the CC Club.  It was indie night and there was nothing rock n roll about it.  Frumpy girls with stupid haircuts and awkward dudes wearing boboes milled around to the milktoast music.  I recognize this type of crowd.  They heard an ad for the show on KUT(like I did) and came out because they thought it’d be “cool”.  When I think about radio ads and see bands perpetrating fraud in the name of rock n roll I feel the same way towards the music industry that I do towards most other institutions-like an outsider.  These people are innocent.   I glowered and drank my beer.  There are far more deadly frauds being perpetrated over in the Other Hemisphere and with far more serious ramifications than any Saturday-night-in the big City malaise I might feel.
 
Over there they’re fighting to live, or to die, and over here the man on the radio talks about democracy.  Beware the flag-wavers, the slogan bearers, the parrots.  Beware the Club Members.  As usual, I’m just looking for something to rail against, some way to brain the dumb American night we all got our hands caught in.  No trouble for me is the worst kind. 
 
Peace has found me at last.
 
 
Namaste.
jimtrainer.net