Some things i've learned after my two days working as a barback at a gay bar:
-The phrase, "Not now, i'm working," doesn't seem to mean anything to gay guys.
-They tip me very well, epecially when i wear eyeliner.
-There seems to be this heirarchy (sp?) in "gay culture"* where an older gay guy kind of take a younger one as his protege or something. It's kinda creepy and very weird. I'm not sure i've explained my observations well enough. *and when i say gay culture, that is not meant to be a blanket statement of all gays and their cultures. It's a suggestive statement for the gays who wear it on their sleeves and are gay men before they are people, or artists, or engineers or thinkers, or emotions, or etc. (and it's not a judgement either)
-Gay guys and lesbians can actually co-exist crammed in the same building for long periods of drunken time! I've never seen that before. Usually, in my experience, they don't have anything to do with each other. Of course it all seems weird to me because i've always had "freak" friends. Not just black wearing goths or mohawks, but ALL fucking types. We were usually just a bunch of people, an extended network of people who really didn't want to be associated with the groups people tried to pigeon hole them into, or just didnt fit in with those groups they appeared to be like, or (in my case) just didnt fit any stereo types for people to begin to know where to pigeon hole them. It blows my mind how you can go to a gay bar and it's just gay guys and a few of their fag hags being "gay", and then you go to a Rockabilly place and its all guys in greaser uniform and chicks lookin like a pinup, and then everyone in the goth club is there wearing black and vynil and acting all goth, and then you go to a punk place and all these punks who are on these crusades to not be judged for being different look at you like you have 3 heads because you dont have a bomber jacket on and a torn denim vest with cloth pinned to yourself advertising how punk the bands you like are. I never understood why people group themselves together with other people based on what they wear or what music they listen to. I mean, i get it, i just dont understand. It just seem so arbitrary to me. (so that turned into a rant, but then again, doesnt everything i say?
)
Ok, and while i'm ranting, here goes another one. . . You know what i really hate? When the chain of command is all kinds of fucked. Like Sunday at work. We had some diva Mary Griffin singing at the bar, which actually turned out to be less diva and more soulfull musically. Along with that, it was one of the owners birthdays. On top of those, there was a Mardi Gras Parade in the quarter called Barkus, where people put their dogs in costume and parade them. So it was a busy day, and no less than 5 of the owners were in the bar, all day long. Technically, i guess, i'm supposed to take orders from the bar's manager. But the owners kept on telling me what to do. And not as a united front. One owner would pull me aside and make me do one thing, then another would catch me doing what one owner said and yell at me not to do that, do this. And then a third would find me doing that, and say, no this. And that would go around until the first owner would see me not doing what he said and yell at me again like i wasnt listening to him/her. All the while i'm trying to keep the bartenders happy, which is what i'm supposed to do, and the bar manager was one of the ones bartending.
And when i told one owner, "Chuck told me to do this." It wasn't, "OK, you're doing what you're told." No, it was, "Don't listen to Chuck, he doesnt know what he's talking about." Which is what each owner said about the other ones. On top of that all, theres the manager telling me that all the owners dont know how to run a bar. And he's right. At least he understood i was trying to avoid the owners in order to help him and the other bartender and kept getting pulled away.
I mean, i've never run a business and even i know that is bad business. That's fucking retarded. The worst thing is, since the place was so packed, some of the owners were telling me to wait on people who couldnt get to the bar. That would be fine except for the fact that 80% of the drinks i had to get were for the fucking owners and their friends who didn't pay and didnt tip. Fucking self serving assholes. Besides i'm not a waiter. If that was the position, i probably wouldnt have gotten the job. The same way people don't want workers going over the heads of the bosses to the owners, they shouldnt undershoot the people they put in positions of authority. It fucks everything up. Especially when there are more owners present than there are worker (minus the manager and head of security who are the ones being circumvented).
It doesn't really matter because i'm going to start looking for another job ASAP. I had to sign all my worker paperwork yesterday. Man, i can't beleive that shit. I just signed away half of my fucking life. I'm going to get a copy of it tomorry and show it to everyone. Among other things, one of the things i signed to is that i will not sue for anyething, even if caused by their negigence or deliberate actions. WTF? That cant be right. And the worst part is this isnt the worst employee contract i've seen.
They also claim to do random drug testing. But having some experience with legalese(thank you music contracts), i determined that it's alright to work there for now because the only time i've actually agreed to take a drug test is if there is some sort of accident at work. And that's somewhat understandable, even though i still dont like it. Otherwise, they've so backwardsly structured it for the sake of legalese, that i didnt actually agree to the random drugtesting. I only agreed to the fact that i am aware that they do it.
But, they allow their bartenders a certain amount of drinks free per shift, and then a discount. But when they test for drugs, they also test for alcohol. Isn't that loading the dice? "Here, drink, but if we catch you drinking your fired?" what?
What ever happened to "Just do what you're supposed to do and everything will be fine?" Why do i have to sign away my legal rights just to earn minimum wage, which as we all know, isn't even a livable wage. Thank god i live for free in a "condemned" building. Again, I don't expect life to be easy, but i would like a little more humanity from a country/system (america's) that claims to be soooooo fucking civilized. Where is the civility in creating a system where the only way you can survive is to sell away the rights and protections set up by the laws of this civilization just to survive? That's not very civil. Either call a spade a spade, or die a slow and painfull death. Either make it civilized and call it civilized, or STOP CALLING AMERICA CIVILIZED!!!!!!!
Arg.
love yous!
Oh yeah, one more thing. Fucking Jeopardy! I thought the Teen Tournament was a joke when i was a teen, but now it's just annoying. Give me some challenging trivia motherfuckers!!! WOOT!
-The phrase, "Not now, i'm working," doesn't seem to mean anything to gay guys.
-They tip me very well, epecially when i wear eyeliner.
-There seems to be this heirarchy (sp?) in "gay culture"* where an older gay guy kind of take a younger one as his protege or something. It's kinda creepy and very weird. I'm not sure i've explained my observations well enough. *and when i say gay culture, that is not meant to be a blanket statement of all gays and their cultures. It's a suggestive statement for the gays who wear it on their sleeves and are gay men before they are people, or artists, or engineers or thinkers, or emotions, or etc. (and it's not a judgement either)
-Gay guys and lesbians can actually co-exist crammed in the same building for long periods of drunken time! I've never seen that before. Usually, in my experience, they don't have anything to do with each other. Of course it all seems weird to me because i've always had "freak" friends. Not just black wearing goths or mohawks, but ALL fucking types. We were usually just a bunch of people, an extended network of people who really didn't want to be associated with the groups people tried to pigeon hole them into, or just didnt fit in with those groups they appeared to be like, or (in my case) just didnt fit any stereo types for people to begin to know where to pigeon hole them. It blows my mind how you can go to a gay bar and it's just gay guys and a few of their fag hags being "gay", and then you go to a Rockabilly place and its all guys in greaser uniform and chicks lookin like a pinup, and then everyone in the goth club is there wearing black and vynil and acting all goth, and then you go to a punk place and all these punks who are on these crusades to not be judged for being different look at you like you have 3 heads because you dont have a bomber jacket on and a torn denim vest with cloth pinned to yourself advertising how punk the bands you like are. I never understood why people group themselves together with other people based on what they wear or what music they listen to. I mean, i get it, i just dont understand. It just seem so arbitrary to me. (so that turned into a rant, but then again, doesnt everything i say?
)
Ok, and while i'm ranting, here goes another one. . . You know what i really hate? When the chain of command is all kinds of fucked. Like Sunday at work. We had some diva Mary Griffin singing at the bar, which actually turned out to be less diva and more soulfull musically. Along with that, it was one of the owners birthdays. On top of those, there was a Mardi Gras Parade in the quarter called Barkus, where people put their dogs in costume and parade them. So it was a busy day, and no less than 5 of the owners were in the bar, all day long. Technically, i guess, i'm supposed to take orders from the bar's manager. But the owners kept on telling me what to do. And not as a united front. One owner would pull me aside and make me do one thing, then another would catch me doing what one owner said and yell at me not to do that, do this. And then a third would find me doing that, and say, no this. And that would go around until the first owner would see me not doing what he said and yell at me again like i wasnt listening to him/her. All the while i'm trying to keep the bartenders happy, which is what i'm supposed to do, and the bar manager was one of the ones bartending.
And when i told one owner, "Chuck told me to do this." It wasn't, "OK, you're doing what you're told." No, it was, "Don't listen to Chuck, he doesnt know what he's talking about." Which is what each owner said about the other ones. On top of that all, theres the manager telling me that all the owners dont know how to run a bar. And he's right. At least he understood i was trying to avoid the owners in order to help him and the other bartender and kept getting pulled away.
I mean, i've never run a business and even i know that is bad business. That's fucking retarded. The worst thing is, since the place was so packed, some of the owners were telling me to wait on people who couldnt get to the bar. That would be fine except for the fact that 80% of the drinks i had to get were for the fucking owners and their friends who didn't pay and didnt tip. Fucking self serving assholes. Besides i'm not a waiter. If that was the position, i probably wouldnt have gotten the job. The same way people don't want workers going over the heads of the bosses to the owners, they shouldnt undershoot the people they put in positions of authority. It fucks everything up. Especially when there are more owners present than there are worker (minus the manager and head of security who are the ones being circumvented).
It doesn't really matter because i'm going to start looking for another job ASAP. I had to sign all my worker paperwork yesterday. Man, i can't beleive that shit. I just signed away half of my fucking life. I'm going to get a copy of it tomorry and show it to everyone. Among other things, one of the things i signed to is that i will not sue for anyething, even if caused by their negigence or deliberate actions. WTF? That cant be right. And the worst part is this isnt the worst employee contract i've seen.
They also claim to do random drug testing. But having some experience with legalese(thank you music contracts), i determined that it's alright to work there for now because the only time i've actually agreed to take a drug test is if there is some sort of accident at work. And that's somewhat understandable, even though i still dont like it. Otherwise, they've so backwardsly structured it for the sake of legalese, that i didnt actually agree to the random drugtesting. I only agreed to the fact that i am aware that they do it.
But, they allow their bartenders a certain amount of drinks free per shift, and then a discount. But when they test for drugs, they also test for alcohol. Isn't that loading the dice? "Here, drink, but if we catch you drinking your fired?" what?
What ever happened to "Just do what you're supposed to do and everything will be fine?" Why do i have to sign away my legal rights just to earn minimum wage, which as we all know, isn't even a livable wage. Thank god i live for free in a "condemned" building. Again, I don't expect life to be easy, but i would like a little more humanity from a country/system (america's) that claims to be soooooo fucking civilized. Where is the civility in creating a system where the only way you can survive is to sell away the rights and protections set up by the laws of this civilization just to survive? That's not very civil. Either call a spade a spade, or die a slow and painfull death. Either make it civilized and call it civilized, or STOP CALLING AMERICA CIVILIZED!!!!!!!
Arg.
love yous!
Oh yeah, one more thing. Fucking Jeopardy! I thought the Teen Tournament was a joke when i was a teen, but now it's just annoying. Give me some challenging trivia motherfuckers!!! WOOT!
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
a working man huh
which bar is it
?
you are living in the quarter too right
doing any party stuff for mardi gras
im not sure if i wanna put up with all the nonsense of people down on bourbon street mardi gras day
but maybe
you dont have a balcony and a video camra
so we can give out some t shirts and sell some videos
do u
?
hell man
a balcony on bourbon
we should take advantage of
and throw an SG get together
i been to OZ
that was decent club
good setup
better music than the tourist places
never been to the others
not really into gay bars
ya know