I am miserable in Zurich now.
In a few days I will be miserable in various cities in Germany before moving on to France, the United Kingdom and then Ireland. This will be the last tour in support of this record, the exception being South America and Australia in February-March, but I don't think many of us will be returning for those dates. Most of the crew, if not all, were under the impression that this campaign would continue well into 2008. Ending sometime in the summer of next year. Coinciding with the UK-European festival season. But a poorly worded letter from someone in management told us that it was not to be. Also not be are any sort of retainer. The retainer is a percentage of your weekly salary paid to you in order to secure your services for future work. Since there is so little, or none, future work they feel no need to retain anyone. To be honest at this point I feel misled and let down. The way in which we were informed of the situation was shame full. A peon in an office writes an email that blows smoke up my ass in hopes of keeping me in his good favors. Fuck you. Fuck all of you. Fuck you for treating people like shit. People who give their everything so that the show should be something special. Something that people walk away from thinking and feeling that they were just witness to some special event. That doesn't happen by accident, or magic. People make it happen. People who believe in what they do. People who are passionate about what they do and who they do it for. Fuck you for having some mid level employee politely tell me I am not worth paying to keep around but hopeful that I will return in the not so near future. I didn't bite my tongue as I do so many times. I spoke up and responded, and was congratulated by many of my co-workers. All I got from management was a game of phone tag. No more games. My how things have changed over the years and not much for the better. So long and thanks for all the shoes.