Only about a week to go in the IndieGoGo campaign and I'm just putting the finishing touches on the zine, "Not for You: Stories of Music & Work from the Precarious Service Industry." Some people have asked me about that title and so I'd like to share the following excerpt where it originates. This is from the story about my first coffee shop job:
As the summer faded away
and the leaves began changing colors, I found myself sitting at yet another
evening staff meeting. This time there was tension festering between the owner
and us worker bees. Her impossible expectations of perfection and
ultra-efficiency clashed with our all-too-imperfect humanity on the clock. She
rattled off a litany of improvements that needed to be made immediately
including issues with the music we played on shift. She explained that it was a
privilege for us to choose our own soundtrack and then emphasized: “The
music is not for you. It’s for the
customers.” It was a revealing moment, exposing the antagonistic dynamics
between management, customers, and those of us that must sell our labor to
survive to the beats and rhythms of the service industry.
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