Quo Vadimus
At the end of April, my editor at the Southern Minn Scene magazine—who was in the middle of trying to
assemble the June issue of the publication—was unceremoniously laid off.
It was part of a company wide downsizing, and he was told it
was being done as a ‘cost saving measure.’ His duties, he was informed, would
be split up among two or three other people.
Needless to say, it has been a strange, disappointing, and
frustrating couple of weeks since he was let go.
I was going to write a big, long thing airing out all of my
sour grapes with the situation, going into detail about how poorly everything
has been handled in his absence while, despite my best efforts, all I can do
was sit idly by and watch the slow, painful demise of morale among the writers,
along with the decline of the magazine itself.
However, writing something that lists my many grievances is
really just petty and bitter, you know? I should just learn to be like that bitch from Frozen, and let it go.
And truthfully, who would want to read all of that anyway?
Who wants to read something about how a bunch of freelance writers are being
treated poorly under the management of someone new?
My guess is that nobody actually wants to read that, so
here’s the condensed version:
Following my editor’s dismissal, and after watching just how
badly things were going without him, it became very clear to me that I could no
longer write for the magazine. I have written my column, “The Bearded Life,”since December of 2013. Originally conceived as an ‘observational humor’
column, it became a lot more than that—some of the time it wasn’t very funny at
all, and that was something I struggled with over the last three years.
But, Rich Larson, bless his heart, he let me get away with
it, and rarely, if ever, balked at anything I turned in to him.
In the end, what this comes down to is a matter of respect,
and a matter of loyalty.
The July issue of Southern
Minn Scene will be my last. It’s an ‘animal/pet’ themed edition, so at
least I am going out on somewhat of a high note. Along with contributing my
column, I also wrote a long feature story. I don’t have a lot of confidence
that they will be published online via the Scene’s
website, but they will have a home here at the beginning of new month.
So, where are we going?
Following Rich’s dismissal, he went right to work on
something new—The Next Ten Words; and he’s already seen an unprecedented success with one particular post w/r/t the passing of Chris Cornell. I hate to
use expressions like “it went viral,” but seven million views later, how else
can you describe it?
The Next Ten Words is currently gestating; Rich hopes to
have the official website up and running in July. For now, he still wants to
generate content—both his own, as well as from other writers, and it’s being
housed on a Wordpress blog, aptly titled The First Ten Words.
My first piece for The Next Ten Words, “I Have Had it With These Motherfucking Ants in My Motherfucking House,” went live on Monday morning. When I emailed it to Rich, his response was, “Is this the return of
the humor column?” It’s funny, sure, but I can’t vouch for what is going to
happen in the future. So laugh now, while you can; you may be crying later.
These on-going and regular contributions will be housed
under the name “The Column of Disquiet.” It’s an extension of “The Bearded
Life,” in a sense, but just not called “The Bearded Life.” For what it’s worth,
the title is in reference to The Book of Disquiet,
from Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa.
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