I really only like listening to certain live albums or performances. I often get annoyed at the loud crowd screaming over the songs and singing along badly, and the singer changing up the lyrics, encouraging the audience to sing along or showboating too much, and all too often the sound quality is awful like it was recorded on someone’s cheap smartphone, and makes your ears bleed. I typically prefer studio recordings above all else. But there are some live performances that sound as good as or even better than the studio versions. It can be nice to hear slightly different versions of the songs you love too, just to add some variety. So when I am in the mood to stream a live performance on YouTube, these are the videos I most often listen to. This list is destined to grow of course. Some are bands performing in front of a sold out arena, others are low budget affairs recorded in the artist’s home. It’s a long list, spanning many genres, so I’ll just say a few short things about each choice.
Light Asylum - Live on KEXP
Light Asylum is a band I miss a lot. They burst onto the scene around 2013, put out one album and some singles, and nothing since. This was a performance they did for the radio station KEXP. It sounds just as good as the studio versions, but with the added character of being played live. “IPC” is still such a danceable tune that I’ve never tired of after all these years.
Kraftwerk - Minimum Maximum
This one is a long one, a two-parter. Here Kraftwerk plays the biggest hits of their discography, accompanied by a lot of good production value. By the 21st century Kraftwerk finally had the technology to make fully realized versions of their songs they probably would have made if they could back in the 1970s. And rather than becoming quickly outdated updates like what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars trilogy, these versions improve on many elements, and exist alongside the originals rather than attempting to replace them. Also helping is that Kraftwerk concerts don’t really lend themselves to mosh pits and screaming crowds, so you can focus on the music like a studio version.
Omnia - Pagan Folklore
This is a relaxing concert that’s nice to put on as you’re going to sleep. If I’m in the right mood for it I do like listening to new age pagan folk music like this. This is another one that has a high production value, like it was produced for a DVD. It’s inter-spliced with little introductions to each song by the singers, giving the whole thing a certain charm.
System of a Down - Live in Yerevan
I was at this concert, and I’ll be telling my grandkids about it one day. In April 2015 System of a Down came to Armenia for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and put on probably their best concert ever. It was a magical night. They set up right in Republic Square at the center of Yerevan, and as they played a powerful thunderstorm started and just added to the epicness. I just happened to be in Armenia doing my internships teaching English with Birthright Armenia at the time, and got to go to the concert. I was out at the edge of the crowd, so I’ve never been able to find myself in this video. But I was there, I promise.
Ministry on Broadway, Chicago, Il. (1982)
Synthpop Ministry is best Ministry. Here’s a pretty good quality recording of one of their earliest concerts in 1982. I find that not most live performances from before the internet age have the best sound quality unless they were being purposely recorded for an album or home video, but this one sounds good. And despite Al Jourgensen’s distaste for his own early work, he recently remastered the audio of this concert and put it up on Bandcamp. It’s a worthwhile purchase.
Glaare - April 17, 2018
I really love the sound of this band. They only had one album at the time so this concert is short and sweet, but it sounds as good as if not sometimes better than the studio versions. The singer puts more passion into tracks like “My Love Grows in Darkness”, one of my favorite songs. It’s music you can escape with.
Mortiis - Live at the Place, September 11, 2018
This concert was from shortly after Mortiis returned to playing dungeon synth. I went to one of his concerts in early 2020 and it was more or less exactly like this, so when I want to relive that night I listen to this. It’s darkly relaxing. Great background music at least. Especially if you’re playing Dungeons and Dragons or something like that. Or even if you just want to do a dark meditation.
Hante - Live at St. Vitus August 7, 2018
Hante is a French coldwave solo act by Helene de Thoury. In this performance she plays in front of a small audience, but it’s professionally shot. She plays all my favorite Hante songs in this performance. It’s impressive in this performance that she does everything herself, both sing and work the synthesizer. She makes it look so natural and easy. It’s a bit similar to the Mortiis concert above, since he did all the work himself in that video too, although he wasn’t also singing. My neurodivergent brain wouldn’t be able to multitask like that.
Minuit Machine - Sainte Rave
On a related note, here’s a concert by Minuit Machine, another band featuring Helene de Thoury. This was a virtual concert that was live streamed in December 2020. The audio alone rivals that of the studio versions of the songs, but the dark, ominous setting of the concert just adds to the whole atmosphere, like they set up a rave in an abandoned cathedral. In fact it was so good that they’re selling a recording of the concert on Bandcamp too. It would definitely be cool to have this on vinyl.
Theatre of Tragedy- Last Curtain Call (2010)
This was the final farewell of the legendary gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, the last concert they played before they split up. So you can imagine they were giving it their all for this one, and it was professionally recorded due to its importance. It’s very emotionally-charged. You even see some of the audience members tearing up at a few points, as they witness the band’s swan-song. But it was a high note to go out on.
The Cure - Trilogy (2002)
You can’t go wrong with The Cure playing all of their best albums live in their entirety. They play Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers. I also have this one on DVD, a super lucky thrift store find. It’s over three hours, but well worth listening to, even if only in parts.
Alice in Chains - Live at the Moore, 1991
This is a great showcase of early Alice in Chains, from after the release of Facelift but before their most famous album Dirt. They were less dark at the time, and as you can probably guess I prefer their darker stuff on later albums, but there are some top notch renditions of “Man in the Box” and “Love Hate Love” here, a couple of my favorites. It’s nice to hear Layne Staley be conversational with the audience, it feels like he’s talking to you. Sounds like someone who would be great to hang out with.
Alice in Chains - MTV Unplugged
This was mainly going to be one entry per band, buuuut these two concerts are both so good, and different enough from one another. This legendary performance came right at the end of Layne Staley’s tenure with the band, giving them a larger discography to draw from than the other live performance I included, and in many ways represented the end of an era. Alice in Chains would go on to release two more songs before Staley’s death, but this concert really did seem like the last hurrah. Not long after this Layne Staley was in no condition to tour. You get a very different energy from the acoustic versions of many of these songs. Dark, relaxing, and beautiful. And when Staley flubs his lines during “Sludge Factory” and yells out “FUCK!”, only to be consoled by his bandmate and friend Jerry Cantrell, it actually kind of puts a human face on the band. I probably would be flubbing my lines left and right if it were me.
You have to find a playlist to watch the whole thing on YouTube, no one has it as just one video.
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
Can’t mention Alice in Chains Unplugged without mentioning Nirvana Unplugged too. Hits a lot of the same energetic notes that the Alice in Chains one does. Most people who listen to alternative rock will have at least heard Nirvana’s rendition of David Bowie’s “The Man who Sold the World” from this concert, which received a lot of radio play in the 1990s as I recall. It is interesting that Kurt Cobain chose to include a lot of covers, and throw some folk and blues songs in there, while “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is nowhere to be heard. My favorite performance here is “Something in the Way”, with that dreary cello in the background. Much as it would for Alice in Chains, this concert ended up being something of a final farewell for Nirvana too, recorded less than a year before Kurt Cobain’s death.
Type O Negative - Symphony for the Devil
I actually have this one on DVD too. It starts with a bunch of funny clips from Type O Negative fans, and also includes the humorous antics of the bandmates. Type O Negative has a certain brand of humor you’re either going to get or not get at all. If you just want to put a live show on and listen to music in the background of whatever you’re doing it might not be the best since the songs are inter-spliced with the band goofing off backstage, but it’s entertaining if you feel like watching the band. The music itself is great too, of course. It’s performed in front of a huge audience. A bit heavier sometimes than the studio versions. But Peter Steele’s soothing baritone voice is just as good live.
Statiqbloom- Live for Strict Tempo, July 9, 2020
This was the livestream that got me into Statiqbloom. I had heard the track “Thin Hidden Hand” before this, but the livestream was what made me a fan. It is best listened to from beginning to end as one single work. The songs all blend into one another, maintaining a consistent dark energy throughout. I also like some of the extra voice samples that were added to the songs that weren’t on the studio versions. It has more of a raw feel than the studio versions too.
Grey Gallows - Luna Negra/ Cold Transmission
Grey Gallows is along my favorite Greek bands. This performance is just the duo performing in what looks to be their home, but that just leaves no interference from a pesky crowd. I like these simplistic performances. You still get a different feel for the songs. For example, the singer puts a little more passion into his singing at some points, such as in the song “Enemy”. At 20+ minutes it’s on the shorter side, but they manage to squeeze in their best hits.
Skinny Puppy, Halloween 1986
It’s kind of hard to find live performances from this long ago that sound good, but it was produced for home video, so it passes the test. I was less than a year old when this concert happened. To think I could have been listening to Skinny Puppy all my life, but only discovered them a few years ago. Pity.
Carnal Machinery - Luna Negra Livestream
This livestream is short and sweet, with three songs packed into a little over thirteen minutes, but it’s the perfect sampler of Carnal Machinery, a dark and aggressive synth-punk act. I especially love this version of the song “Voices”, with those voice samples at the beginning adding a layer of schizophrenia to the track that is missing on the studio version.
Molchat Doma - Taksirat Festival 2020
This performance perfectly encapsulates the gloomy post-punk sound of Molchat Doma. Here they go through all their biggest hits, and since it was produced for TV and wasn’t in front of a big crowd it has optimal sound quality. As a result though it doesn’t really differ heavily from the studio versions, other than being a bit more echoing. Still a good mix to put on.
I don't really want to keep going on about how much I hated working at call centers, but I found this list I wrote last year about all the things, big and small, that irritated me about working at a particular call center I was at. I added to the list every time something annoyed me, part of a coping mechanism I guess. I saved the list to Grammarly, where we kept our email templates, and after I left the job I logged back into Grammarly to retrieve the list. I thought it was worth saving on this blog. I actually want to use it as material for a novel I plan on writing down the line where my character, a vampire, is forced to work at a call center to pay their rent. This call center was the customer service for a makeup company. I don't know if I could get in trouble for saying which company or not; not that I ever plan on getting back into the call center business if I can help it. But we basically handled customer complaints, questions, and whatever else they called about. Most of the time we reshipped damaged items or helped correct their "bonus points" on their accounts that earned them free stuff when they purchased enough. I worked there for about seven months or so before we moved to the other side of Florida last year. They had both a phone team and an email team. Newcomers were automatically put on the phone team. I am a much better writer than a speaker so I worked hard to get to the email team, and when I finally made it I was still put on the phones roughly half the time. Anyway, I'll let the list tell the whole story. This was only the third worst call center I've ever worked at, by the way, and I've worked at four. If you'll remember that mix tape I made a while back which I posted a blog about, that one was about the worst call center I ever worked at, which I was trapped working for because I needed health insurance for my pregnant wife. This one I just kinda worked at for some extra money, and if it had been as bad as that other call center I would have definitely quit at that point; we already had health insurance after my son was born, you see. Anyway, here it is.
100 Call Center Pet Peeves
1. When everyone is being noisy; laughing, singing,
clapping, doing whatever, when I'm in the middle of a call and trying to listen
to a quiet customer!It's all the email
team's doing. Pesky email team (let me join you please)
2: Logging into the 20 systems at the beginning of each
shift and ending up punching in late even when I arrived 15 minutes early! This
is worse when my computer gets stolen.
3. Reward points in general. Too much math, too much hassle.
Life would be easier without them. Especially hate when they go into pending
after an order fails; and how management claims to have "fixed" the
issue and refuses to lend points out anymore, and yet it still happens
constantly and we get to hear the complaining.
4. How utterly sub-par the training was, leaving me
completely unprepared for the job.
5. Being ordered around by someone who isn't even your team
leader.
6. Customers who try to take advantage of an online BOGO
sale but don't put the "free" item in their shopping cart, and then
wonder where it went when it arrives. Imagine doing this in a physical store.
Would you not put the free item in your shopping cart and then wonder why it's
not magically in your bag when you get home?
7. When a call comes in the second you go into
"ready" on the call system they have.
8. When a call comes in before you're finished with the
notes on the last call. This is preventable (although the method to prevent
this, After Call Work, is heavily frowned upon), but sucks when it happens.
9. When the email team plays crappy music.
10. That feeling when you check a customer's account and
they've been flagged with (no refund) or (no reship) next to their name. Oh
this will be fun.
11. Having to play computer roulette when I get in after
someone steals my usual computer, to find a computer to sit at that will
actually work. Yeahhhh...that was the nice thing about having your own cubicle
at my last job.
12. When you put forth the effort to get to work early, but
the systems actually boot up quickly leaving you with nothing to do; these same
systems that take 20 minutes to boot up when you get here on time.
13. When you ask for a phone number and the customer gives
it to you at the speed of light. Maybe you'll have better luck with their name
and email, but probably not.
14. Accidentally opening a call saying “Welcome to (previous
company I worked at)” at the beginning of the call. Arrrg! Months of
brainwashing hasn't quite worn off.
15. Anything to do with gift cards, especially when I don't
have access to the systems we use to handle them.
16. Not being allowed to go into AUX for IT issues even
though my programs actually are on the fritz. Why does the option even exist
then if we can't use it?
17. When normally quiet Sundays get bizarrely busy, probably
due to under-staffing, co-workers not putting Sunday in their availability, or
other weird factors. Bah. Do something better with your Sunday nights,
customers. There's just something worse about it happening on Sundays, because
you expect an easy day.
18. The "you might be using illegitimate software"
popups. Because they're too cheap to give us legit software without stupid
popups. I especially hate it when they trick me into thinking a call is coming
in for a second.
19. Back to back calls out of nowhere, after 11pm on a
Sunday. Like why? (Also, any day that starts slow and suddenly gets busy out of
nowhere for some reason. Night shifts are supposed to start faster and then
slow down! It's the natural order of things!)
20. Calls that come in right before your shift ends.
Especially 40-minute-long ones. Those make me want to break things.
21. When people are given VTO because we're apparently
"over-staffed", and then there's a deluge of calls with only like 5
people to take them, so they make the email team handle the incoming phone
calls because they got rid of everyone else who would normally take them. WHAT
WERE THEY THINKING?? Gods, the idiocy! Only give VTO out if someone comes up
and asks for it! Greedy bastards, they'd rather be short-staffed than pay
people.
22. Day after holiday call volume levels. Ughh. Also holiday
sales, coupons, and anything that drives up sales and leads to high call
volume. Hate them. Hate them all.
23. Hearing the team leaders butcher my name for the 100th
time while trying to nag me for being in Aux or leaving a customer on hold too
long.
24. The fact that a call placed on hold can disconnect when
you're away from your desk asking a team leader for help, and you could come
back on an entirely different call. There's an obscure safeguard against this;
of course I wasn't trained in this and had to figure it out myself. Imagine
that!
25. That nobody is in any hurry to get me access to various
computer systems that I’m locked out of. It's ridiculous at this point.
"Oh I'll send in a ticket". Sure.
26. How heavily-enforced the hold time is here. It was a lot
more lax at my last workplace. Here they get right on your ass about it after 2
minutes. (The grass really is always greener on the other side of the fence).
27. How hyper-vigilant the team leaders are about every
single thing you do when we're understaffed, since they have fewer people to
focus on, making me a bigger target.
28. The fact that nothing tells you what time you clocked
out for break. It's like they want you to lose track.
29. How a call never fails to come in the moment you start
to think "huh, been a while since a call came in". It's a jinx.
30. The system we use for taking notes on a call and email. Would
it be too much to ask to have a big button saying "Create New
Incident"? Do we really have to go through so many stupid tabs for
something we need to do every single call? Would it cost too much to get us a
system where we don't have to fill out every little bit of info manually and in
two seconds? It's the most user-unfriendly computer program I've had to use on
a job, and is the sole reason I'm in After Call Work so much. Yet I get blamed.
31. Coding out calls. A lot of the time no code fits the
call. And you have to dig through dozens of categories to find the right one if
it is there. And we're expected to do this in like two seconds.
32. Being expected to listen to a customer, and start a new
incident (because starting them ahead of time isn't allowed), and fill out the
categories, and notate EVERYWHERE, and navigate dozens of systems, all at the
same time, as fast as possible. For 9 dollars an hour! I'm going into After
Call Work, fire me if you don't like it, I don't care. Let's see the rich
bastards who made up these rules do all that without After Call Work when the
calls are back-to-back.
33. When the customer can't hear you for some reason, so you
have to practically put the headset speaker inside your mouth for them to hear.
34. The way the whip-crackers prowl up and down the aisles
like hawks, waiting for an excuse to nag us for being in After Call Work for 20
seconds. like they're correction officers and we're in jail or something. (I
know I've already complained about this sort of thing, but the prowling; Gods I
hate it.)
35. The mixed bag when you enter a customer's email into the
system and the name comes right up. Sure it means you don't have to fill in the
rest, but it also means they have a history of calling, probably about the
exact issue they're about to dump on you which a previous agent was unable to
solve. How exciting...
36. Digging for email templates in Standard Text. Half the
time the template you need doesn't exist. The other maybe one third of the time
it takes forever to find unless you get lucky. Searching it almost never brings
up the right one. We wouldn't need Grammarly and have to write our own if
Standard Text didn't suck so bad.
37. Whenever you get assigned an email that has a long back
and forth history that another agent was working on, but they went home or
something so now the ball is in your court, and most of the time by this point
the customer is pissed and/or has a really long convoluted problem beyond your
expertise.
38. Biting off more than you can chew on the email right
before your shift ends, taking on an email that's going to take 20 minutes to
do. Roughly the equivalent of getting a complicated call at 11:58.
39. Entitled Karens who want to speak to your manager over
some minor, first world grievance. That's a given at any call center.
40. As overall better as it is to be on emails, you have to
constantly work. You don't get long idle periods like on phone calls. There are
no slow days. But it's still better.
41. Being thrown back onto the phones out of email,
particularly if I was only on emails for like 15 minutes or less, and
particularly if I'm being bounced back and forth. I HATE THAT. Make up your
mind, and keep me in one place. It's worse to give me false hope by putting me
on email for 3 minutes than to just be kept on the phones. The words "Can
I have you go live?" make me want to punch my monitor.
42. When you just cannot understand a single thing a
customer says; either they have a weird accent, talk too fast, loudness in the
background, or the sound gets all distorted and inaudible. So awkward.
43. How tight-fisted this company is with money. Almost
never allowed to give appeasements. Can't just throw money at customers to get
them to go away like I could at my last job.
44. I know I already mentioned gift cards, and I do hate
everything about them, but a special shout-out to third-party gift cards which
we cannot do a single thing with and have to tell the customer to go back to
where it was purchased. They should be banned.
45. When everyone goes on break at the same time but me,
leaving me to take ALL the calls. They do it on purpose. It's a conspiracy.
46. The fun times when our systems are down, and we get to
tell customers to call back later. They so love hearing that. And even the
email team gets put on phones so there's no escape. Lovely. Good time to take
your break.
47. When you find the correct email template AFTER you've
already sent a response and are looking through the templates for another email
response. You never find it when you're looking for it.
48. The stupid "duplicate email" error message in the
note taking system. Another example of how user-unfriendly it is. And of course,
no one tells you the work-around, you have to figure it out yourself.
49. Whip-cracking on a Sunday when the call volume is low.
That doesn't even make sense! It's going to be 10+ minutes before my next call
anyway, let me finish my notes. Or put me on emails if you really want me to be
productive.
50. Why does every other customer have two rewards profiles?
It makes things so confusing! What incompetence led to this epidemic? And then
everything has to be to exact specifications to merge them! But only sometimes!
It makes no sense at all. And you've gotta love those extra special customers
with three or even four profiles.
51. When the systems get sluggishly slow. Makes for awkward
waiting with potentially impatient customers. They almost always kick the email
team onto the phones when it happens too.
52. Incoming transfers. Just don't take them. Don't. It's
always going to be some extremely pissed off customer that you can't even help,
because 9 times out of 10 they're being transferred to the wrong department
anyway. The other agent just wants to dump them off. Even worse when it's a
blind transfer, can't refuse those. Remember: it's going to be a lot easier to
say no to the agent than it will be to deal with a customer screaming at you
because they've been on the phone for two hours and have spoken to three
different representatives.
53. Related to 52: super-irate transfer customers who whine
about having been on the phone for two hours, refuse to give you their info
because they gave it to the last five people they spoke to, and scream at you.
Maybe it's time for a break. Put the phone down, take a few deep breaths, go
for a walk, hug a puppy, and call back later once you've cheered up. And
remember, if you keep getting passed around, maybe it's you. Bad customers get
bad customer service. It costs zero dollars to not be a jerk. 'Kay? *smile,
eye-twitch*
54. The fact that being in After Call Work is such a big
no-no anyway. I'm never in after call work out of laziness. I'm in after call
work because I'm wrestling with your stupid, counter-intuitive user-unfriendly
systems that you have to enter absolutely everything into manually. I'm in
after call work because the customer hung up before I was done with the notes.
I'm in after call work because it's impossible to do 50 things at once during a
call. I'm working, leave me alone. "Notate EVERYTHING, but don't take time
to notate. Just magically have it done!"
55. Customers who can't do simple things on the website so
you have to walk them through it. They should require everyone over 50 to pass
a computer training course before they're allowed to spend money on the
internet. But, that'd be bad for business so it'll never happen.
56. "But by the time you fix my problem the items won't
be on sale anymore whaaaaa!"
57. The times when there's nothing you can do to help a
customer. When there are no solutions. Those times are just great.
58. The "I can't log into my account" calls.
There's literally nothing we can do to help them that they haven't already
tried 50 times (ie send out change password/username emails). Why does the
website tell them to contact us when this happens? Have them contact the IT
department! We just reship and refund stuff!
59. The stupid vacuum cleaners when I'm on a call. It
usually happens on Sunday evening. Can't you do it after midnight or something?
Of course, no one else cares about the poor fools on phones when everyone else
is being as loud as possible, see item #1.
60. Gift with purchases. I hate them. Can't refund or
reship, can't do anything with them. And customers get so pissed over them for
some reason. It was free, boo hoo, shut up. Just get rid of them.
61. Getting nagged about being in bathroom break aux for too
long. Yeah, my 3-minute bathroom break was too long for you? Got it, I'll wear
a catheter from now on and just sit here doing my job like the mindless robot
you just wish you could replace me with, thanks. "You can be in Unscheduled
Break aux longer than 10 minutes if you show us a doctor's note." Sure,
I'll get right on that with the excellent health insurance I'm getting through
this part-time, barely above minimum wage job...oh, wait.
62. If you have something important and work-related to take
care of that doesn't involve taking a call or an email, have fun waiting for a
chance to do it. You have to work every single solitary second of your shift.
Doesn't matter if you have a follow-up to do, if you have to give your team
leader an absence code, trying to get your direct deposit situated, trying to
gain access to a system you've been locked out of, etc. You're screwed.
63. Customers who place an order two days before they're
moving or going out of the country, and then complain when their package isn't
coming before they leave and expect you to magically get UPS/USPS to send it
faster, as if this is just some secret option we have for customers who yell
loudly enough. You know you could have ordered this like two weeks ago,
right?It's called an estimated delivery
date for a reason.
64. Being forced to go on the phones even though the call
volume is low and everyone else is on emails, and even though it should be
pretty clear by now I'm objectively better at emails.
65. The shipping companies dumping angry customers on us
whenever anything that went wrong with shipping is their fault by misinforming
them and telling them to call us.
66. When a customer emails you an attached image of a
damaged item or something and explains little to nothing, expecting you to be
Sherlock Holmes and figure everything out yourself by downloading the image and
examining it, leading to it being a 10+ minute email. It is especially annoying
when you ask them for item numbers and they just send you pictures instead.
67. Sitting next to nagging, snooping know-it-alls who will
eavesdrop on you and tell you when you're doing something against the rules,
which are all-too-vague and were never brought up in training. If I want your
advice I'll ask for it. Am I in coaching? Are you my new team leader? No? Then
shut up.
68. When you get an email and the customer wasn't the last
one to reply, but another agent. Soooo....what do I do here?
69. The struggle to make it to the email team, being teased week
after week with the team leader saying she’s "thinking" about moving
me as long as I keep my emails per hour above average, which was hard to do
since I was thrown all the phones all the time. Were they just stringing me
along with empty promises to get more work out of me?
70. Getting hassled by a team leader for being in After Call
Work when I've actually been live for the last 30+ seconds. Especially when I'm
literally in the middle of a call. Think I'm talking to myself here? (To be
fair I might be, but still!)
71. Whenever some coworker or team leader tries to make
small talk with me while I'm on a phone call. Gods shut up! I can't talk to you
right now! Especially when it's a team leader who should really know better by
now. It's hard enough doing 50 things at once on your stupid systems without
you distracting me.
72. The blue screen of death! Oh, what fun! Most likely to
occur when all my usual computers have been stolen and I happened to be unlucky
enough to pick one that barely works.
73. Related to 67; secret and obscure rules that we weren't
taught in training and nobody ever brings up until you break them.
74. Guests who threaten to never shop at our store again if
you don't accomplish some impossible feat for them that they've already been
told we can't do, like reship an order to a different address or speed up the
shipping. Oh, we only do that for special customers.
75. Whenever someone has an actual question about the
product we sell, which I know nothing about.
76. Expired incidents when a customer replies to an email
like two weeks later. Why do they have to expire? It just makes us have to do
archaeology to figure out what's going on.
77. When a customer starts a whole new email instead of
replying to the one they were sent, throwing you into a situation you know nothing
about and necessitating you to go digging for the previous incident.
78. Why are we unable to cancel or alter orders and update
addresses, exactly? The customers want it, clearly, and it sucks having to be
the bearer of bad news for every other call/email and gets screamed/ALL CAPPED
at. My last job had a computer system that was older than the hills and looked
like it was on a 1980's computer, and we were still able to alter and cancel
orders.
79. Points issues whenever they have to do with the stupid
Credit Card. Gaaah. Stop hurting my brain. Can't some other department handle
those?
80. People who misspell my name even though it is plainly
spelled out for them in the email! You could just copy and paste it if you're
too lazy to spell it! Now mispronouncing it I can sort of understand (I have a
very foreign-sounding name by the way although it is short), but come on! I
also get misgendered a lot, which is always fun.
81. Those heartless bastards who at the end of their shift
leave their computer locked without logging off and restarting it so no one
else can use their actual working computer when they come in for work,
lengthening the amount of time the rest of us have to play computer roulette
looking for a computer that works and making us late.
82. When a guest posts a gigantic image in their email that
you have to zoom out to even begin to tell what it is; worse when it keeps
getting reposted with each reply making the chain of emails you inherit seem
200 miles long.
83. The sluggish Return to Sender process which takes 30
days and just pisses everyone off. Especially sucks when it takes longer than
30 days and then you get to be the one to explain why that happened.
84. How the products in the order system have different
names from what's on the website so when the customer says one is missing it
takes 10 minutes to figure out which one they're talking about.
85. The stupid red text in the standard text templates that
we have to change the color to black on every time, costing us precious seconds
and lowering our Emails Per Hour. You're supposed to be saving us time!
86. Having to take over an email from another agent who's a
newbie and did a shit job on it for me to clean up. I mean okay I was a newbie
not long ago and I didn't know what I was doing until like two months into the
job, but still. Annoying.
87. Sales on a Sunday when we're understaffed and
ill-equipped to handle the call volume! Thanks, marketing team!! Way to kick us
when we're down!
89. Being on the "email team" but still being forced
to take calls, because the volumes are high and we only have five people
working here. I guess being on the email team is really meaningless. (A special
way to incur my wrath is to make me take a call right before my shift ends!)
90. Still getting nagged and coached over petty bullcrap
when the team leader already knows I'm quitting because I put my two weeks'
notice in days ago. Like I'm pretty sure my stats aren't going to matter in the
slightest by the end of the month.
91. The attendance system and its smug "we noticed you
were late so we're deducting an attendance point" emails, particularly
since whenever I have clocked in late it's been because of bullshit computer
issues and no fault of my own.
92. Survey callbacks, where someone contacts a customer who
left a negative survey after their call or email. I am unsure what contacting
guests who had unsatisfactory experiences only because of policies which we
can't change is supposed to achieve, we'll just be upsetting them all over
again because we can't edit orders, cancel orders after two hours or resend
gifts with purchase or what have you. Why pick at a scab? Why open a can of
worms that doesn't need to be opened? Why poke an angry sleeping bear? It's
utterly stupid. All it does is throw whoever ends up with that email in their
inbox under the bus automatically.
93. Having to go through all this red tape just to use the
gift card system. Particularly having to download and install Google
Authenticator every time I'm on a computer I haven't used before. Couldn't you
just already have it downloaded on every computer? Is that too much damn
trouble for you?
94. When a customer emails twice or emails and then calls
about the same problem, and I go through all this hassle to try to solve their
problem only to find another agent already helped them. It wouldn't bother me
if I found out right away, but I hate it when it's after I did a bunch of
investigating for nothing.
95. When I get thrown onto the phones because we apparently
have "calls in queue", but I sit there for two minutes and don't get
a single call! I'm not annoyed that there were no calls, but why was I put on
phones in the first place if there's no calls coming in?! Nevermind that I'm on
the EMAIL TEAM, as if that means anything around here.
96. They're always having like a million promotions and they
never tell us about any of them. The customers always know more about these
promotions than we do. So the customers bombard us with "Why didn't I get
6x the bonus points for buying this obscure product?" And it'll be the
first we've ever heard of this promotion. Then we get to dig through their
account and try to match up the one promotion they're talking about out of
dozens and see if they activated it, then we get to sift through their dozens of
purchases and see if they bought the one product that qualifies it. Would it be
so bad to do one promotion at a time? Or at least send us an email informing us
about them? I've already mentioned how much I hate reward points but this is a
big reason why.
97. Related to the previous one: Store transactions where
the customer never got the correct amount of bonus points from their promotion.
I swear the store cashiers must be too lazy to do the math so they make our
department do it. It's hardly ever online transactions that have this problem,
because those points are added automatically.
98. Customers who argue with you over points adjustments you
gave them and suddenly become math professors, demanding you share with them
every single step of the complex calculus equation you had to do to arrive upon
the correct number of bonus points they should have gotten. They can't just be
happy I did the adjustment at all. Bonus points are apparently serious
business. Please, do something better with your life, Karen the Soccer Mom.
99. Ungrateful
customers. You generously bend the rules for them, give them an appeasement,
maybe even do something for them that could raise the ire of your team leader,
and sometimes it's still not enough. They'll make increasingly impossible
demands and then get pissed at you when you can't do it. What a thankless job.
Makes you wish you'd just sent the generic apology email template and moved on.
Generosity is pointless in the end.
100. Everyone tells you something different, and when rules
and procedures change, no one tells you. One team leader says "Yes, we can
cancel an order as long as its less than two hours old". And the other
team leader says "No! No cancellations ever! How dare you tell a customer
there's even a glimmer of hope their order will be canceled! You're getting a
warning!" And of course, it's YOUR fault you were misinformed by someone
else, or never told the procedure had changed. They never change or update
their email templates either, so why have email templates with inaccurate
information? This place is an absolute shitshow, no one knows what they're
doing. Too many cooks spoil the soup and all that.
It seems to have been a long month
since my last such entry. Probably due to being quarantined, 30 days ago feels
more like 60 days ago. The flow of time is strange. But it is usually better
when it flows more slowly. Anyway, I’ve been listening to a ton of new music
which has made choosing a top 3 this month a tough choice. With concerts
cancelled everywhere this is the time to buy music. I recently purchased albums
from Buzz Kull, Silent EM, and a host of others. But before I get into this,
here are some blog updates.
As I mentioned recently, I’m trying
to prioritize all of my artistic projects, as I’m currently developing a
webcomic as well as working on some novels, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to
quit blogging altogether, just that it’s taking a backseat to other things. I
might do “1987 in Music” this month, maybe, if I have the time. I’m basically
only doing those for my own amusement at this point though. This month I want
to write reflections on my time visiting the Republic of Artsakh from May 8 to
13th, 2015, and later this month write about the Battle of Sardarapat in 1918. There might also be a review of an Oz book or two. And
whatever else I feel like writing about, if I find the time.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been
listening to.
Cabaret
Grey – Almost Frantic
First up we have a band from Poland
called Cabaret Grey. The song “Almost Frantic” has an ominous feel to it,
making it a perfect soundtrack to what’s going on in the world right now. And I
don’t quite feel frantic about it; just “almost”. I suppose that’s why
this song has been running through my head lately. Also, they get bonus points
from me for doing a VHS-quality music video. I can’t explain really why I love
VHS tapes so much, but I do. The song was released back in 2018 on their Freezing
Point single. This band doesn’t appear to have a huge discography to their
name yet, but they have been around since around 2011. This is a band worth
keeping an eye on.
I
already featured this song in one of my recent blog posts. As much as I prefer
synthpop Ministry and rarely have liked anything they’ve done after 1986, I
found myself liking this song when I heard it. It gets points for relevance. I’m
not sure how relevant it will be after this pandemic is over, but society will
still be sliding toward its doom after the pandemic too, so maybe it will stay
relevant. The voice samples “How concerned are you?” and “Young people are
starting to understand your betrayal. We will not let you get away with this.” are
powerful in my opinion. I like a song with good voice samples. Try listening to
this song while driving through an abandoned downtown during a quarantine lockdown.
You won’t be disappointed.
The
YouTube video has a bunch of links in the description to where to listen and
buy the single, I’ll just direct you there.
Buzz
Kull – Existence
One thing I spent my stimulus check
on was Buzz Kull’s 2018 album A New Kind of Cross (I’m two years behind
this month I guess). I was not disappointed. Buzz Kull is a darkwave band out
of Australia. I already loved the song “Avoiding the Light” so that’s how I chose
the album to buy. Like many albums these days you can get it either as a
collection of mp3’s or as a vinyl record. I’m starting to miss CD’s, seems like
even cassettes are becoming more common than CD’s. I always end up burning the mp3’s
onto blank CD’s anyway. But that’s just as an aside. The song “Existence” is my
current favorite on the album, as I’ve been gravitating toward anything
existential in recent months. The video
linked above isn’t official, but the Youtuber did a pretty good job on it.
I accidentally discovered this
famous Russian pop singer recently through his bizarre and outlandish stage
performance of his song “The 7th Element”, and have been getting
hooked on his music. He’s just so strange and unique
I can’t help but love his music. “Opera #2” is probably my favorite song of his
overall, thanks to the accordion and Russian riffs, but I like them all.
Russian pop isn’t what I usually listen to, obviously, but part of it makes me
nostalgic for Armenia, because a lot of people listen to it there and it gets
played everywhere. I definitely think it’s better than American pop, which I
generally despise. It’s nice to kind of step out of my musical boundaries every
now and then.
Vitas is extremely talented, able to
achieve this powerful falsetto that even many women wouldn’t be able to reach.
He does all these weird and funny vocalizations in most of his songs too, best
seen in “The 7th Element” “Roll with the Beat”and “Dreams”. The video for “Opera #2”
appears to be about how Vitas is a man with gills on his neck, who falls in
love with a woman who he thought also had gills on her neck, but she doesn’t,
and she rejects him, causing him to scream so loud glass breaks. Ah, what a
tragic tale. We can all relate to rejection.
It's been over a month since my first blog entry on the subject of the Coronavirus. Here in Florida at least, it's the last day of the lockdown. They're ending it prematurely in my estimation. I've been carrying hand sanitizer with me but I haven't really been wearing a face mask much, but I think now is the time to really start to do it. Ministry's new track, "Alert Level", embedded above and released less than a week ago, really illustrates my feelings at the moment. Doom and gloom. We haven't even seen the worst of it. That's the feeling that I get. The leadership of the US cares more about money than people. This has always been the case. Therefore they're making decisions based on what is most profitable.
Anyway, here's an update on things.
I'm not sick, and none of my family and friends are sick either. That's what I'm most grateful for. I used my stimulus check to pay off my credit card and get out of at least some of my debt, which is a load off my shoulders. Yes we have cabin fever, but I've almost just gotten used to it by now. I can live without restaurants and such. I know a lot of people have suffered during the pandemic, but I myself been extremely fortunate. So far, anyway.
Due to the fact that everyone is being affected in one way or another (although your experience depends highly on what social class you find yourself in; whether you're an "essential hostage worker" risking life and limb for a paycheck and health insurance, or spending the quarantine on a yacht), I don't know that I have anything special to say about the pandemic that isn't common knowledge, really. I'll simply just say where I stand on it. The lockdown measures have been fair, at least as far as people have been obeying them. I could go into the hilarious and contradictory conspiracy theories being cooked up about it, which seems far more prevalent in the United States than elsewhere, but enough people are talking about that. I'm choosing to trust the scientists; not the right wing nutjobs, not the billionaire CEOs who want their mindless robots to get back to work, and not the politician sock puppets of the rich. Just the scientists. I also plan on supporting the workers on strike at Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's starting on May 1st by boycotting those companies.
You can probably tell where I am on the political compass by my stances. Let's just agree to disagree if you don't like where I stand, please. Anyway, here's some interesting articles and videos from somewhat outside the mainstream that you may have missed, and I would recommend checking out.
Expert predicts no concerts until fall 2021. Damn, I'm pretty glad I went to that Mortiis concert earlier this year. Now's a good time to support the bands you enjoy and pay for the music you listen to, because concerts are really the main source of income for a lot of them. No one really makes money off the actual music anymore.
https://oc-media.org/in_pictures/in-pictures-life-under-guarantine-in-gyumri/
What's life been like in the Armenian city of Gyumri during the quarantine? This article will go into it. If you're reading this blog chances are you may be Armenian yourself, but if not, this could be a chance to read some international news that doesn't get reported at all in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juoI0TQ_dC8
CivilNet covers Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day 2020, which for the first time had to be commemorated remotely. It was still very tastefully done. The monument at Tsitsernakaberd was lit up with the names of victims and survivors of the genocide, there were live streamed concerts. I mean living where I do, with little to no Armenian community around me, this is how I commemorate the day anyway, usually.
Okay, that is a monstrous URL, I know. But you may remember in my last post on this topic I spoke about a struggling independent book store in Cocoa, Florida called Hello Again books. They almost got evicted by their landlord for not paying their rent due to having to close their doors. Thankfully some wealthy benefactors chipped in and saved the store. This is their post on Facebook about the whole thing. A feel-good story, sure. But the real story here is that all the huge corporations have gotten bailouts, profits have skyrocketed for the wealthiest in society, and the government literally conjured over a trillion imaginary dollars out of nowhere to try and save the stock market, while regular people are left to suffer; at the very least tossed some bread crumbs in the form of a stimulus check, the bare minimum to keep people from rioting. Money isn't real. People need to wake up and realize it's not some finite resource. It's made-up numbers. Other countries are doing rent-freezes, but not the good ol' US. This story should make you angry, not warm your heart. Again, if you disagree with me, that's fine, whatever.
Here's another small business that's suffering. Ravens & Rockers, a gothic clothing store in Tampa, FL. Much like Hello Again Books, they're barely hanging on, they didn't qualify for any of the small business assistance or any of that. They're selling things through eBay, so if you're into that sort of thing, go ahead and help them out. You can also buy a gift card to be used when they open again, if you're living in the area. I don't live in the area anymore but I've been to this place before.
This, the third of my Years in Music
mixes, is one of my favorites. Even so, I find that while writing this I’ve
struggled to come up with things to say about each song. I think what I’ll do
is just keep it minimal unless I do have something to say about the song in
question. If it’s a song I don’t think most people have heard I’ll do my best
to dig up info about the band or the release of the song. Anyway, let’s have a
look at the year 1983.
1983 in
Culture and News
The only way to watch Star Wars.
1983 saw the official beginning of
the internet, and the first cell phone was invented. Kraftwerk of course warned
us about these things two years prior. The movie Flash Dance brought us
the song “Maniac”, and what would prove in hindsight to be the last good Star
Wars movie, Return of the Jedi, was released, in its original form
before George Lucas decided to butcher the original trilogy in 1997 (luckily
for me I still got my originals on VHS). I could probably do a whole separate
blog entry about it, but then again, I’d likely struggle to say anything about
the movies that hasn’t already been said.
As with every year there were plenty
of wars and famines to go around, especially in Africa. Which I suppose is why
a few years later that corny “We Are the World” song was made, I’m assuming. I
tried to do a little research, before deciding that the more things change the
more they stay the same. You can read more here: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1983.html
1983 in
Music
My favorite album of 1983 would have
to be none other than Ministry’s With Sympathy, which I’ve reviewed
before. Deciding on my top 3 songs is going to be tough this year, but assuming
I don’t pick more than one from Ministry, I’ll have to pick “Revenge” by
Ministry, “Automatic Man” by Michael Sembello, and “Separate Ways (Worlds
Apart)” by Journey. Although I really want to include “Let Me Go” by Heaven 17.
But you have to make cuts somewhere.
So anyway, I think 1980-1982 was
when the 80’s were getting over the hangover of the 1970’s, and by this year
they picked up steam. In 1983, CD’s finally went for sale in the United States,
which was great if you were a millionaire but everyone else was using records
and cassettes; David Bowie released Let’s Dance and started making dance pop,
Metallica released their debut album, and Michael Jackson debuted his legendary
music video for “Thriller”. There were still plenty of one-hit wonders to go
around, and in the background, synthpop, New Wave and death rock (later known
as goth rock) were growing and developing. In this mix we’re going to have a look at some
of these, from synthpop, to New Wave, and concluding with some rock, punk and
metal.
I lied before. The 1980’s actually reached its
zenith in 1983, with this song. This song and its music video are the most
1980’s things you will ever see and hear. They might as well have cancelled the
rest of the 1980’s and started grunge music early after this was released. But,
perhaps because this song went relatively unnoticed, that didn’t happen.
Michael Sembello is better known for his one-hit wonder “Maniac”, from the
movie Flash Dance. And that was on the original version of my CD mix,
but that was made before I heard this. Just have a look at that music video. It
has every 1980’s stereotype and trope you can think of.It features the tale of a mad scientist
building a robotic man, who falls in love with a living woman to the
scientist’s chagrin, who turns them into stone until they are rescued by
Michael Sembello. All set against a neon 80’s background. It’s like if William
Shakespeare had been alive in the 1980’s. Such a harrowing romance. The
synthwave bands out there today trying to bring back 1980’s-style music should
be required to watch this music video.
Corey
Hart – Sunglasses at Night
When you’re as cool as Corey Hart
you don’t need to see at night. Being able to see is for nerds. If you’re not
wearing your sunglasses all the time, you must be a loser. You should be
sleeping with those things on your face. I mean during the day your sunglasses are just
protecting your eyes from one star, the Sun. But you can see hundreds or even
thousands of stars at night. So you need even more protection for your eyes at
night, right?
Anyway, after examining the lyrics,
the song actually seems to be about being aware of a lover’s deceit, but hiding
the fact that you know, just as sunglasses hide your eyes. Whether the singer
is being paranoid or whether their suspicions are just isn’t made clear. So, it
was a metaphor all along. I think a lot of people don’t get that about the
song.
Ministry
– Revenge
Another case where I had to settle
on one song from an artist when I could have included several. Anyway.
Ministry’s debut album is something I’ve done a review of in the past, it’s an
all-time favorite of mine despite how it has been disowned by its creator. It’s
a narrow race but I suppose if I had to pick a favorite track it would be this
one. It has an angry, biting energy to it which precludes Ministry’s future, heavier
style, and that’s something you didn’t hear mixed into synthpop all that often
in the 1980’s. Ministry could have been up there with Depeche Mode and New
Order if they had stayed in this style. But, at the end of the day, an artist
should do what they like, so I don’t blame Al Jourgensen of Ministry for
changing genres, all I wish is that he wasn’t so ashamed of his old music.
Depeche
Mode – Love, in Itself
Another classic and catchy early Depeche Mode track.
The lyrics of this one are about someone for whom love is not enough to cure
their depression. One wonders if it was written from experience or not. Of
course the song doesn’t sound sad, so it’s one of those songs that have a
catchy tune but sad lyrics.
Yazoo
– Nobody’s Diary
From the band that brought us “Don’t Go” in 1982,
here’s a song from their second and sadly final album. It’s one of those
“please don’t break up with me” breakup songs. There’s many different
categories of breakup songs. Kind of ironic since the band broke up a few days
after this single was released. That was just a thing that happened a lot in
the early 80’s.
And we have the first one missing
from Spotify, a nice track of 1980’s “beep-boop” music.I’ll link it on YouTube, with the warning
that it’s going to get stuck in your head very easily. John Dark is a
mysterious figure, apparently from the UK. Very hard to find any info on the
guy.
Car
Crash Set – Outsider
Car Crash Set was a synthpop band from New Zealand,
which I think is a first for these mixes.
New
Order – Leave me Alone
This is a track off New Order’s 1983
release Power, Corruption & Lies which is regarded as one of their
best albums. Although in my opinion their best music was yet to come.They were starting to use more synthesizers
at this time and distancing themselves from their earlier Joy Division sound,
although on this particular track it’s mainly guitar. I wasn’t able to make
much sense of the lyrics on this track.
Bauhaus
– The Sanity Assassin
I’ve been leaving Bauhaus off these mixes sadly. I
just need to listen to more of them. But I respect the band for codifying goth
rock with “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. This track is a rare release. The band split up
in 1983, and this song along with Spirit in the Sky were released in limited
quantities to their fan club who had paid their dues before the band split up.
But of course, these days there’s no real such thing as rare music. Spotify
even has it.
A
Flock of Seagulls – Nightmares
“Mamamama
I keep having nightmares”. This song gets stuck in my head for some reason or
another. 1983 was a good year for songs like that. This is one of A Flock of
Seagulls other good songs that isn’t “I Ran”. There’s a touch of melancholy to
this one though, as it seems to be sung from the point of view of a sick child
who keeps having nightmares and feels the need to ask if their mother still
loves them.
Journey
– Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
This is the most epic-sounding
Journey song, possibly the most powerful “power ballad” of the 80’s in my
estimation. A song about letting go of your true love so they can be happy with
someone else. That would bring up a lot of powerful emotions. At the same time
though, I do despise the type of guy who wants to wait in line for you to break
up with your girlfriend so they can swoop in like a vulture, as the singer is
singing about doing (“if he ever hurts you, true love won’t desert you, you
know I still love you”). I knew someone like that when I was first dating my now-wife.
Jokes on him though, we’re married and have a kid now. So that may have soured
my feelings about this song just a little, but not much, I still love it.
Eurythmics
– Here Comes the Rain Again
An iconic song for any rain-lover, which I am, by
the British due Eurythmics. See this was back when a good song could get
popular. The song was released as a single in January 1984, but it’s off their
album Touch which was released in November 1983, so see it’s still a 1983 song,
if only barely. The song has a melancholy to it that carries the energy of a
rainy day with it. The opening music even reminds me of scattered raindrops
hitting the dry ground when you first realize it’s raining. One of these days
I’m going to do a rain mix and this song will definitely be somewhere on it,
probably the first track.
Heaven
17 – Let Me Go
“Daytime, all I want is nighttime, I
don’t need the daytime.” My thoughts exactly. This song reached number 2 on the
UK singles charts, so I think it was a lot more popular there than in the
United States, although I was able to find out it was played on MTV.Maybe it just didn’t stick in the years to
come quite as much. I think British people must have better taste in music than
Americans. Then again, who really decides on these music charts anyway? I’ve
never once in my life been asked to vote on what song should be on the
Billboard Top 100 or whatever. It’s all just what the corporations want you to
listen to, shouldn’t put any stock in it at all. I guess its kind of cool when
a song I actually like is on it. But no, I should ignore it.
David
Bowie – Modern Love
David Bowie’s opening track to the
album Let’s Dance is this catchy rock song which kind of sounds like
it’s from the 1950’s. I like the actual song “Let’s Dance” as well, but maybe I
like this one just a little bit more.
Billy
Idol – Rebel Yell
The mix picks up energy with this
song as we’re now in the rock section of the CD mix. This is a song that I think
is very hard to dislike. Billy Idol was made for the 1980’s. It’s kind of sad
he was unable to adapt once grunge took over in the 90’s.
Suicidal
Tendencies – Institutionalized
This song was my favorite back when
I was 13 years old, but the one I grew up hearing was the re-recorded version
from 1993. The tale of a teen who everyone thinks is crazy struck a chord with
me back then.
Metallica
– Seek and Destroy
With a lot of these mixes I’m saving
the heaviest song for last, as you’ll see when I get to the 1990’s and start
including black metal. But all those songs owe a debt of gratitude to early
Metallica. When it comes to Metallica, I like pretty much all their albums
until Load, after which it’s pretty hit-or-miss. It was kind of a
stepping stone into metal for me in my early teens. I was really into Metallica
at ages 14 and 15. Even went to a concert of theirs back in 2003. It’s been a
while since I really sat and listened to their albums though because I’m more
into the goth scene these days. Maybe I ought to. Well, this isn’t the last
we’ll see of Metallica on these mixes.
Conclusion
1983 was a pretty good year for
music, wouldn’t you say? In 1984 we have more underground New Wave music to
look at. Not to mention songs off the Ghostbusters soundtrack that
aren’t the main Ghostbusters theme. Spoiler: Spotify had so few of the songs
from my mix I don’t know if it was even worth making one! Which means you may
hear something new. Stay tuned for that, and thanks for reading.
