Janie invited me to her office party last night. I dug out my sport coat, kept the sneaker colors at two-tone and combed my hair a little bit. The Oakland bus (15) travels south into the city, so I walked over to the benches outside the local Chinese restaurant around five oclock and hopped on. Busses in Milwaukee have small televisions bolted to the ceiling every three or four rows like a budget airliner. Mostly the screens show local advertisements and public service announcements, but they also host word games such as hangman. I watched as the gallows rose and some non-corporeal entity filled out Dancing Queen over the clue Seventies.
By then the bus had covered Brady Street and legged around toward the city center. Janies office is a loft splayed out across the eighth and ninth floors of the old Schlitz brewery on the river. She promotes or represents some sort of artistic-leaning people I believe in advertising so the workplace must have a flow to it, creative electricity circulating above and below. To reach the entrance I had to peel back a loose chain-link fence at the side of the building and follow a path along the river to what were once the loading docks. The logo of Janies company, a sideways triangle, is spray-painted on the garage and a couple of stringy girls from Ukraine were smoking cigarettes in the frame of the half-lifted bay door.
I walked up the ramp, stepping on a faded stencil of some sort, and said hi to the girls. They had been at the party, they were friends of the marketing guy whose company Janies artists were representing and they were on their way out. The cigarettes and the last light across the river delayed them a moment and I continued inside, lifting the door along its casters.
I called up to Janie and she promised to be right down to let me into the elevator. There are no buttons on the elevators exterior but it is framed by opaque plastic that contains sensors to call the car when an employee passes her wristband (home to another sensor) within a few inches. As I waited, the bay door slid open behind me and two men climbed in, blinked their eyes in the dim light and shuffled a few more steps. Is this where the Intransigence party is happening? one finally asked after a brief conference.
I assured them it was, and turned back to the elevator door. The plastic frame began to glow and I heard the crunch of gears and cables gripping and stopping in the shaft. The doors opened and Janie bounced out. Ahh! she hugged me. Its so good to see you. She turned to the two men Paolo, Marco, how are you both? and hugged them as well. She had her hair pulled back to one side and wore squarish glasses with blue frames, shadows of makeup expertly applied.
As they spoke I noticed a large potted plant filling two thirds of the elevator car. Actually, it appeared to be bamboo shoots protruding from unnaturally green blades of grass two inches long, another inch of dirt visible before the lip of the square pot. Gentlemen, why dont you take this car, well meet you upstairs, Janie offered and the men stepped past us. Its on eight.
She turned back as the doors shut. Did you find it OK?
Yeah. Thanks. I was past here once before walking around. The directions were great. I looked around the lobby. Does this place have stairs?
Ohh. Yeahmmm. She raised her finger to her bottom lip and pulled it down as her eyes wandered to the right. She has a low, smoky voice and tends to fill thinking silences with raspy consonants. I think, she stepped toward a large circulation vent and waved her right wrist in a half moon across its face. It slid aside, revealing a concrete stair case replete with fire exit signs and fluorescent lights. Its right here.
As we walked up the stairs, we caught up on the past few weeks. She still has her spiritual group over for vegetarian food each Wednesday and it seems one of them Bob is considering advancing to the next level of their system in some way I do not understand. She thinks she works too much but she loves it but she wants to do something else soon. By the third floor, we had begun to breathe a touch more heavily. Enough about me, she went on, What are you doing these days?
Well, I
Only the tip of her foot had met the plane of the stair and it skidded off, slamming down with some force. I caught her shoulder and held on to her. She steadied herself. Jesus, I squeezed her shoulders in my hands. Take it easy. She was clearly fine, but I asked, Do you need to sit down? and she was off.
She had a good six step lead before I realized what had happened, but I have longer legs and soon I was sizing up the holes in her climbing strategy as her heels shot past my face. I saw an opening and went for it. My hand took the lead and glanced a step ahead of us both. I pushed off my right leg to skip a step and formally take the lead when an elbow caught me squarely in the chest, stopping my bodys forward progress and sending it to the floor.
Oh my god! Janie stopped and looked back, looked up at the 7" sign on the wall and looked back again at me. Are you OK?
I need to sit down. I used her ankle to right myself and kept going up the stairs, regaining my fleeting lead. She grabbed at my ankle, but I was already on the switchback to the 8" door. I leaned back a touch as I reached it, but Janie barreled on into me, into the push handle of the door, and into the open lobby of her office.
Large barrels of Intransigence flavor Sport Water spotted the floor and a banner displaying the sideways triangle and the Sport Water hurricane spiral fluttered overhead. Marco looked up from the pink liquid in his plastic cup and smiled, taking us in. Shocks of Janies hair hung loose from the band atop her head, her glasses balanced precariously on a sweaty nose and a dark streak of eyeliner dipped nearly to her lip. Im sure I was red and I felt a layer of moisture on the back of my neck. We were arm in arm, short of breath and looking at each other as if only we stood in the room.
I also finished a mix CD for a friend:
1. The Terrible Sunrise - - - Bobby Bare, Jr.
2. Polyethylene - - - Radiohead
3. Wake Up - - - The Arcade Fire
4. Summer of Drugs - - - Soul Asylum
5. Because I Wanna - - - The Hives
6. Bad Babysitter - - - Princess Superstar
7. Electric Breakin mix-up
8. DIY Porn Music - - - ???
9. Apple Blossom - - - White Stripes
10. Forcefield - - - Beck
11. Pennyroyal Tea (Accoustic) - - - Nirvana
12. Cactus - - - David Bowie
13. Tick (Live) - - - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. Bananas and Blow - - - Ween
15. Spacewalk - - - Lemon Jelly
16. In the Waiting Line - - - Zero 7
17. Black Steel - - - Tricky
18. 5.45 - - - Gang of Four
19. Jesus Was a Terrorist - - - Dead Kennedys
By then the bus had covered Brady Street and legged around toward the city center. Janies office is a loft splayed out across the eighth and ninth floors of the old Schlitz brewery on the river. She promotes or represents some sort of artistic-leaning people I believe in advertising so the workplace must have a flow to it, creative electricity circulating above and below. To reach the entrance I had to peel back a loose chain-link fence at the side of the building and follow a path along the river to what were once the loading docks. The logo of Janies company, a sideways triangle, is spray-painted on the garage and a couple of stringy girls from Ukraine were smoking cigarettes in the frame of the half-lifted bay door.
I walked up the ramp, stepping on a faded stencil of some sort, and said hi to the girls. They had been at the party, they were friends of the marketing guy whose company Janies artists were representing and they were on their way out. The cigarettes and the last light across the river delayed them a moment and I continued inside, lifting the door along its casters.
I called up to Janie and she promised to be right down to let me into the elevator. There are no buttons on the elevators exterior but it is framed by opaque plastic that contains sensors to call the car when an employee passes her wristband (home to another sensor) within a few inches. As I waited, the bay door slid open behind me and two men climbed in, blinked their eyes in the dim light and shuffled a few more steps. Is this where the Intransigence party is happening? one finally asked after a brief conference.
I assured them it was, and turned back to the elevator door. The plastic frame began to glow and I heard the crunch of gears and cables gripping and stopping in the shaft. The doors opened and Janie bounced out. Ahh! she hugged me. Its so good to see you. She turned to the two men Paolo, Marco, how are you both? and hugged them as well. She had her hair pulled back to one side and wore squarish glasses with blue frames, shadows of makeup expertly applied.
As they spoke I noticed a large potted plant filling two thirds of the elevator car. Actually, it appeared to be bamboo shoots protruding from unnaturally green blades of grass two inches long, another inch of dirt visible before the lip of the square pot. Gentlemen, why dont you take this car, well meet you upstairs, Janie offered and the men stepped past us. Its on eight.
She turned back as the doors shut. Did you find it OK?
Yeah. Thanks. I was past here once before walking around. The directions were great. I looked around the lobby. Does this place have stairs?
Ohh. Yeahmmm. She raised her finger to her bottom lip and pulled it down as her eyes wandered to the right. She has a low, smoky voice and tends to fill thinking silences with raspy consonants. I think, she stepped toward a large circulation vent and waved her right wrist in a half moon across its face. It slid aside, revealing a concrete stair case replete with fire exit signs and fluorescent lights. Its right here.
As we walked up the stairs, we caught up on the past few weeks. She still has her spiritual group over for vegetarian food each Wednesday and it seems one of them Bob is considering advancing to the next level of their system in some way I do not understand. She thinks she works too much but she loves it but she wants to do something else soon. By the third floor, we had begun to breathe a touch more heavily. Enough about me, she went on, What are you doing these days?
Well, I
Only the tip of her foot had met the plane of the stair and it skidded off, slamming down with some force. I caught her shoulder and held on to her. She steadied herself. Jesus, I squeezed her shoulders in my hands. Take it easy. She was clearly fine, but I asked, Do you need to sit down? and she was off.
She had a good six step lead before I realized what had happened, but I have longer legs and soon I was sizing up the holes in her climbing strategy as her heels shot past my face. I saw an opening and went for it. My hand took the lead and glanced a step ahead of us both. I pushed off my right leg to skip a step and formally take the lead when an elbow caught me squarely in the chest, stopping my bodys forward progress and sending it to the floor.
Oh my god! Janie stopped and looked back, looked up at the 7" sign on the wall and looked back again at me. Are you OK?
I need to sit down. I used her ankle to right myself and kept going up the stairs, regaining my fleeting lead. She grabbed at my ankle, but I was already on the switchback to the 8" door. I leaned back a touch as I reached it, but Janie barreled on into me, into the push handle of the door, and into the open lobby of her office.
Large barrels of Intransigence flavor Sport Water spotted the floor and a banner displaying the sideways triangle and the Sport Water hurricane spiral fluttered overhead. Marco looked up from the pink liquid in his plastic cup and smiled, taking us in. Shocks of Janies hair hung loose from the band atop her head, her glasses balanced precariously on a sweaty nose and a dark streak of eyeliner dipped nearly to her lip. Im sure I was red and I felt a layer of moisture on the back of my neck. We were arm in arm, short of breath and looking at each other as if only we stood in the room.
I also finished a mix CD for a friend:
1. The Terrible Sunrise - - - Bobby Bare, Jr.
2. Polyethylene - - - Radiohead
3. Wake Up - - - The Arcade Fire
4. Summer of Drugs - - - Soul Asylum
5. Because I Wanna - - - The Hives
6. Bad Babysitter - - - Princess Superstar
7. Electric Breakin mix-up
8. DIY Porn Music - - - ???
9. Apple Blossom - - - White Stripes
10. Forcefield - - - Beck
11. Pennyroyal Tea (Accoustic) - - - Nirvana
12. Cactus - - - David Bowie
13. Tick (Live) - - - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. Bananas and Blow - - - Ween
15. Spacewalk - - - Lemon Jelly
16. In the Waiting Line - - - Zero 7
17. Black Steel - - - Tricky
18. 5.45 - - - Gang of Four
19. Jesus Was a Terrorist - - - Dead Kennedys
legionnaire:
Hey - just wanted to stop by and say hello and thanks for your great newswire article submissions. It makes my job as editor so much easier when I get well written, interesting articles like yours. Thanks a lot, and keep them coming! 
scopitone6248:
^What he said^