Loud Concert

Last night R. and I went to see Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins at Stubbs BBQ. As always, that place was loud. So loud, especially the bass, that I could feel my breastbone vibrating. As I was not in need of CPR or a pacemaker at the time, I found this unhelpful. It was difficult to breathe.

I put in earplugs, which were a good idea but which felt a bit like nothing in the face of all that sound. What I really wanted was a giant foam earplug to dive into.

R. liked the vibration and stayed up front (with earplugs deeply inserted) for a good view. I cowered in the back behind the stone wall where the sound guys worked. It did occur to me to do a little project involving the use of piano wire and the phrase, "Turn down the volume on the bass if you want to live," but I refrained.

There was no crowd at all where I was, no jerks, and no smokers I feared were about to burn me. I could still see the performers, but I couldn't see their faces.

The show opened with The Blow, a woman whose singing I enjoyed, though the lyrics I caught were unexciting, and her background percussion was very loud.

Then there was Will Sheff, a man with a Harry Potter way about him (or maybe it was just the hair and glasses), a black suit with a skinny tie, and a guitar he could strum so well that it made me think that if I could strum that well, I would never feel the need to finger pick. I enjoyed his singing, too, very heartfelt, but the lyrics I caught didn't really grab me. Apparently his music is an example of emo, which I am not even cool or young enough to discuss properly. I kind of liked it though. Plus this was the least painful musician because he did not have a bass.

Then I also enjoyed Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, as I knew I would because R. has their CD. All three of them have exquisite voices. And they sing interesting lyrics. Unfortunately, they also have a bass player and other loud band members.

Did I mention that I am not a professional reviewer of music?

It was also a bit chilly out, but I was more comfortable in that way than I expected. I had on the long sleeves and jacket I wore to work, plus an extra hidden fleece jacket between those two layers and a soft scarf just in case. At one point I would have bought a hot chocolate if they were selling it, but they sold only water, sodas, and a rather long list of alcohols. So I held out until I got home.

Entry of the Day: $50 Paint Job on rickwrench.com. Learn how to paint your car for fifty bucks in a very nicely written entry with lots of pictures. This is exactly how a how-to should be written, with details, pictures, and examples of what can go wrong.

Appealing Decisions

One important financial skill is the proper use of complaining and going over people's heads to get what you want. If you have kids, you work hard to train them that they won't get different answers from Mom and Dad, but in the real world, trying for different answers a valuable skill.

Today I read the article Whites more likely to seek state help in insurance disputes after Katrina
by the Associated Press. The first few paragraphs really struck me.

NEW ORLEANS - The Littles and the Kitchens watched helplessly as Hurricane Katrina battered their homes. Both families waited patiently for an insurance adjuster to settle their losses. And both were sorely disappointed with the outcome.

Then, their paths diverged.

Richard and Cindy Little, a white couple living in a predominantly white neighborhood, filed a complaint with the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Eventually, they won full reimbursement for their repairs.

Doretha and Roy Kitchens, a black couple living in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, simply gave up and took what their insurer gave them. They didn't know they could appeal to the state.

It bugs me that in order to get proper service, you sometimes have to go over people's heads and complain. It's not enough to deal reasonably with the person who's job it is to serve you.

I am the type of person who is more likely to use this method too little than too much. Like the black couple in the story, I am less likely to have it even occur to me to protest something than I should be. And I am more likely to feel that appealing a decision is whining, complaining, or asking for special treatment, and thus I am biased against using this method.

However, I have used it once that I recall. I went over my supervisor's head to get vacation time. My supervisor had rejected me first because it wasn't a very good time and then again later at the better time she had previously proposed because it wasn't a very good time. It turns out she had a bias that people should not use their vacation time until they had saved up the maximum. She also had a bias that people should never take vacation time.

Oddly, after I went over her head, she had new respect for me. (So sad, because I had less respect for her.) She hadn't known that the vacation was important to me, and she respected that I was willing to fight for what I wanted. And here I'd always thought it was more respectable to negotiate with your supervisor about these things than to complain behind her back.

I guess any industry with regulators is ripe for this strategy. There's a big list of these in the Florida Regulated Industries Guide. That includes the obvious such as insurance, utilities, and contractors, but also odd areas like aerobics, ballroom dance studios, and native plants. Actually, clicking on some of those links is not only informative but also sickening. There are a lot of dumb-sounding regulations out there.

Any stories you'd like to share about appealing decisions?