Day Club To-Do List for Thursday, April 30th (Gotham)

Theater. Give Us Bread: A Staged Reading is a theater production by The Anthropologists, a theater company dedicated to socially relevant work. Give Us Bread is about food riots that started in the Lower East Side in 1917, and spread throughout the country. Hats off to our Day Club forebears. The ‘reading’ takes place tonight at 6:30pm at the Tenement Museum, which is located at 108 Orchard Street. It’s free!

Nightlife. Mobius Collective with DJ Misbehaviour. This is a weekly dance party in Brooklyn, which features guest DJ’s and vocalists that have included Matisyahu and Eric Krasno (of Soul Live). It’s at Rose Live Music tonight at 10pm. Rose Live Music is at 345 Grand Street in Williamsburg. Also free!

Day Club To-Do List for Wednesday, April 29th (Gotham)

Film. Catch a free double feature tonight at Soda Bar at 8pm. Soda Bar is at 629 Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights. Tonight’s double feature will be an extravaganza of campy 50’s sci-fi and bad special effects with The Incredible Shrinking Man, followed by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Not sure exactly what they’re getting at…..

Day Club To-Do List for Saturday, April 25th (Gotham)

Comedy. The Upright Citizens Brigade (Amy Poehler’s baby) performs Let’s Have a Ball tonight at 7:30pm. For the low low price of $10, you get to see writers and performers from 30 Rock, The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O’Brien ply their trade. Should make for a good time.

If We’re Gonna Be a Team, We Gotta Dress the Part!

A friend of mine, and fellow Day Club member, told me, the other day, of his run in with an element of the dark side of the Day Club. Apparently, he was walking home one recent evening, minding his own bidness, talking to a friend on the phone. It was dark and rainy, so he had his hood on, so even if he were paying more attention to his surroundings, his vision would have been obscured anyway. I guess all it takes is to let your guard down for a few seconds……Anyway, out of the blue and without any warning, he found himself on the business end of a nasty sucker punch, which he took on the chin, administered by one of three youngsters. After a brief scuffle and some choice words, my friend managed to extricate himself and report the incident to NYC’s Finest, who informed him that, since the mayhem started on Wall Street and Main Street, the city has been ‘hot’. Mind you, it’s still springtime in the city, so I doubt the officer was referring to prevailing temperatures.

While I salute you criminal elements of the day club for your enterprising spirit and ‘go get ‘em’ attitude, I must insist that we not resort to violence….at the very least, not within the Club! This obviously presents a problem. How is one Day Clubber to know another Day Clubber from a non-Day Clubber? …..for whatever reason. Eureka! Uniforms. I was thinking something along the lines of a utilitarian unisex bright orange jump suit. But that idea was quashed out of fear of being mistakenly picked up by the Department of Corrections, incarcerated and summarily inducted into an entirely different kind of Day Club.

I think we might just go with t-shirts with something like ‘Don’t rob me, bro! I’m in the Day Club’ emblazoned on the front and back. I’m hoping that would discourage any forceful ‘redistribution of wealth’ of the thug variety (no guarantees on the government flavor, tho). What’s more, it’s a handy segue into a whole fashionable line of Day Club couture, starting with ‘Kiss me/hug me/feed me/house me/clothe me! I’m in the Day Club’ T-shirts. Day Club fragrances can’t be far behind…..

Day Club To-Do List for Wednesday, April 22nd (Gotham)

Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee will be making an appearance at the SoHo Apple Store today at 7pm to discuss two films he’s worked on recently: Passing Strange, the film version of the recent Broadway show of the same name, and Kobe Doin’ Work, a film about the Laker of the same name. It’s free. (Even more importantly, Natalie Portman will be making an appearance at the same venue on Friday at 3:30pm.)

Day Club To-Do List Tuesday, April 21st

Free Ice Cream at Ben and Jerrys Today!!

A Day Club Extracurricular Activity - LaidOffCamp

As good as it is to be in the Day Club, we understand there might be a few of you out there who just don’t appreciate all the Club has to offer….or perhaps, you’ve been in the Day Club long enough to check off all the Day Club ‘to-do’ items. Whatever your reason for wanting to move on, we support you in your endeavors.

With that in mind, we came across a free event for Day Clubbers looking to move on….and even Day Clubbers who wish to extend their stay by starting their own businesses. Here’s a little more info:

LaidOffCampNY features an open, participatory discussion forum designed to educate, empower, and connect community members who are experiencing challenges in the current economic climate. LaidOffCampNY will include panels, workshops, and discussions focused on building your personal brand, transitioning to a new industry, legal & accounting demands of launching a new business, finding affordable health insurance, alternative working spaces, alternative income sources, how to become a freelancer, and more. The free two-day event will offer this and more to job seekers and the self-employed in New York City on Friday May 1st at New World Stages and Saturday May 2nd, 2009 at Pace University. To register for this free event and learn more about the sessions, visit LaidOffCampNY's Web site at ny.laidoffcamp.org, look for updates on Twitter at twitter.com/laidoffcampny, or contact ny-info@laidoffcamp.org.

Go ahead, Day Clubbers, we won’t hold it against you. (Just don’t hold it against us if you no likey. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.)

Day Club To-Do List for Monday, April 20th (Gotham)

Film. Le Poisson Rouge is hosting the UnSilent Film Festival tonight at 7:30…..for FREE! They’ll be showing two silent films, accompanied by live music. The Films are The Passion of Joan of Arc and The General. The latter stars Buster Keaton, a Day Club luminary of the 1920’s.

Day Club Initiation - An Exclusive Interview with My New Day Club Hero

I’m sure you’re all very familiar, by now, with the story of one Heather Eisenlord, an attorney in the employ of the prestigious Skadden Arps law firm. It’s been grist for the Day Club mill for a few days now. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, the gist is, her firm is paying her $80,000 to take the year off to do anything she wants, in lieu of receiving her normally higher salary while putting in those torturously long law firm hours. In true Day Club fashion, she took it. I think the funniest part of the story was when one Mr. Mallow, speaking on behalf of the firm about the response to its offer said, ‘I think it’s fair to say that the numbers are in excess of our expectations.’ Buddy, if you expected anyone NOT to take the offer, your expectations were lofty, at best. But what do we know? (Here’s the link for the full story.)

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/80000-for-a-year-off-shell-take-it/

Well, as luck would have it, The Day Club has stumbled upon its very own Heather Eisenlord. (One whom we actually know in person, that is. Although we still claim Heather as our own, at least for her year of freedom.) We sat down with a friend of ours, a recently minted attorney, on the cusp of greatness, to talk about his own chance to play hookey and get paid for it. For the purposes of this discussion, and to keep our Day Club attorney friend out of hot water with his firm, we’ll call him……Bill.

The Day Club: So, um….”Bill”, word on the street has it that you got a pretty sweet offer from your law firm recently. Care to comment?

Bill: Yeah sure. I was first hired by the firm in fall of 2007, to do a summer internship in the summer of 2008. At the end of that summer they made me an offer to come back full time in the fall of 2009, which is pretty much standard procedure for these big firms. They essentially do their hiring 2 years in advance through their summer programs, and not making offers to the summers is very uncommon. So the firm basically decided during a great year, 2007, to bring me and a bunch of others in during 2009, which ended up not being a very good decision because the work dried up, leaving the firm with tons of associates, sitting around playing Spider Solitaire and no reason to add more expensive help to their ranks. They were in a tough spot because they couldn't fire us without it attracting negative attention (see

http://abovethelaw.com/2009/04/skaddens_sidebar_phase_one_com.php) and potentially damaging their ability to recruit from top schools later on. So, in an attempt to reduce their payroll costs, the firm made it's incoming associates an offer- take the year off, don't show up until 2010, and we will pay you a bit less than half your expected salary. They told us that if we wanted to get paid to do something else for a year before hitting the grind, this was our chance.

The Day Club: Where do we sign up? How long does law school take anyway? Like a month or two? Is it expensive?

Bill: Sounds like a dream right? But most people ended up not taking the offer. The fact is that none of us trusted the firm to have jobs waiting for us in 2010. And the legal market has basically shut down, making it hard to find something else to do with the year beyond just sitting on the beach. Still, I applaud the firm for trying to think up creative ways to save its business while minimizing harm to its new hires.

The Day Club: Uh oh. Something tells me that when you say ‘most people’, you’re talking about yourself. (Crestfallen)

Bill: Yeah, so what I am doing now is pretty much the standard offer that most firms are making people take. Nearly everyone is deferred to sometime this winter, and most firms are giving some amount in the low teens to tide them over until then. In a normal year, they'd give me that same amount to cover summer expenses and pay rent till starting in September or so, but now it has to stretch til the winter.

The Day Club: So they pay the bills till the New Year. Not too shabby. Yer still one of the coolest lawyers we’ve ever known. Ever. Right up there with Spencer Kiggins (whom we’ll hear from later.) Welcome to the Day Club, “Bill” the lawyer. You’re our new Day Club All Star. Just remember to clear outta here by January 2010.

This has been a Day Club exclusive. You heard it here first.

Of Dentists and Sharks…

Ira Glass of NPR reports on strange side effects of the recession. Dentists love it. Sharks, not so much. (Shark attacks are sharply down. Shark downsizing?…….this is bad.) Here’s the link to the episode:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1289

Day Club To-Do List for Friday, April 17th (Gotham)

• Flea Market. The Brooklyn Flea Market is back up and running for the season. Here’s a link for the directions. http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/map/index.html


• Brooklyn Botanical Garden. If you missed the Cherry Blossoms in DC, you can still catch them in NYC at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (aka the zoo for plants). It’s $8 for adults.

Because getting laid off just isn’t humiliating enough as it is….

It’s not like getting laid off and having to tell all your co-workers, friends, family and loved ones wasn’t bad enough. Leave it to FOX and the reality TV concept to ratchet up the humiliation factor by a couple more notches. You can read the details in the link below. The gist of the new show, Someone’s Gotta Go, is thus: A small business needs to cut personnel. But the boss doesn’t have the cahones to do the cutting him/herself. So the boss calls FOX, which promptly dispatches a TV crew to the scene of the crime (yes, what you are about to witness is a crime.) They then notify the hapless employees of said small business that cuts must be made, and leave it up to the workers themselves to vote someone off the island.


Nothing says ‘classy’ like forcing colleagues to turn on each other; nothing says ‘take charge’ like ducking the dirty work. Usually when you get laid off, you can take consolation in the notion that it was ‘the man’ or ‘the machine’ that did it to you. And your ever-supportive soon-to-be former colleagues are there for you, shaking their fists and cursing the system in unison. Ha! Not in this show. They’re the ones firing you, on national TV, to boot (pun intended.) Break a leg, people! I feel just a tiny bit guilty admitting that this show has all the potential for making it to the top of my must-see Day Club TV list.

Then again, maybe it’s a good thing to let the folks in the trenches decide who gets ousted. What do you guys think?

Here’s a link to the full article:

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/fox-orders-real-life-someone-gotta-go-layoff-competition-series-8764.php

Day Club To-Do List for Wednesday, April 15th (Tax Day) (Gotham)

• Eat More Chikin. Chik-fil-A is offering a tax day deal – buy something today, keep the receipt, go back before April 30 and order the same thing for free. Nice. The catch? Looks like there’s only one in Manhattan (at NYU). Here’s the store locator. (http://www.chick-fil-a.com/restlocator/). But all you suburbanites, have at it.
• Film. ‘The Graduate’ is showing at the MoMA today at 4:30pm. Tix are $10; $6 for students.
• Music. 'Shakedown at the Majestic' (my roommate's band) is playing tonight at 9:30pm at The Bitter End. Give Taylor advance notice and he can get you in for $10; otherwise it's $15. Taylor's newly shorn mug might be a bit of a letdown. The music won't be.

Be It Known!

The Day Club has heard the pleas of Jeff the student, and after much weighty consideration, we have come to a decision. Amnesty for students within the confines of the Club! We understand this might ruffle the feathers of some of the more hardcore elements of the Club. Our rationale is as follows:

• We’re poor. Students are poor.
• We like free stuff. Students like free stuff.
• We have free time. Students have free time.
• Students will be part of the club sooner than you can say ‘Congratulations Graduates…’ anyway.

Let it be so!

Day Club To-Do List for Tuesday, April 14, 2009er (Gotham city edition) (more editions to follow as needed)

• Ever heard of the Youtube Symphony Orchestra? Me neither. Sounds all fancy and high-falutin. They’re putting on a free concert tonight at 10pm at Le Poisson Rouge (www.lepoissonrouge.com). (That website’s music makes me sleepy. Must be siesta time...again.)
• For you fans of The Wire (ahem…Meredith), David Simon, creator of said TV cops-and-bad-guys drama, will be co-presenting ‘Fiction in the Age of Inequality’ tonight at 7pm at the main branch of the New York Public Library. More high falutin…
• Baseball. Time to check out the much ballyhooed new stadiums in the Bronx and Queens. The Mets home season opener is tomorrow at 7:10pm vs. the Padres. Cheap seats are $23. The Yankees home season opener is Thursday at 1:05pm vs. the Indians. Cheap seats are $14.
• Inflation’s a beeyatch.

The Day Club Is Now in Session!

Hello all you fellow Day Clubbers out there. It is my distinct pleasure to bring this first day club session to order. Where to start? So much to do. So much to talk about. When I got laid off back in December, I thought I could look forward to relaxing days and nights, with all the time in the world to do anything my heart desired. Anything that didn’t cost money, that is. How naive of me. Little did I know that hanging out with friends again, catching up on back episodes of select reality TV programming, road trips, cleaning my apartment, organizing my email inbox and just about every other excuse to distract me from looking for a job would take up so much valuable ‘me time’. But they all do! It reminds me of that montage in About a Boy when Will, the main character played by Hugh Grant, expounds on his own unique method of measuring time. I think those of us with seemingly all the time in the world can relate.

I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Taking a bath: one unit, watching countdown: one unit, web-based research: two units, exercising: three units, having my hair carefully disheveled: four units. It's amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I'd ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?

Ya feelin me? This post is no exception. I meant to get right down to bidness and mention a few housekeeping items for the club, and yet here I am, blathering about units. Better late than never, I reckon. First, if you Day Clubbers have any suggestions, photos, stories or whatever, by all means hit us with a response to this post, or email us at thedayclub@gmail.com.

I’d particularly like to know what you fellow Day Clubbers are up to. How were you inducted into the Day Club? What has been the best thing about being in the Club? What was the best Day Club experience you’ve had? And if you know of any fun, cheap or free stuff to do, please do tell. We’re looking to establish an ongoing list of Day Club activities for us to take full advantage of.

Uh, this post has already taken up one unit, and that’s all I can spare for now. I’ll get to that other stuff later.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Day Club Initiation - Jared Covington – Music is his new Day Job

It started out like any other day at the office.

Actually, no--I take that back--it was anything but ordinary. I had arrived at 8 AM (the equivalent of 5AM for the music industry), and already participated in two conference calls as well as a tedious prep meeting about the focus group that we would be running later in the day for a new music product (I was the Manager of Online Marketing for Sony BMG at the time). With all of that, it was still just 10:30am when I was summoned to the VP's posh corner office, where I found said VP along with a representative from HR.

(Granted, maybe the two of them together should have set off a few alarms--the music industry being what it is and all--but as they regularly asked me to come in and explain the technological side of leaking music (which programs do what, etc), I wasn't even thinking that they were about to eliminate my entire department (as well as several others), starting with me.)

The actual termination process was relatively quick: after explaining the why (corporate cut-backs) and my severance package (all the while emphasizing that I was eligible for rehire--in retrospect, this assurance was little consolation), I was directed to go and place notes on everything in my office that was to be delivered to my home (while another person from HR supervised things). Since I was the first of many cuts that day, I was not allowed to say goodbye to anyone, and as I made my way to the elevators, I found myself with fists clenched, secretly wishing that I had done something to truly justify the criminal-like escort that was leading me out of 550 Madison and into the dizzying August sun.

After the initial shock wore off, the whole event really was not all that traumatic. Sure, that company had been a part of my life for more than a decade, but the first time I turned on some music and didn't have to worry about the marketing plan for the accompanying album, it was like the sky had opened and smiled down on me; I didn't miss my former position at all. Of course, that elation now regularly turns to subdued panic as I try to determine how I am going to take care of my family when the severance package finally dries up, but it has all worked out for the best thus far.

Freedom is strange, especially if you have never had it. I have been working since I was fourteen; I went right from my college graduation on a Friday to my full-time position on the following Monday. I have never really found myself with a lot of time to pursue my ideas, and it has taken me a while to get into some sort of regular rhythm after being laid-off. Eventually, though, in between taking my daughter to the park and visiting job boards and responding to my many church responsibilities and DJ-ing events around the city, I found myself formulating a plan for my own business, almost sub-consciously. Since I don't know how long it will take to transform my vision into something that can support my family, I continue to look for a full-time position, but as my initial business concept just received a major vote of confidence by winning the Men With Pens Sticky Business Contest, I can now guarantee that you will be hearing about my musician coaching and consultation company, MusicIsMyDayJob.com, in the near future. Who knows if I won't find away to maintain this life-style of freedom and self-determination, for as initially strange and awkward as it may be, once you have it, it's hard to imagine giving up.