etnobofin

The blog has been silent this week while I’ve been travelling in northern Europe. Now I’m back home, I hope to write several catch-up posts about the experience, including photos and videos. I’ll just need a few days to get it done!

Morning on the Aurlandsfjord, Norway

Batucada Sound Machine is one of the many bands that grew out of Auckland’s funk/soul scene in the early years of the century. As far as I can recall, the scene congealed around a certain number of DJs and musicians. Club nights and the audience followed.

The scene was characterised by large-scale bands such as The Hot Grits, Tangent, Opensouls and one million dollars. If one were poetic and lazy one might say that the music reflected Auckland’s urban and cosmopolitan identity: jazz, soul, hip-hop, afrobeat, latin and funk congealing in one big sweaty mess.

Sound engineers either relished or dreaded the prospect of setting up a stage for a dozen musicians including horns, berimbau, harmonicas, surdos and multiple vocalists. A 24-channel desk was a minmum requirement. As were fun but low-budget music videos:

Of course, apart from a few forays to Australia, the sheer size of these bands has meant that they haven’t been heard often beyond New Zealand’s shores. BSM is an exception – a 2006 tour saw them play venues across Europe including WOMAD Reading.

This year they’re back in Europe for a month of gigs across the continent and the UK. They are definitely worth catching if they’re playing in a town near you. You will like them, and you will dance.

Here are the full tour dates:

June 11 2010 Blossom Festival, Alfândega da Fé, Portugal
June 12 2010 Ollin Kan Festival, Vila Do Conde, Portugal
June 15 2010 Music Box, Lisboa, Portugal
June 18 2010 Sala Caracol, Madrid, Spain
June 19 2010 Sala Joplin, Segovia, Spain
June 25 2010 Bitterzoet, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
June 26 2010 Afro Latino Festival, Bree, Belgium
June 27 2010 Wereldfeest, Utrecht, The Netherlands
June 28 2010 Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
June 30 2010 Universum, Stuttgart, Germany
July 1 2010 Café Hahn, Koblenz, Germany
July 2 2010 Scala, Leverkusen, Germany
July 3 2010 Bar Du Matin, Brussels, Belgium
July 4 2010 Lustspielhaus, Munich, Germany
July 5 2010 Spectrum Club, Augsburg, Germany
July 7 2010 Guanabara, London, UK
July 8 2010 The Stables, Milton Keynes, UK
July 9 2010 Durham International Brass Festival, UK
July 10 2010 Norwich, UK
July 11 2010 Mouth of the Tyne Festival, Newcastle, UK

I’ve never been unemployed before.  Although officially I’m still a student until the end of September, the necessity of finding an income meant my job search started a couple of months ago, and so far it’s proving to be more bone-jarring than I ever anticipated.

Until this year, I never really considered that my self-esteem was wrapped up in employment. My career was something interesting to do while I travelled, played music, mused on human affairs and generally tried to make my way in the world.  But now, the reality of NOT having an income is hitting home. I’m budgeted through to the end of December, but just in case, I’ve checked what social welfare I might be eligible for. And what dishwashing jobs are available. It’s a Plan B I don’t relish.

Should I start my own business?  Entrepreneurship is the sexy thing to do. But going freelance or starting something from scratch requires a certain kind of desire in your bones. Cajones. Extraverted enthusiasm. My drive lies elsewhere. I am an team player, happy to lend my apparent INTJ energy to someone else’s project rather than building one all on my own.

Job applications are soul-wrenching things.  Scour the ads for something that fits your profile. Find a posting that really, REALLY excites you, like uncovering a diamond in the slag heap. Spend half an hour reading up about the company. Another hour or two spent tuning-up your CV, writing your application letter (in French and sometimes in English), and launch it into the mysterious black vastness of a review process.

Rejection letters are full of robotic euphemism: “We read your CV with interest. Although it does not correspond to our current requirements, we will keep your CV on file for future reference.” Hours of enthusiasm and effort rebuffed by an auto-reply. Never any word on what was missing, or what the successful candidates had that you didn’t.

You ask yourself: “What am I not doing right? Am I losing out to Harvard and INSEAD grads? Am I looking in the wrong place? Or did I make a spelling mistake in my CV?“  Sometimes, a job offer becomes such an abstract concept  it’s not worth contemplating. You wish simply to get a phone call. An interview. Some acknowledgement that someone, somewhere, may actually be interested in your skills and experience.

It’s hard work. Some days you’re inspired and confident. Other times, you rail against the world. If someone like me can’t find employment – with 8 years experience, of which 5 years in management positions, an international career profile, a bilingual MBA – what chance do new graduates have? Or that bloke recently released from prison? Or the forty-something solo mother returning to the workforce?

The economic crisis does not make the task easier, but I try to not make it an excuse. The week I stopped work, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the world economy finally saw the iceberg towards which it had been steaming for decades. The crisis is an external factor for which I couldn’t plan.

So I can’t complain. I know I am lucky just to have this opportunity. The situation is of my own making. Having saved up a not-inconsiderable sum of money, I resigned my position last year to do a full-time degree, investing time and cash in a venture that I gauged would accelerate my career and open up a new country to me. But the sheer scale of the challenge is energy-sapping.

Looking for a job in France is an adventure, my own personal moonshot. Stepping outside the warm familiar spaceship, one small step for a man and all that. At certain moments, the mission is exciting and energising, but it doesn’t make it any less scary.

(Images: NASA/Apollo Lunar Surface Journal)