Up In The Air

I ran into someone from Momentum the other day, a writer that I worked with as an intern. He's one of the few remaining people that I know there. Of course, everyone is still overworked. It's funny, though, because they all know it, but they rationalize it to a point where they don't seem to mind, really. I'm not sure I could go back to that kind of schedule on a consistent basis, but it taught me so much. In a weird way, working at Momentum and being laid off from there were among the best things that have ever happened to me.

It takes a few months to get back off the ground, but everyone I know that has been through the same thing would agree that being let go was in many ways a blessing. Take Kevin Renick, for example. He was a proofreader there for a long time. I sat next to him in the old building in The Loop and I remember that he was on the phone with bill collectors fairly often. They laid him off, too, a year ago, and he wrote a song about it called "Up In The Air." That happened to be the name of George Clooney's new movie, and well, that song is now on the soundtrack. "This is a song about uncertainty and indecision and about trying to figure out who the heck you are and where you're going." (I guess a lay-off will do that to you at any age.) Watch, it's a pretty cool story:


Take that, Momentum! Ha. It's funny how things work out, huh?

This story also reminds me of why it's good to be nice to everyone. Kevin was a weird guy, but I was always friendly toward him and never spoke badly about him, even though some other people did. For example, he brought an unusually attractive and charismatic girl to the Christmas party a couple years ago and people joked that he must have hired her. Look who's laughing now. I never knew him well and it's not like I have reaped any tangible benefits from being nice to him, but I also have no regrets. Good for him. I would say it is about time.

p.s. He's performing at Vintage Vinyl Tuesday at 7:30, but of course, I can't go.