1st TAKE/2nd LOOK: #14

'If you're a true fan of country, you want to hear new stories'

Who the hell is Orville Peck?

What’s your opinion of Country Music? I laugh when I see the phrase “No country fans” on dating profiles. I chuckle when friends roll their eyes. I miss it when I go out to certain spots. It’s hard for me to understand that. I mean, there’s some music that I choose not to listen to all the time, but I can’t say that I “hate” or “dislike” any genre of music.

Like food, art, craft, or history, music is something I think about quite a bit. Read all about those thoughts here. The reason I care so deeply about these elements of life is that we are intentional intersectional curious creatures. I have a whole section on that topic as well.

But in contrast (I am a contrarian, you know!) the intersections I care about are not exclusively along the more widely discussed lines of skin color, lover choice, and sexual id. My intersections revolve around the cares of leisure and pleasure. And our pursuits of them.

Just think about it: Why are public food halls so popular right now? What did they evolve from? Food Court at the Mall.

The Food Hall – Modernizing the Food Court Concept

The Origins of the Food Hall and Its Booming Popularity

Rise of the Food Hall – How to Participate & Why It’s a Good Idea

The Troubling Economics of Food Halls

Answer: Because human beings crave attention. In my world chefs, musicians, artisans, crafters, and storytellers are the touchstones of culture. Orville Peck describes himself as a Queer Cowboy. Cool with me. His music kicks ass.

Peck recently opened up to Variety about not only his music, but also his journey as an openly gay country artist. Peck told the outlet that while he’s “received my fair share of reluctance, skepticism and aggression because I’m a gay man in the country world,” he added, “I would say it’s far less than I think people would maybe imagine.” Recalling playing country music festivals in more conservative-leaning states, he said, “I go in with an open heart and open mind. A lot of times the people in the audience who I’m nervous aren’t going to accept me are dancing and singing along by the end of the show. I think the important thing that’s happening in country music at the moment is there’s so many more queer people and people that aren’t just white straight men making country music.”

He said that in this interview.

This post started when I read the article on Yahoo (of all places!) linked here Queer country outlaw Orville Peck on the genre's 'beautiful evolution': 'If you're a true fan of country, you want to hear new stories'

Full Disclosure: I’ve jammed out to this queer cowboy for over a year, never even knowing or caring that he was gay. Call me oblivious. Or privileged. Or just dumb as a rock. He’s a staple of North Americana on Sirius. He played Stagecoach and Coachella. Yeah. ‘Merican. From South Africa.

Can’t I just like a thing without emotional effort? I think I can! So can you. I wrote about a Rhinestone Cowboy, and the piece makes that reference

This modern-day rhinestone cowboy’s booming baritone has been compared to that of Johnny Cash; he even took on the iconic Johnny role in a rebellious remake of the Carter/Cash duet “Jackson” with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Trixie Mattel. But it was a female classic country artist — Patsy Cline and her “really heartbreaking songs” — that spoke to him as a child.

So the paragraph that really resonated with me is below. It speaks to the innate nature of our resiliency. You can knock me down, but you cannot knock me out. Period. I will outlast, outwork, outcare, and outperform. No try - do or do not. (Yoda)

“I've had to unlearn to not be so hard on myself and so critical of myself. I've had to learn to be more encouraging of myself, which is something I learned over the pandemic, when I went on this journey of catharsis to just be myself and allow myself to be truly, truly vulnerable. Kind of this journey of radical self-acceptance is what all the songs on Bronco are about,” Peck explains. “It’s this sense of freeing myself from my own pressures, from toxic people, from toxic relationships, and just really getting to a place of being OK with myself and freeing myself from whatever I was before. … And I would say probably ‘Curse of the Blackened Eye’ [best exemplifies that]. It's about trauma and the lingering effects of trauma, and I think it's pretty relatable for different things.”

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Something New Here

I wrote about something called Imposter Syndrome in my last post (tag, you’re it- just search my platform!) The letter below was penned by my son. He approved of this sharing. It speaks to what America is.

Imposter Syndrome huh?

It’s an odd coincidence that I’ve listened to a few podcasts in the last week where imposter syndrome has come up. It’s also been a point of discussion in a few conversations I’ve had lately too. It’s popped up enough for me to take note and internalize it a bit.

I’m a high school graduate, college drop out. I’ve been employed by Cargill for the last ten years, the last 8 I’ve been working in the Health and Safety space. Cargill is a company that invests heavily into college degrees, certifications, letters behind names. I’m still technically a paid by the hour knuckle dragger. Officially not a “professional” by Cargill standards.

In the last year, I’ve been tasked with working with Facility managers at other sites in the business/region. The key ask for this assignment is to mentor the facility managers, guide them to ask different questions, look from different angels, see their sites (and more importantly, their injury records) from a new perspective. The ultimate goal is to get these facility managers trained up and to a level of “outside the box-ness” that they can create an H&S culture at their sites that is engaging, active, and sustainable.

So, a paid by the hour wrench turner is mentoring facility managers from several different sites that are making well over $150K a year. Not just mentoring them. I’m expected to hold them accountable, meet with them (via phone) weekly, create an action plan with milestones that I measure and compare to last years numbers.

One facility manager is a former navy officer of 20+ years prior to her Cargill life. She’s led men. Like really led them. On a ship. On a ship with guns that shot at other ships in battles. I’m asking her why she hasn’t completed her task list this week. Luckily, she’s amazing and welcomes the feedback and criticism. She relishes the opportunity to get better.

I say all that to say this: I’m respected and valued in my line of work. I’m arguably the best at what I do. I’ve actually been on the forefront of the H&S industry, often leading the pack with concepts and ideology, putting into practical application what the H&S industry has only theorized in the pages of what they call “white papers”.

I have no letters behind my name that indicate a profession or that I’ve earned some degree or certification. I put in long hours, often starting my days hours before the sun comes up and ending my day after the banks close, not because I’m passionate about my work, but more because by Thursday morning each week I’m on overtime, and I got bills to pay.

Talk about imposter syndrome. How have I carved this little niche out? What happens when the company realizes that my “outside the box” thinking is really just common sense and that I’ve just made safety easy for the other similar knuckle draggers like me to actually do? When do the higher ups figure out that I dress like an operator not so I can relate to them but because I am one. That it’s not some elaborate thought out ruse to get them to think I’m just like them.

One of the most powerful personal essays I have ever read. My pride in my adult children knows no bounds. I feel much better about the future.

Please think about making a financial contribution to the effort that brings this kind of fulfillment to your inbox every Monday and Friday. I bookend your weekend.

Ric