Two years of Saturday night shifts with Brendan, summed up in an email.

Good day,

It's rather fortunate that I could see you again. Since the last time we've met, I've studied MATH 30 PURE and ENGLISH 30 at the University. I'm not the greatest thinker in the city, but I'm obsessed about getting the marks to qualify for Kineseology. I scored 98% for MATH and 95% for ENGLISH. Now all I need is BIO 30 and CHEM 30, which will allow me to start a 5 year climb for a degree. I kept ALL the notes for these subjects so that even a brain-dead hamster could do the course and pass. I watched the teacher like a sentry and wrote down EVERYTHING in ink.

It's the food and beverage industry that drove me to do this. It's corrupt, infected and degenerating. You must listen to me, because this is important to you at your age. I know it's rather fast and sudden, but you must understand what I'm about to tell you. Please keep it a secret between you and me. You must promise NOT change your lifestyle based on what I'm about to tell you; I just want people to hear only the truth and remember it.

From now on, all consumable items that provide sustenance will be referred to as food. You may already know, that food used to be in a completely natural state. People discovered ways to grow food quickly if we used chemicals, fertilizers, and steroids to force animals to mature faster. Our food is being stretched more than ever before. People are developing allergies, diseases and obesity. Not only is the food horribly altered, our diet isn't being respected either. However, it gets worse.

When I worked at the Winterclub, I discovered the cooks in the upstairs kitchen were getting paid less than $10/hour. The cooks are expected to have graduated from a school that costs a minimum of $6000 for one year (not including home utilities), then work for $8.50/hour in a $100 000 000 dollar establishment. That's when I decided to quit. I wanted to quit not only the Calgary Winter Club, but the cooking career altogether. We were getting treated like fodder, plus I wasn't getting told the truth. Our cafeteria boss, Kurt Baerscht, promised I could work in the upstairs kitchen; they lied to me.

I hysterically went to school to fix everything. That was when I finished MATH and ENGLISH. I wanted to find a job where I could work "with" people. I didn't want a job where I worked "for" someone or a slave worked for me. I decided on the only University subject where I could have someone work with me, which turned out to be Kineseology. Recently, I worked in a kitchen at the University to save some money for tuition. That place, was better if not worse.

It was a catering foundation; a place where groups of customers would order food by a large quantity and be prepared like a banquet operation. We were scheduled to work at an indicated starting time, with a question mark (?) for the ending time. We were to work until we were told to go home, which usually meant staying for 12 hours at a time. I cooked food for hundreds of people, trayed cakes for thousands and even served BBQ in real time for a line-up of customers. Most of the groups were church fanatics who worshipped like Mormons or Jehovahs or the like. They even had a "dating camp" for the Mormon group, where I carved turkeys in real time for a line-up of "couples." The most horrifying thing is this: all the food we served, but nobody ate, we brought back and put into the fridge to "salvage" again for the next function. Salvaging food is the way people make money.

I can't go on like this. I'm tired of seeing society crushing itself in order to spread-out further. I'm glad that I saw you again. It's because you don't plan to make a living be draining people for what they're worth. It's difficult to find a job where you contribute to society by building; rather then by draining. Art is a career where you contribute by building. I hope you can find a way to do it. I'll send you another message as soon as I start school again in September, but until then, take care of yourself.


Signed, Brendan Concannon