August 5, 2008
Meet the Flockers: Mike Dresser
Howdy, folks. I’m Mike Dresser. Clusterflock has been a place I’ve come of late to find good cheer, good art, good ideas, and–well, just good. I’m looking forward to giving back some of the same.
A bit about me. I’m a fifth generation Floridian, the product of a charter fishing boat captain father and a world-traveling music teacher mother. It was a mixed up sort of upbringing: grits and ballet. I moved a whole 20 miles down the road to study music theory at Stetson University (DeLand, FL). Bought my first car there, paid for by playing piano at a cocktail lounge and a Baptist church. After graduation, I tried on a Real Career for a while; I’m still looking for a t-shirt that says “Library School Dropout”.
I’m currently living in Orlando, FL. I gig a little, cook a lot, take some photos, and maintain my two cats in style (Ringo and Binx). I listen to NPR, alternately laughing and crying at the state of this world of ours. Friends mock my affliction of celebrity face blindness: I can’t tell a Gregory Peck from an Alec Baldwin, and more than once I’ve lauded the It’s a Wonderful Life performance of Jerry Lewis. Like playing the guitar, this is one of those things I’ll never do well, and I’ve made my peace. I’ll talk your ear off about walkable cities and urban planning. The only long term goal of which I am certain is to do a bit of good, for myself and others.
It’s a pleasure to join y’all.
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A huge welcome, Mike! Library School Dropout–definitely my kind of guy.
yay! great to have you, Mike. a clusterflock confession: every time I see your ‘Mike D.’ in comments I think the Beastie Boys: I’m Mike D. and I’m built to last / fuck with me / I’ll put a foot in your ass.
So.
I’ve always thought the same thing. But as in The Crucible, “it’s my name and I cannot have another!”
Well, shoot–now I’m thinking of the Beastie Boys doing Arthur Miller. Add that to the list of things I didn’t expect to ponder this morning.
Was there a moment, Mike, such as that once recounted to me by a friend and former boss (who did in fact grit his teeth and make it through library school after a classics degree)? First day of the first class. Columbia. NYC. Professor says, “There are two classes of material held by libraries” — to the blackboard in order to write them for emphasis — “Book and Non-Book.” And (almost) everyone dutifully wrote down, “Book. Non-Book”, while my friend thought to himself, “It’s going to be a long eighteen months.”
Welcome!
Welcome indeed Mike. Being new myself I have no sage words to offer, but let me say this: NPR and Urban Planning? Lovely.
Sheila, the material was a blast–I’m a real librarian on the inside, getting my jollies laying out relational databases, parsing intellectual property law. But I came to realize I couldn’t handle the work environment. I was 3 years into a library staff gig when the hum of the fluorescents, the scratching of my poly-cotton dress shirts, the awkward staff birthday parties with the same sheet cake, different name–started making me forget who I was and what I really wanted. Not that I figured that out the day I gave my notice, but things are moving in the right direction now. It seems.
Welcome to the site, Mike D. Take off your shoes and stay a while.
I’ve never had grits and ballet, but grits and spicy shrimp is one of my favs!
Welcome Mike D!
“Grits and Ballet”
I think I know the title of your next novel. We can expect this shortly?
Welcome, sir.
Welcome, Mike.
Mike, you were simply in the wrong library. We’re all drunk most of the time in my library, and that seems to work just fine.