Certified Homeless, with a job and no money

Well, I am officially certifiably homeless as the letter below testifies. I had to jump through a few hoops in order to get a reduced monthly bus pass to take the bus to Marathon to go to work I had heard through the coconut telegraph that we residentially challenged peoples could get a reduced fare for being homeless. A price difference of 75.00 versus 45.00. Since it is for working purposes, my boss fit the bill. My I.D. actually has K.O.T.S. address as my address which I thought would be proof enough to get the reduced fare. But again, I thought wrong. After all, I'm dealing with D.O.T., with a lot of red tape or I guess in this case, yellow caution tape. So I had 50 dollars cash in hand and my I.D. with the homeless shelter address imprinted on it. And the woman behind the counter informs me that I need a LETTER from the shelter to verify that I do indeed, stay at the shelter. I couldn't believe it! So I had to go to K.O.T.S. to speak with a case worker to obtain a letter certifying that I truly am staying at the lovely day care center for adults and idiots who can't afford to pay rent. I got the letter and went back to the D.O.T. and finally got the damn discounted bus pass for the Lower Keys shuttle. My other co worker/Staute of Liberty guy and I we're switching between going to Marathon or staying in Key West. It doesn't really mean a shit bit of difference to me. I spin the sign just the same whether I'm in Key Weird or my hometown of Marathon. But apparently, my other co hort in crime liked Marathon first then changed his mine as he does all the time and wanted to stay in Key West so now it looks like I will be traveling to Marathon everyday except for Sunday. I don't mind. I love traveling and a change of scenery. BTW, a little known interesting fact. The other Statue of Liberty, real name David Knight, his nickname Red, is the half brother of Larry Bird. I shit you not. He was raised in Indiana. He looks funnier than shit in the suit. He has long red hair and a full white beard. Talk about drawing attention. I must say, he looks better than me but I have better moves than him. Not to toot my own horn. I put a 110% in to my work listening and dancing like a fool to the radio or my iPad. I have a great time. I wear myself out but I have to admit it's fun..the people driving by on bikes or cars I think are more entertaining than I am. And a few are oblivious to their surroundings. ......For instance, one day in Marathon, I saw a car with an elderly lady driving slowly in the left fast lane with a Sheriff's deputy behind her with their pull over lights on. The lady stops in the left fast lane. Not going into the center lane to make a left turn. She's waiting for the traffic to clear so she can proceed to (I assume) make a left turn into the post office. Once the traffic was clear, the lady slowly starts turning and continues until she makes a complete U-turn and starts heading in the other direction, apparently, obviously oblivious to the fact that there is a cop behind her with flashing red and blue lights on. Un friggin believable. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes!!!

O.K., on that note, I have to catch the bus to Marathon to go to work. On a pretty idiotic, pathetic, dumb ass note. I got paid 275.00 on Friday and by Monday, I had 1.03 to my name in my checking account. I have too many friends in low places. Sucks having a job with no money, but it's nobody's fault but my own. See ya on the streets. Peace.

Walking Key West

Yesterday, I walked the entire island of Key West. I have no money for a bus pass. It was exhausting but at least I have a place to sleep. I want to give props and thanks to K.O.T.S. in Key West for putting me up every night and for putting up with the over 40 year old idiots that act like they are 8 years old. I don't know how they do it. I need at least a beer to deal with it. Anyways, see ya later.

Kevin Sanders
Marathon Conch

Evolution Of Living In A Van

Evolution Of Living In A Van… Here it goes…Are you ready?? (clicks the drumsticks) One…two…three…four

San Francisco - I had been working for FedEx since 1997 when I was fired on September 8th, 2001. Without a job it was dark but the bright side was I still had the band I joined in 2000. The band was a 3 piece called milk tooth. We had played various venues throughout the Bay area. We recorded a demo at a professional San Francisco studio. It was so nice, we had to wait for Neil Young to finish his recording before we could start our recording. We recorded and mixed 8 songs in 2 days. The rough mix sounded great to me, I was excited until I heard the final mix and told everybody that it sucked and the energy was not there. Of course, the drums were too low, they didn’t have the “punch” they once had. But the other band members assured me that the final product would be fixed in the mastering. I was naïve and didn’t really know about the whole recording process. When the mastered CD came back and we listened to it, I was very disappointed. I thought we had a masterpiece while we were recording and the end result sounded like a master piece of shit!!
I was pissed!! This CD was supposed to represent the band and ultimately get us signed to a recording contract. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t change what was already done.

In early 2002, I went to see the Donnas play the Fillmore. I was outside smoking a cigarette when I started talking to this guy about a band he had and they were looking for a drummer. He was in the same kind of music I was into and I agreed to audition. After the audition they asked me to join. It was another 3 piece called Poisin Jett Gunz. We played gigs around San Francisco and recorded a 5 song demo on a reel to reel 4 track at our band rehearsal studio. I came up with calling the CD “Sloppy Sessions” a play on words for “sloppy seconds”. I had T-shirts printed up through Café Press. We used my digital camera to take all the photos for the cover art and flyers. I mention this because they claim I didn’t pay studio rent or contribute in any way on their myspace page, so they claim and wouldn’t mention my last name for myspace fame. Give me a break!! I don’t care about credit, just don’t say I didn’t do anything but play drums. We also recorded a live CD at the Tempest in San Francisco, that was my last gig with Poisin Jett Gunz. milk tooth asked me to move with them to L.A. and I reluctantly agreed. Poisin Jett Gunz knew I was leaving before the last gig. They wished me well and I left amicably. But they might have been upset when I moved to Los Angeles with milk tooth. It was a hard decision for me to make. On one hand, I had more fun and got along better with the guys (no name fame game) in Poisin Jett Gunz and on the other hand, milk tooth had a more up to date sound and I thought that I had a better chance of “making it” with them. So I went with milk tooth. But I knew from being a former road manager and seeing L.A., I knew I needed a car. In fact, I needed a VAN to load my drum set up to take down there.

Part 2...coming soon…to a blog near you…stay tuned!!

Here are some links for you to listen to both bands I recorded with:
http://www.garageband.com/artist/milktooth

http://www.garageband.com/artist/poisinjettguns


For the record: I recorded the drums on all of the tracks without a click track and did them in one or two takes with no overdubs or punch ins. Thanks for listening!!

Above newspaper article from CORSAIR, a Santa Monica College newspaper 2005
Credit: Jillian Sorkin- Photo Essay www.jilliansorkin.com