A massive on-going blog post featuring all of my monthly Spotify playlists that I started creating back in 2017 featuring a variety of genres.
Tag: musician
LAID OFF: Support My Restaurant Family during COVID-19
UPDATE 4/21/2020:
On April 19th, I equally divided the Tip Your Server Donation fund plus a $100 contribution from a friend, a total of $600 among me and four other co-workers. I contacted all of the co-workers listed in this post below as well as fellow co-workers from Wasatch that I used to work with. Four co-workers came forward and said they were in need of some help $. On Sunday, I disbursed the funds equally among us, $120 each. I am glad that I could help my co-workers and I am so grateful to the Tip Your Server Donation and my friend that contributed $100, Thank you.
UPDATE:
On 4/7/2020 I was notified by Squatters that our company was picked out of the Tip Your Server Lotto. I was one of the five tipped employees randomly chosen to receive $500 from this donation.
I have decided that after I receive this money, I will be dividing it up equally among me and my co-workers that need it the most. I want to say thank you to the Tip Your Server Donation, the Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Thank you to Ty Burrell and the Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Thank you for your help, I deeply appreciate it, we deeply appreciate it!
The goal of this post is to provide VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch Pubs in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have been LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with no financial compensation during the COVID-19 Pandemic. For most of us, our only job(s) were as restaurant employees. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.
On Monday, March 16th, 2020 Salt Lake City was ordered to stop all dine-in service at Restaurants and Bars by 11 p.m. Only to-go and curbside service are allowed right now.
I am a full-time employee at Squatters Pub Brewery in Downtown Salt Lake. This job was the only source of income for me and countless fellow employees. After the restaurant ‘closure’ for dine-in service our corporate office communicated with us that we could come in and clean the restaurant for hourly pay. They were never clear as to how much that hourly was going to be and I have yet to hear what that hourly was for those that went in and worked when they could.
In the state of Utah, employers are not required to pay servers more than $2.15/hour. We do not get paid/sick leave and for many of us (before COVID-19) we couldn’t even request time off for vacations/emergencies.
On Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 at 7:09 a.m. MST a 5.7 Magnitude Earthquake hit Magna, Utah less than 20 miles from Salt Lake City. The Earthquake was felt throughout Salt Lake County and many other parts of Utah. Aftershocks have continued since the initial quake.
On Friday, March 20th 2020, all employees (including management) for Squatters Pub Brewery and our sister company Wasatch Brew Pub were LAID OFF INDEFINITELY, approximately 98% of all labor until the COVID-19 pandemic blows over and restaurants can open again. They decided to do this so we could file for unemployment. I was just notified by a fellow employee of Squatters (Server Chelsea: her info below) that her first unemployment check is not due to arrive for another 3 weeks.
HELP
We have rent/mortgages & bills to pay, we need groceries and supplies. More importantly, we need help and jobs asap.
Below are VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.
LINKS, NAMES, and VENMO’s have been deleted as of 7/25/2020 for the safety of persons involved.
Other Resources to help Service Industry Employees in Utah right now:
TIP YOUR SERVER Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Utah
This donation program is amazing, all thanks to a local business owner and Actor Ty Burrell and our Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
All local SLC restaurants and bars must register their businesses with this donation then employees can be verified and money distributed after March 25th. So far this donation has raised approximately $141,000 for the estimated 15,000 restaurant employees in Salt Lake City.
Our company has registered with this donation.
If you want to help us and donate to other restaurant employees in SLC please donate to tipyourserver .
More resources to help Service Industry Employees in the U.S.
(I will be adding to this list)
Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation
https://www.restaurantworkerscf.org/
United States Bartender Guild
More info about where I used to work:
About the Author,
My name is Alina and I am a writer, artist, poet, and musician. I have been blogging and posting original content on alinahappyhansenwriter.com since March 2017. I am a graduate from The University of Utah with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English with a Minor in Writing and Rhetoric Studies. I have had half a dozen poems published in the last five years and have actively been reading my Poetry locally in Salt Lake City since my Utah Arts Festival Reading in June 2018.
I have been working in the Service Industry/Restaurants since 2016. From 2016 to 2018, I worked at Wasatch Brew Pub sister company to Squatters Pub Brewery. At Wasatch, I worked full-time as a Hostess, in charge of training new hires to host, restaurant policies and procedures, and most importantly providing the best customer service possible. In June 2018, I moved to Downtown Salt Lake City and started working as a full-time Hostess at Squatters Pub Brewery. I worked full-time at Squatters until March 20th, 2020 when I was LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with NO PAY due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic. As an employee of Squatters, I excelled at my job as a Hostess and later trained and worked other job duties including Expediter and Busser.
I miss my job and my friends at work and I just want to help in any way I can during these uncertain times.
If you would like to support me, I am handwriting Poems for $. For more info on this please go to SUPPORT ALINA: POEMS FOR $. So far I have already completed FOUR POETRY ORDERS FOR $ as of 3/22. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support both financially and emotionally during this time.
When I get a job I will continue to write POEMS FOR $ and I will be sending all the money I earn directly to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch who need it the most.
Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your love.
Best of luck to you all, stay safe and stay well out there!
Want to become one of my Patrons? Go to my page here and join a tier. All patrons regardless of Tier have access to all of my patron-only content right now! Tiers start at $3/month! I will also send you via snailmail a handwritten personalized Poem + Thank you card for becoming a patron.
Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!
Liked this blog post? Check out these:
SUPPORT ALINA: POETRY FOR $(Opens in a new browser tab)
Life During COVID-19 (4/21/2020): Poetry, Sylvia Plath and My Novel(Opens in a new browser tab)
Life during COVID-19 (4/13/20): Poetry for $ and more poems(Opens in a new browser tab)
January 2020 Update: Workshop, Writing, and Music
Today is my first day in a Free Poetry Workshop! Last September I bought Windows and Doors: A Poet Read Literary Theory by Natasha Sajé. I read a few chapters and then looked up Natasha Sajé, I found out she is a professor at Westminster right here in Salt Lake City. Then I found out she was doing a free Poetry Workshop this Spring. To sum it up, I applied to the workshop and got in. Today is the start of this four-month workshop and I am so excited. I am hoping to get a lot out of this workshop and make progress with my poetry.
Besides my poetry, I have been doing my daily writing routine, a mere 1,000 words a day required. I feel like I’ve been hitting a wall lately when it comes to my writing. On the backburner is My First Novel which I talked about regularly in my posts last year. At this point, I have only one tiny chapter to write and the book is done. After that I need to have it fully edited/proofed and then I want to start submitting it to Literary Agents for representation. I have very little left to do, maybe a couple rewrites here and there and some more polishing but I have put my book on the back burner since November and haven’t had the guts to break it open again.
(More about My First Novel)
Instead, I’ve been working on my music. I’ve been researching and learning Ableton (DAW), I’ve been practicing guitar, recording, and learning the ins and outs of my midi keyboard. I’ve also lately become interested in Modular Synthesizers, so I’ve been taking a course on the basics through lynda.com and messing around with a Cherry Audio Virtual Mod Synth I got with the purchase of Computer Music magazine (what a cool find!). It’s been a fun and time-consuming venture. Currently, I have about five songs in the works. A few of these songs will finish the playlist I started on my SoundCloud, taking inspiration from Dante’s circles of hell.
That’s it for this update! I want to say THANK YOU to all my followers and those that read my poems regularly, I deeply appreciate your interest and readership.
-Alina
Liked this post? Check out these:
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!(Opens in a new browser tab)
Why I Write: Poetry #1(Opens in a new browser tab)
Currently Reading: Postmodernism, 1920s, and Fiction(Opens in a new browser tab)
Latest Release “Fraud” Now on SoundCloud
Back in May, I got my hands dirty and started making music. I played around with a free trial of Ableton, bought a MIDI keyboard, and a microphone. I messed around and had fun mixing samples together. I also got an audio interface so I can hook up my guitar and record stuff (I have yet to do this but I am planning on doing it asap).
So far I have posted four original tracks on Soundcloud, amateur artist right here. This is all for fun so I can get my feet wet and experiment. If you have any free time I would love to know your comments and thoughts!
Influences/Inspirations: Sneaker Pimps, Cocteau Twins, Nine Inch Nails, Grimes, and FKA Twigs just to name a few
LATEST TRACK “FRAUD” (Released December 2019)
Thank you to all my followers!
-Alina
Liked this post? Check out these:
January 2020 Update: Workshop, Writing, and Music(Opens in a new browser tab)
My Summer: Madness, Music and Monsters
Summer is my time for working and then working some more. It’s madness when I look back at my week and think about how crazy my schedule has been and how much I work. Work is nothing, it’s what I do outside of work that I really care about: editing my book, rewriting chapters, and putting together crummy monthly playlists on Spotify. But now thanks to my partner, I’ve been experimenting with my music again.
For the past couple of months, I’ve been messing with Ableton. When I finished with the trial period I got the basic Live Intro package, how much am I really going to use it for the $$$ is the question. I bought a small 25-key midi keyboard, an audio interface to hook up my guitar and record (still need to do this) and a microphone set. So far I’ve just been messing around and mixing samples, editing, I guess producing? Is that what they call it? I have no idea. I’m just a guitarist really that’s all I know so this is an attempt at me diving headfirst into the deep unknown world of DAW’s and music production.
What I have so far (that’s done) you can listen to ALINA HAPPY HANSEN SOUNDCLOUD
I’ll probably put in a playlist player on the homepage of my blog as well. These songs are really just experimental mixes. I’m mainly just practicing editing and song structure but it’s still fun.
What I’m listening to right now,
What I’m reading,
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
I’m rereading this classic, it’s been a few years but it is a fantastic read and I’d recommend it any writer at any level. The chapters are short and concise and totally inspirational. I can’t help but want to write after reading a chapter or two of this book.
MONSTERS
I read half this book in only a couple weeks then ignored it for a couple more. Reading this book is more entertainment than anything else right now and it’s inspiring me to write a gorey vampire short story right now (the vampires in here are too romanticized and the story set up and style echoes the infamous Twilight– the only difference I can find is that this is a vampire romance for people 30+). I’m sick of romantic vampires, I want sadistic serial killers, I want an ugly vampire – a Nosferatu set in modern times.
That pretty much sums up the last few weeks for me. I will be posting an update on “Writing My First Novel” series soon plus of course, my regular poetry posts.
Thank you to all my followers and Thank YOU for taking the time to read this post!
-Alina
Find ALINA ON INSTAGRAM