hey kids,
peter von taborsky here on turkey day morning. getting ready to go see my mom & dad (not really looking forward to it so i will spend the day drinking, then pass out in my turkey during dinner). my life in a nut shell has been music, travel & booze up to this last year or so. late last year i got married & decided to grow up (just a little). ive been living in orlando for the past 14 years. no kids (not really my style) just a really cool dog & 3 koi fish. i work for a small importing business so if anyone needs a big ass buddha head let me know. hope everyone is doing well.
xxxxxooooo,
peter von
one of the beauties of my job is the fact that i often have alot of down time. most days i walk into work, plug in my ipod then log on to myspace.com. now, thanks to clark, i have one more thing to do in the morning before i get "to work". now i have to sign on the fpc web board. most days you will find me here from 10am till 5:30pm. right now is one of those "down times".
the first day i signed on & wrote my "re-introduce" thingy i didn't put much thought into it. i guess i should have figured the type of people who would come on a web board wouldn't be the slackers of our graduating class. even know i hung out with some, if not most of you in school, lets just say i was never the best student. just passing was always good enough for me. i think i might have looked smart because i hung out with fatima, paul, daryl & that crowd the most. now that ive read most of your profile thingys (im looking at you again jeff helms) i think i might need to rethink how i present myself. so not to appear as if ive done nothing with my life i figured id re-re-introduce myself. tell you guys a little something besides "my life in a nut shell has been music, travel & booze up to this last year or so." believe it or not, the guy who graduated with a 2.0 gpa & was 289th in our class has done something with his life besides "music, travel & booze"
so here goes......my life story......from high school till right now
hold on tight, this may get bumpy
somehow after graduation i was suckered in to going to broadcasting school. this would not be the last in "thank god" a relatively short list of very bad decisions. thinking back i guess it wasn't all bad & believe it or not, i did learn a few things that would come in handy later in life. i spent a year or so in sunny ft. lauderdale studying the fine art of tv & radio broadcasting. by studying i mean almost every weekend i made a long drive to gainsville or back to p.s.l. to visit friends. somehow, even with all the partying, i managed to get my piece of paper & the all important "demo tape" that proves i know how to broadcast "good".
after moving back home with my mom & dad, i spent the next 2 months sending my demo tape off to almost every radio station on the east coast. seems the fine folks at the bauder college of broadcasting forgot to mention that nobody in the real world of radio thinks broadcasting school is worth a damn. the only way to get anywhere in radio was the "school of hard knocks" also know as internship. internship as in "not getting paid for any work". i was finely accepted at crystal fm, a "lite rock" (not my thing at all) station in vero beach. i spent about 1 day fetching coffee for fat dj guys in bad acid washed jeans & cleaning bathrooms when i said F YOU to the world of commercial radio! sometimes i wonder how my life would have been different if i stuck it out. who knows? i think i turned out fine. keep reading .
it was onward & upward for young mr. peter von.
from what i remember, it was only a few days later that i was hanging out with all of our good friend, daryl romano. between beers he casually mentioned that he knew a guy who was opening a teen night club in p.s.l. & they needed a dj. i thought to myself "hey, i got a piece of paper & a student loan that says, im a dj". surprisingly enough i interviewed & got the job. i was a professional disc jockey. not only that but i was the manager. i was making $350 (a lot of money in 1988) to spin records 3 nights a week. i was "THE MAN". during the interview i failed to mention that i didn't have the essential skill all decent club djs need, beat mixing (the "art" of beat mixing is utilizing several turntables and a mixer to blend pre-recorded sounds while maintaining a constant beat) but i had keys to a night club that was only open 3 nights a week. i figured i could just kinda hang out the rest of the time. i got james a job. i (we?) proceeded to slack for about a year. i guess the owner finely noticed that, while i was not afraid to talk on the mike, i was not a very good club dj. i was fired, & yes, i cried when it happened.
for the next 2 years i had a manager who got me work in a number of bars (partners 3 in p.s.l., lous lounge in stuart) & clubs (uptown in vero, schuckers in jensen among others) up & down the treasure coast. no place glamorous or very cool. but, i was learning a little here & there, honing my craft. all the while having a great time, and "by having a great time" i mean booze & girls. lots & lots of booze & well.....some girls.
around 1988 i got a chance to go over seas for the first (of what would be many trips all over europe) time. believe it or not, i (& clark) am an eagle scout. boy scouts of america chose me to work at a scout camp in cyprus for 9 weeks (silly them). those of you unfamiliar with the happy little country of cyprus, it is a hair smaller then florida. it (at the time) was divided up the middle, & always on the brink of war. the u.n. pretty much patrols the entire country, machine gun in hand keeping the people of cyprus from blowing each other up. despite all the guns & violence for some reason, it is the party destination for most of europe. topless beaches & sambuca laced with opium made for a weird & wonderful 9 weeks with the boy scouts. the last day i was in cyprus i turned 21 years old. life would never be the same.
from cyprus i went to london. i spent my days walking. walking & looking. looking & wondering. wondering how i survived in p.s.l. so long without going nuts. travel is, without a doubt the most amazing thing a person can do. it opens you mind, broadens your horizons & makes you appreciate, among other things, what a great country we live in. its my firm belief that everyone should leave the country he or she was born in, at least once. i do not understand the type of person without a desire to "move & look, to touch & feel, and experience life from a different point of view". different is good!. i learned more about life & myself on this trip then in all my years in public school put together.
back to p.s.l.
bummer!
when i got home i was a "dude in flux". a man (just barely) without a home, money, a job or a girl. i moved back in with my mom & dad to sort of re-group, figure some shit out. i knew i wanted to dj but not in the radio. i knew i wanted to travel but didn't have any money. i knew i wanted a girl but a cool one. unfortunately port st lucie, in the late 80s didn't have a lot to offer a "dude in flux"
i finally got a job at "kick in the pants" in the sable palm plaza in ft pierce. it wasn't what i wanted to do but it wasn't half bad. there were hot girls, discounts on clothes & a hook up to decent parties & night life. it was through one of these hook ups that i learned about a new teen club opening in stuart. they needed someone to do "alternative music night" on sundays. pretty much spinning cool music (flesh for lulu, front 242, skinny puppy, p.i.l. ect.) for cool, freak kids who would get beat up at any other teen club in martin or st. lucie county. i was in dj heaven. playing music that i liked, for kids who would dance to it. the great part was, it was really working. i had a growing crowd. every weekend a few hundred kids in doc martens & leather pants (even know it was summer in south florida) danced to decent, non commercial music. who would think something hip could happen in our little redneck home. it wouldn't last.
bummer!
anytime you get a more then 3 goth type kids in the same place, some homophobic redneck is gonna complain to the city. it seemed like we were getting closed down more nights then not. either "the music was too loud" or we were 2 kids over our fire code, it was always something. the owner deemed "alternative music night" a pain in the ass.
bummer!
within a few weeks i was spinning dance top 40 again and, somehow i was "the manager", again. now, you figure, giving my past experience with the competitive world of teen club management, i would (at the so mature age of 22) buckle down & try a little harder. if you have read this far you can probably guess, i didn't. it would be a very long time before i would learn you need more then "charm" to get anywhere in the business world. as always, i was fired. this time i didn't cry though. i was getting tough.
bummer (kind of)
the only positive thing to come out of the 1990 top 40 era of my life was i did in fact meet a girl. she was smart, cool & hot. problem was she was also 2 months shy of 18 (i was 22 by now). yup, it was all very scandalous. now before you go calling me a pervert let me explain. i was in the club, minding my own business. just doing my little dj thing when she came up to me & flirted with me. long story short. we dated (with her mothers permission) for the next 4 years. to this day we are still friends. my wife & i hang out with her & her husband (who is 3 years older then me by the way. i guess she has a thing for us old guys) on a semi-regular basis. as a matter of fact, if it wasn't for her i would have never moved to orlando. but like most of my story so far, being a boyfriend was yet another job i was destined to be fired from. this time i did cry. lots.
bummer!
i was here in the big city of orlando for about 4 months when i was relived for the position of boy friend. i didn't know a single person except my stupid pot head roommates. it sucked. it sucked big time. i toyed with the idea of sticking my tail between my legs & heading back to st. lucie, again. im glad i didn't. i had found myself a manager who got me gigs but i still wasn't getting the big dj bucks. to supplement my meager income i decided to get a temporary job till i hit the big time. kinkos copies was the place id spend the next 9 years, 10 months & 23 days.
i could write a book about my time i spent at kinkos. unless you have worked there it hard to explain. it was truly a weird & sometimes wonderful place to work. everyone who works at kinkos has a story. most are rather strange. there were artists & musicians, actors & poets, drug dealers & sadio-masochist. many of who would become my friends. in a very strange way we were a big, very dysfunctional family. over time i worked my way up the photocopy/reproduction corporate ladder. from copy boy peon to assistant manager & everything in between. ive been screamed at, threatened with bodily harm, spit on & brought to court all in the name of photocopies. its hard to believe but people take that shit really serious. looking back at my time there, for the most part, i smile. i met some incredible people there. people who would change my life for the better.
one of those incredible people would end up being my wife.
around spring of 1995, after a few years of soul searching. i was finely comfortable with my station in life. i knew i might not ever be a superstar dj, but i was content playing music on my own terms. i had money for decent import beer, my own place to live & a really bitchin record collection. life was pretty good. it was about this time that i came to the realization that i was looking too hard for love. i figured id let love look for me for awhile. this might be the best idea ive ever had.
my wife to be was a 19 year old blond cutie named dede who came to work for kinkos in early 1995. she was so shy, if you talked to her she wouldn't look you in the eye. a born again christian who could never make it to work on time. she would come to work (late) with her hair wet & the smell of suntan lotion because she had been at the beach all morning. she was cute with a capital C & i have to admit, i had the hots for her from the get go. i figured there was no way in hell she would be interested in a balding, grumpy "old " guy like me. i guess i was wrong. on july 26th 1996 we had our first kiss & things have been cool every day since. years later when i asked her what she first though of me back then she told me "you were cute but kind of an asshole".
like most of the girls in my life dede is much smarted then i am. she encouraged me to do something with my life besides playing records for senior proms & making photocopies. after pondering this idea, some how i decided that my future lied in the exciting world of massage therapy (please refer to 4th paragraph, second sentence "this would not be the last in "thank god" a relatively short list of very bad decisions"). 10 months & several thousand dollars later i finished my studies at the florida college of natural health. this, not unlike my piece of paper the told me & the world, i know how to broadcast "good", turned out to be an incredible waste of time & money. besides the of sense of accomplishment (massage school is crazy hard. tons of anatomy & physiology, traditional chinese medicine, 900 clinical hours & a hard ass, 4 hour fricking state exam) & yet another large student loan, massage therapy was a better idea it theory then in practice.
bummer!
it was during this time (new years eve 2001 around 6pm to be exact) that kinkos decided the they no longer needed me (or 8000 other employees). laid off after 9 years, 10 months & 23 days. having hung up my head phone & sold my turntables a year or two before, once again, at 33 years old, i was "dude in flux".
even bigger bummer!
it was time to regroup & figure some shit out, again. but, this time i had an advantage. a big one that i never had before. this time i had someone in my corner. i had my girl, my better half, my little lion.......my dede. thank god. she was so cool about the whole thing. not once did she ever put any pressure on me to "grow up" or do the "big boy" thing. as a matter of fact she encouraged me to take some (what i think was well deserved) time off.
i think i slept for 3 weeks
for the next 9 months i was ebay sales boy. i would pick up "vintage" t-shirts for 99 cents each at thrift stores & sell em to poser wanna be punks for about 25 bucks each. while it was very fun this is harder then it sounds. plus the lack of contact with real people other than thrift store employees (not always your smartest group) or postal workers (not always the happiest or friendliest group) was starting to get to me.
it was onward & upward for old mr. peter von
time to quit screwing around. what i needed was a real job. i was about to turn from ebay boy to furniture sales boy. a difficult trick but one that would be well worth my engery.
from 2002 till 2005 i was a "design consultant" for storehouse furniture. impressive title but all it really ment was, i helped rich people, with bad taste pick expensive furniture. not fun but the money wasnt bad. like kinkos, storehouse was kind of a dysfunctional family. except it was me & 5 hot girls under the age of 30. each of the girls was cool in their own way but when they wanted to be, they were "bitches". i dont know if anyone here has ever worked in sales. it can be cut throut to say the least. in commision based sales, people, even cool ones, get mean. thats the part of the job i hated. being the only guy was hard. like i said, the girls could be could be mean. i love em like sisters (hot step-sisters who you wanna peep at while they are in the shower) but after almost 3 years i was growing wearry of sales.
around 2005 i came to work in the place im sitting right now. the place "with alot of down time". i sell amazing, imported goods from all over asia. furinture, big ass buddha heads, carvings, you name it we import it. rich winter park people nibble up this stuff like a rat does cheese. unlike storehouse, i work by myself. i wear my vans to work, plug in my ipod & the days go by fast. we drink beer or wine most days. there is little to no drama. while i dont intend on being with washburn imports the rest of my life, i do love what i do. dede & i are working toward opening my own shop. this way i would get paid to travel all over the world. it just might be the perfect job.
thats about it. my life story. i must say the past 20 or so years have been wonderful & weird. ive grown up but im not a grown up. ive been all over the world, ive made thousands of people dance, drank oceans of booze & kissed a pretty girl or two. i own a home, have a great job that i love & a wife who is amazing in every way.
wow........life is good!
21 years condensed down to a couple paragraphs."my life in a nut shell has been music, travel & booze up to this last year or so." i guess i was right in the first place.
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B
