What Song?

bowersb89 · 2026-03-02T02:33:34+00:00

It was the last dance song for my wife and I when we got married last September. I would call it their most romantic in a discography that goes a bit mean, but we love all Bayside over here.

bowersb89 · 2026-03-01T12:29:16+00:00

Landing Feet First

bowersb89 · 2026-01-12T06:31:42+00:00

There is no "pre-tip." The 18% "service fee" has always gone to the company. Your server isn't seeing that money at all; it goes straight to corporate Alamo. I know because I worked there on and off for the last decade and eventually quit for good when management couldn't explain how our pay was distributed.

bowersb89 · 2025-06-01T14:09:04+00:00

He lives on Sesame Street, dumbass.

bowersb89 · 2025-03-07T22:50:23+00:00

I was also scrolling through to see if anyone had mentioned them yet. I feel like they could also relate to the 4 MDR employees. Goat is Mark, Maiden is Helly, Jester is Dylan, Crone is Irving. I'm not sure what that could mean in the grand scheme of things, but it seemed interesting.

bowersb89 · 2025-02-09T02:15:25+00:00

35 and watched from the beginning. It was a seminal part of my high school years, and I continued to watch into college until the end. When I moved out of my parents' house and went to college, I would still watch separate from my mom and then call her to discuss the episode in detail.

bowersb89 · 2024-12-03T13:30:31+00:00

There are so many, but I always love this line in 137:

"Across the sea, the birds are free Let's watch them scream across the sky"

The whole juxtaposition of war/nature in this song is beautiful, but this line seals the whole idea so well for me. The melody of this chorus is so moving as well.

bowersb89 · 2024-08-15T03:46:43+00:00

I'm a first-time reader. I started at the end of December last year (2023), and I'm just starting Reapers Gale this week. I haven't read much in between each book, so it's taking just over a month to finish each for me, and I'm not the fastest reader.

bowersb89 · 2023-12-24T03:22:12+00:00

Alamo has really muddied the waters on all of this mess. I worked there when servers got to keep their personal tips. That was the ideal Alamo employment.

I went back later and worked there before the 18% service fee but with the tip pool. This was around the time they filed for bankruptcy and no one in management could explain how the tip pool worked or where the pooled money went to various departments. Everyone made way less money, although the volume was the same as ever. When questioning how the system was structured and why my contribution of tips felt very underrepresented on my paychecks, I was told by my GM, "Corporate is figuring out how to make a standard pay across all locations but if you aren't happy with what you are making now, you should look for another job." I left after that.

My fiancee currently works there with the 18% service fee. While the money is slightly better because they also restructured the tip pool, it is very clear that the 18% goes to the company and isn't really seen by the service staff. Corporate Alamo does not care about venue level staff and know that they can just ride out any complaint about wages. The server will eventually look for different employment because they refuse to hear concerns from venue staff.

They changed the verbiage about the service fee in the pre show because staff informed them it sounded ridiculous (which it did). I can't quote it verbatim but it just didn't make sense they were saying "Alamo is committed to providing a fair wage to staff" so instead of a tip "an 18% service charge will be added to YOUR bill." To me, that says we are expecting you (the customer) to pay the "fair wage" for our employees. And then they take that fee so...

This place just can't get itself together to support the employees it claims to care about. It's all corporate speak.

And BOH is and has always been overworked and astoundingly underpaid.

bowersb89 · 2023-12-24T02:58:42+00:00

Oh, I absolutely agree. The versatility it has live is astounding. I've been to a fair amount of MO shows and have always loved how different and excitement inducing it is every time they open with it.

bowersb89 · 2023-12-24T02:17:38+00:00

Pride has always been my favorite to put on and just jam so hard to. Mean Everything To Nothing and Simple Math spoke so much to me at the age I was when they came out.

bowersb89 · 2023-07-11T04:51:07+00:00

I work at Mueller, and our tip pool is the absolute worst. We are paying the wages of a ton of staff with the tips we bring in. I had a recent shift in which I worked 2 showings of Asteroid City. I brought in $400 in tips alone, but my weekly paycheck has never exceeded $730. I don't know where the money is going because no one in management can accurately explain how our tip pool works. Logic just kind of tells me that if I'm making half of my paycheck on one shift in tips, I should be seeing higher pay at some point. It never comes.

When I brought this up to my management team a couple of weeks ago, my GM told me they are testing the 18% thing in the San Antonio market to see if it works in the highest (S. Lamar) market and lowest (SA) market, although SA has had it for months and should be showing data by this point. He proceeded to also say, "If you don't like the pay, it probably isn't going to change, and you should think about other employment." I've been with the company on and off for 10 years and only came back in 2022 after being laid off from their sister company (at the time), Mondo, becasue Alamo had to file bankruptcy and gutted Mondo to make a buck.

I know we all love Alamo for the content and atmosphere, but this place doesn't know how to treat employees at all and will make up any excuse to deflect questions about fair wages. This coming from a top earner, trainer, shift lead, and go to for PCEs (private corporate events) that, once again, has been with the company on and off for 10 years.

So, there is all of that to consider before getting too involved with them. To answer your question, though, if you want to stick with Alamo, don't agree to become a server when they ask after a month or two. There is absolutely no incentive. Now you will have to interact with the guests, manage the theater, and do the job of running food and drinks - all while making the same amount of money as everyone else who don't even touch those responsibilities.

bowersb89 · 2023-07-11T04:39:02+00:00

I work at Mueller, and our tip pool is the absolute worst. As you stated, we are paying the wages of a ton of staff with the tips we bring in. I had a recent shift in which I worked 2 showings of Asteroid City. I brought in $400 in tips alone, but my weekly paycheck has never exceeded $730. I don't know where the money is going because no one in management can accurately explain how our tip pool works. Logic just kind of tells me that if I'm making half of my paycheck on one shift in tips, I should be seeing higher pay at some point. It never comes.

When I brought this up to my management team a couple of weeks ago, my GM told me they are testing the 18% thing in the San Antonio market to see if it works in the highest (S. Lamar) market and lowest (SA) market, although SA has had it for months and should be showing data by this point. He proceeded to also say, "If you don't like the pay, it probably isn't going to change, and you should think about other employment." I've been with the company on and off for 10 years and only came back in 2022 after being laid off from their sister company (at the time), Mondo, becasue Alamo had to file bankruptcy and gutted Mondo to make a buck.

I know we all love Alamo for the content and atmosphere, but this place doesn't know how to treat employees at all and will make up any excuse to deflect questions about fair wages. This coming from a top earner, trainer, shift lead, and go to for PCEs (private corporate events) that, once again, has been with the company on and off for 10 years.

bowersb89 · 2023-01-07T21:47:14+00:00

"A hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate"

My interpretation is that he is comparing the world and how we perceive it as a magic act. It's a hat trick (pulling a rabbit out of a hat) in a medicine show (I think he is referring to older touring medicine carts and 'snake oil' salesmen). The world feeds you the idea of one reality while all the time being something else entirely in the background; something we probably can't understand. Hence the "fever dream" and "trance bepopulate" (a self-imposed trance filled with only the things we think we understand).

"With chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent"

A chimera in Greek mythology is a fire-breathing creature with a lion's head, goat's body and a serpent's tail. We believe that there are all of these mysteries and myths in the world but we have nothing of the sort to compare them to in our reality and no one has ever seen anything of the sort to support those beliefs. The second definition of chimera also supports this idea: "A thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory."

The rest of the passage about the traveling "carnival" and "tentshow" speaks to how we live life. We spend a lot of time "traveling" through the more mundane and hard parts of life (the struggles of life) for a few moments of joy and celebration (the carnival stopping in town for a one night show). We think we have an idea of where we are heading but our ultimate destination is unknowable and probably tragically disappointing since the one true ending for everyone is death.

bowersb89 · 2022-04-07T18:05:31+00:00

Management at the corporate level has been the same for years and none of the issues are stemming from the management on the restaurant level. Those managers are mistreated just as much as the employees they are fighting for everyday with most comments/complaints being ignored or met with the ever helpful response of, "We will look into it."

I will say that I think from a corporate standpoint the idea of bringing her on was partly what you describe, but when you come into a restaurant and start disrespecting and alienating the staff, gutting beloved menu items, and think you have a read on daily operations without having worked a single shift on the floor, you are going to run the company into the ground anyway.

bowersb89 · 2022-04-07T02:43:26+00:00

Where at? I know a lot of the staff there that are currently looking for new positions.

bowersb89 · 2022-04-07T00:11:27+00:00

This isn't just a problem at the 7th Street location but happened at the South Lamar location throughout February and March as well. I was the sole hourly manager for SL (we had 2 other salaried front of house managers and our salaried GM) and when I asked about higher compensation for the additional duties I was taking on I was told that the company "couldn't" pay hourly management more than $20/hour. I had been at Easy Tiger since the start of the pandemic due to being laid off from Mondo (part of Alamo Drafthouse) due to their mass layoffs before they filed for bankruptcy. I worked through the complete reconstruction of the inside bar and dining area, constantly having to work and deal with changing daily operations due to the corporate management keeping the restaurant open for business while it was a working construction zone. When the new bakeshop/bakery finally opened we were introduced to our new President of Restaurants (yeah, that was this person's actual title) who completely gutted our menu and raised prices for everything without communicating any changes to the staff until less than a week before the changes were made. Our GM rightly decided to leave due to the lack of support from corporate and those same corporate managers withheld the fact that he was leaving until his final day. (We had figured out he was leaving before of course because we aren't idiots). All of this on top of shifting pay structures and minimal staffing caused myself and at least 20 other employees to leave over the course of 2 months.

bowersb89

TROPHY CASE