I used to think Hell was being kidnapped by pirates and thrown into the Bermuda Triangle without a life jacket, or It was a place where Lucifer impaled you on his trident and threw you into the flames on a rotisserie stick until you were well done and then repeated over and over again like Groundhog Day for eternity.

Well, that’s all changed. Hell is being locked into a room with a brigade of Activity Directors, each one with no or very little experience, and each one using you like a pin ball in a pin ball machine!

Enough of the funnies. How many of you, who are doing senior places, are experiencing increasing “difficulties” with Activity Directors?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this bad in my whole playing career. Been doing nursing home by day since the 80s. I don’t think any of them collectively have the intelligence of a Zip code in Kansas City. That’s about the nicest thing I can say about them.

You’ve got to remember, I’ve been doing these places for a long time now. The changes I’ve seen are beyond imagination. You’ve also got to remember where I live in the Northeast it may be unique (hopefully).

You can tell I’ve had more negative experiences piling up in my resume of Senior playing places.

On the plus side, they’re building new ones almost daily like Chinese restaurants…..and each one is bigger than the previous. They’re starting to look like palaces, so big you could fit Disneyworld and Disneyland both into any one of them!

On the negative side, the bigger the facility the less use of responsible, mature, experienced people are on the payrolls. And that includes musicians. It’s cost-cutting to the extreme.

Activity directors……..they’re like kids, and if they’re adults, they act like kids. They seem to come and go. And, personally, I wish they would all go and leave us alone to do what we do best…….entertain the people.

It’s pretty obvious I’ve had more bad encounters with AD’s that I don’t even want to think about right now.

If I was not a good performer, I might think more liberally about AD’s, but I’m a complete professional, doing professional performances, who is not used to being abused and treated like an amateur. The audience always asks when I’m returning. I feel like saying to them “when their Royal Highness” decrees that I return and that it’s not how well-entertained you folks are, it’s.....does the location have an adequate AD who knows what the heck they’re doing.

So, back to my question. How many of you are noticing the competency of AD’s nowadays is questionable at best and a total mish-mash at worst? I’m really thinking about moving from this Circus of Horrors in this part of the country that seems to host all the facilities that are so “workplace challenged" that other states don’t want them and they ship them here. I like to think I’m not the only one going through this.

Mark