[washington st matrix]
by Christopher J. Bradley
4/23/2003 3:35:59 AM
©2003
for all telecom people inspired by Gibson

Multi-Media
Big – Time
The journey into everything corporate
Retail phases out behind steel rims
I am standing at the 3rd floor elevator
Escorted to Paul’s cubicle

It’s all ties, briefcases, and planners
Deskwork headsets and terminals
Flowcharts, graphs, reports, and schedules
The timepieces are on the walls
These are the days of 3.1

February 95
Seven months and counting
Until the big change
The personal computer
Will never be the same

The interview was last week
I’ve been hired
The project he outlines for me is Disney
The Lion King Animated Story Book
A public relations nightmare
From a technical perspective

Two weeks training commence
A customer service MASH unit boot camp
All of the rigors of DOS and windows
And an Access composite Database
A quick introduction to Microsoft Mail
The precursor to modern Outlook

For three months the Callmaster was my overseer
I punched keys and executed clicks with precision
I pasted notes and scanned faxes
I learned cool down tactics
And rewrote code without paper or machine

With the headset locked on my temples like a vice
I was a verbal relay, a conduit
I rattled out execution orders for driver updates
I reconstructed autoexec and config files
And depressurized the callers en masse

One Saturday in May the ice broke
I went to the McDonalds for lunch
On the way back I peered into
the cinema window
There was a slick posted for
Johnny Mnemonic

Keanau in sharkskin grey against the Matrix

After my shift I called home
To let my parents know that I would be late
The entire spectrum of the bizarre
had hit pay-dirt

Internet 2021 had opened for me
in the Voidspace

The Washington St.
Market Arcade General Cinema
With the projector alight beside my employer
was a home to Gibson.