I feel like today is going to be a weird day. I am not sure what to do with myself.
I have to go grocery shopping. That’s it. Outside of that I have nothing on my agenda. Nothing at all. I don’t know how that happened. I am thinking I maybe should have slowed down on the IKEA party yesterday and saved some of it for today. I will cook lunch and dinner for the love of my life, but those aren’t really agenda items, those are more like a cross between I’m in love with her and want to do things for her and… you know… basic survival needs.
I might try to do some music today. I want to work on a couple of song ideas for Record Every Month. We don’t have a band practice today. We had a discussion yesterday. It was off then it was on then it was off. Next week. I want to do some gear review before next weekend. I might bring my big Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 in place of the Vox AC15, but the tweed covering has some… stuff on it. Mold? Dirt? I don’t know. I haven’t used the amp in years and I am a little afraid. I also want to go super basic with pedals. The rig I have at the practice room is making all sorts of weird noise. I want to tear it all down and build it back up again, but I have to take the pedal board home to do that, and I want to have something small and simple to replace it with in the meantime.
So… yeah. Nothing else going on today. I’ll find something to do. I kinda fear that the something I come up with is going to be binge watching Star Trek the Animated Series. I watched the first two episodes last night. I think there are 22 more. I bet I can get through a lot of it if I really apply myself.
Apparently today was this WordPress.com account’s eighth birthday. Time flies.
Of course the blog itself dates back to 2006, but it has changed platforms a whole bunch of times. It’s only this latest incarnation that’s celebrating its birthday.
Once again, IKEA has exploded and a pile of pre-fab furniture has miraculously landed in our house. Again. I mean, what are the chances, right?
They all have a home in mind but I’ve only put one of them away so far.
I was actually listening to that record when I was putting the last piece together. Once the record player was moved I just swapped from a streaming service to a spinning medium without missing a beat.
I never expected that I would be embarrassed to see a flag like this. Not that I was ever a flag waving kind of guy, but you get where I’m coming from, I’m sure.
10 Democratic senators voted in favor of the fascist party’s spending bill today. That’s 10 fascist collaborators who are due to be primary’d out of existence when their current terms are up*.
Nevada, New York (really???), Illinois, New Hampshire (of course), Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Hawaii all need to start searching for candidates who won’t bend over to the nazis.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can go eat a bag of moldy dicks. Way to lead, asshole.
There has been an organized amazon boycott underway for the last week. It started on the 7th of March and ends today on the 14th. I have been as successful as I can be in joining the boycott. I haven’t shopped at amazon or knowingly shopped at a site that amazon owns. I haven’t watched anything on amazon prime video. I haven’t knowingly used the news services they own, or even used imdb. The most difficult part was not using audible while driving in and out of Boston and to and from work this week. I am a bit of an audiobook junkie when I am driving and not touching my audible account was a little tough.
The question I have is, did I unknowingly use amazon web services? I think a huge chunk of the internet is hosted by amazon. There’s a good chance that I went somewhere that is paying money to amazon for their web hosting needs. I don’t think I could have avoided that at all. Hell, for all I know this very page is hosted by amazon. I hope not, but who knows?
For the things that I could actually control though, I have managed to play along. I just have to continue not giving amazon any business until midnight tonight. I can do it.
In the meantime, here’s a photo a day picture of a cat. Hopefully Flickr, the site I use to host the images you see on this goofy little page, is not hosted by the amazons. That would be disappointing.
We have yet another contractor coming today. The arrival window we booked opens at 8:00am. They texted us at 7:00am saying they were on their way. We assumed that meant that… ya know… they were on their way. Well its 8:02am now and they still haven’t arrived. So I guess they weren’t actually on the way.
Today is a monumentally huge day for the entertainment industry. Well… for my personal entertainment industry preferences. Alex Lifeson of Rush is releasing a new album today with his other band, Envy of None. Now while I will say that that sort of gothy/synthy/poppy vibe Envy of None gives off is not generally my personal bag, I did enjoy the first record and I have been enjoying the first three songs they snuck out from the second record even more. They are winning me over.
Along with that, there is a new Throwing Muses album out today. Technically there are two new Throwing Muses albums today, but only one is going to streaming services. I’m going to have to actually go somewhere and find a copy of the other one. Moonlight Concessions is the one you can stream. The singles they gave us ahead of time are seriously working for me. I haven’t started listening to the full album yet but I am really excited to give it a spin.
Even more important, Kristin Hersh sent out an email to her mailing list today (which I’ve been subscribed to for about as long as email lists have been a thing) and it lists some new tour dates. They are all in Europe, which is great for folks in Europe but not very helpful for me. There was some good news for those of us who live in the nazi states of america. Just read the last line on this screen shot from the email…
US DATES COMING SOON!!! Robert is excited. Robert’s wife is probably going to be slightly less excited, but my finger are crossed that she’ll be okay with going to another show with me.
On top of the musical gifts we get today, there is also a new episode of Yellowjackets where they actually talk about DATs. Digital Audio Tapes. I never owned a DAT player but somewhere around here I do have a couple of DAT tapes because I spent some time in a recording studio in 1993. There is also a new episode of Severance. I think that show might be losing me a little. I have found my attention drifting while watching the last two episodes. I am just thinking that we’re so deep into the black box that we’re never going to find out exactly what’s going on and maybe I am just trying to subconsciously protect myself from disappointment. I don’t know. The show is still good but I am getting worried.
The contractor is here. He rang the door bell at about 8:10 or so. Right when he was supposed to. That’s good news. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be finished before I start work.
Speaking of music, I started noodling out an idea for something for the Record Every Month challenge. I am thinking of continuing along with the acoustic 12-string stuff I was doing last month. I also got my 6-string acoustic guitar back from my singer, who borrowed it 10000 years ago. Right on queue, today’s That Pedal Show episode is talking about 12-string guitars and the guys are bitching about how difficult they are to play. Just like me!
Right then. Time to go and get ready to start my work day. Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy the new music.
ADDENDUM: The Envy of None record was originally supposed to come out today, March 14, 2025. It did not though. The new release date is March 28, 2025. Bummer, dude.
There is a Rush 50th anniversary boxed set scheduled for release next week. I wonder if that’s why they pushed the EoN release? Who knows.
Inside the Red Head's Head 