Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

Self Distraction

Here is a picture of a cute kitty to distract us all from the end of civilization and the unchecked rise of evil in the largest nuclear power on Earth. Yippee for cute kitties!

I am completely on edge. I’ve actually caught myself a couple of times today sitting at my desk working while my hands are balled up in fists, white knuckles and all. Nothing’s going badly at work. All is a-ok. It’s just the rest of the world that has me so tensed up.

On the drive in today there were a bunch of times when I saw someone driving like an asshole (this is Massachusetts after all) and I thought to myself, I bet he voted for that nazi fuck and is driving like that because he knows he can get away with anything (including treason) so long as he wears that stupid fucking red hat. As I said this is Massachusetts so the chances of randomly running into a maga cult asshole are much less than 50/50. Still, I am so mad at the state of things right now that even here in the happy Blue State I am seeing fascists everywhere.

I hate him. I hate what he stands for. I hate those who figuratively suck his dick in exchange for being able to openly express their bigotry and hatred and racism and misogyny and antisemitism and anti-everyone who isn’t a straight white male. Fuck, I hate all of this nazi bullshit.

Breath. Count to 10. Look at the cute kitty*. Deal with it. It’s only been two days, but that’s two days closer to being able to kick these fuckers to the curb.

*Fans of The Walking Dead will note that I did not say look at the flowers. No… that would mean something entirely different and much, much darker. Look at the flowers, Lizzie. BLAM.

Getting Close

It is Wednesday. Vacation starts on Saturday, three days from now. The Florida trip starts on Sunday, four days from now. The temperature gauge in my car told me that it was -3 degrees out as I was driving through Wilmington, MA a couple of hours ago. Florida can’t get here soon enough, know what I mean?

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This photo is inside a Disney Resort Hotel. That’s why it applies to the topic of this post. It’s not obvious so I figured I’d explain. Maybe I’ll post another Disney on film thing later just to be more obvious. We’ll see.

Saxophone?

Do do do, just whistling past the american graveyard again… still… do do do…

I’ve been listening to King Crimson’s Red album quite a bit over the last few days. Crimson, in their original incarnation, had a sax player. First it was Ian McDonald, then it was Mel Collins. When band leader Robert Fripp shook things up and hired a whole new band with a drastically new sound in 1972 the saxophones went away. For a while, at least. By 1974, when they were recording the Red album, they were down to three band members, Fripp (guitar/mellotron), John Wetton (bass/vocals), and Bill Bruford (drums/percussion). Fripp was the only soloist in the lineup… sort of… the other two guys could have cranked out leads with the best of them (because they pretty much were the best of them) but instead they brought in a bunch of session musicians to help fill in the gaps. Among those session musicians were two sax players; Ian McDonald (alto) and Mel Collins (soprano).

Collins plays on the album’s centerpiece, “Starless” and his playing is wonderful (as always). McDonald also plays on “Starless” as well as “One More Red Nightmare”. His playing is out of the fucking world amazing. He wails, especially on “Starless”.

Listening to this record quite a bit lately has me thinking… is the sax playing inspiring me a little? The RPM Challenge is less than two weeks away and it’s coming up on time for me to start recording some new music. Do I suddenly find myself wanting to play the saxophone again? I haven’t taken my alto sax out of its case since I finished the 2020 RPM Challenge. Five years. Is it time to break it out again? I think it might be. I know I can still play even if I am only about 1% of the sax player I was when I was a music major from 1989-1991 and sax was my primary instrument in school. Guitar was a hobby I played on the side, even though I spent nearly infinitely more time playing guitar than sax… which contributed to me leaving school before I graduated.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, if throughout the month of February you start hearing about me writing songs in the key of E flat or B flat instead of E and A, and you start hearing me complain about severe pain in my lips and jaw (due to not having practiced at all in the last five years), then we can probably go ahead and blame Mel Collins and the late Ian McDonald. Just saying.

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today we adopted a pair of cats. We could only take one of them home with us though. The other had a couple of medical boxes to check off so she needed to stay at the shelter a few extra days.

The two cats were a mother and a kitten. The mother was about two years old and the kitten was 4-5 months old. The mother’s name was Disco and the kitten’s name was Boogie. We changed their names when we got them home. Disco became Robin. Boogie became Lily.

It was decided that their official adoptiversaries would be celebrated as the day they came home. That means today is Robin’s adoptiversary. Happy adoptiversary, Miss Robin Sparkles.

Disco at the shelter when we saw her for the first time…

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Robin hiding under the vanity in the bathroom shortly after she came home with us. She spent the first couple of days hiding. She had just been fixed so we figured she was a little extra traumatized by the whole experience.

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Trying to Stay Cool

You need to keep your cool, Robert. If you lose your shit every time the first felon does something insane and evil then you are going to spend every waking moment with your shit lost for at least the next four years. That’s not what one would call healthy.

Keep it together, red head. You can do it. You did it the last time. Sure, it’s going to be 100 times worse this time around, especially with the fascist in chief dealing not only with his own personal brand of evil, but with dementia stirring his tiny little pot… yeah, it’s going to be awful. You can do it though. You can hold it together. You can get through this.

There are people who rely on you for stuff. There are people who need you to not come unglued multiple times a day. Just keep your head. Don’t lose your shit.

Windshield Ice

I tried to take a pic of the traffic as I was sitting on the highway at a dead stop. What I got was a pic of a little chunk of ice on my windshield. Oh well.

143/365

I’m still counting it as my photo a day pic. Number 143 of 365, to be exact. I took a stop light theater as a backup but who cares, the usa is gone. What difference does it make?

Making Plans

Five days until the first full day of vacation. Six days until we fly to Florida. We’re starting to finalize our plans for our week at Disney World. There is an after hours thing at Hollywood Studios one night, and another at Magic Kingdom on a different night. The after hours things are fantastic. It feels like you have the entire park to yourself.

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New National Anthem

I had a moment today. I put the Bruins game on the radio just in time to hear the national anthem. Given the circumstances of the day it made me feel sick. I thought I was going to vomit. National anthem, my ass. What nation would that be? The fascist states of america? That nation? Fuck that. I don’t live in the US anymore (there is no US anymore), I live in Massachusetts.

So what should we use for a new Massachusetts national anthem? The obvious choice is probably “Must Have Got Lost” by the J Geils Band. That feels a little too obvious. If we wanted to go with an instrumental song I would suggest “Foreplay” by Boston. Again, probably not the best choice.

Assuming the other five New England States join in my little Massachusetts Independence crusade and we create the United States of New England, I would go with this one…

“New England” by Tanya Donelly. That would be pretty much perfect.