Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

We Suck

Have you ever noticed how sports fans refer to their favorite teams differently depending on how well the team is playing? When the team is good they say things like, “we’re good” or “we won” but when the team is utter shit garbage it’s more like, “they lost” or “they suck donkey balls” or things like that?

I find that to be an incorrect language policy. In that spirit allow me to say this about the Boston Bruins, my favorite hockey team: We fucking suck. We dropped out of a playoff spot this week and now after getting trounced by New Jersey last night we have dropped even further out.

Given the state of the world right now I really could have used a long and decisive Bruins winning streak. Nope. Not this year.

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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