Category: Music

Morning Errands

Out running errands in the shitty weather on a Saturday morning. Let’s do it Hipstamatic style, what do you say?

252/365

Also, as a bonus… cats.

Jen gave the cats some medication today. Something to prevent… something… heart worms? I think. It was just a drop of stuff on their skin. Lily was annoyed but mostly okay with it. Robin was pissed. She was not happy. Sorry, cat.

In closing, music to run errands to…

Tired Afternoon

I stayed up too late last night and now I am tired. That’s how it works for all of us, but it seems to be a bigger issue for folks who are old like me. I am going to have a birthday in a couple of weeks and I’m going to be 54. Wait… really? How is that possible? I know in the grand scheme of things that 54 isn’t that bad, I mean it’s not 80 or anything, but damn… I was 27 a few days ago. Wasn’t I?

What was I writing about?

Oh yeah, I am tired. It seems somehow worse than that though as I didn’t have time to follow any news yesterday and today I got caught up on the collapse of civilization. So RFK wants to create a autism database or some shit? Hmmm… didn’t the nazis do that with mental illnesses? Yeah, something like that. No surprise that we’re resurrecting that particular evil, but there you go. That on top of prison time without due process and willfully collapsing the economy in order to scam a couple of bucks off the rubes. Yeah. Are we great again? Maybe I’ll open up a new Signal chat and ask about it.

Ugh. Here’s a cat:

If the cat didn’t temporarily straighten out your soul, maybe a song will help:

Friday at Last

Work has been good this week. No disasters, no scary moments. I did get a call from a customer (service programmers, like me, are not supposed to get calls directly from customers) but I was able to help the guy and it actually felt pretty good. Nope, this past week was a good week at work.

It was the rest of civilization that blew chunks. My wife and I agreed when we discussed it last night that this week has been the longest six months of our lives.

I need to do something creative this weekend. I NEED TO. Photography. Let’s go out and snap some pictures! Let’s play with the new long lens I bought a few months ago. Let’s play with the 120 film camera I bought a few months ago. Let’s go to the ocean and watch the sunrise and shoot all sorts of good stuff. Of course we should check the weather first… snow and rain today and tomorrow and rain on Sunday. Well you can just bite me, mother nature.

Music it is then! Guitar! I will play guitar this weekend if it kills me! I don’t know if we’re going to have a band practice or not. I’ll post something to our messenger thread later today (when it’s not pre-8:00am so that the other three guys don’t think I am weird and obsessed or anything) and see what’s up. If not then I need to find something else to do.

I do not want this weekend to be spent doom scrolling news sites and reading stories about the collapse of american democracy that will build up inside of me until I have a stroke. No. That would be bad, even if it is more or less inevitable. I must play guitar! I! Must! Play! Guitar!

Coming to the Close

The work day is almost over. About 10 minutes from now there will be another Monday in the books. Also, I will be 50% of the way through my 40% in the office mandate for this week. That’s nice. It’s also probably confusing if you don’t know what I am talking about but I do know what I am talking about so it is not confusing to me which is why I wrote this epic run on sentence about it.

Here is a picture of a cat that I took this morning before I left for work. She was confused and upset because I made the bed and messed up her hiding/napping spot/plans. Sorry, cat.

What else can I write about before the work day ends? A Red Sox win tonight and a Yankees loss will move the Red Sox into first place in the AL East. Yes it is only the 11th game of the season, but after the last few years of baseball futility combined with the Bruins suck fest of late, I will take a first place moment with a smile on my face. The Yankees and Tigers are playing right now. In the bottom of the eighth inning in Detroit, the Tiggers are up 6-2. Thanks, Detroit.

What else… I haven’t worked on anything musical since the RPM Challenge wrapped up at the end of February. I am a failure at musical life. Just saying.

Okay, I got distracted by something at work and now the 10 minutes have passed and it’s quitting time. Wish me luck on my evening commute home. Jen picked up something nice for dinner tonight. We have dinner together whenever humanly possible and I always love it. I love her, I can’t help it. The heart wants what the heart wants and my heart wants silly little domestic time with the woman of my dreams. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Civilization coming to a crashing, idiotic, tariffed end doesn’t change the way I feel.

I Will Do the Right Thing

As mentioned in a post last night, I have decided to do the right thing today. What’s with the cryptic shit, Rob? Oh nothing, never mind. I am going to eat some lunch and then put on a nice shirt and then drive south for an hour and a half.

The only question left is, do I start a new audiobook or do I listen to music, and if I listen to music what should I listen to? I have been listening to a lot of King’s X lately. I have a playlist that skips over the song or two from each record that I don’t like, including the occasional super christian lyric. Musically speaking, King’s X might be the best band that has ever existed. Lyrically… there are a lot of things that rub me the wrong way. Fortunately for me, I have always been a music first, lyrics a distant second kind of listener so I can deal with it.

I have also been listening to a lot of Genesis stuff lately. If I spend three hours in the car round trip, I could listen to Supper’s Ready like… eight times? Almost nine times?

I don’t know… maybe I’ll listen to the Red Sox game. They are playing a day/night doubleheader today after getting rained out yesterday.

You know what? I had a point I wanted to make when I started typing this masterpiece, but I can’t remember what it was. I know for sure that I haven’t touched the intended topic at all… what was I going to write about? I don’t know. Lunch is ready. I’m going to eat it and then go. Wish me luck.

April 1st

Oh shit… it’s April Fools Day. Never have I ever had less interest in playing along with this bullshit. The fascist states of america is already filled to bursting with fools and idiots and pure, unadulterated evil. Why anyone would think fake stories on the internet is entertaining during times like these… I just don’t get it.

Change of subject. The Red Sox are off today. We will be spared the slaughter and the constant strike outs. In five games thus far this season the team has struck out 123644258686134 times with about 86358629357 being Devers alone. Unfortunately, the Bruins are not off tonight. They will be annihilated by the Capitals. Times are tough in Boston sports-land these days. Why not? Times are tough everywhere.

Change of subject again. When was the original Star Trek given the Star Wars Special Edition treatment? After finally getting through Star Trek the Animated Series the other day, I decided to watch the original show all the way through. I’m through the two pilots and up to episode five now. I just watched Sulu take on the bridge with a sword while the Irish guy sings badly over the ship’s PA. I’m a little put off by most, if not all, of the exterior shots of the Enterprise being replaced by CGI. When did that happen? It doesn’t affect the episodes at all, but I still kinda don’t like it. I want my 1960’s models back. I want the pure form of the show back, even if it is less impressive and cheesy looking.

Change of subject again, again. Sticking with television, what is the deal with the month of April? We have the start of new seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, Andor, The Last of Us, and Doctor Who. We’ll also see the last two episodes of Yellowjackets this month. This feels like collusion. This feels like the television industry conspiring to keep me from sleeping for the foreseeable future.

Again with the change of subjects again, again. I did not participate in the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month thing. I wanted to. I was going to. I just didn’t. I’m thinking of maybe compensating for my failure by trying to do an April album in a month instead. Write and record 35 minutes worth of new music before the month ends. Will I be able to muster up the motivation? Probably not, but let’s give it a shot, eh?

Okay. Time to go and get ready for work. Welcome to April. Stay away from those damn April Fools jokes. It’s going to be a long and painful day on the ol’ internets. Good luck, everyone.

Are We On

Sundays are supposed to be band practice day. Are we on today or not?

As of yesterday, we are on but we don’t know when yet. Late afternoon? I hope so.

Change of subject, we’re going to Disney World again in June. In the interest of finding the silver lining, is it possible that with the nazis in washington trying to ass fuck all of our allies that enough countries will put travel warnings in place for citizens visiting the usa that we’ll have small crowds in the Disney parks? Bad for Disney, bad for america, bad for the economy…. good for our vacation? Look at me being all positive and shit.

Change of subject again, the Red Sox have now lost two in a row after winning their season opener. They play Texas again today. Opening the season with a four game series… yeah, I am ready to move on. As for the Bruins… they lost their fifth straight last night. They’ve lost eight of their last 10. Are they actively tanking? Sure feels like it. Suffice to say, it has not been a good stretch for Boston sports fans.

Yeah… I need a band practice to straighten my head out a little. Yeah.

Success, I Think

Go back in time two posts and look at the picture I shared of my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 amplifier with something that appears to be mold covering the imitation tweed. I don’t know where that came from. I don’t know why it’s on that amplifier but not on either of the other two Bassbreaker products I own (the Bassbreaker15 watt amp and the 1×12 extension speaker cabinet).

It’s gross.

I found a post on reddit that suggested using white vinegar to clean off whatever that mold looking shit is. I guess mold growing on tweed amps is a thing? I’ll share a screen shot of the post here:

I went grocery shopping today and picked up a bottle of white vinegar. I just finished sponging off the amp and it looks like it worked. I am mostly pleased with the results. The only negative I can see at this point (assuming whatever that shit was doesn’t just grow back immediately) is that now my amp smells like vinegar… and so does my cellar… and so do I. Oh well.

It looks good so far though.