Trump Fans

I never had any interest in using any of the wordpress.com themes that don’t show the full text on the main page. I thought they were stupid. Un-Bloggerish, if you will. Then I used one for Lizardfish because the background image looked awesome. Now I’m softening. I put this theme on last week and so far I haven’t started hating it yet.

It has changed something for me though. Now I want every post to have an image. There’s a function called a featured image, which is used here, but I have to add the image to my wordpress.com storage. That’s going to get old quick.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to write about themes…

I saw something on Facebook today that made me laugh. Someone shared a canned search that finds all of your Facebook friends who are fans of Donald Trump’s official Facebook page. It’s a nice way to blanket stereotype people as Trump-esque neo-fascists. In much the same way as the Donald, in the most blatantly un-American move I’ve personally ever seen a candidate make, has blanket stereotyped all Muslims as terrorists. Gee… my buddy’s five year old son doesn’t seem like a terrorist, but if the Donald says so it must be true!

The search returned three people. One of them is already muted due to insufferably offensive conservatism. The other two have given me no reason to take action as of yet. It’s possible that they liked the page before the campaign. I mean maybe they are just fans of his old TV show. Note: That is an example of not painting all people who have a thing in common with the same stereotypical brush. That’s how it works. Get it? I so disapprove of fascists, but reading a fascists Facebook page does not make you a fascist.

So what’s the relevance of the featured image at the top of the page? It’s a picture of Trump Tower in New York. At least I think it is, it’s an old picture.

Seven Years Ago Tonight

What were we doing seven years ago tonight?

We were having our faces rocked off.

Letters to Cleo reunited to play The Paradise. It was epic.

Oh yeah, we also saw them seven years ago tomorrow. Epic times two.

Really Old Gig Picture

1999. Prime Meridian. I don’t remember where we were playing, but it was the second of the two shows we did in our three years.

This image is blown up as much as this template will let it (I think). Really, really small. I’m trying to figure out what the pedals at my feet were.

The silver guy on the left is the three way switch for my old Fender Amp. Clean/Rhythm, Reverb, and Boost… I think. The white thing to it’s right is my old (now deceased) Boss tuner. The next one over is the little yellow guy. That would be Larry’s Ibanez swell flanger. Is it a good flanger? Sure, it’s swell! Sorry, old joke.

I can’t really make out if there are two more pedals or three more. If it’s two then the next one to the right is my old Washburn analog delay. I still have that, but I haven’t used it in decades. Last would be my Cry Baby Wah-Wah, the single greatest pedal ever created by human (or divine) hands. If there are three black colored pedals then… I haven’t a clue.

The band from left to right, Mike the Bass player (also currently in Lizardfish), Maria the drummer, Tracey the singer, and Rob the tubby assed red head.

Rock and Roll.

ADDENDUM: I remember what the other pedal was! It was my old (now deceased) DOD Octoplus! My octave divider that let me sound like Ritchie Blackmore on those incredibly rare occasions when he actually used his. That was driving me crazy.

Winter Classic

The Bruins are in the Winter Classic this year. New Years Day against the Canadiens at Gillette Stadium. I’ve still never been to Gillette. New Years Day runs the risk of brutally cold weather, and that’s the main reason I didn’t look at tickets when they first became available.

Today though, I just looked at stubhub. The cheapest tickets they have are running about $220 each. The seats themselves though… I think they are closer to Rhode Island than to the actual ice.

Still… no, I can’t… but still….

Relative

It’s been a royal pain in the ass of a day, but it hasn’t been a crashed into the left lane barrier on route 128 level pain.

I guess everything is relative.

Still With Us

There used to be a little Italian restaurant on route 28 in Salem, NH that I liked going to. It wasn’t anything special, really, but everyone in the family liked it so it was a nice go-to for us. It was called Polcari’s and it closed.

Yesterday I was driving to work and Waze took me all over the friggin’ state. The route was ridiculous. It avoided all of route 128 (95 to you foreigners) via Oklahoma and Mars.

Just off of the Montvalle (sp?) ave exit on route 93, I saw this:

I didn’t know Polcari’s was a chain (call me clueless? Like I care) so I had no idea that there was another one. It’s close too! This weekend is a kid weekend for us. Think there’s a chance everyone will want to go?

My Future

I took this Saturday night while trying to drive on route 28 in Salem, NH. It shows a small section of the mile+ traffic jam that started at about the MA/NH border.

I share this now out of fear. You see, I have to drive into Salem, NH tonight. The closer you get to Christmas, the worse 28 in Salem gets.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.

The Professor Calls it Quits

In 2009 English prog rock/jazz drummer Bill Bruford was about to have his 60th birthday and he did something unexpected. He retired.

Neil Peart, a well known Bill Bruford fan, was probably sitting at home reading the news and thinking: Life goal. Retire at 60. I don’t know whether or not that actually happened, but I’ve always imagined that’s how it went down.

That was six years ago. Neil Peart is now 63. It’s about three years late, but it’s finally happened. The Professor has announced his retirement.

I’m happy for him without actually being happy, if you know what I mean. It pleases me very much that we got to see Rush on the R40 tour as it now pretty much looks like Rush is done for good.

I am sad. Very sad. But also pretty happy that I got as much great music and as many great shows as I did.

Thanks, Professor.

Protected: Recitals

Nevins Library

Every town should have something it can brag about. Something that is better there than in all the neighboring towns.

For Methuen, that thing is the Nevins Library. I can say with all honesty that my town’s library is better than yours. (huge city libraries are excluded from that statement)