Late

I had a million things to do before work this morning, then a million things to do during work, then a million things to do after work… so obviously I was going to oversleep, right?

Frustrated sigh.

Oh well. The big question for Friday mornings these days is do I watch the new episode of Severance while I do my morning exercise, or do I watch the new episode of Yellowjackets. Today I went with Yellowjackets. No spoilers for season three episode five, but if there is one thing that show needs (a lot) more of, it is PJ Harvey music. I started watching Severance (season two episode eight, I think) but I haven’t the faintest clue what’s going on. I’ll finish it before I sleep tonight. Promise.

We had a contractor at the house yesterday. We have another one coming this morning, any minute now, and we have another one coming this afternoon. Things are getting weird around here.

What else was I going to mention this morning? Oh yeah, I woke up at about 4:00am this morning. I think it was the wind that woke me. It was blowing around like a hurricane out there. It was bad enough that it knocked over the bird feeder. I have to fix it, but the ground is still frozen so it might have to wait a little while. It’s March so the thaw out is coming, but it’s not coming soon enough for me.

Today is also the NHL trade deadline. I expect it’s going to be a sad day for Boston Bruins fans as we’re far enough out of the playoff picture that we will be sellers. Here’s hoping for a lot of high draft picks while also hoping that none of my favorite Bruins get dealt away. Fingers crossed.

Apple Music just let me know that there’s a new Bob Mould album released today. I’ll give that a listen while stressing about everything under the sun. Sounds good to me.

The first contractor has arrived. I’d best let him in…………

Frustrating

It’s after 9:00pm. I am toast. I’m sitting up in bed typing this on my laptop. When I am done I am going to watch a little TV (I’m doing a The Mandalorian rewatch right now and I am up to the episodes from The Book of Boba Fett, aka The Mandalorian season 2.5) and have a snack and then turn in for the night,

Today was a super frustrating day. Tomorrow is going to be a super frustrating day as well. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday look about the same. Tuesday does too, but there is a tiny little light on the horizon Tuesday. We’ll see.

Hang in there, folks. You can go through a frustrating stretch of time, but statistically speaking it should even out. Like the drummer in Spinal Tap said, “the law of averages says you will survive.”

Thanks, Woz

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, had some wonderful things to say about a couple of dirty, disgusting, fascists. Allow me to quote an article from Huffpost, written by Marco Margaritoff…..

While Steve Wozniak has long criticized the personality flaws of his late friend and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, he has far more damning things to say about fellow tech mogul Elon Musk.

The 74-year-old entrepreneur shared his thoughts with CNBC on Tuesday at a tech conference in Spain.

“I don’t know what got into his head,” said Wozniak, referring to the Tesla CEO. “Sometimes you get so rich at these big companies, and you’re on top. It goes to your head, and you’re the most incredible person in the world and the brightest, and you’re gonna dictate what others will do.”

As a “special government employee” heading Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has been dismantling federal agencies with the purported aim of slashing wasteful public spending.

This has led to thousands of federal workers being fired and legal pushback in the courts.

“Bullying is the best way to think of it,” Wozniak told CNBC. “If you’re in school, the bully’s gonna force their way on the little guy. I don’t know, I’ve always favored the little guy over the big guy — and I’ve always favored the consumer of a good over the producer.”

Wozniak had even harsher words for Trump, however.

“There are types of people that you associate with in your life that are good, pleasant, friendly and care about others, care about animals, even,” he told the outlet. “And Trump is not one of them. He’s a disgusting person and has always been and always will be.”

After the Supreme Court thwarted Trump and Musk’s efforts to freeze some $2 billion in foreign aid, Musk urged Republican senators on Capitol Hill to help him find another way to rescind that funding.

Democratic lawmakers resoundingly booed Musk Tuesday evening when Trump thanked him during his address to Congress.

Meanwhile, Wozniak also accused Musk of ruining his electric Tesla vehicles with steadily worsening designs. Wozniak, who invented the Apple I and Apple II computers, owns several Teslas himself.

“Every step up where they changed things in the car, it got worse and worse and worse, and now it is just miserable for user interface,” Wozniak told CNBC. “Coming from Apple, user interface, the way you deal with technology, is the most important thing in the world.”

He concluded, “And Tesla is the worst in the world at that.”

Thanks, Woz. You are the man. Now and forever, you are The Man.

Hidden

We had a contractor in the house today. The cats did what they always do when there are new people around… they hid. Lily has been hiding in a closet all day. Robin came into the office with me and hung out rather than finding an actual hiding place. I guess she thought that I would protect her. I would have, if need be. Of course I would have.

Thursday Morning

It's only 10am and I'm already thinking today is going to be one of those days where I just start screaming and then can't stop no matter how hard I try.Happy effin' Thursday.

— Rob (@robj1971.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T15:04:47.989Z

Yup… that’s where my brain lives right now. Here’s a cat pic to try and calm us all down………

187/365

Hip Hip Hooray, folks. Yippee Skippee.

Kitchen Anxiety

Our huge kitchen remodel project completed one year and one day ago.

We’ve had three, count ’em three, problems with the new kitchen in the last couple of weeks. Two in the last two days. Today’s involves an appliance.

Are you fucking kidding me? One year? I’ve heard of planned obsolescence and shit, but one year?

Got ‘Em

I was really hoping for this… 90’s alternative rock nerd boy just scored two tickets to see Belly in October. Now I just need Throwing Muses to announce North American shows and my 2025 musical life will be complete. I want to see both halves of Throwing Muses this year.

I did not see Belly when they were together in the 90’s and I did not see them when they got back together a few years ago and I did not see them when they played in my freakin’ back yard (Lowell, MA) last year. This will correct this gross oversite on my musical obsession bingo card. I saw Tanya Donelly shortly after Belly split, and once more years later with Jen, and once with Throwing Muses back in 1989, but I’ve never seen Belly.

I’m trying to remember all of the Muses related shows I’ve seen…

  • Opening for REM at Great Woods in ’89
  • At the Hatch Shell in Boston (a free show) in… ’95? I think. It was before Limbo came out
  • At an in-store mini set at Newbury Comics in Harvard Square on the day Limbo came out in ’96
  • At the Middle East on the day that Limbo came out in ’96 (yes, I saw them twice on the same day)
  • Tanya at The Paradise… either just before or just after her first solo LP came out
  • Kristin Hersh at The Paradise playing solo acoustic around the time Strange Angels came out… I think.
  • Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave at The Middle East on August 11, 2006
  • Kristin Hersh at Hy N Dry Studio on May 27, 2007 with Jen
  • Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly (separately and briefly together) on October 6, 2007 at The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, MA

Damn… that list is a whole lot shorter than I thought it would be. I’m pretty sure that’s it though. Hopefully this year we’ll be adding two more shows to it. Hopefully… if Throwing Muses would just announce a nice Boston show to go along with their already announced European shows.

Happy concert tickets day, everyone.

Distract Myself

Work is crazy, the united (fascist) states of america is collapsing…

I need a music project to distract myself from everything. I think I am going to do the Record Every Month thing again. That’s the year ’round RPM Challenge spin off where you just write and record one song each month. I usually bump that up to two songs each month. That way I can pretend I’m releasing a single like it’s 1964 or something.

I just want to have an excuse to not think about reality for a few minutes at a time. Living in the (nazi) united states of america these days really blows. I just want to pretend it’s not happening, if you know what I mean. Living in Massachusetts is still okay if we just ignore the federal government.

So yeah… a year long music project. I’m in.