So how have you been spending your election day? In lock down, I hope.
I rewatched The new Mandalorian episode and a few recent Archers and a South Park. I popped into work for an 11:00 meeting. I played quite a bit of electric guitar. I used my new bluesbreaker clone paired up with the Klon Centaur klone I bought back in May. With both pedals set to really low gain, they add up to a pretty freaking wonderful mid-gain tone. With the Klone gain off and the Blooze Maker set very high it’s… not as wonderful, but still pretty cool. I put guitars on two new November songs and three old re-recording songs. My fingers are screwy now so I’m taking a break in case I need to blow off stress steam later.
I’ve done a little doom scrolling on twitter. Not much. I’ve managed to stay away. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay away for long. The draw of rumor and speculation is strong. Very strong.
Well kids… it’s time. Four years have lead to this moment. Four years of evil and corruption and fascism and it all comes down to this. Today is the day we learn whether or not our elections are rigged. Again.
Here in Methuen, Massachusetts the polls are open. They will remain open until 8:00pm. That’s 12 hours from now.
We’re getting really close to election day. It’s 10:00 here in New England. I think the polls open at 7:00am. You might not hear from me again before then.
I’m stressing out like mad. I’ve got a bunch of songs that are ready for me to record guitar parts. I’m hoping to spend some time working on them tomorrow so that I can do something other than doom scroll the twitters while crying at the destruction of my country’s government.
The temptation to eat my fears is very high but I’m going to try to stick to the intermittent fasting. I need to be good. on top of all the election day stress, it’s also my weigh in day. Who is the add wizard who came up with this campaign?
I’m not freaking out yet. Okay, I am freaking out now, but only a little. Hang in there, America.
The Monday work day is almost over. I took tomorrow off because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to concentrate with the election stress. I will sneak in for a meeting in the morning, but otherwise I’m planning to lock myself in my bedroom with my guitar and just strum the open strings while I cry and try not to have a heart attack or twelve.
How many presidential elections have I voted in? I turned 18 in 1989 so I missed the ’88 election by six months.
1992 I voted for Clinton 1996 I voted for Clinton 2000 I voted for Gore 2004 I voted for Kerry 2008 I voted for Obama 2012 I voted for Obama 2016 I voted for the other Clinton 2020 I voted for Biden
This is my eighth presidential election. They were all vitally important. 2016 seemed more important than the others as we had to deal with a fascist across the aisle.
2020 though… 2020 is the first time I have literally felt that the fate of the future of the nation I’ve lived in and loved for 49 years hangs in the balance. 2016 felt like a make or break. 2020 feels like a life or horrible, agonizing, miserable death.
One more day of worry and uncertainty. One more day of stress and confusion. Tomorrow is a day of action. At least for those who haven’t exercised their right to vote yet.
After that it’s a waiting game. We wait to see if our country is still the country I was raised in, or if it is beyond repair and no longer worth saving.
The lines are clear. One candidate represents democracy by encouraging Americans to vote. The other candidate represents fascism by going out of his way to intimidate the other candidate and stop Americans from voting. In this choice, there is no choice.
Let’s put an end to this idiocy. Vote for Joe Biden.
November is National Solo Album Month, or NaSoAlMo for the cool kids in the know. Every year I talk endlessly about this little writing/recording challenge and almost every year I lose interest after a few days. Will this year be different? Probably, given that I’ve effectively done a NaSoAlMo qualifying project in each of the last nine months. But who’s counting.
I finished Quarantine Tunes Volume 2 yesterday, though I still haven’t decided on a final running order for the playlist. I had planned to spend November working on new stuff but what did I do? I started working on a few more songs that are pegged for Quarantine Tunes Volume 3. I also kicked off two new songs, so it’s going to be one of those months, I think.
Volume 1 had eight songs. They were all going to have eight songs. Then volume 2 had nine. Oh well. If I stick to the current schedule, volume 3 will have 10 because you basically can’t count on me for anything.
Granted all of this could go down the toilet based on whatever happens on Tuesday. If we lose and continue to embrace evil as a nation, I might be too busy finding a new country for musical masturbation. Hopefully things will go the way of justice and light on Tuesday and I won’t have to worry about that. Fingers crossed.
Now that the October Music is complete, I can get back to The Great 2015 ReRecording Project with this little ditty from all the way back in February.
Allow me to add this little note from the alonetone page:
Lyrically it’s fitting to upload this today as we are one week away from the 2020 presidential election where we will do our best to rid the Federal Government of the fascists and their collaborators. This song is about a particular nazi prick. I won’t name names but it’s Bill Barr.
So the Senate contributed to the end of our democracy yesterday through sheer political hypocrisy. Seven days until we vote a bunch of them out.
Seven days until we remove the fascist from the white house. One week to go.
Seven days until I stop getting avalanched with spam email from Democratic candidate campaigns, all asking me for money. I’ve had 27 of them today, not counting the ones that actually went straight to my spam folder. A month ago I decided I wouldn’t mark any of these as spam until after the election. I’ve held to that out of some misguided superstition… but I really, really wish I hadn’t made that decision. Give me a break!
MethuenLive Magazine posted on Facebook today that the city has 35,465 registered voters. So far 1,496 people have taken advantage of early voting. On top of that, 4,649 mail in ballots have already been received.
Early voting is still open for another 10 days, and who knows how many more absentees will arrive.
It’s October 20th and 17.2% of the city’s registered voters have already voted.
Keep up the good work, Methuen. Let’s send the fascists packing.
In the spirit of receiving our absentee ballots in the mail earlier today, Jen and I were wondering whether or not there is a way to track your ballot’s status after you send it in. Like… a UPS tracking number for the election.
There is. Well, for citizens of Massachusetts there is. For the rest of ya, I don’t know.
I ran the search for myself. My General Election ballot was mailed to me on 10/6 and it has not yet been returned. I knew that already since it’s sitting on the table next to me, but it was nice to know that the city knows too. It also said my September Primary ballot was received and is in Accepted status, meaning it was submitted for counting. Kick ass.
Methuen Life Magazine had a post on their bookfayce page two days ago that reported the absentee ballots were ready to be picked up by the post office. Allow me to quote:
10,000 BALLOTS HEADED TO POST OFFICE, THEN TO RESIDENTS: At 4:45 tonight, piles and piles and PILES of mail-in/absentee ballots (each requested by a registered voter) were outside City Hall waiting for the mailman to arrive for pickup. Standing guard are (from left) City Clerk Jack Wilson, Mike Rubino of the Clerk’s Office and Julian Almanzar of the DPW who is lending his services at the super-busy Clerk’s Office. “In years past, we’ve had 300 or 400 absentee ballots (for an election). This year will be closer to the 15,000 range,” Wilson told MethuenLife. The Clerk’s Office just received the ballots from the state yesterday. You can return your ballot to the secure ballot box located outside of City Hall’s lower entrance or drop it in the mail. YOU CAN STILL APPLY FOR A MAIL-IN BALLOT: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/…/early-voting-by-mail.htm YOU CAN REGISTER TO VOTE by visiting www.sec.state.ma.us/OVR by Oct. 24.(ML photo by Melissa Fili)
That’s a lot of ballots. One of them is mine and another one is my wife’s. We’re coming for you, fascists.
Inside the Red Head's Head 