Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1424
Emilia Perez, Walmart Run, impending wekeend chores, Jane's report card, illness, work stress, NIN ticket prices,
Hello! Morning! Sorry I’m running late! Walmart run! Got there at 7:50 and they were playing Junior Senior, their big hit “Move Your Feet” or whatever it’s called, Jussi would know. Then right after that the announcer said “being lactose intolerant isn’t gonna stop me from eating ice cream and cheese! But someone should stop me. Please. Someone stop me. You’re listening to the Chris show.” I think it’s “Chris” show. Honestly it sounds like “christ,” soft T, but that would be weird, wouldn’t it?
Attention Facebook readers: GMHHAY is leaving Facebook, migrating to Slack. This will be over a few months, and we’ll be completely off by March. I love you all. Please come join us in Slack. The invite link is in the comments below. If you’re an email reader, reply to this email and I’ll get you the link.
(We’re gonna make a Civ channel it’s gonna be so awesome, seven more days till pre-release).
Anyway then he went into “Friday I’m in Love by the Cure,” and I thought “that will be an excellent sign off” except then right at 8 AM another song came on, some modern pop song I did not recognize, for two minutes, then the radio went silent at 8:02 AM. So, you know, probably a manual de-activation for reduced-stimulation hour.
What else is there to report from Walmart: sale on Zevia. Sorry. “Price rollback” Walmart does not do sales. $6.87 for 8 cans, which is a lot better than the seven fitty for six cans they charge at the other local groceries. God, that stuff used to cost like half as much. Zevia is bankrupting our family somebody help me.
Gardening stuff is out, which is nice. I bought a bunch of organic seed starter, some seeds, they got a good organic section. Guess I will do seed starts this weekend. Time to really spend some time in the greenhouse again. Which is fun but will take me away from attic renovations, which is sad. But I also gotta make two giant billboards for the RV and Boat Storage facility this weekend, so I figure it’s kinda a lost cause this coming weekend anyway. And a lost cause next weekend because of Alaska. Sad. This will never get done.
Also hit up the collection center to drop off last weekend’s construction trash, which has been in my truck bed all week (don’t worry I have a tonneau cover). I just realized the construction waste dumpster has an open back and you can walk right in and man, my ruptured bicep is so thankful I don’t have to lift those giant tubtrugs over my head.
TUBTRUGS. God I love tubtrugs.
We had some email sending/receiving issues yesterday. Sending out of the edition severely delayed, then a bunch of people found it in their “promotions” gmail inbox. Buttondown problem? I don’t know. I am still mostly happy with Buttondown, though. I like a small team, I like people not bribing Trump or supporting Nazis. It is a good little company as far as I can tell. Anyway, if you’re not getting this, check your promotions inbox. Helpful, I know.
But it did make the Slack group extra useful yesterday.
And guys, I think we did it? I mean, it’s still not quite up to the robustness of the Facebook comments section, but it is a real little community of people, and it’s not on Facebook! It is going far better than I thought it would, given that we are all beholden to Zuck - who just bribed Trump with twenty five million dollars this week, this is not hyperbole my god, just insane. Am I still on Facebook? Yes. I will keep my communities. But I am on there way less, and I am not adding to it. This is luck, this is circumstance, many people cannot do this, I know. But god, I’m happy I could help people lessen their use.
One day, one day.
Not feeling great, no fever no covid but feeling really run down. Not strep, which I feared since Jane has it. Just constantly tired and achey, sleeping 8-9 hours, then napping for 1-2 more. Took two naps yesterday. Do I have Norovirus? How can you tell?
Maybe I am just old.
Got my Nine Inch Nails tickets, they were $500 for shitty seats. I feel ambivalent about this. I want to see them again, I never would have seen this coming when I was buying that Down In It 12” at Musicland in the Bentley Mall in Fairbanks in 1989 or when I sat outside Axis because I was too young to get into the Pretty Hate Machine tour so I just listened from outside. That he would become an August Statesman. That his career would go this long. I suspected it would go the way of Skinny Puppy or Ministry. And those careers are fine! And the tickets are a lot cheaper, and the venues smaller, I saw Ogre at Cat’s Cradle for crying out loud. But I am glad one of the OG (well, second wave if we are being pedantic) industrial bands achieved mainstream superstardom and is playing arenas in 2025.
But also… five hundred dollars. Jesus Mary and Joseph. Bro, I know you have five kids to feed, but come on.
Were I superstar I would either: a) not charge a lot, a la The Cure, or b) make it very clear 90% or more of the cash was going to the crew and everyone who really needed it and I was capping my personal income at, I dunno, a mil tops. God, I would pay $500 for a show in a heartbeat if I knew it was going to the session musicians and crew.
And all of it too. Taylor gave her crew, I think it was reported, $100k each. Nice! There were, let’s say, 500 of them? That is not small money. Fifty Million!
Buuuuuut off of… five hundred mil to a billion?
Quoth my wife: “Well she has to make sure they’re not so rich they won’t keep working for her.”
Shoutout to reader and Slack member Schuyler (who has his own great newsletter) for his clearly correct answer regarding radon and the Shire:
It is plain that the Light of the Valar kept radon in check, probably by subtly adjusting the relationship between the strong nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. When Aman was finally sundered from Middle Earth completely following the end of the Third Age (and not just hidden, as it had been previously) the relative strengths of the fundamental physical forces assumed their current proportions, leading to a hazardous increase in the decay products of uranium-238, and notably in this case radon-222
And yesterday I learned that — at the exact time of that Casiotone show I wrote about yesterday — my friend Alita (with whom I was only casual internet friends with at the time) lived with Owen! That’s crazy!
We are listening to a bunch of random new singles today. Currently “When We Were In Bloom” by The Jimmy Dixon Group. Know nothing about him/them but it is a great little wispy pop tune a la “There She Goes” or something. Really nice.
Actually that reminds me. Time for my annual check to see if “Hyacinth Girl” is on Spotify yet.
[pause]
Alas, no. A cover of it by someone called “Betty and the Werewolves’ though. Actually a few covers. Will check em out.
Watched (most of) Emilia Perez last night and I liked it what a bonkers movie I am glad we live in a world where 70+ year-old Frenchmen are making bonkers films about trans ganglords and geopolitical issues about which they know nothing. The cinemetography, the sound mix, the editing, the… whole presentation like nothing I’ve ever seen. I recognize its problematicness (how is that not a word and people tell me the woke left rule the world clearly they don’t if they haven’t coined “problematicness” yet), and I will internalize that since I, too, know nothing about Mexican politics or the “real” way trans people act. That one is weird to me though because I thought they were just people and people are people, etc., and Caitlyn Jenner has showed me they can be kinda awful but of course who wants someone awful to represent you on screen. And yes… only one trans person but… it seems like the whole point? That they are alone and isolated? Which seems a kinda common problem? But yes. I am fine saying its problematic and recognizing it as such. But god, it’s also a work.
(Also the actor who played Emilia has said some kinda problematic shit).
(Also I thought a lot about “actor” vs “actress” right there because the actor is a woman but also aren’t we trying to deprecate “actress” these days? Newspeak is so hard! But despite setbacks, I persist.
I am overwhelmed with work today, sorta stressed about it.
We got Jane’s report card, the teacher said she is “getting better” at context switching and temper, but what I am hearing here is that it’s not just us, she is also cranky at school sometimes so, you know, that makes me, personally, since it’s all about me, feel better.
It also weirdly told us to have her speak in complete sentences and I’m not sure what’s up with that since she pretty much always does? I asked her about in the car this morning and she had no idea either. Except she did that thing where she thinks out loud and starts her sentence and then stops it four or five times as she forms her thought? Which takes patience on the listners’ part, but a) is very fascinating cuz you can see her think and b) she eventually ends in a full sentence? Is the teacher trying to get her to think before talking? Which.. yes, she should have that skill but I also kinda like watching her think.
Takes a looooot of patience, though, and I find most adults who are not Emma and I cannot wait for her to work through it all.
This morning she very seriously tasked me with babysitting her Cabbage Patch Doll while she as at school today. I tucked him in for a nice nap. She also almost threw a fit about her Amoxacillin (do we capitalize generic drugs?) but she caught herself and stopped and took it I am very proud of her.
I may have already posted that photo. If so, forgive me.
Moody and quiet playlist today, going a little past an hour because of the Ethel Cain song, god, that album. Anyway, seems a good closer but its long so I wanted to give you your (zero) money’s worth even without it. “Me & Magdelena” came on a few days ago and man, what a great song. Someone (Kellianne?) told me Ben Gibbard wrote it? Bonkers. Listened to “The Argument” by Fugazi for the first time since the one listen I gave it when it came out and it is not a Fugazi album but… it is a pretty great record?
Okay you have a lovely weekend. I am going to do my best to have a lovely weekend. In the immortal words of the best ten-piece rock band Austin Texas ever produced: “Don’t Ever Let Those Bastards Win.”
(OMG they’re on Spotify now how exciting)
—
Thanks for reading.
And hey! Maybe buy one of my books!
Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.