Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1465
RIP to Dave Hillard, Tom Bedacarré and Michael Hurley. Hands Off protest in Boston, Overnight drive home. One last Man Ray visit.
Good morning, good morning. Happy monday, day five of our glorious new “trade is bad” world. It is 66 and rainy here in Chatham County, NC. Jane has no school today, so we went to the car wash and McDonald’s this morning. Yes, we washed the car truck in the rain: it was covered in pollen and Jane was looking forward to it, so who am I to disappoint her. She is pooping right now, playing her little game machine. I just checked my morning email. Lotta spam. Nick Cave whiffing another question this morning by tone policing rather than addressing the actual meat of the question. Red Right Hand files are fascinating: a real unique foray for a celebrity to do it, but also shows why celebrities don’t do it. You probably don’t really want to get to know them.
Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!
Some assorted life change housekeeping items:
RIP to Dave Hillard, fellow native Fairbanksan, four years younger than me. I am friend with his sister Carrie, who was one of my life-saving best friends in high school. My sister was always very close to Dave. He was a good soul, artistic, moody passionate, and drop dead gorgeous. My heart goes out to Carrie, and her older sister Liz.
RIP to Tom Bedacarré, whom I did not know personally, but met several times and he always seemed a great guy. Tom was the founder of AKQA, and one of my professional role models. I always looked up to him and his work at AKQA was one of my guiding lights at Barbarian Group.
RIP to Michael Hurley, one of the great American folk singers. Eighty-three years old, with cancer, Michael was a trooper to the end. Dude played Big Ears festival last week. Amazing. A true force in American music.
Congratulations to my good friend Nick who just hit 100,000 subscribers on Youtube for his ambient music which I suspect legit makes him one of the currently most successful ambient musicians in the United States, lol. Nick, Brian Eno has 108k Youtube subscribers, so, you know, you have your next target. Take him out.
No other newsletter’s gonna cover both Tom Bedacarré and Michael Hurley, but I hope they are sharing a beer in Valhalla.
We are back in North Carolina, oh wait I said that already. We drove back overnight Saturday night. Left boston 5 PM Saturday, got home 5PM Sunday, almost exactly twelve hours. I drove the last eight of it. It was intense! Emma and Jane went to sleep and I put on my headphones and I rocked out for eight hours straight. I swear I can go forever if I am listening to awesome music. Emma got us through New York and the shitty weather, which is always more exhausting. I did Baltimore and DC and there was a little bit of traffic on the BW Parkway, and a single asshole on the beltway, but both were basically empty. The shitty part of I-95 south of DC was empty. I didn’t even notice passing through Richmond. And by the time I got to I-85 heading to Durham, I would go miles without seeing a car. I got to use my high beams. I love using high beams.
Prior to that, on Saturday, we went to the Hands Off! protest in Boston. We had considered doing DC but we had so many friends going to the Boston one and we weren’t yet ready to leave town, so Boston it was, and I am glad we did. Just an absolutely massive turnout. I mean, I haven’t been to a protest in Boston since, gosh, I don’t know, Iraq War or something and this was a lot bigger than that? But admittedly, I don’t have much of a frame of reference. Senator Ed Markey spoke, and my local friends told me he was all right, so I re-iterate my regret at pooh-poohing him in my recent litany of milquetoast senators. We may use big words here at GMHHAY, but we are not above admitting our mistakes. US Senator from the great state of Massachusetts Ed Markey? He is all right. GMHHAY approved. Couldn’t hear who else was speaking, it was just too huge. It would be awesome if there was some sort of wiki for all the people who spoke at the assorted Hands Off! protests around the country. I would be very curious which Democratic US Senators bothered and did not bother.
I was thinking, while at the protest, has the right, ever, in the history of the United States, successfully done a protest larger than, say, a single Trump Rally or the Nazi Rally at MSG in 1939 2023? Like did the Tea Party ever successfully do a multi-city protest at scale? Has the right every mustered a million people for anything? Do they even exist?
One amazing thing about the GMHHAY slack is people were posting photos from protests around the country. Really does seem like it was quite the turnout. My sister (and others) sent me photos of the Fairbanks protest and that looked bigger than anything I saw in my 20+ years of living there. The Portland, OR one looked absolutely insane.
It felt good. Protesting rules. You just show up. Stand there, be counted. Maybe do a few chants. It is so lazy but also so effective and one of the most important things you can do as a citizen.
At first, Jane did not want to go, but we explained to her that she would get to take a train there, and there were fun chants, and then she was all on. Absolutely loved the call-and-response chats. Very heartwarming.
Friday evening I did rally and go to Highland Kitchen and Man Ray, with Sean and Abby and Erin and Richard and Adam and it was all pretty great but I was so tired. Hard to be at Man Ray when you’re tired, but I didn’t want to pass up one of my last opportunities for the next few months. Place really is a gem.
But between that and the seeing 6-7 friends at the protest, I felt like I did, in the end, get some decent socializing in in Boston, and I was not a hermit.
It is good to be home, though. I am excited for large computer monitors and comfy desk chairs and stores that fit my shoulders in the aisles and floors that do not creak when you walk on them. Not super excited about the pollen.
Gonna keep this shortish today, I gotta work and I am running late cuz Jane is not in school and she let me sleep till 7:30 which was awesome I got more than nine hours of sleep, which I desperately needed because I had only slept 4 hours since the all-night drive. Really staggered blind and exhausted through Sunday. Jane is now sitting next to me playing Cities Skylines on one of my spare laptops and she is having a gay old time.
Got a club mix for you today. I don’t remember half of these songs, been working on this one for three months.
All right, well, I gotta get to work. Will be back tomorrow ranting about tariffs and tanking markets and pillows and European against Apple’s ATT and whatnot. Have an okay-ish monday.
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Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.