Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1504
Weekend chores, questions about Taylor's big purchase, an inventory of Swans records, re-watching the Martian, that tunnel under Harvard, this swell bush.
Good morning, hello! Hi! How are you? I am good. It is Monday and I do not feel terrible, that is nice. Of course, this might change. I just took my Ozempic. And, well, it’s Monday. I did not sleep well, had weird dreams. But so far? I feel okay. Small wonders, small wonders.
Update on one of the ongoing sagas: I got my water bill for Chore House and it was $20 more so, yes, that leak cost me money but luckily it seems to have only been going for a little while and did not cost me too much money. Whew. Thank you for your hose suggestions, too. I did not get to it this week because I am trying to find the Wirecutter-recommended hose not at Home Depot but it is not really working. Dilemma.
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We are listening to the new Swans album, Birthing, this morning. My vinyl copy did not arrive on time for release day on Friday. But it arrived Saturday, so that is pretty close. Sub Pop is good about this, by the way. The Alan Sparhawk/Trampled by Turtles album arrived on time. The Flenser is even better: the new Planning for Burial arrived like four days early. I am on track one of this Swans album, hasn’t really gotten started yet, so I cannot comment on it, beyond the advance (20-minute) “single,” which was fantastic. It is, apparently, their last album. Which is… kind of a relief? I no longer have to collect every Swans album on vinyl. I think I bought my first one, Holy Money in… 1989? 90? Right around the end of high school, beginning of college because I remember I made my friend Lili a mix tape with “Holy Money” on it, and she was not impressed.
Discogs tells me I am missing a few, mostly live albums: Feel Good Now, Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room, Omniscience. Discogs is telling me I do not have White Light from the Mouth of Infinity but I know that’s not true, I have it somewhere will need to fix that. I do not have the ‘95 live album Kill the Child, because it hasn’t been released on vinyl, which is a shame. Ditto 1998’s live album Swans are Dead. I also skipped 2015’s The Gate, 2017’d Deliquescence, and 2019’s What is This? Same reason, not on LP. Man, the Swans have a lot of live albums. Er, sorry. Swans not the Swans. I have had that problem for 30 years.
Excellent weekend of chores, really A+, no complaints. I got the Turtle Dock camera set up, that is very exciting. No turtle has actually climbed onto the thing and set off the motion detector yet, but, you know, I am a patient man. Give it time. There is a bit of a challenge since the dock is floating, so it could, theoretically, float out of the motion activation range. And the range needs to be tight because raindrops on the pond triggers the motion. But Emma anchored that thing down triangularly so hopefully it does not drift too much.
Made a dent on the pile of stuff sitting in our dining room that I obtained when I cleaned out my mother’s house. Took the china to Chore House, where it will now get used, thank you to those who made this what-should-have-been-obvious suggestion. I got out three boxes, and began sorting all the stuff: one box that goes to Chore House, one that goes into my library with its shelf full of memories, and one box that’s useful stuff that I want to use or put somewhere in the house where it will get used. I have a long way to go. The dining room table is still covered. It looks like I didn’t even make a dent. This chore is hard because, well, it’s mostly thinking. Do I want to keep this? Where should it go? Existential debate about whether it’s worth keeping a thing if it just goes in a closet. I stared at my childhood ice cream scoop for, like, ten minutes. Just stood there staring at it. Eventually I put it in a kitchen drawer in Chore House.
Oh and small update on the DIY air filter. I am painting it black. I was gonna just finish the plywood and make it Scandanavian-looking, but the printing on the back-side of the plywood could be seen on the tabs sticking out. So it would have looked weird. So black it is. It is now painted. I should have just wrapped it up and finished it, but I was in the zone on…
Mostly I worked on the attic studio all weekend. Got through a particularly tricky bit where I had to brace the ceiling and I had to put a new brace up, taking down the old brace, which the structural engineer told me wasn’t actually bracing anything. Though you never know until you go for it. But it wasn’t in plane with the walls, wasn’t even sitting on a joist, just a pole, supposedly bracing the roof of a house, just sitting on OSB. Made no sense. I made a new support in-line with a wall I’m going to make, and I took down the old one. And, finally, as I cut through the old one with the Sawzall (sorry, it is Dewalt brand, so we cannot call it a Sawzall that word is trademarked, we shall say with the recip), there was no tell-tale snap! pop! when I cut through it, meaning the thing was never under tension, never supporting the roof, never needed to be there anyway. So weird.
Here is a picture with the new brace. Now, yes, it’s only a 2×4 for now but: a) turns out it’s not needed at all, b) I will add a second one to it eventually, which is all the old brace was. Also that floor joist is beefy. Two LVLs with a 1/4” of steel laminated between them. And note the steel beam on the right. Heavy duty, floor, this attic.
Anyway, I got a… decent amount done on the attic? If you count by square feet of new floor completed, well, it was… all right. Maybe 100 square feet. But there were some tricky bits. It is laborious work. We are working our way out of the main studio area into the utility area now, where the HVAC system is, and where my server closet and storage will be. It is tempting to half-ass here: save time by not using subfloor adhesive or even just leaving the old floor, not adding soundproofing insulation at all. And I would be tempted, were it not for the fact that this is also the part over the neurodivergent-affirming pediatric speech therapists’ office, i.e. the part of the house that most needs to be insulated from sound. So we continue.
I really am my happiest when I’m working on this. I guess I’m just old and boring. I plug away, I don’t rush, I just sort of… keep going. It’s physical exercise and problem solving and relatively low stakes: I think I might be somewhat bent after, oh, 25 years of being responsible for other people’s jobs and livelihoods. Maybe. Maybe.
I wonder if when the studio is built, if I will be as happy making music in it as I am when I’m building it. Lol. We’ll see! In, like, three years!
Ten years ago, right when we bought this house, Emma pulled up a bush from one place and planted it right next to our driveway. The thing was in rough shape when she moved it, and for a lot of years after. But now… look at the thing! It is flowering! I swear this is the first year it’s ever flowered. Maybe not. Either way, I am very into this bush this year. It is a great bush.
Re-watched The Martian this weekend and oh my god. I thought that movie was kinda boring and meh when it came out. I mean, I was probably positively disposed towards it, but only barely. But this time? Bawled like a baby. Loved it. Why, I wonder. Maybe because we now live in a world where idiocy rules and the idea of a bunch of high-functioning people in power solving a problem through science and problem-solving seems laughable. My god. We used to take that for granted. Well, not really, but… to some extent? God. I miss it.
Congratulations to Taylor Swift for getting her masters back. One report says $350 million, one report says “significantly higher.” Which, I mean, good, because you know, er, check notes Roy Disney really needed the money. Christ. Dude is dead and just made three commas. Ridiculous.
Anyway, I have questions!
1) Taylor implied the Eras tour made all this possible. Okay, but… really? Did Shamrock give you a price pre-tour and you thought “okay fuck it I’m gonna go do the highest-grossing tour in the world to get the money.”? Or did, like, Shamrock see you making bank and think “we want some more of that sweet Taylor bank.”? And also… like… I’m pretty sure pre-Eras she was probably worth north of $350 mil, and someone would have financed the purchase? It is all very confusing. Maybe she just wanted to make us feel good about ourselves.
2) Where does this leave the record deals in place between Shamrock and Universal and Big Machine? Speak Now, for instance, got a Universal/Big Machine re-pressing in 2024. Are these gonna stop? Can you pull the plug on any pre-existing contracts between Shamrock and Big Machine and/or Universal? Are there going to be Republic Records editions of the early albums? Are they coming soon? Is Big Machine still profiting off of the physical pressings? What about streaming? The day I heard the news I listened to some OG versions of Red, 1989 and Reputation and it felt thrillingly naughty, except it wasn’t. Except maybe it was? Should we still be listening to the TV versions? What’s the ethical sitch here? WE NEED TO KNOW.
Finally, I would like to say this proposal by the association of Harvard Merchants to take this long-lost tunnel under Harvard Square and turn it into an events space is such a thrillingly, gloriously great idea I can’t even deal. How did I never know this tunnel was here? My god, I want to see a psych rock show in that tunnel so bad. Like that awesome old Pink Floyd live film in some London tunnel.
Oh my god I want that so bad. Might even move back to Boston if you can get Mogwai to play that tunnel.
Jane is doing great. She had a whiney crazy time on Saturday at dinner time, probably my fault for letting her using iPad earlier in the day. But even then, when I would remind her that she didn’t need to shout, she would quiet down. She listens to feedback, that is nice. And the rest of the weekend was swell. Some good playground times Saturday night and Sunday morning. Her friend Teddy got a remote-controlled car. I remembered both her water bottle and to put on sunscreen on Sunday morning yay me. It is the last week of school. After this morning I have four days of getting up at 6:20 until fall. I am very excited. Jane is very excited. Today is field day. Which I guess means… they play outside all day? I don’t know. And tomorrow is some sort of ceremony “graduating” from first grade, only they don’t call it that. And apparently all the other dads are going? Doesn’t anyone work anymore?
C’mon man don’t make me feel bad, action dads.
I am cheating a bit and doing a post-rock mix today that ends with a 20-minute track from the new Swans record but also… is that really cheating? I mean, there’s already a 12-minute track on here, and there’s only one track under seven minutes. Post rock, man. It rocks, Postly.
Talk to you guys tomorrow.
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Thanks for reading.
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Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.