Good morning good morning hello. BACK ON TRACK. School started at the normal time, I am in front of the computer and awake and going to get shit done. All very exciting.

Except I am doing drop-off in Emma’s car because my truck is fucked, six grand to fix, conservatively. AND. AND. It seems it is fucked because the body shop people, who fixed a dent a month or so ago, messed up the water seals and a bunch of water got in to places it wasn’t supposed to go, and ruined the tailgate. And while two of the wiring harnesses it ruined are standard F-150 wiring harnesses, the third is unique to the Lightning, which suuuuucks and it is super expensive and there’s only one in the country. So now I gotta, like, go back to that body shop, all those really nice people, and have a super awkward conversation and see if they are truly nice of not. Fucking sucks, man. This is too expensive. I am verklempt. And I hate awkward money conversations I have to have enough of those at work I AM A SENSITIVE ARTIST.

Car stereo understands, though. It played a real solid mix of English rock this morning: James, Florence & the Machine, The Orb + David Gilmour, “Tubthumping” by UK anarcho-socialists Chumbawumba. That’ll get you going.

Went to Walmart again this morning because we ran out of everything right after going to the grocery store, like you do. They were playing “Dancing Queen” by Abba at 7:45 AM on a Monday in an empty store. It was awesome. I went to Walmart Friday too. Do you think Walmart pays Chase Bank extra cash to tell it which of its customers is paying with an Amazon Prime credit card? To, like, market to them more or differently? Seems like a line of business that probably exists.

A business that does not exist but I wish did exist and someone should start: extreme dusting. Hire an army of OCD clean freaks, arm them with small cans of compressed air, an assortment of cloths, and a small vacuum, charge $50 an hour to dust your book shelves, photos, knick knacks. My god I would hire the hell out that. How do you get dust off the top of a book I don’t even know. Someone come dust my life.

Mitch McConnell is gonna die any day now, I think. Do you think Trump will say a single nice thing about the man most responsible for Trump’s second term? I doubt it.

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We had our first live chat around an event last night in the GMHHAY Slack. Not, like, planned or anything, just sort of spontaneous. It was nice.

Listening this morning to a band called Baulta, album is Pure Escapism, I don’t remember who recommended this to me. It is a mellow post rock album, very pretty. Explosions in the Sky without the explosions. Let’s Google them. Hrm. They are Finnish. Not a lot about them on the interwebs, though there is this nice review in Veil of Sound. Well, anyway, thank you to whomever recommended them. You know me. Followed ‘em on Bandcamp.

Had a lovely weekend thanks for asking. Spent as much as I could of it in the attic working on the studio. Got two more layers of the floor done underneath the HVAC unit. It is going great. I can’t believe how long I thought about the logistics of getting seven layers of floor under the HVAC unit, then getting the drain pan back in, then mounting it on new cinder blocks, differently sized to compensate for the increased floor height. AND IT IS WORKING. Makes me feel so happy. I still have so much to do, but god. I love working in the studio attic it is my happy place. And I mean it is absurd to spend, like, five years building yourself a studio, in which time you are doing construction and not making music, but I am coming to view the studio as part of the composition. Like when Rachel’s put their blood in the printer’s ink for their cover, you know? I figured out where to put a proper old-school analog echo chamber and a separate plate reverb chamber in the studio. I am very excited about that. Gotta update the floorplans.

Oh and I finished up cleaning up the server rack. Look at it. Very pretty, right? I know, I know, I should move the NAS and DVR up and close that gap.

Watched the Super Bowl. It was not Super. I mean just kinda a depressing game. I guess I wanted Boston to win since I lived there longer, and it used to be super fun to go out and riot when the Pats or Sox would win a national championship, until the cops shot and killed that girl like a hundred feet away from us that kinda ruined the buzz. And it would be funny to watch the Pats win without Brady. But also I don’t really care, and I like Seattle as a town a whole lot. I guess they’re my two favorite football teams if I had to have an opinion about such things. Though I do own a share of the Packers, as I was briefly enamored with their whole socialist philosophy of public ownership until I realized it was a ruse in the Soviet, public-in-name-only style and now the Marxist manner, alas.

Maybe I’ll donate it to a thrift store. Just leave the certificate there. That’s how stock trading works right? But I feel like I am imminently going to place something in that slot. No idea what, but… something.

Bad Bunny was awesome I mean did I understand a sing word even after years of DuoLingo nope nope nope. But I got plenty of the references and even recognized exactly three of the celebrity cameos I am not old nope. BUT I fucking LOVED the art direction, the sugar plants were people oh my god what a great halloween costume. Just so good. And the little kid that was not Liam but could have been was adorable and made me sob. And the end with the roll call of nations of the Americas and the message against hate and the football and oh my god it was beautiful well done Mr. Bunny I applaud you.

Watched all the ads, because I used to have to do it for work shit I even used to live blog the ads for AdWeek. But for the last five years the ads are all just a litany of endless celebrity cameos, too many celebrities per ad to make any sense, no one gets enough screen time. Everything is manically edited to get like five, six, seven, ten set-ups into thirty seconds, and your brain can’t process everything. I mean when an ad costs a billion dollars (metaphorically) you feel like you need to cram everything in, I get it, and a 60 is too luxurious but.. Just slow it all down, man. Coinbase sucks but their ad was good, it was the only time in the whole thing that anything happened at the pace of a human brain, the only ad for which my daughter looked up and cared about. I guess I’m old, my mom used to rant about cocaine and the fast editing pace of Miami Vice, back when the conservative media still had a sheen of plausibility about it. Have you watched an episode of Miami Vice lately? My god the editing is glacial.

Crypto ads one or two, but they are a dying breed, the grifters have moved on to AI and my god there were so many AI ads just out of control. And sports betting. Should sports betting be illegal? Probably. But if not, can we at least get it off the airwaves? And what the fuck when did it become legal to advertise hard liquor on tv again? RFK is trying to ban prescription medicine ads but liquor ads, sports betting ads are okay? Look I am not a prude but I like my vices hidden, in the dark, un-discussed and unadvertised.

Every other night, we are watching Curling. Fuck yeah Curling. Curling rules. Curling is the best. 🥌🥌🥌🥌🥌 Props to whomever got a curling stone into our emoji set. I gotta say Peacock is really nailing sports right now, not that I care about sports. And it is interesting because people don’t seem to know? I mean I don’t think anyone has cable right now, so I think everyone is watching the Super Bowl and the Olympics… through something like YouTube TV on their internet connection? I mean I guess that’s cool, it’s like… what? $80? $90 a month? What else does one even use that for? Well anyway, Peacock has the entire Olympics in a replay archive, and all the replays are ad-free and it rules. Watch the curling matches one day behind and you get it all ad-free for, like, $20. Seems like a bargain to me but of course it’s still $20. For sports. God what am I. Where is my black cape and eye-liner.

Jane had a complete meltdown last night after hanging out with a friend all day. The friend is kinda aggro and they love hanging out but they weirdly fight almost every time they see each other outside of class. They are both going to go to some special conflict-resolution counseling at school along with some other kids, I guess. Which is fine, whatever, they actually manage it pretty well, they fight, get over it, move on, start an ice cream stand or something. But afterward, Jane was just out of control. Wouldn’t get out of the car at the restaurant because Emma parked in the wrong place. Just screaming about everything. Took, like, over an hour to calm her down. Deeply unpleasant. And I snapped at her, because at the time you rationalize it by saying that your patience isn’t a virtue, she is learning to be abusive and in the real world people are going to push back and she needs to experience that, but of course, a) you’re her parent you need to stay her safe happy place, and b) she is never that mean to anyone other than us, so why bother. Emma took over. Not my finest hour. Though we have been in the reverse situation aplenty.

Oh but I didn’t tell you about her general anesthesia and dental procedures. Went great. She was a true champ, she loves general anesthesia, doesn’t remember a thing. Was very sleepy and groggy afterwards. Didn’t say anything funny, alas. But I am proud of her. A real trooper.

Justa mix today. About half new, half old. I actually just spent like 10 minutes putting this together into a proper mix, with some ebb and flow and whatnot. I did that for you. Odd choices of old songs, not my usual choices. But, you know. Times ebb and flow and change. That John Stewart song came on yesterday and put a little tear in my eye, reminding me of its use in that IMAX Apollo 13 documentary about five years ago. I mean, I know he’s a Republican and… shit is John Steward (not Jon) still alive? No idea. And another cover of Anthems for a 17 year-old Girl just because. Oh and Mike Posner. Real hero, Mike Posner. That dude. He has… matured. Oh and that AJJ song about Linda Rondstadt. That is a Rick favorite I never talk about but man I love that song okay bye.

Have a good Monday. Let’s try our best.