Good morning good morning. Howdy, hello, hi, how are you, ça va all well? I do hope so, I do hope so. Happy Earth Day.

Went to the doctor yesterday for my physical it fuckin ruled. I got a diagnosis on my knee: bursitis, common in flooring contractors lol. Makes sense after working on building a floor for a year. I dot a diagnosis on my toe: I have a deformed toe. As soon as she pointed it out it was obvious but I never really thought about it before. I like to think of it as “quirky.” She is putting me on the new double-dose of wegovy cuz that shit ain’t working anymore. Well, it is a little but, but… not enough. She told me about a heart check-up thing I could do to keep an eye on my heart that is out-of-pocket but you can get it for $99 from Duke. I mean, I don’t love Duke, what with the racists and the rapists and popped collars and all, but I will get a heart imaged. She.. oh shit she wants me to take my blood pressure every morning for ten days before I eat anything. I forgot. Lemme just go get my blood pressure cuff and put it somewhere I will remember it.

I got THREE vaccines: covid, measles (again, probably), and pneumonia. Did you know there is a pneumonia vaccine? I did not. Being over 50 is great.

Got my blood taken and everything is great except my cholesterol is still fucked, will always be fucked, statins and omega-3 don’t do jack those numbers have been stubbornly immobile for over 20 years now and it fucking sucks. And my platelet volume, which is always slightly below normal and, oh god why am I telling you this you don’t care.

The important thing here is that I went in there with a list of concerns and she addressed every single one of them and it ruled.

AND she didn’t make me answer a question about whether or not I would let her use an AI note-taking app. THANK GOD. I was still stressing about it as I walked in the door, still didn’t have a good answer.

Emma did ask one of our doctor friends yesterday, and the friend (a pediatrician) said she didn’t love it but it has saved her time. And I suppose as an individual who is blessed with not over-thinking about everything, that would be a decent answer. This doctor is not one of those people, though. She said a good rubric “is it worth killing a penguin over.” I like that. She said saving a life? Yes, probaby. Making note-taking easier? Maybe not.

And, of course, the time saved doesn’t… I mean where does it go? Does she get to keep it, in the long-term and on the macroeconomic scale? Or does the evil org around her take it back and hire fewer doctors? Or charge more and pocket the difference? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also realized that of all the reasons to hate AI note-taking at doctor’s offices, one that I just do not care about but lots of people seem to is privacy. I wonder why I don’t care about that. Oh right maybe because I write this dumb-ass groundbreaking, awesome newsletter. But other people care about it. And I noticed on The Pitt it was one of the first things they mentioned. It probably should be stated in no uncertain terms that they are, of course, lying about your privacy being safe with these things. 100%.

But I am spared from such Chidian analysis for another few months until I go to another doctor.

I made that word up in the parking lot of the doctor’s office: Chidian. It’s so good. I am very proud of it.

tldr; Doctors rule, give me competence porn all the live-long day. People knowing their shit. It’s so great. FUCK YES EXPERTS DOT TUMBLR DOT COM.

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Listening to the new Mitski this morning, third listen. I think I like it? I am always wishing she would make another song like Townie but she seems like she’s done rocking. But once you accept that, it’s a pretty good record. I mean, it’s got a song called “Cats” on it. Cats are cool. Mitski is cool. She kinda wigs me out but in a good way. I wonder what she thinks about Buffy. Does she care about Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Had a great idea for a symphonic post-rock album yesterday where every instrumental song is titled with movies that have two titles. So the track listing would be:

• Show Me Love (Fucking Amal)

• At Sachem Farm (Uncorked)

• A Merry War (Keep the Aspidistra Flying)

• Edge of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat)

Pretty into it. I suspect there are more. One could quibble with Fucking Amal, given that it is nominally the Swedish title, and there are lots of movies with different foreign titles, but also… it’s in English? So…

Went to a rock show last night. We got a babysitter and everything. Drove to Durham to the great Motorco to see my friend Todd play in the Chameleons and the Veldt and it was just great. The Veldt’s drummer got injured right before the tour and they decided to just do it anyway, to backing tracks, except Todd joins them on two songs. They have four, sometimes five, guitarists. I am thinking I should join this now-local-again band (they spent some years in NYC) and be a fifth/sixth guitarist. That would be fun.

The Veldt are so great, been around forever, wouldn’t call them an OG shoegaze band but def wave 1.5, that very small American fast-follow group of shoegazers in the early 90’s that would include them, Smashing Orange, Drop Nineteens, maybe a few more. Before the meager wave 2 of the mid-90’s that included yours truly. I feel like I saw them back in the day but don’t have any recollection. And it’s hard to imagine forgetting the Veldt. The volume, the unabashed, amazing black imagery: I mean seriously they have a shirt with an upside down Spacemen 3 logo, an afro and a hair pick. God they are great. Wish that shirt came in black.

Got to see Todd before the show and chatted a little bit. Met another friend of his who is another goth drummer — does drumming for the Mission UK — who lives in the mid-Atlantic as well. Apparently the mid-Atlantic is a hotbed of goth drummers for old-school English goth bands. Todd listed a few more in the DC/Baltimore area. Very mysterious.

The Chameleons were great as always. I could have used “Less than Human” and “Tears” in the set but it was epic and rocking. I am somewhat annoyed Todd did not let me write the whole setlist omg imagine getting to write your own Chameleons setlist. But, I mean: Swamp Thing, Second Skin, Soul in Isolation, In Shreds, Don’t Fall, Looking Inwardly. Man. Some real bangers.

I give the sound at Motorco a B+. It is not as good as Cat’s Cradle but it’s pretty decent. With way better bathrooms. Bathrooms are important.

It is very awesome and weird that a dude I have known for 30 years is the drummer in one of my favorite bands. Second time I’ve gotten to see Todd play with them.

There was a guy there that looked so much like Mark Dwinnell from the amazing drone rock band Bright, and the last time I saw Mark was about five years ago right outside this same club, so I was sorta convinced it was Mark, but it wasn’t. And that was weird because during the Veldt I thought to myself: You know who needs to do a reunion? Bright. What an awesome band. Get those guys back together.

Also Ba Da Bing needs to reissue their debut album on vinyl.

There were some ladies standing in front of Emma and I, and I am pretty sure it was three generations of ladies? An elderly woman, a woman about my age, and a woman who looked 20 ish, all together. The youngest one had a friend with her and they kept trying to scoot away from the “grown ups.” The elderly woman took a picture of the 20-something, as she took a picture of the Chameleons, it was very cute. Intergenerational fans.

Very weird audience. A few goths scattered throughout — I counted maybe 20 — but the vast bulk of the audience were normies. I do not know if this is due to the proximity of Duke or the Chameleons ongoing relevance and increased fanbase in the 21st century, which really is pretty substantial. Very weird. Or, rather, utterly not weird.

I had two drinks, stayed up too late, convinced myself I would be able to nap today but now it looks like the work day job thingy may keep me from doing that so I am loading up on caffeine and feel kind of like ass. The vaccines are not helping. My shoulder hurts like hell and I was mildly convinced I got covid last night until I remembered that my body was dealing with the vaccine.

Jane had a babysitter last night and she spent the time asking her hypothetical questions about the earth. Jane is very obsessed right now asking you what would happen if the earth split in half, or changed shapes into a truck. Things like that. The answer to all of these, of course, is “gravity would be fucked and we would all die” but she seems very unimpressed with that answer. Convinced there is some version of the question where the answer will be something else. I would just make one up, but what do you want to hear Janey? That we would all turn into rabbits? Hrm. I will try that one.

Emma showed me this graph of girls’ confidence and apparently it peaks at age 9 then starts to plummet? It seems insane to imagine Jane without confidence but, then, that’s the age she’s at I guess? Emma said she wants to help prevent this and god knows I do too but… how?

Someone give me a book or something.

Every time you think you got this parenting thing down there is a new hurdle on the road. Sweet lord ‘o mercy.

Covers playlist for you today. Should be eight minutes longer but we are a bit short sorry.

Okay byeee love you byeeeeeeeeeee