Good morning good morning. I am home! It is lovely. I never want to leave home again. Until I can’t stand it anymore and need to leave right away. Such is the way of things. The way of all flesh. Never heard of it.

My friend Helena passed away. It was incredibly sudden, cancer that took her in a month. I haven’t been that close to her in years, but she was an amazing person with the warmest smile, kindness through and through. Touched a lot of people and a lot of people are sad and my heart goes out to them and her family. She really was amazing.

Where did I leave off with you. Ahh yes, Friday. Well, I did go to The Hold Steady. I did not make the second show, I am sad about that. Hold Steady turned out to have an unannounced opener, so they didn’t go on till 9:30, despite saying 8:30 on the ticket, website and email. So I couldn’t make the second show. Hold Steady were great, though. They were the fourth band in a week that I had seen more than a dozen times, and they were the one that put on the most… “interesting” show. As in a little bit of surprise and variation in the setlist, obscurities for the fans and whatnot.

I did not drink, did not take a gummy, and after five shows in a week, all the meta thoughts about going to shows were mostly done running through my head. I could just rock out. About an 8:1 male-to-female ratio at the show. Craig Finn is basically the aging dad rocker Henry Miller. My god he looks like Henry Miller. If someone does another version of Henry and June or The Air Conditioned Nightmare, you could do worse than cast Craig Finn.

I noticed that there are no visible EXIT signs in the Sinclair from where I was standing, right in front of the sound board like a true sonic nerd. Kinda wigged me out.

Lotta fists being held up and shaken in the air. It is possible that more than one grown man cried. Someone brought confetti and threw it in the air at big cathartic moments and I have never seen that at a concert and it was just great.

My one sadness is that both The Hold Steady and their fans seem to be in denial that Heaven is Whenever is their best album, so you only get one song a night from that vastly underrated record. But I will forgive them because my god they got a lot of great records.

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We are listening this morning to the new American Football, cunningly entitled American Football. It is my first listen. It is great so far. Nothing else so off their sonic map as that first advanced single thus far, but I do always like their chill-ass spacey sound.

I would like to state that while I was gone for a week, only two records arrived at the house, which is a lot better than my last trip. I am trying to reform. I am making progress.

Got home from The Hold Steady and it was still kinda early and so I re-watched The Usual Suspects and No Way Out. Only my second time watching either one, since their initial release. Usual Suspects holds up. Kevin Spacey’s a creep but I don’t really think about that when he’s in the movie, because the character is kinda creepy anyway. There are a few subtle hints about the surprise twist at the end, but not much. The cinematography is incredibly cheesy. Just so cheesy, so many weird zooms and twists and it is noir, maaan. Lotta totally cliche’d plot elements (thief trying to make good but gets sucked in for one last job, getting a CRIME TEAM together, light a trail of gas with a cigarette, etc). But the twist makes up for it.

No Way Out holds up too, aside from the 80’s fashion my god Sean Young (and, to a lesser extent, Iman) have the absolute cheesiest hair and clothes. Kevin Costner is ripped, man. Gene Hackman is underused but still, you get Gene Hackman. There is a sex scene in a car that has no nudity and boy did that stay with me from my teen viewing of this film. Very hot. BUT there is also substantial Sean Young actual nudity that I had zero recollection about. An interesting insight into my teenage self, I guess.

The twist in No Way Out is great, but they deliver it a little too quickly at the end. But mostly the cinematography and editing hold up well.

There is a cab in No Way Out who’s phone number is TAXICAB and I want to know if any Taxi Cab company ever got that phone number that is kind of genius.

Saturday I lounged around the apartment all day while doing laundry it was just great. Ate thai food one more time and took a walk with Sean and Jussi to Davis. Slept till noon. Man. It ruled.

Saturday night was a long one: Seth’s 50th birthday party, lots of old friends, great talks, loved it. Then we went to a sports bar karaoke night in an old train station in malden or medford or something I don’t know man. It was great. Super fun. And they had a cocktail that was Bulleit, Goslings and Sour Mix and oh my god I am such a girly girl.

Then we went to Man Ray and ran into our old friend Constantine and it was super great and oh yeah I gotta send these Freezepop pictures to Jussi and Sean needs to send me those amazing group photos from Man Ray.

We hung around Man Ray till like three in the morning it was absurd, I had to get up at 11 for my flight and I barely made it but make it I did.

And now I am home and my wife washed my truck and my daughter is super snuggly and we watched Real Civil Engineer last night and did dumb car games this morning and it was just great.

Let’s see can we make a mix today? Nope. Doesn’t look like it. Well okay then. Enjoy this live performance of “The Passion of Lovers” by Bauhaus on some old BBC program that Beggars Banquet recently released on their Youtube channel. Brought a smidge of joy to my life on Saturday. They were so cool:

OK I am off to catalog and tag all my credit card transactions for the week I’m sure this won’t be annoying at all. Talk tomorrow!