Good morning good morning. Running a little late. Hit up the grocery store, the machine accused me of shoplifting again when I put my grocery store rewards card in. Love that shit. You wanna datamine me or not, bro? Then I had to go to Jane’s dentist to see if I could move her appointment today because it coincides with her last class of the year with her favorite teacher, and she was verklempt about it. Lotta coaching this morning as I didn’t want to get her hopes up, but didn’t want her to be surprised if I didn’t show up at the appointed time. As it stood, someone called in and cancelled their 2PM appointment today while I was trying to reschedule. So hey. That worked out. Bob’s your uncle, as they say. Except that saying has something to do with nepotism, apparently. And my uncles are Jack and Bill.

Endlessly disturbing dreams with my of my common elements: San Francisco, organized crime, crappy many-occupant flop-houses filled with students or post-grad service workers. Jussi was there. There was a toilet in a bedroom like in one of the houses we lived in after college. A toilet. In a bedroom.

Finished a book this week someone recommended me. I hated it. It was “good,” but all the characters were loathesome except one. And they killed that character off needlessly. And the death was in the first person and just horrifyingly well-written and I do not need that shit in my life. And it ended unsatisfyingly. It was an exploration of the assorted types of love in the world and I am sympathetic to that. It also explicitly critiqued the whole schtick of lives being traumas and books being trauma litanies, except the book itself was a trauma litany. The characters were shockingly one dimensional. Like… they obviously lived full lives but the author found no reason to write about the rest of their lives except for their assorted love traumas. And, like, I get it, fine. Like I said, it was “good.” But Jesus was it a bummer and I a mostly pissed about it. My friend who recommended it meant well, I am sure. Luckily I don’t remember who the friend was so I will not complain to them. But gawd, man. I do not need insanely well-written first person death scenes in my life. I read before bed. My dreams are bad enough as it is.

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We’re listening to the new Neptune record. Neptune, the originally-Boston-based noise/experimental/noise band. I put out their first record on Archenemy in 1999. This is their 13th studio album. Also I am seeing on Discogs they released on Bandcamp “live from Ugly House 1994” which is so awesome. Ugly house. Forgot about that place. Oh my god. Mental time travel. Allston Rock City. Jamaica Plain. Love that dirty water. Anyway, this record, entitled Play Some Music is moody and sparse but hits all the regular Neptunian sweet spots.

Jason and I had a tough time because it took me, eh, upwards of a year to put out their record because I was poor and had no business running a record label and was just doing it as a labor of love. And he would call for updates every day and I would not answer the phone every day because I was a kid and embarrassed. I got the record out in the end, and it was sweet, but I ended up feeling bad about the interaction for oh, 25 years. And a year or two ago they passed through town and I went to see them and I brought all the extra copies of the record I had left so they could sell them on the road (more old Archenemy bands go on tour please) and we all made up, I mean, we had made up ages ago, but you know. It was good to see them again.

They’re coming back in a week or two. Was gonna go with my label partner Jussi, but now she can’t make it to town until a couple days after the show. Alas.

Excellent weekend of chores chores chores just the best. Jane and I went to Bojangles saturday — they are still not playing any music and they still have no Diet Mt Dew but we still manage to have a good time. There was a father and son there in matching brand new PEST CONTROL t-shirts for their family pest-control business. They had upside-down American flags on the sleeve. Were they Trumpers still unsatisfied with the complete takeover of America? I mean, they looked like good old boys. Or were they strangely political and progressive pest control technicians. Who can say.

The big chore accomplishments were in the attic. I got the HVAC drip pan straightned — an incredibly complex process that involved tin snips, re-plumbing a drain pipe, Flex Seal, and Lexel but it is done. I got the HVAC unit off the 2×4s and Jacks and onto new stone that keeps the unit at the same height even though the completely-replaced floor underneath it is now 3 inches higher. Yeah I know you’re not supposed to use hyphens with -ly words but god I hate that rule the world needs more hyphens.

This is huge milestone. This evening — between Jane’s dentist appointment and the pool/storage co meeting — the HVAC guy will come and fix up the drainage line since the one thing I didn’t account for is that the angle of the drain line would change if the floor was higher even if the unit was at the same level. $300 mistake that, but not too bad. BUT once that is done, I will be DONE DONE DONE with the seven-layer floor under the HVAC unit and can go back to doing layers 1-2 on the rest of the attic I am so excited. Three day weekend ahead, too.

The last two things to do to the floor on the west side of the attic are to spray foam the joint between the seven-layer floating floor and the ceiling, and then vacuum everything. Got most of the spray foam done. Ran out maybe 20 feet from the end of the section. Then comes the vacuuming. Using a shop vac on OSB floors sucks. It’s always too sucky or not enough. But some cheap-ass specialized vacuum attachments from China for like $10 on Amazon. Wish me luck.

I did not puke doing this work, which involved, among other things, bringing about 500 pounds of concrete bricks to the attic. This new blood pressure medication is killing me, man. Or, rather, not killing me but fucking me up. I have no stamina. I would bring two blocks up and then take a 3-minute break, taking several swigs of Gatorade. I was constantly out of breath all weekend, far more so than usual, while doing these chores. The pill also gives me leg cramps and occasionally brings me to the edge of fainting. Okay, quite often actually. It is not great. I am gonna need to switch again.

Which sucks. Because my blood pressure rules on this drug.

Saturday night Emma and I got a sitter and we went to Cat’s Cradle to watch an over-the-top synth pop band called Haute and Freddy. Oh my god. This gay band on pride weekend? Insane. The fashion was OUT OF CONTROL. I had no idea so many people could BRING IT in Chapel Hill. I wish I could have taken pictures of them all. Just marvelous. The band was theatrical and absurd and had dancers and they had decent-but-not-amazing synth pop songs. I read somewhere recently — Stereogum or something — that the album was marvelous and one of the best of the year. I have not heard it yet. Will listen to it today. Haute and Freddy are both professional songwriters for major artists so the tunes were catchy AF but I wanted more from the arrangements. We’ll see if the album delivers.

But man. What a good time. There is something profoundly beautiful about a crowd of people allowed to dress up and be glamorous and feel comfortable and alive and happy and safe. The world needs more of this.

Also a ton of fascinators. I have, of late, been anti-fascinator. I feel I should clarify. I am anti-fascinator in the Preakness-meets-English-Royalty manner. I am avidly pro-LGBTQ-fascinator.

Hit up Walmart this weekend on Sunday afternoon. Ran into two school moms. Place was packed. Playing music. Angel Eyes by Jeff Healy (RIP we lost you too young) band. Masterpiece, Then Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen. Also a masterpiece but Eric Carmen is MAGA so he can suck it.

Did they programmer make a deliberate eyes-paring? We can never k now.

Jane Was great this weekend just an absolute joy all around. Well except for the anti-microbial swishing but we only have a couple more days of that. Teeth repair surgery Friday. Last day of School Wednesday. Then I get to start sleeping till eight again, love it, and get existentially depressed in the fall when the days start getting shorter and I have to start getting up at 6:30 again, my own little personal hell of a daylight savings time.

But that is a problem for future Rick.

Ooo looks like we have a DA CLUB playlist for you. Been a while. Man I have been working on this one so long I don’t even remember some of it. Okay maybe just Chalk. Don’t remember chalk. New Boards of Canada is great I was a bit meh but it’s been growing on me. Suzy reminded me of the Coldplay album Ghost Stories which I had listened to but once when it came out and had forgotten about this single and then I listened to it twice then it randomly came on when I was out with the fam and I read about it and went down an Avicii rabbit hole, sounds like he was a good dude. Sad. Maybe I’ll listen to some Avicii this week. God what is happening to me.

All right have a good Monday. Mine is swamped with meetings and dentists and HVAC and pools and oh god this is gonna kill me. I CAN DO IT.