Good morning hello. It is Wednesday, what fun. Got a show tonight. And Emma’s coming and there is a babysitter and it is at Cat’s Cradle not Durham so I am almost certainly not going to skip it. That’s exciting.

Was sitting in McDonald’s with the old men this morning, and a high school girl’s sports team for some reason. They played John Waite’s “Change,” took me right back to my MTV Vidiot couch potato childhood. That song is almost perfect. How did it come to be Who is this John Waite fellow, and how did he get a song to have such massive airplay in 1981? How did he get pack the gatekeepers?

I put it on in the car after I left McDonald’s and holy shit it is so well produced. Sounded absolutely massive. I think it could have been a huge hit, were it not for the fatal mistake of rhyming “Change” with… “Change.” Wikipedia tells me it’s a cover, so I guess this is not John Waite’s fault. Seems like it was written by someone named Holly Knight, from the band Spider. Shit, she also wrote “Rag Doll” by Aerosmith and “Love is a Battlefield.” Well, damn. Gonna have to go check out Spider.

But anyway, back to Mr. Waite. Who is this fellow? Other than the source of my childhood confusion about Tom Waits, different person as it turned out. Oh right he had another hit, “Missing You.” He wrote that one. Good for him. Was in a band called The Babys before going solo. Hrm. Oh right and that Bad English supergroup.

Anyway, “Change.” Killer tune.

Looks like we don’t know if Bibi won or lost yet in Israel’s election, boy I sure was wrong about them counting votes quickly with some high-tech Israeli machines. Nope. 50% counted as of this morning. He’s not gonna get a majority though, no one is, so they’re all fucked, and the Arab parties got like, 17ish seats so they’d have to work with them to form a majority and, yeah, given that Bibi’s challenger doesn’t seem like a particularly pacifist bloke, this seems like about the best outcome: gridlock and forced co-operation. Into it.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

We are listening to the new AJJ album, Dirty Old Power. Formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad, they changed their name for woke-ass reasons that were, on balance, probably correct, though close call on that one. I am not opposed to jihads against Andrew Jackson that guy sucked. Though I am generally opposed to holy wars of any religious ilk, and the name does carry some ambiguity. So, yeah, why put up with the hassle you would get at the assorted leftists venues such a band would play.

AJJ in their previous incarnation wrote one of my top-10 (which, let’s be real, is probably more like a top 100) favorite songs, “Linda Ronstadt” which bowls me over every time I hear it. This new album is very good and has a few bangers on it. But none of them seem to be as good as “Linda Rondstadt,” though how can any human write two songs as good as that.

Speaking of which Rolling Stone did a “top 200 songs of the 20th century” list yesterday and they did not incude “Linda Rondstadt,” which is bullshit.

But an even greater sin is that there is not a single song by Low on the list which is just fucking insane. Need I remind you that Trust, Things we Lost in the Fire and The Great Destroyer all came out in the 21st century what the fuck man you’re telling me there is a Limp Bizkit song better than “Silver Rider?” Jesus what a world we live in.

Do I talk about music this whole issue? No, I have one other topic. Then we’ll get back to music.

Yesterday my desktop wallpaper, sourced from a folder of 2,000-or-so photos from my life showed a photo of a handwritten list:

I know this list was written in approximately 1998/9 based on the names on the list. It was a list of “everyone I knew.” It was inspired by my friend Becky, who appears on this list at #315. I endeavored to do it in chronological order, but failed. #314 on this list, for example, is someone I hadn’t seen since the 80’s.

Becky had been doing this exercise for years and her list was far more impressive and comprehensive. I did not keep up this list beyond what you see here, alas. I kinda wish I did, though I suppose that’s the point of Facebook now. Or was, for a while.

When this showed up on my desktop yesterday I decided to do a little cataloging on it. Thusly, I discovered:

• I can make out 45 or so names on this list.

• 20 of them I am still friends with in some capacity

• I’ve talked to 16 of them in the last year

• 1 is dead

• 2 I would characterize as enemies — one was a bully to me, the other I offended deeply, somehow, in some Facebook exchange about ten years ago. It still gets my goat. I was probably wrong but I sure do not know how. Alas.

• 15 of them I have completely lost touch with, including, sadly, Becky, though I know what she’s up to and it seems pretty awesome.

• 7 of them I have no recollection of or their names are illegible on the list.

Still friends with 44% of them! Not bad!

Okay back to music. Special FREE STUFF edition of GMHHAY are you ready?

I do occasionally find myself accidentally purchasing a record twice. Even with the dilligent use of Discogs. This isn’t the biggest financial deal, records (mostly) hold their value and I used to just sell the duplicate copies on Discogs. But a while back I offered them up to GMHHAY readers and that was fun, so I am going to do it again. First come, first served. You gotta give me your mailing address.

Drop a line if you would like a vinyl copy of:

• The Sisters of Mercy, Floodland, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab edition, black vinyl

• Tindersticks, Soft Tissue, black vinyl

• Tindersticks, Soft Tissue, unopened, ltd. edition green eco vinyl

• Loveliescrushing, Xuetyn, Numero reissue, unknown vinyl color, unopened

• Toy, Join the Dots, red vinyl

• Olivia Rodrigo, Live from Glastonbury, unknown vinyl color, unopened

• A Winged Victory for the Sullen, ATOMOS, black finyl

• Föllakazoid, V, clear vinyl

• Nine Inch Nails, Bad Witch unopened. Did I already promise this to you, Gatti?

Man I bought that Tindersticks record three times. Crazy.

Speaking of which, there is a new Tindersticks song today and a new Tindersticks album announced for March. I will endeavor to only purchase it once.

Let me know if you would like any of these.

Jane had a lovely birthday. I got her a too-large Kurzgezagt shirt and socks and some Olivia Rodrigo legos and I do not actually know what Emma and Janet got her, but I know that you get one point per gift, and I got three points, and Emma got three points, and Janet got one point, and that points can be redeemed for hugs and you better bet I redeemed my points.

This morning she liked a Temples song and The The’s “This is the Day” for Daddy-Jane playlist, but did not like… well, shit. I don’t remember and Apple Music won’t tell me anymore because I cleared the history to listen to John Waite’s “Change,” whoops. OH RIGHT. It was Fifth Dimension, “Let the Sunshine In,” who doesn’t like that? We will discuss this in therapy. We have decided to keep going to this wonderful therapist for as long as she’ll have us, which is maybe eight more weeks. Alas. God knows what we’ll do after that. Very sad.

We talked about holidays yesterday and what holidays you would institute if you could. She said she would institute an MJAZ holiday, which is her publishing company with her friends. I said I would institute an annual Hug Day, which you did not get off from work because it was important to hug coworkers, and I would institute a weekly CHORE DAY, of course.

We went to the playground and she made a fellow-nine-year-old friend and my god they played together so well. They never asked each other their names. Just got along famously for an hour or so, said goodbye, and went on with their lives. Would be so cool if adults were like that, the wisdom of kids, yadda yadda flower power.

OH and at dinner, the servers sand her Feliz Cumpleaños and gave her a cake and then they smashed a bunch of whipped cream in her face and it was very cute but of course she almost lost it because who wouldn’t and it was kinda BS, even if it was meant in the kindest way. And I thought for sure she was gonna lose it. BUT SHE DIDN’T. She knew it was done with love and played along. It was hard but she pulled it off and my god I do not know if I’ve ever seen that level of restraint from her before.

A real nine year-old.

Back on my “constantly listening to new music” shit, so the playlists are coalescing hot and heavy now. We’ll start with a Justa Mix and of course we wouldn’t leave you hanging about John Waite, would we, assuming you are less than your mid-50’s and have never heard it, though who are we kidding there are no young people in the GMHHAY readership. That Billy Idol/Avril Levine song came on a few weeks ago and I was struck by what a hot jam it was. That Genesis album got a remaster recently and I was struck by how normal and folky it sounded, I don’t think I had listened to that one since my high school girlfriend played it for me. Mineral had a nice new box set reissue, no idea why I was listeningv to Folk Implosion, and the rest are new. New Fontaines DC rules, like I said. Love this MyVeronica band, someone recommended them to me but don’t remember who, but thank you. The new Caroline Rose is a fun time. I actually like the new Weezer a fair amount I would even consider seeing them again for the first time since, god, Pinkerton maybe? If, you know, they played Cat’s Cradle. New Shabazz Palaces was not my favorite by them but I appreciate the absolutely insane amount of delay and reverb on that record. Positively drenched.

Have a lovely Wednesday. Keep it together. You can do this.