Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1198
Afghan Whigs, The Church, Lipsmear, O'Briens, Boston, Friends, Family, not a single word about tech at all.
Good morning. Monday amirite? Jane won’t go to camp again. Super love that we spent all this money for fun things to do and she just won’t do them. It is somewhat trying. She says she won’t bother me today and she’ll let me work, but that promise is good for, mm, gonna say maybe an hour. Then she will be in here informing me that she’s bored and it is my problem. Woo.
I have returned from Boston. It was a lovely trip. Got in mid-day Friday, and Jussi, Sean, Megan and I ran off to the Royale to see the Afghan Whigs and the Church. I love Royale, it gets a bad rap. I have seen many many good shows there: Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, Nick Cave, Slowdive, Ride, Beth Gibbons, Pinback, Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap, Art Brut, Elliot Smith, Blonde Redhead, Bright Eyes (eh, that wasn’t so good, it was his big band era), Devendra Banhart, Flaming Lips, Le Tigre, LCD Soundsystem (oh man that was so good), Pavement, Le Savy Fav (OMG), The Faint, Schneider TM, Super Furry Animals, The Hold Steady, The New Year, Dirty on Purpose, The National, TV on the Radio, Wire. The gig list says Portishead but I only remember the Beth Gibbons Rustin Man show. Boy having a gig list is great. I love a gig list.
The Whigs were great but they suffer from that reunion band thing where now they have a few post-reunion albums out, so their sit is not wall-to-wall hits and bangers and that makes me sad. They did not play a single song from Congregation which feels like a personal affront and marks the only time I’ve ever seen them (well, since the Up In It tour) where they didn’t play anything from that album that means so much to me. Also Dulli kind of suffers from there being a ten year gap in the Whigs’ career where he was in that other amazing band, Twilight Singers. I missed the “Gred Dulli” tour where he did songs from both bands. Still bummed about that. They did play “Faded” for the first time in ten years, apparently but a) they didn’t do the big “Purple Rain” ending version and b) ten years is a blip in my thirty-plus Whigs fandom, didn’t even seen that long.
The Chuch have a lot of great albums post-reunion (not that they ever really broke up) but the difference is I am a more casual fan of the Church’s hits. So long as they play “Reptile,” “Under the Milky Way” and “Metropolis,” I don’t really care what else they play, plus I love the long, droney psych rock stuff they choose to play and that dominates the last couple albums. I like the last album, Hypnogogue a lot, but Jussi and I already saw a tour where they played it in its entirety. When they played it in its entirety, it was entirely reasonable that Steve rambles on about the plot of the album. When he is playing random songs from that album, interspersed throughout a set of songs from other albums, it is really weird. I am a sucker for banter, but Sean was not a fan and it rubbed off on me a bit.
After that we swung by Man Ray but did not go inside. It was a fetish night and the place looked packed and Boushard said it was “swampy” in there. Plus it was Jussi’s birthday and she wanted to go to Glitter Boys so that is what we did.
Oh that reminds me here is a present for you:
It is going to be so fun.
Glitter Boys was too crowded at first but as Jussi predicted it emptied out of kids and slowly filled up with friends and it was just great and a lovely time was had by all dancing, and there was a small after party and for some reason I stayed up till nearly 5 AM and I drank too much but didn’t do anything too stupid (I don’t think) except not getting an Uber XL and stranding Sean and I in Harvard Square for a while but, then, when’s the last time you sat in an empty Harvard Square at 2AM, it was kind of nostalgic and connecting me to my roots or something.
(Not that I went to Harvard, but, you know. Charlies and Noir and Grendel’s and Shey’s and, for a hot second there, Redline when it had those goth nights.)
Because of this post-4AM excess, I slept till like 1:30 and was ruined for most of Saturday. I managed to walk the cute trail to Davis Square and get a burrito and stock up on edibles but that was it. I went back to the house. I read my book. I napped. Twice. I ordered Thai Food. I didn’t talk to anyone until 9:30 when it was time to go out again. A+ way to spend a day as a parent, strong recommend.
With a 10 AM flight Sunday, I knew if I drank Saturday night I would miss my flight, so I went to see Sean and Dave Unger’s band Lipsmear at O’Briens. I went alcohol-free. I was pleased to see Eric Donohue and Al Crockett in the band that was a pleasant surprise. And lots of friends there. At O’Brien’s. In 2024. Surreal. I cannot remember the number of times I’ve played that room. Being there again watching friends’ bands made me desperately want to do it again. But it was great to see the Abby, Emily, Matt, Ronan, Just Bill (!), Mandy, Debbie, so many others! Just an A+ time all around. Packed show at O’Brien’s, man, what a trip down memory lane.
Was ultra-responsible and didn’t go to Man Ray after O’Brien’s, which is sad cuz I wanted to see Chris but also I am 52 years old and burned the candle at both ends and needed rest and I did not want to miss my flight, like last time I went to boston for two-nights-only, and I did not want to piss off my wife. So I went home, sober, went to sleep, slept 7 hours and made it to the airport plenty early for my flight, which was smooth and easy and I got home around 1:30 and it was great.
I went to Chore House and worked on the garden bench, working on the legs and the grate. I didn’t take pictures. We will soon. It is coming along great. Spent a lot of time with the thickness planer. Got all the legs cut. Trimmed up the brackets for the soil bin with the new bandsaw, which I got set up and mounted to a bench. All very exciting. The thing is going to rule.
Then bedtime with Jane, daddy school, we talked about water. Fresh water vs salt water. Water from the ground and lakes and rivers and the air and the ocean. Desalinization. The Bureau of Reclamation. The Ogalalla Aquifer. Which countries have lots of water and which don’t. Drinking water vs greywater vs brownwater. She does not like the name “greywater”. She did not want me to leave at bedtime but would not do the things required to make me stay, like read a book. Just whined a lot. This phase has gone on forever and it is very tedious. I tell myself I am content to stay there with her as long as she wants, but I start to crack every time: she doesn’t talk to me, she doesn’t read she just jumps around and acts like a lunatic, ignoring everything I say. So why be there. I feel like I could be a better parent in these moments. Eventually I just leave and let her scream at me for a while. Feels like this happens every night. Parenting, woo.
But, you know, watching her run around like a lunatic while screaming “desalinization! desalinization!”? Priceless.
Hrm it seems I don’t have a playlist prepared for today, alas. What would be a good Media of the Day? I’m listening to the new Mono again right now but I think I already told you about that. Ugh! I don’t know! Have I done a Media of the Day of a book yet? Well, I will now I guess. This is the book I just finished. It is not quite “plotless” Sci Fi, but it is.. well, the genre is called Cozy Sci Fi. It is comforting sci fi as a political act. It’s basically Sherlock Holmes on a gas giant. There are two of them now, this is the second. I find them very comforting. I am old and I dislike too much violence in my life, though these books both have a murder. Honestly, they could skip the mystery part and I would enjoy them better. I especially like how they never eat the same food twice and my god, they go into detail about every single meal for some reason. It cracks me up. Recommended.
Talk soon!