Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1350
Thinking about the next GMHHAY print edition, spray foaming the attic, falling through the roof.
Mornin, morning. Feel kinda like ass this morning. It is rather unpleasant. Not into it. Gotta shake it off, as Taylor would say. I am listening to a very hot jam called “You’re like the summertime” (sic) by a band called Ultra Orange and boy, is it a hot jam. I am very into it. You know what? I think I will listen to it again.
This morning Jane eschewed Gracie Abrams and chose the 8-minute noise masterpice “One More” by Medicine to listen to in the car, so that was cool. I told her she wouldn’t like it, that we should listen to Gracie (the next track) instead, and she said no, she wanted to hear the Medicine track. Who says negging doesn’t work. Sure works for Sam Altman. Levine said it best:
Still ridiculously pissed about Open AI. Might have to go see a therapist about this. I’m sure one of the Betterhelp therapists is standing by just waiting to talk to someone about their irrational immense anger about OpenAI. We could coin a new condition. Good song title: we could coin a new condition. Add it to the list. Man I should share with you my songwriting scratch notepad sometime, it really is a doozy. No, Rick, no. They’re not ready, they’re not ready.
What I have been working on, though, is volume 2 of the print edition of GMHHAY and I am at a crossroads. Like Indonesia in the Economist in the Simpsons.
To recap:
Volume one of the book edition of GMHHAY (buy now!) covers the beginning of the project, spring of 2020 at the height of covid, through mid 2021 when I finally made it to my father’s funeral. It is absurdly long, 700 ish pages. I loved the process of creating it: basically I gave my friend Lisa the entire unedited “manuscript” of all the GMHHAY entries, and she mercilessly cut out the boring parts. It kinda worked. If I had to do it again, I would ask her to cut even more mercilessly, and I would restrain myself from actually reading the edit and getting sad about this-or-that being cut and putting a passage back in. I didn’t do that too too much, but I did probably add maybe 20 pages. I regret that.
I also regret it being 700 pages because no one wants to read that much in one sitting, says the guy reading the entire Tolkien legendarium with 700 pages of unexpurgated Anaïs Nin journals in the reading queue.
So, if I had my druthers, each “volume” of GMHAY would be, say, 300 pages. And ideally they would cover at least a year.
So this weekend I exported the balance of 2021 and 2022 of GMHHAY to a new blank manuscript.
And it was 700,000 words.
1,800 pages.
This is not good! Lisa can cut a lot — easily half of it is fluff who are we kidding here, that’s GMHHAY’s whole schtick. It is an artist’s way exercise of flow, hoping there are some gems in there. And there are gems!
But can we really cut… say… 80% of it and maintain the feel, the spirit of GMHHAY?
I don’t know.
Or do we put out two volumes a year, going forward? Which would put us, now, in late 2024, on volume eight or so? That seems, absurd?
But also be pretty cool to have eight more books done like magic har har.
Now, I realize no one wants to read these. I do think there’s some really great historic, literary merit to the first volume of GMHHAY. I think the pandemic is a super “interesting” time, and someday people will want original source material of how we all lived our lives in this time. But, then, you know, people like to memoryhole pandemics, so I don’t think this is going to happen any time soon, not in my lifetime. And, post pandemic, or at least post-government-admitting-there’s-a-pandemic, I… I mean I have sort of mostly stopped writing about current events in here, not sure if you noticed. The whole thing has gotten more insular, striving to find an even smaller stage. My Struggle, this ain’t. Or so I have been lead to believe. I have never read it. I keep meaning to. But who’s got that kind of time, says the guy that has written like 5x more words than Knausgard. Actually, I wonder what his editing process is. I wonder how much he writes to make a volume of that thing.
SO, wondering what you think. I am especially curious of your opinion if you have read the bulk of the online version as well as volume 1 in print but who are we kidding that is pretty much just me. At the moment, I’m leaning towards a) more volumes, b) shorter reading length, c) 20% or so more merciless editing. And banging em out quick. Like 7 more volumes in the next year. Maybe only for sale in print in a box set or something. I don’t know. Print book buyers, let me know your thoughts.
I fell through the ceiling yesterday. I mean, not completely, but up to my waist. One leg through the floor into the laundry room below, one leg sticking straight up by my face. I did not know I could stretch that far. It is a miracle I did not get hurt more. I was up in the Chore House attic, talking to the spray foam team about what parts needed foam and what parts didn’t. They had covered the floor in plastic — which is weird because it’s just a subfloor but whatever, very kind f them – so I didn’t see a hole in the subfloor we had made a year ago to find steel beams and plan HVAC vents. I am very thankful I wasn’t hurt worst, and I am very thankful the hole was in the laundry room, not the living room, so I don’t have to patch it any time soon, because my god I hate patching drywall who has time for that many layers of skimming and sanding not me.
A year ago, when the spray foam people estimated the job, they knew they were going to have to leave the beams exposed, and they factored it into the job. But when the team arrived yesterday, boy they were not psyched about that. I am sorry, spray foam team. So today a second mobile spray foam unit is joining the first one, so they can get it all done today, but honestly I doubt they’ll manage that. I think it’s gonna be a three-day job.
But I am very excited it’s happening! After this, the HVAC people come back next week to turn on the attic zone and get it all working, and then the attic will be a) completely enclosed in the envelope, so temperate, and b) ready for me to start working on the studio, specifically the floor. There is so much to do to the floor, I will probably be working on it for a year. Will I enjoy doing the ultra-repetitive tasks myself? Or will it be one I hate? And I get like four segments done and then beg a team to come help. We will see! Could go either way!
Drove Jane to school today in Emma’s car, my car is getting it’s safety inspection done and an overpriced wash and detail. Man. Cars are so person. Emma’s got all this stuff in her car. Everything is so small and cramped, because I am a giant compared to her. And gas cars. So slow. Man I love accelleration. I don’t love speeding — I am no angel but I try not to be a speed demon. But I love zooming. And ICE vehicles are just so absurdly slow. And now sketching app for Jane to draw poops with. Marriage is so weird: I know you better than any human has ever known another but also your car is a complete mystery to me. How is it humans are simultaneously so social but so insular? We’re like Homermobiles designed by a lunatic.
Two Simpsons references, one edition. I heard its last episode finally aired, guess it’s on my mind. Maybe now that it’s done I’ll go back and watch the last, like, fifteen seasons or so? Oh also got the Unbreakable Kimi Schmidt theme song stuck in my head this morning, out of the blue. Wonder if that holds up on a rewatch. The show where Don Draper cemented his comic chops. Guy really is a master, doesn’t get enough credit. Kinda think he might make a great James Bond or.. I dunno, someone give him a franchise.
Got a Post Rock playlist for you this morning. Almost wrote “Post Rick” and boy now I am thinking about death again aww crap. Anyway I just discovered this “Crippling Alcoholism” band yesterday and boy do they have all sorts of potential. Need to learn more. Wish I coulda gone and seen Duster this weekend but it was the same night as Sigur Ros.
You guys have a just spiffing Tuesday. It will be great. I promise.