Good morning. Hello. How are you? I am great! Sun is shining again. Always lovely. I mean I know that’s a repetitive sort of opener, but when it’s 7:45 AM and you haven’t done much yet, you don’t have much to go on when reporting on how you’re doing. I got to sleep okay, I slept 8 hours, I haven’t looked (too much) at the news yet, the company didn’t go out of business overnight, what is there to complain about?
(Remember that company line that is foreshadowing for my first business-related GMHHAY post in a few days).
And it occurred to me today that I don’t actually need to title these things. I hereby declare they are all titled “Good Morning. Hello. How Are You?” They are a single, cumulative work. They are chapters.
Speaking of which! The other day I received a copy of The Pahrump Report in the mail, the new book from my old friend Lisa Carver. Lisa is the only person whom I support via Patreon, because Lisa is amazing and Lisa is doing awesome things. She spent a year or so in Pahrump and it was kind of a glorious train wreck and she would send weekly (or so) reports out from it. Those reports just turned into her latest book. Which was SO GREAT! Because usually when you get a book in the mail you think (well, I do) “Welp, there’s one more for the infinite to-read pile.” But in this case? Nope! I had already read it. Fantastic. Anyway, Lisa is kind of my inspiration with these posts, she’s just such a great journaler. Last week, she moved to Botswana for no particular reason. Because it seemed cheap. her Patreon is basically now a liveblog of her discovering the ins and outs of daily life in Botwsana and, for a dude sitting here in rural North Carolina, if that’s not a fantastic reminder of how the internet can occasionally be good, well, then, I don’t know what is.
Also fun fact: Lisa edited my Trek book and the Andy Shea book. If you need copy-editing, she is fantastic.
Man. Writing this on Facebook all this time, I didn’t realize how much I missed italics.
Yesterday was shockingly a very busy day. Mondays are usually pretty chill. I’m completely neurotic about the workweek these days so I try and dip my toes into it. Have Monday mostly free to get up to speed, finish last week’s tasks etc. But this Monday was insane. For starters, I had a podcast appearance. I didn’t exactly forget about it, but with all the excitement around my mom I hadn’t really given it the brainpower it deserved. Also it was one of those things where you’re not 100% sure if it’s sort of a prepatory conversation that you’re having with the host, or it’s the actual interview. I had it in my head we were just planning the interview, but then I got the link to that fancy podcasting recording-slash-teleconferencing software all the pro podcasters used and I was like “oh whoops this is actually the interview good thing I’m wearing a barrette, and a bright orange shirt that makes me look like a pumpkin.” Not that you can see me on the podcast. But the interviewer could.
Anyway, it came out all right here it is:
Hrm I don’t know if that worked. Substack’s help pages said just paste in the URL. We shall see I guess.
Speaking of podcasts, my old friend (and OG Barbarian) Eva dropped a line with a great interview she did for something called the A-List podcast, and it was awesome and took me back:
Wow I was going to change the alignment of that Soundcloud embed to center it, but Substack doesn’t let you center text yet. That… is something.
But yeah. Busy day. Between podcast, making a bunch more of my mom’s medical appointments (still no diagnosis we’re hoping next week), and writing and editing a ton of work documents, busy day. Lotta contract redlining. Lotta editing. Good work. Work I like. Still. Busy.
I sent out one last email to my old TinyLetter mailing list. I used that list a total of six times or so - once to promote each book as they came out, and once to promote the Defective Frequency album. But the whole point of moving this over to an email list is so that I get it into the hands of people who left Facebook. But how do they even get to know about it if I only tell people on Facebook? So I sucked it up and did a bit of self promotion, which I hate, hate, hate. My old friend and bandmate Annie and I are forever bonded in our loathing of self promotion, which is probably why our old design firm didn’t do so well compred to the one I started with a guy who doesn’t mind doing self promotion. Powerful life lesson and protip business lesson right there. Lemme make a TikTok video about it. “When starting a business, consider promoting it.” But work this self promotion did, and I got a bunch of new sign-ups from old friends. So thank you thank you. It means a lot. It’ll hurt when people start unsubscribing because, my god, the email list went from one a year to six a week, but. Well. I am a grownup. I will be able to handle it. I know this whole thing is ridiculous but it really helps me feel connected with people, down here in the middle of nowhere in the south. And feeling connected down here is going to feel harder than ever once the pandemic is over, and everyone is out doing fun stuff again and FOMO comes back into my life stronger than ever. So, yeah. Thank you.
Also, for the Facebook readers, I will just point out that there are comments enabled on the emails, too. ;)
I bought my mom this awesome folding tray for her walker, so she could move around with her coffee and meals, only it was defective (I reiterate: it was not her fault) and it tipped over and spilled her coffee and no big deal except it broke my awesome Grinderman mug and I know I’ve been slightly less enthused about Nick Cave in recent years, but I loved that Grinderman mug and their ridiculous facial hair and am very sad about it being gone. Don’t tell my mom. She is racked with guilt. But it was not her fault. Now I have an eBay alert on it, but no luck. What a sad thing.
Then right after that I came back downstairs to try and keep writing the work essay and that Husavik my Hometown song from the Eurovision movie came on and it made me cry again. That song makes me cry every time, even if the whales line is poorly written. I know there’s supposed to be a comedic undertone but, man. I feel it. Grown man crying. Every time.
Anyway, I ended the day with some therapeutic cardboard shredding. Jane shares my love of cardboard shredding. I’m in this sort of limbo where I haven’t emptied the garbage hamper bins (what do you call those bins with the big flippy lid on them and the two wheels anyway) of last year’s dirt so I can re-purpose one as a hopper for shredded cardboard, but I have to do the recycling tomorrow, so I wanted to at least fill the bin attached to the recycler with cardboard before I take the rest to the collection center. So after dinner Jane and I spent about 40 minutes shredding and it was just lovely. Then we went up for bedtime and one thing I noticed is that while she’s over at her coloring station coloring, she is still paying attention to my YouTube videos. I tried to fast-forward through a boring section of a video about Skid Steer Repair from Red Poppy Ranch (who are probably MAGA but have an oddly charming and compelling YouTube channel) and she was not having it: “Go Back? Go Back?” she would repeat until I complied. Yes, master.
I am sleeping in the Guest Room while my mom’s here (the perils of a first floor master - you have to give it up when the more needy come along). But one thing about it that is nice is I get to sleep amongst my books again. I love my books. Looking at them is a nice trip down memory lane.
OK well let’s wrap this up. One thing I want to tell you about before I go is the studfinder that will change your life. Seriously. Emma bought me this for Christmas and I do not think I am being hyperbolic when I say it’s one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. All studfinders suck compared to this one. It is amazing. Normal studfinders have one studfinder. This thing is the Spinal Tap of studfinders and more. It goes to thirteen. Thirteen individual studfinders. It is magnificent. This is not hyperbole. It will change your life.
Let’s do a mix! OF GOTH STUFF. New Goth! New Goth is alive and well. I should say here these are songs that *I* consider the spiritual successors to goth, not necessarily the bands that are called or considered goth these days, which seems to have sort of gone away as a genre in name but certainly not in spirit. And this is maybe good after that part where things were passing as goth that were just basically techno-meets-synth-pop. There’s a great world out there of artists making music I think that carry on the tradition. And this is a mix of them. Except it also includes Peter Murphy but, then again, that guy is occasionally still making some decent goth music, I gotta admit. Yeah, this is a good mix. Particularly fond of Ian William Craig I don’t know much about that guy but he is monstrously talented. Enjoy.
Okay let’s get out of here I gotta go wake up Jane and do breakfast and talk to Brown Bear and Kitty. I have this whole complicated separate life where I enact long dramas with Brown Bear and Kitty for Jane each morning. She gets very sad if I don’t do it for her. If I am being honest Brown Bear might be my closest friend in the world right now. But I have you guys, so thank you. Thank you.
Thanks for the tip on Lisa's new book and the spinal tap stud-finder. I miss Lisa's brain and (via Reno & Gerlach) I miss the weirdness that is Nevada.
Also our bedroom has a nasty hole above the window from a recent attempt to use those plastic (studless) screw anchors to hang blackout currents. No bueno.
Have you checked out the bands on The Flenser (https://theflenser.bandcamp.com/)? I like the concept of "spiritual successors to goth." That sums up what I think of most of the stuff on this label. It's fresh but has a similar aesthetic to what I liked about the early days of goth. The Black Wing record that came out late last year is just amazing.They have a nice record club that I'm on my 3rd year of subscribing to and the shipments rarely disappoint.