Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1073
Ikea run, Threads is getting boring, Trucks in cities, Death Hole: Do Not Enter
Good morning everyone. It’s your friendly neighborhood graphomaniac reporting for duty. Hello. How are you? What’s new? What day is it? Thursday? Swell. What do I have to do today after my little morning ritual of words, words, words (that’s from Hamlet look at me I’m clever) and business business numbers numbers (that’s from the LEGO movie aren’t I fun)? I get to go to Ikea today. WOO. It’s just a pickup though I am not going to go inside the Ikea because that would be insane. It is the one on Route 24 in Stoughton, next to the Jordan’s furniture, the one with the MOM ride.
I used to work down there at a recording studio. Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme did his soo work there. And Sam Black Church. And Steven Tyler. And Boston’s seminal 90’s shoegaze band Rockets Burst from the Streetlamps. And a Low live album was mastered there. And the first Don Lennon album. Great studio, great job, I was very happy there I probably would have worked there forever if they didn’t lay me off.
I have to call Bank of America and I am dreading it. It is very stressful. Should I just go to a branch? Maybe I will just go to a branch. I deposited a check in an ATM and it is showing the deposit and then a “correction” in the exact inverse amount of the deposit. At first I just thought it would clear in a few days but it will have been a week in about six hours so that is somewhat alarming I would like my money please.
Yesterday was a quality day of puttering around the apartment getting things more set up. I rearranged my bedroom. I frustratingly realized the curtain rods I purchased won’t work. Emma did laundry and organized boxes. Together we calibrated the projector to get proper yellows. Turn off the “brilliant color” setting and the yellows are more brilliant, paradoxically.
Had to make a run to the hardware store (again, surprise surprise) and I drove because I might be getting some big stuff. Saw a Chevy truck in the parking lot, and, man, it’s so weird. There are so few trucks here. It really is a different world from where I live. The parking spaces are so small. Like, they’re a little tight for Mazda CX-5. I shudder to think what it would be like parking and driving my Lightning around here. Honestly trucks probably ought to be banned in cities — Rivians too. Or at least you should have to get a CDL to drive them. I can see why the constant debate rages about “big” trucks: because people are living in radically different environments. There is basically zero pedestrian risk of me driving a “big truck” where I live. Here? Seems like a murder weapon. Wildly unsafe.
Later in the evening we did Daddy Jane Dance Party and Bed Party and it was fun to do all our bedtime rituals here in a different apartment. Quack Quack and Gigi and Caticorn took part, which was just swell. Emma joined us for Daddy Jane Dance Party. We listened to Madonna and Taylor and Olivia and Blackpink and, um… something else… Robyn! That was nice.
And then I went to Man Ray, the most excellent club that was once in existence for twenty or thirty years, then not in existence for ten or fifteen years, and is now in existence again and it really is pretty great. The bartender Terry there sold me my first legal drink when I turned 21 years old thirty years ago. The regular DJ, my good friend Chris, wasn’t there, but that was fine because the fill-in DJ was a dude I’ve known for 30 years and he played some really great stuff, most notably “Gathering Dust” by Modern English, which sounds freaking awesome in a club and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in a club before so that was a nice new experience in life. Danced my little heart out. He also played Ministry’s 1985 banger “Every Day is Halloween” back-to-back with Ministry’s 1989 collaboration with Cabaret Voltaire, “No Name No Slogan” so that was fun.
Man Ray is so fascinating these days. I mean, it’s fascinating always, a cultural institution unrivaled anywhere in the US, a comeback story of absolutely impossible odds, and a club every bit as interesting now as it was when I first stepped foot in it thirty years ago. How many nightclubs in America span generations? How many clubs are cool enough to be packed full of kids while also having a substantial contingent of people old enough to be their grandparents? It is fucking crazy. I remember when I was a kid I would go and just be in awe at all the beautiful young women there. I am no longer in awe or distracted by beautiful young women but they are still there, even as I, a dude in my 50’s, can wander in five nights a week and be confident I’ll run into some old friends. It is crazy! There were people who just… didn’t go out for a decade or so because there wasn’t anywhere for them or their tastes and… now they go out all the time again. How weird is that?
What a world, what a world.
Threads is getting boring. The algorithm is getting worse. When I first joined, it was constantly recommending cool rock bands to me, cool artists, record labels. Now it just keeps recommending tech bros and journalists to me, and, I mean, journalists are fine, but I don’t need more tech bros in my life. It is disappointing. I am sad.
I want a social network where to get in you have to: write a piece of short fiction; release/draw/paint/sculpt/photograph or design something that is not related to technology, make a short film, or record a song. That would be so great.
Yesterday Jane came up to me with a new drawing and it was entirely abstract: not representational at all. And not a scribble or doodle, but actually an abstract piece of art. So we spent some time and I taught Jane about abstract art and representational art and we looked at all the art on the fridge and discussed whether each drawing was abstract or representational.
And then Jane went away and came back with a new abstract drawing that had two signs on it:
“Death hole.”
“Do Not Enter.”
And a little picture of a skull.
It was so great. Proud of my little art student.
Oh crap no playlist today. I just realized my IKEA pickup is at 11 and not 1 whoops. Need to run. TTFN.