Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1102
Strep has entered the building. Did the cold kill the Mosquitos? Hurracán Serrato rearview mirror bullshit, highs and lows at the Grammys, TAD, Riker statue, Stanley shoulda seen it coming.
Good morning. Hello. How are you? I hope you are doing well. I am much better, thanks. But Jane isn’t. Jane has strep. After I gave up on trying to get Jane to go to school, Emma took a crack. They got to the school, parked, even got to the front door, but after thirty minutes, Jane still wouldn’t go in. Emma said if she didn’t go to school she’d have to go to the doctor, thinking maybe such a prospect would inspire Jane to go to school. But Jane called her bluff, and said “okay.” So off to the doctor they went. Jane’s stomach has been hurting on and off for a week now, since the last time she was sick. But neither Emma or I was aware that was a symptom of strep. Go figure. They gave her a test, told her it was negative, and I went on a nice spiral of thinking my kid had stomach cancer or something. Then they called back an hour later and said “oh sorry we read it wrong, she does have strep.” Awesome. As strep goes, it’s not too bad. So there is that.
But man, I wish that girl communicated more. When she was at the doctor she told the doctor “my stomach always hurts” which she had never said to either of us! Gah! Talking to kids is so hard! Why does she never answer! I mean, sometime — often! — you can ask her a question and she will say absolutely nothing. We try to reassure her that it’s just about acknowledging the other person, that it’s okay if she just says “I don’t know.” But it doesn’t always take.
Anyhoo. I am just venting. Thank you for your kind words yesterday on our parenting. I wasn’t looking for them or advice, but they were nice nonetheless.
Item: I am incredibly disappointed to learn that the Lamborghini Hurracán Serrato has a analog rearview mirror that only shows you: the intake vent. As in you can see nothing whatsoever out of the rearview mirror. And this car cost $300,000 and does not have a video rearview mirror. This is stunningly stupid. I hearby cross off the only ICE vehicle on my dream car list.
Item: Please sign this petition asking the city of Valdez, in Alaska, to make a statue of Will Riker from Star Trek, since he was born there. Valdez could really use this. Maybe right down by the docks where the ferry and tourists come in. It is almost to its goal of 2,500 signatures. You could be the one that puts it over the edge!
[Jane has just entered the room, done with breakfast and Emma has worked her magic and gotten her to take her antibiotics and she consented to a three-star, but not five-star hug. She did happy hands. She is now using her computer to do her 750 words. Lovely.]
Speaking of Alaska, wanna ask you Fairbanksans: how long was it below -50°F this year? Do we think it was three, four days? I am wondering if it got cold enough to kill off the mosquitos next summer. The internet is giving me mixed messages, here, and some sights are claiming they can survive anything, which seems suspect (absolute zero? Really?). I distinctly recall one summer — 1990 maybe? — where it was supposedly cold enough that we had far fewer mosquitos supposedly because of the cold. Am I imagining this? Anyway, Emma said if there’s ever a summer where they mosquitos are all killed off, she’ll come up and visit again, so this is relevant to my interests. Any information you may have on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
Watched the Grammys yesterday. “Fast Car” was amazing. Just so amazing. Like on six or seven levels? Here is Tracy Chapman! Just, wow. Looking amazing, looking completely at peace, radiating warmth, as if she never went anywhere. And then! She’s like… made a come back because some big ole weird hillbilly white guy covered her song, which is almost certainly not a thing she had on her life bingo card. But she takes it in, is totally cool with it. To some people this would be a Faustian bargain: you can have your comeback, but it’ll be tied to someone almost antithetically opposite of you. But not Tracy, she’s fine with it, one way or another. And then! These two! Their voices! I mean, there is no reason to suspect that Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs would have voices that would mesh so well — or even to suspect the two could agree to a key in which to sing the song. But nope, all good bro, it just so happens that they sound freakin perfect together. Just beautiful. Brought me to tears. Brought me straight back to 1988, driving around with my high school girlfriend listening to that song. Straight back to buying the cassingle at Musicland (RIP). Still have that cassingle. I am going to listen to it today.
I swear to god, Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs doing “Fast Car” together is everything good about America rolled up into one. If you have discovered some terrible fact about this on the internet, don’t tell me. I want to hold on to this feeling.
Annie Lennox singing Sinead also brought me to tears but — and this is heresy — I wish she sang a different song. Sinead’s autobiography has kind of killed that song for me, and indeed I’m pretty off of Prince now. Love Wendy and Lisa, though, that was a bonus, and I suppose it’d be slightly less thematic if Annie Lennox did “Never Get Old” with Wendy and Lisa.
Is it heresy to be off Prince now? I will need to unpack this.
Trevor Noah was a great host.
Olivia was robbed. Loved her red dress and blood and “Vampire,” which I love so much but I suspect if she put “Get him Back” up for a nom she might have won something.
Taylor’s plug of her new album was even more cringey in real life than it was reading about it and it did not feel “for the fans” at all. The only reason it was arguably “for the fans” is because Taylor affirmatively chose to start pumping them full of easter eggs in the last few weeks (do we capitalize “Easter” in “easter eggs?”) She did not need to do that she coulda just done that with her Tokyo shows or the Super Bowl or, like, an announcement that the Eras film doesn’t cost $20 to rent anymore. That’d be a gift for the fans.
So what’s the next leg of the Eras tour gonna be? Is it gonna be longer? Is there gonna be a whole Tortured Poets segment? (gawd, that name.) Or is she gonna cut short some of the other segments to keep the whole show at the same length? Is everyone gonna feel like they need to go again? Is it gonna cheapen or enhance the prestige of having gone to a leg one show? Don’t tell me she hasn’t thought this through.
Lionel Ritchie looked awesome.
Mostly, though, I felt sadness and alienation watching the Grammys. I mean, there were sublime moments, and I do like pop, and I do like almost every artist nominated or awarded, but c’mon man, it is such a small slice of the galaxy that is music. The balkanization of not televising a ton of the awards (congrats, Jason Isbell!) because they’re not pop is annoying. The complete ignoring of whole schools of music, and then Trevor saying they have everything. It’s just weird. I mean, I know this is every award show ever, and I had definitely fallen on black days yesterday (Soundgarden has won two Grammys), but it really bummed me out. As much as the Oscars used to (Keislowski was robbed) when I was a cineaste.
(This Föllakazoid record has a locked groove and it might be the best one ever)
(Jane is playing with the Oblique Strategies cards I think I’m gonna need another deck)
I think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Anew. In my 50s. It is fucking weird. I never had it growing up. I mean.. probably? Then again, I was really sad a lot as a teenager, wasn’t I? But to have it now, worse, while living in the freakin Carolinas is so, so strange. But I’m starting to think it is undeniable. I hate cold days now. Even moderately cold ones — like the 50’s. I hate them even when it’s sunny. Can you have a non-sun-based Seasonal Affective Disorder? Temperature Affective Disorder? Because I think that’s me.
I don’t know what more to do or say about that, just struck me a few times this winter and I figure I need to start facing it head on and processing it.
This lead-in-Stanley-Cups thing is incredibly reflective of the exact same brouhaha last year with Kitchenaid attachments. Like the exact same thing! They have a lead core and are then coated and if the coating gets nicked or damaged, you will be exposed to lead. And both parties are kind of right, in the sense that no, under normal circumstances, you will not be exposed to lead, and so it will be “safe.” That is a not-unreasonable position to take. But! It should also be manifestly obvious — especially after the Kitchenaid debacle — that consumers do not want lead in their kitchen appliances or, really, anything! And the consumer is king, or so they used to tell me. And this is not unreasonable! Nicks can be small and unnoticed! And only a little bit of lead can fuck you up!
(By the way, dark chocolate? Ton of lead. We should probably give it up. Sorry to be the one to tell you this.)
I absolutely think that after KitchenAid, Stanley has zero excuse, and should have seen this coming. Their competitors did. Someone should lose their job over it. And it should be whatever person is chosen by the person there — cuz you know there was at least one — who tried to get Stanley to get the lead out (ha) and failed.
And of course it all really makes you wonder — what else has lead in it? And the odds are the answer is: any heavy item in your kitchen that is coated in something. And they will, inevitably, suffer the same consumer rebellion. And they should see it coming.
My guess is Le Creuset is next. I mean. Obviously. What else would make them that heavy.
Today’s Media of the Day is a drone playlist because I’m listening to this Föllakazoid album right now and it is great and I want to share it with people. Learned about them when they did an EP with J Spacemen from Spiritualized and have been very into their albums since. Also very into Les Big Byrd these days, and this new collaboration between Jan Power and Jan MacLean, the appropriately and brilliantly named Man Power, is A+ fantastic too. Just a great little mix here. Enter into a trance state and find the higher plane.
Okay hey thank you for being a friend. If you were to have a party and invite everyone you knew, you would see the biggest card would be from me, and the card attached would say thank you for being a friend.