Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1125
Book fair, Jane's first wallet, dorm dreams, ailments check, The Crow soundtrack, a lot of questions for Kacey Musgraves about the song "This Town."
Good morning! Hello! Greetings from 7:49 AM. Jane was so excited to go to school today, owing to it being picture day and book fair, where she got a wallet and cash for the first time and is going to buy books. Man, this whole Scholastic book fair thing is taking me back. I fuckin loved the book fair when I was a kid. And they still have the exact same brochure/catalog thingy that you can take home and pour over. It is, however, a bit smaller, which is sad, and filled with a lot of dumb books, but I suppose it was back then as well. Jane’s wallet has a Hello Kitty on it. The Hello Kitty has a bear friend. The bear friend is reading a card that Hello Kitty made for her. The card says “Bear!” on it. It is very cute.
Jane was so excited we got there earlier than we ever have - 7:23 AM for 7:30 doors, 8AM school start. We were 22nd in line. But we were far enough in line that we could observe the mechanics of the school opening. It is all very interesting. A few kids get to go in early — the accompanying adult has a key card. Are they employees? PTA moms? No idea. And then at about 7:28 all the kids in the car loop get out of their cars and gather at the front door. It’s like a Walmart on Black Friday or something. These kids are so freakin’ excited to go to school it is real weird. We weren’t quite early enough to be in the loop, we were three cars past it, so Jane didn’t get to participate, but that does seem right up her alley. Guess we’ll have to get there at 7:22 some day.
The commute home is a lot easier ten minutes early, too. That was nice.
And even though this whole Daylight SavingS Time is bullshit, I do like the way the sun is rising on my drive home, it makes me happy, fills me with joy.
Do you think we haven’t abolished Daylight SavingS Time (doing the capital S twice so the people who missed yesterday don’t think it’s a typo) because the Republicans don’t want to hand Biden a win? I do, I think that. Kinda in that same vein of “retail politics” they are obsessed with because they think people are dumb when they try and rail about gas stoves or their dishwashers. I bet if Trump wins they will send a DST-banning bill to him right away.
Golly.
Had another dorm room dream last night. Nick and I were rooming together and we discovered a way to make a piece of art out of 2x4s on which you could record sound by delicately etching the sound into the 2x4 with a modified thickness planer. We sold them for $700 each. Then aliens attacked the dorm and we had to escape in star-liners not dissimilar to those star-liners in the middling Obi Wan.
Then we became space refugees.
Let’s do an ailments check:
cold or whatever: lingering but improving. Still in my chest. Still hacking up tiny, hard balls of phlegm. Pain in my lymph notes and neck, both sides.
left thumb: feels sprained. Can’t scroll Instagram. Better go to the ER
right index finger: cut healing, but in an annoying place and still aggravating
giant bruise behind right knee: still giant, still doesn’t hurt
cut on right shin from six months ago when I walked into the corner of a bed: STILL healing
cut on the right shin from two weeks ago: still hurts like a mofo
leg cramping: still happening. emailed doctor about it.
exhaustion: still happening. emailed doctor about it. I think these last two are a side effect of either my blood pressure medication or my Zepbound.
OH. Speaking of which, went to pick up all my drugs at the pharmacy and goth girl was there and I just happened to be wearing my Cindytalk t-shirt (Dais records 2022 version, not crumbling 1996 tour version) and she was not impressed or at least didn’t say anything so either she is not goth enough or she is so goth she doesn’t talk to other humans. Who can say.
Speaking of goth I am listening to my new vinyl copy of soundtrack to The Crow, track three, the Soundgarden song. This soundtrack rules. Even the Machines of Loving Grace song. That band was underrated. Great live show. Would almost consider going to a reunion show, then buying a ticket for $38 and not going to the show because I am tired because of a drug interaction because I am old. That sounds like a good night.
Speaking of which, for certain shows where I am convinced I’ll end up missing it, and I do not think there is much of an easy resale market, I have been buying the “ticket insurance.” They say it’s for any reason? But I don’t actually know how to use it, to get my money back if the reason is “I am old and tired.” Has anyone ever actually used this insurance? Is it a total scam? I mean yes, it is a total scam and I should just stop using it, right? Or is it a total scam where if you figure out “this one weird trick” that most people don’t figure out, it can be useful?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Wow gate just opened at Chore House, those Neurodivergent-Affirming Pediatric Speech Therapists get to work freakin early.
Oh my god this NIN cover of Joy Division is so much better than I realized at the time.
Okay I am changing gears completely here. Well, not completely, because it is still about music, but I have decided that if I ever get to interview Kacey Musgraves, the entire interview will be about the perfect song “This Town” on her perfect album Pageant Material. I have so many questions:
Kacey, when you wrote this song did you know that it was a perfect song? Were you super excited? Did you feel yourself channeling Bobbie Gentry? Did you know that you had within you to be the heir to the queen?
Kacey, you know that in 21st century America, small towns are actually not like that and that a ton of people in them are busybodies and mean AF and there are, in fact, affairs and crime?
Kacey, can I say how brilliant you are for ignoring that reality and not letting it get in the way of a perfect pop song?
Kacey, do you really think a town with only a single blinking light would have a grocery store or a VFW in modern America?
Kacey, will you ever write a song like this again?
Kacey, do you ever reflect on the fact that you wrote an hommage to the myth of the wholesome American small town, which is a lie, but also very clearly have spent your whole career trying to get away from such things? You so obviously love the city. Was “This Town,” in fact a cynical country play or have you, in fact, evolved? Or do you contain multitudes?
Kacey, will you ever write a country song again?
Kacey, is your favorite band at this time Everything but the Girl, because the advance tracks from your new album make me wonder this?
Sorry, that was not a question about “This Town.” I guess I’m just wondering: Kacey, in tracks like “This Town” and “High Horse” and “Blowin’ Smoke,” you wrote with a keen sympathy to America’s service industry class: hair stylists and receptionists and dishwashers and the like. Do you think you will ever write a song like this again?
Kacey, I love that with Starcrossed and your new album you seem to be blazing a different trail (follow your arrow, yo) for stardom that has its roots in country but moves into mainstream pop rock, as opposed to Taylor Swift. And that seems to be, like, don’t actually care what mainstream music wants and just write a hella introspective album about how you don’t do gravity bong hits for breakfast anymore, or you just had a bad breakup with a city boy. It is kind of super impressive, but also it is kind of… I mean, it seems insanely risky? These tracks are not catchy like “Shake it Off” or “Karma.” How do you possess the confidence that this gambit will work? Are you nervous about the sales of the upcoming Deeper Well this Friday?
Kacey, aside from one performance in 2018 (at Stagecoach), you have not played “This Town” live in eight years. Do you think you could bring this masterpiece back for your upcoming tour?
Speaking of this tour, I was super bummed it was an arena tour, but I just looked and tickets are super affordable. Like $60 in Boston, less than $150 for the best seats in the house. I am shook. Thank you, Kacey, my faith has been restored.
Damn I forgot the Violent Femmes were on this Crow soundtrack.
Today’s Media of the Day is, stunningly, “This Town” by Kacey Musgraves.
Okay it is Tuesday so I got a shit-ton to do. Hardest day of the week. Wish me luck.
Bye!
(The Pantera/For Love Not Lisa segment of The Crow soundtrack may be a weak spot).