Good morning. Hello. How are you? #632
Good morning. Hello. How are you? If I am being honest, I feel like ass. I do not have COVID, at least I assume I don’t, ask me again in eight minutes. Emma is done with her quarantine, but of course I was hanging out with her for two days between her exposure and going into quarantine, so I suppose theoretically I should test for two more days. That’s fine. Good excuse to use up these older BINAXNOW tests that are about to expire. I just feel kind of like ass. I was super tired last night, went to bed early, slept a little late, still feel tired. I suppose theoretically it could be something to do with watching Jane solo for three days straight, which, not gonna lie, was exhausting even though she was a complete gem again yesterday. She just… wanted a lot of attention, all the time. This is quite reasonable for a four year-old. It is very hard to constantly provide when you’re working and doing conference calls and board meetings and stuff. We managed. We managed. I do not think the two are particularly related.
Lots of fun COVID takes this morning about how, like, don’t worry, airplanes are really well ventilated! Except for the part where the ventilation is not turned on for a half hour on either end of the trip. And the hours spent in airports, and how nice it was to have one fucking place in this country still where everyone had to still wear a mask, why should airports be any different than any other place in America you need to go but now have exactly zero reassurances of safety. I like how America is simultaneously “you don’t need to be in the airport” and “OMG I MUST GO TO CABO OWWW MY RIGHTS.”
I got the new Spiritualized album late last night so I am listening to it for the first time right now, which is not an appropriate method to listen to a Spiritualized album for the first time. Listening to a Spiritualized album for the first time with it on in the background while you’re writing is nice, don’t get me wrong, but you aren’t really listening to it. The appropriate way is either sitting in front of giant speakers alone in the dark, or driving in a car with the volume cranked up. I still remember that very first Spiritualized show, 1992, at Avalon, except it would have been Citi club then, right? I did not know Spiritualized, I was there to see the Mary Chain, but I did know Spacemen 3 and I was a young tyke who went and saw openers and I was already hooked on Spiritualized by the first song, but then they played “Walkin With Jesus” and I was like waaaaait a minute is this the Spacemen 3 guy and I got so excited. My gig list says that I have seen Spiritualized 27 times, Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines 3 times, and Spiritualized play the entirety of Ladies and Gentleman We are Floating in Space with a symphony orchestra three times in three different cities. There was a period around Pure Phase where they were playing Boston all the time and I would mostly go and stand there and sob. My one great regret is I was supposed to go to Spiritualized’s concert at the top of the World Trade Center, “the highest show on earth,” and in the end I didn’t go down to New York for it from Boston because of a girl. Whoops. Not only were Spiritualized the last band to play the World Trade Center, they were among the first English bands to say “fuck it,” and get back on a plane and fly to America after 9/11 for a tour. It was in October 2001 at Axis. It was the fourth time I’d seen them in that room.
(Oh hey 8 minutes went by I still do not have COVID).
I suppose we should mention the news that it’s April 21st, and everybody knows today is Earth Day, merry Christmas, happy birthday to whoever’s being born. It is not Earth Day, of course, tomorrow is, but that did not stop Dramarama from writing one of the most well-known songs about Earth Day, “What are we going to do?” And mis-identifying the actual date of Earth Day. Longtime readers will recall this has been a hot topic on and around Earth Day for the last three fucking years that we have been in quarantine when Earth Day rolls around. Pretty sure it was last year but who can really say anymore, but eventually GMHHAY’s dilligent readers assisted in solving this mystery, which is that Dramarama played the original two-day concert festival in San Francisco celebriating Earth Day. The festival took place April 21st and April 22nd, and Dramarama played on April 21st, so, there you go, the lyrics to their song were wrong for all time. At least this is our main thesis for an explantion to this, at least that is how I remember it from last year, don’t make me spend the third April 21st in a row Googling shit about Dramarama, I might have to, like, listen to those pretty-good late-period Dramarama albums again.
It seems that Brother Arnold of the Sabbathday Shakers — the last Shaker community in the world, down to three members — has no intention of slowing down, and we can add “professional grant writer” to Brother Arnold’s long list of skills, as the Sabbathday shakers have secured a $750,000 grant from the feds as part of their $3-4 million fundraising effort to make a visitor center and, checks notes, herb center for their Shaker village. I am here for this. I need to visit these Shakers so bad, I have so many questions for Brother Arnold. Though I guess I could go visit them on this trip to Boston in May but, yeah, I’m not gonna do that. Next time. Famous last words.
Ten years or so after I stopped publicly identifying myself as a tech investor I still get investment spam every day. Most of it is, like, obvious scams, but sometimes you get one where they’re like “hi we have this famous VC firm as our lead investor for $1 million and we’re filling out the round with important investors like you!” And I’m like “like me in what way? That you got off a spam list? Do your famous investors know you’re doing this? Because it makes you look desperate and spammy and scummy.” I mean, I do not actually say this to them, I just think it, but I sure do wonder about it. Like… are they just lying completely? Like that Brazillian insurance company that just lied outright that Berkshire Hathaway was investing in them? This is probably the answer, right? Sequoia or A16Z or whoever is not actually investing in them at all, the whole thing is probably just a scam, huh? I should do more investigating about this. Hrm! I just did and… wow, it turns out it’s a real company and that famous VC firm really is investing in them. Well, sir, I admire your shamelessness.
Livejournal turned 23 last week. Coincidentally, I had a dream that I bought Livejournal back from the Russians. Monetized it with Nimbus. It was an awesome dream, got me really excited, now I want to own Livejournal but, alas, Russian sanctions. There is a thing I never thought I would say. Maybe I’ll start reading those Russian sanction advisories from my lawyers to make sure there’s not a “I want to buy Livejournal” loophole in them. Wouldn’t it be cool to own Livejournal? Maybe we could convince George RR Martin to start using it again.
Okay I am out of time, sadly, I stalled so much getting out of bed and I kept putting a letter in the wrong place in Wordle, and I didn’t get it until 5 and it took forever, so now I am behind schedule and I gotta go get Jane in a sec. Feel like I was on a pretty good GMHHAY run this week, too, all things considered.
Old goth mix, only one I had even remotely prepared. Plus, it’s been a while, hannit?