Good morning, friend. How’s shakes? All well? Nice weekend? I hope so. I personally had “too busy” of a weekend, one of those weekends where you do a lot of things and then end up feeling very tired when Monday rolls around. But it was good.
We saw Stereolab on Friday evening. The visiting friends decided to come Saturday morning, and Grammy had postponed her night with Jane from Thursday to Friday, so Emma and I found ourselves in a position to both go to the show, which was very exciting. Cat’s Cradle was very, very crowded. Most crowded I’ve ever seen it, actually. Felt oversold. This was one of those twice-rescheduled shows and I suspect at this point they’ve adjusted the ticket sales to those shows based on an average percentage of no-shows or something, but in this case, well, everyone showed up. That back bar area that is usually empty during the show, save for a couple people refilling their drinks, was entirely full. Barely any masks, of course, but we kept ours on, stayed in the back, and kept an eye on our handy CO2 monitor, which stayed in a reasonable range. Fingers crossed.
I used to see Stereolab all the time in the 90’s but gosh it’s been over a decade since I’ve seen them. My concert list says the last time was 2000 at Avalon in Boston. Yeah I don’t even remember that one, but I remember the 1999 Roxy show. I had a bad habit back then about yelling out for them to play “Super Electric,” because it’s their best live song. I didn’t yell about it this time, but all I really wanted was for them to play “Super Electrcic.” And they did! It’s funny because when I was yelling for “Super Electric” in the late 90’s it was already an old Stereolab track. Now it’s even older. But they have come to accept that “Super Electric” is the best ending song for a Stereolab set, and I admire them for accepting this realization sometimes it’s not easy.
It’s weird, at home, I love Stereolab’s loungy stuff, but I’ve always found that stuff pretty boring live. Live, I vastly prefer the drones, the longer and faster the better. A perfect Stereolab setlist for me would be “Super Electric,” “Jenny Odioline,” and “Crumb Duck.” Three songs, forty minutes. Perfect. Still, though, it was great to see them, they really are a band like no other. It was the last show of the tour, they were self-admittedly a little sloppy, but that was fine, it’s one of the things that makes them great they just sound analog.
My noise meter on my watch barely got over 100db. The show, at least from the back, was substantially less loud than my daughter screaming, who, thus far, has peaked the noise meter at 113db.
Lots of kids wearing 80’s clothes it really is something. I mean, it’s weird because they’re mostly, by and large, clothes that were desperately uncool even in the 80’s? Not sure what that’s about. But there’s just so many of them it really is something.
On Saturday morning I managed to get all 40 or so of the Blu Rays and UHD Blu Rays I have purchased and ripped in the last few months listed on eBay. I’ve already sold about 10 of them, brought in about $250 so far (two of the ten I sold so far were box sets). I felt very productive getting that done. Do you need a used copy of Schlaffes Bruder in your life? Consider checking out my eBay store.
Later in the day our friends showed up and we all went back into Chapel Hill for food and a wander, which, gosh, I haven’t done in ages. Lots more 80’s looking kids. I mean one thing that’s kind of nice is that I remember a few years ago walking around the UNC campus and everyone was dressed almost exactly the same. That doesn’t seem to be the case now, lot more individuality and this 80’s dress thing has only infected, like, 25% of them. We only saw on goth. She checked out goth mom Emma with her toddler and Sisters of Mercy shirt. We ate at Linda’s which is not going out of business. I had read an article during the pandemic that the owner was forced so sell. So I asked about it, asked if there was a new owner, and the server said the owner decided to sell his his house instead, which makes a lot of sense. If you owned a house and a bar in the pandemic, one of those had a skyrocketing value and one probably had a depressed value (though I don’t actually know for sure), so I can see why he’d sell his house. The server introduced herself, said she was a manager, said that they were working on buying out the owner, which is just great. That’d be awesome if Linda’s became worker owned.
Nick and Meghan and Henry bring their R-Pod camper with them when they visit, they visited a bunch during the pandemic, it really is great. That camper is fantastic. Now that I have a vehicle that can tow things, Nick is teaching me about towing hitch types, how to hitch and unhitch, how to level it, things like that. I’m still terrified of the whole thing, but am slowly learning.
A nice evening of dinner and then drinks by the fire, and I drank too much which is, like, three drinks, and then was hung over the entire next day but it was worth it. Talking to friends by a fire? Priceless.
Sunday even more friends came over, Jessie and Derek and their daughter June, which was great because Nick and Meghan’s son is named Henry so we had Henry & June over, har, har, har, Anaïs Nin fans get it. Lots of playing on the playset, and a Emma set up a big Halloween-themed crafting table. I put my foot through a floorboard on the dock and was not injured, but it was scary and, man, now I gotta get our dock resurfaced. What a pain.
Jane and June had matching outfits which was pretty great. Also June they’re the same age but June is in the 90th percentile of height and Jane is in the 40th so it’s kind of hilarious:
Henry and Derek wanted to check out the Lightning so we did some laps around the neighborhood, getting out onto the highway and flooring it to do the 0-60 in under 4 seconds which is just insane in a Truck. I mean I love this thing but you really ought to have to have a special license for it and they should probably just be banned in cities. I drove it into Chapel Hill and it is comically difficult to park in a city environment and all the turns are tight and everything is small. It’s great for our here in the country but seriously, don’t buy one in the city.
Oh speaking of which, I finally saw a Rivian R1T in person. Twice! Both Friday and Saturday morning I saw it over in the parking lot by the stores down the street. The second day, it was towing a boat! It did not see me either time, though. I thought about following it into the parking lot and parking next to him and saying “hey” and then we could check out each other’s electric trucks. But yeah it looks nice. I kinda want one. Or an R1S for Emma or something. Electric cars. So great.
Then it was time for everyone to go and Jane does not usually handle goodbyes well but she did politely say goodbye to everyone, yay Jane.
I guess I’m just going to write today’s entry like it’s a journal entry and not a newsletter that talks about any more universal topics. I have a nice list here but every transition feels a bit jarring. So, until tomorrow!
W Hotel in a Better, Alternate Universe playlist today, featuring, unexpectedly, a new track from my sister’s old band, Sunburned Hand of the Man. Never thought they’d appear on a W Hotel playlist, but I am not complaining. All new stuff here.
Talk tomorrow!