Good morning. Hello. How are you? #866
Maps says maps huh. Walmart run. Substack disappointing again. Trying to decide what to do with the ghost novels idea maybe I will foist it upon you lot.
Good morning friends, comin’ at you love from beautiful, rainy Chatham County, North Carolina, where the temperature is about 61 degrees, 91% humidity, I am very wet. We have some quality GMHHAY content for you today, right after these messages, don’t go anywhere.
Newsbreak: Today is the day I realized the other word in the lyrics to “Maps” besides “Wait, they don’t live you like I love you,” was, in fact, the word “Maps.” I have never known this. I thank Samia for this new knowledge, and her recent relase to streaming of her cover of “Maps,” which I have had on a flexi-disc but who are we kidding no one listens to flexi discs.
Looks like no one has any timely updates about Felix Pedro in the Golden Days Parade and I gotta say I’m very confused. All my Fairbanks friends tell me this place is so great but they don’t avail themselves of the second greatest event in the Fairbanks social calendar? The Golden Days parade rules! I would totally still go every year if I still lived there. I realize, of course, my enthusiasm for this is because I no longer live there, and I suppose it would be less fun without being able to watch my dad scoop up horse poop, but man I sure do love a good parade.
Just back from the recycling center and Walmart, natch. Nice new elderly gentleman working at the collection center we had one of those very slow, very polite, very earnest conversations about the weather that feel like you’re really having a conversation instead of just talking about the weather. That was some good salt-of-the-earth-type shit to start my day, let me tell you.
The construction outside our neighborhood is done. It was a real hassle having a flagperson right outside your house, took like fifteen minutes to get to the main road that usually takes 20 seconds. It was about three weeks of construction, and all we got for it was some slightly longer turn lanes. I am genuinely confused of the point. Might have been some utility repairs with the longer turn lanes as an add-on, but I don’t think so. A real country mystery.
Walmart was great. Bought a bunch of houseware-type stuff for the new house, which is proving to me a major mental complexifier, as Bezos calls it. Do I buy a new product for the house? Or do we have an extra? And if I’m buying a new product, do I take this opportunity for us to buy a new, nicer one for our house, handing down the older one to the guest house? And if I am buying a new one for the guest house, do I buy a cheap one or a good one? It’s a lotta mental math. It will, obviously, be a mix. It also involves a large amount of conversation with the spouse: honey do you want new pots? Plates? Aim-n-flames? Silverwar? Etc etc etc. I have some experience with this from our cabin out at Chena Hot Springs when I was a kid, but that thing didn’t have a bathroom or kitchen so, you know, the knowledge is limited.
Oh man it is almost black out there. A hard rain is a comin’. Old man at the collection center wasn’t lying.
Welp. We had maybe three good days of Substack Notes and then the owner went and did the worst interview ever and wouldn’t say that they wouldn’t accept racist content on the site, just gave the worst possible answer ever to the question, even when the interviewer was doing his best to lead a horse to water and convince him to say the absolute minimum. I am on Substack. This newsletter is on Substack. I do not like the way Substack is managed. I think they made fatal flaws early in their career, raised too much money from venture capitalists, at a too-shigh ZIRP-addled valuation, and it will fuck them for over a decade. I know exactly how this works. On top of that, they do things like dog whistle the racists to come on over and write their white nationalist drivel over here and not only that, you can use us to collect cash from your users, connecting you up to the “respectable” financial system in a way no other respectable internet company does. So I am not super fond of that.
I do not, however, give Substack any money. I will never charge for this newsletter while it’s on Substack, because I don’t want them to have a penny of my money, or yours. I want to be a parasitic drain on their resources. This is why I feel like it’s okay to stay here. I do not help or support the racists on here in any way, and I drain cash from the company that does. The bigger this newsletter gets, the more money it will cost substack, and the less money they will have. I am good with this.
OK OK, I should confess here that in the last few months Substack was lulling me into a false sense of security. They hadn’t made any serious fuck-ups in quite some time, and I do think they make some smart product choices. They’re taking on Twitter, and while five or six other people are taking on Twitter, more the merrier at this point. And what I really need to confess here is when they recently did their open investment round, letting their writers invest in Substack, I gave ‘em $500 because I am sympathetic to the need to get off of the VC teet, and I thought maybe they were changing. But I was wrong, they duped me, and I am chagrinned, as Jane would say.
Wow those two paragraphs are at odds this sucks I am a bad person maybe I can get my money back crap crap crap I screwed up now I gotta bleed em even more.
In 2007 or so, my friend Mike and I went on a Mass ave pub crawl, starting in Harvard Square and working our way to Central Square. Man I do (did?) love a street-specific pub crawl, and Mass Ave is a great street for one. Anyway, we ended up at the Field, in Central, and we were, obviously, a bit tipsy, even though we stuck to weak beer the whole way, but, I mean, you know, like 8-9 bars, it happens. Some girls sat with us at our table, and one of them was named Beth. I remember her last name too, but I will not divulge it. Anyway, great night, Mike was single, I was not, Beth and her friend were cute, but eventually I went home, left ‘em all there, maybe 1:30 AM.
At the time, I had a brilliant habit that I really need to bring back but I guess I’ve found other digital methods. The habit was that I kept a dry erase marker in my bathroom and before I went to bed, as I was doing my evening ablutions after a night of drinking, I would write down notes and memories on the mirror, so I could see them in the morning. It’s a great habit. Strong recommend.
Anyway, I wrote down her name, and the start of an idea I had for a novel that I had gotten while walking home from the bar. Went to bed, passed out, and woke up in the morning and had dreamt the rest of this entire universe for these stories. The universe is so good. The story arc is so good. I have expanded upon it and completed it through the years. Some of it was unfortunately co-opted a bit by the Three Body Problem trilogy but nothing major this is not a sci fi thing. I love it so much. I tried to actually write the first novel of this envisioned seven-novel series one time but it turns out I am probably a terrible novelist. Or maybe I don’t have near the practice I have with non-fiction and diaristic writing.
Anyway, I’m now resigned that I’ll never finish these novels, but I want to get the stories out there. So, couple options here:
I could try and post, serially, maybe one day a week or month, the parts of the story I have written, though I know they’re not good
I could do some post that is a “story bible” for the whole thing, and you guys could just imagine or envision the rest.
Let me know whast you think!
Ghosts!
Daddy Jane Dance Party last night. Madonna’s “Hung Up.” Such a good video. Never seen it. Has parkour! Jane loved it. We’ll be doing more. Charlie XCX she liked her a lot and Rina Sawayama and of course their collaboration jam, and Chvvrches big nope there and FKA Twigs big yes, then some of the hits. We did it all very quick so she could make it to Grammy’s for bedtime.
Moody and quiet today, this rain is dark seems very fitting. I think this is all new? Oh. No. Old Mazzy Star song, just popped into my head the other day. Stealing Beauty. Underrated film. The rest is new. Love the new National. Love the new Feist. Good stuff. I even have some Jack Antonoff on here to make up for my critiques yesterday.
God I have so much to do. Turns out having three jobs and buying a new house and raising a kid all at once is a lot! Nothing to do but crank through, crank through, crank through. Hopefully I can get all my work chores done today and then all my gardening and Quickbooks chores this weekend but that feels ambitious. Might have to, gasp, not watch Youtube! My stories!
Have a lovely weekend.
Just curious as to what you thought Karen O was singing, or if you just never really thought about it IE mentally placed a specific word there (something I've found I do often with songs)
i also never knew karen O was saying "maps"—i thought she was saying "now"!
and wow, that pic of your dad is SO YOU.
i want the cliff's notes to your seven-novel universe but would also read whatever's already written.