Good morning. Hello. How are you? #871
Losing an old friend, Republicans and UNC, the slow jetlag of picking up sticks, Dominion, getting out of my Substack investment, visiting friends
Good morning! Hello! How are you? Happy Friday. I have today off. The whole company has today off. And I have the next… nine days off. That is nice. Not heading to Alaska until Monday afternoon, it turns out. Who knew, says the guy who purchased the ticket. Going to get much done at the new house. Need to get the birdies beds built and the strawberries planted in them, need to get that bed irrigated with drip since I still don’t know how the actual irrigation system works over there.
Another old friend passed away this week. Dylan was a giant in my adolescent years. He was a couple years older than me. We went to the same church, his mom was my piano teacher for years. Dylan is the kid who got me into good music. He’s why I love Yello, he got me into the Cure, Love and Rockets, Dead or Alive — so many bands, but those all stand out in vivid memories. The first time I ever heard of Love and Rockets was when his friend brought a vinyl copy of The Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven to our church dance. Dylan made me a handmade, silk screened shirt of the early Cure logo when I was 13 or so, 1985, that I know I had at least into the mid-90’s and I am suddenly profoundly sad that I no longer have. He was older, he moved away when I was in high school, I only ever saw him again once, when I was visiting Portland. Years later, I had a client from Weiden & Kennedy and when we friended up on Facebook, like you did with your clients back then, we had a couple unexpected Alaskan mutual friends and we got to talking. She had dated Dylan for a while in the late 90’s and it was her who finally told me about his challenges in adult life. I’d hear things through the years — you don’t forget early friends like that and I always wondered about him, and Alaska is small — but we never got in touch again. That makes me sad. Dylan’s end was violent and unnecessary and weird in a highly specific way that’s actually happened to another Alaskan friend of ours and that coincidence is kinda freaking me out, I’m not going to lie. All I can think up to capture the absurdity are various Douglas Adams tableaux — when the streetlights keep going out as you walk under them. One is a coincidence, two is super creepy. And that scene in Dirk Gentley where he’s forced to solve an impossible case that’s just comletely impossible and absurd. Man maybe I should reread that book.
Anyway, childhood heros stick with you. From what I know of Dylan as an adult he’d maybe be surprised he was anyone’s hero, but he was one of mine.
So some good news, I got this email from the investing platform that Substack used to manage their investment gathering from the various writers on the platform. It said that the deal was going to close in three days. I had forgotten that that particular platform was different than, say, Kickstarter, and that there was actually ample opportunity to pull out of the investment prior to the closing of the deal. So I clicked on the link and went to the site and sure enough, there was a big “CANCEL INVESTMENT” button there, so my moment’s goofy lark of investing in the platform that was going to lead to a lifetime of guilt about assisting in the platforming of racists and the like has been obviated. I feel very relieved. I don’t know what came over me. I’m glad there was an escape route.
Speaking of racists, the North Carolina legislature is circulating a bill that will remove tenure from all the professors in the UNC system. It’s really stunning how badly these people, these pro business people, what to cripple and decimate one of America’s most respected and prestigious academic institutions, a huge driver of the economy here, the alma mater of virtually all of the richest people in the state (except Tim Sweeney, that Maryland interloper). The university system is literally one of the founding principles of the state but they just can’t get over their belief that if people learn things they will stop wanting to be Republicans. Never mind that I’m pretty sure a bunch of those richest people in the state are not especially Democratic.
I do like this state. I mean, the thing is I think a lot of people don’t realize is that it takes a decade or so for a home to really become a home, you gotta put down those roots, you gotta feel like the place you’re in matters. You only get so many shots in life, and even if you don’t really feel it or recognize it, picking up sticks, pulling up your roots, moving somewhere else… it’s like a deeper, slower version of that jet lag phenomenon people report — the feeling that your body is traveling faster than your soul (the main plot point of those ghost books I really gotta start sharing with you guys). I’m saying all this because I love my home, I love my woods, I love a lot about my community. And I don’t really want to leave it. And even though sometimes I do think about moving, I feel in my bones that I probably only have one more root-pulling move left in me in this life and I would prefer to not waste it because of a bunch of jackboot theocratic thugs. The state is getting more and more liberal, and despite multiple supreme court victories it looks like they are going to win on the gerrymandering shit. So it is going to take a little bit longer. But if they can just refrain from making the state appear utterly unliveable it’s inevitable that demographics will, eventually, maybe in the next decade, completely spill over their gerrymandering attempts and the state can change for good.
But my god, hurry up. It really feels like it’s on the precipice of turning into Alabama or something.
I’m not gonna lie I am a little sad about the Dominion suit. It’s nice they got hit in the money bags, and it’s nice they had to admit that they lied, but they do not have to admit on TV that they lied. The people that did the lying on the television do not have to sit there and say to their viewers “oh we lied to you,” which I think is really the only true victory in this situation. It is, of course, absurd to think that a private corporation like Dominion was ever going to deliver us the societal justice we crave on this front. And I suspect even if the government could (can it? no idea.) bring charges in cases like this, they never would have. Dominion took the money and ran, and that is what we could only have expected them to do. Everyone who might hire Dominion already knew that Fox was lying about them, so it’s not like they needed the on-air apology for, you know, their business. But still. Couldn’t they have twisted the knife just a little bit? Just a leeetle teeny bit of Fox knife twisting for your crumb-hungry public please sure can I have some more?
Our friends Clara and John have arrived for the weekend. Clara is, I believe, the first ever reader of GMHHAY to come here and actually take part in Daddy Jane Dance Party so, I mean, I’m sure you guys are really jealous. We danced to Sisters of Mercy and the new Allison Goldfrapp (not Goldfrapp) single which was a real weird video and I think may have been AI or something, and Wet Leg and Tove Lo and Dinosaur Jr and Madonna and Goldrapp (not Allison Goldfrapp) and Charlie XCX from Coachella and Taylor and Robyn. It was a good time. Then we did sad old man music and Spiritualized’s “Let it Flow” which she really liked, then Low’s “Murderer” which she was fine with, then Dulli and Lanegan doing “Live with Me” and “Where did you Sleep Last Night?” John commented how I was laying it on a bit thick with two dead artists and… yeah that was an accident (this is before I learned about Dylan an hour or so later). In the middle of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” Jane just got out of my lap, walked out of the room and put herself to bed. I joined her and she said “I liked that Spiritualized video but I don’t want you to ever play me that third one again. I don’t like his voice.” I told her that was fine but can I play it for her in ten years, because tastes change and she said “yes but not before.”
Clara also brought Emma a cake and bao and she is so very happy this whole idea of telling her friends that Emma wanted visitors for her 40th birthday is working out just great.
Ambient playlist for you cuz that’s the only one that was done. Sure it’s got multiple 15+ minute songs on it, but that’s the beauty and joy of this genre. Chill out. Maybe listen to it tonight right before bed. Or, heck, I don’t know, driving down the interstate mid-day at 80mph. YMMV. I would enjoy that, personally.
Talk to you guys monday I hope you have a lovely, lovely weekend.