Good morning. Hello. How are you? All well? Happy Friday. I am good. It is my day off, and the only day of the four-day weekend where it’s not going to rain, so I need to get out there stripping paint ASAP. But I love you guys and I am committed, so here I am, sitting at the computer in the new house, listening to “Lorelei” by the Cocteau Twins, writing to you.
PSA if you are looking to do something good today, donate to my friend Richard Bouchard’s ZUMIX fundraiser for their “Walk for Music.” The money ZUMIX raises through Walk for Music makes it possible for them to provide high-quality private lessons and group programs to more than 1,000 young people each year.
Dooo it! Donate! And if you do its real soon you can have the joy of being the donation that puts Bouchard over his goal.
Aug did his reading yesterday, at a great bookstore-slash-cafe in Chapel Hill on Franklin Street called Epilogue and Prologue (one is the bookstore and one is the cafe? Something like that). The people that worked there were so nice. It was ridiculous. He read from his latest book, The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass, which was great and a real evocation of pre-internet 90’s and being young and idealistic and lost in a small town and the great adults who help you out and the community around independent record stores and it really took me back.
Also at dinner, Emma and I and Jane were sitting outside, and next to us was this table of three teenage boys, and they kept doing that thing that teenage boys do, where they mutter something to their friends and they all snicker really loud, like it was just the funniest thing ever, and they sort of go around in a circle muttering something, one-by-ine, then all three laugh really loud. And they kept looking over at us and I was like “WTF are these teenage boys checking out my wife,” which, I mean, my wife is hot and all but it was still kinda weird, then I noticed there were two teenage girls sitting in the window behind her and that part made more sense. But it really took me back, that absolute vapid idiocy portion of being a teenage boy, saying stupid shit, hearing stupid shit, and just pretending it was all so funny, and Aug’s book isn’t about that, really, but that sort of teenage boy behavior was the catalyst of a lot of it, so that was a weird coincidence.
Also there was a weird coincidence where Aug was trying to explain Johnny Marr joining The The to a bunch of kids and I happened to be wearing a The The shirt. Yes, Matt Johnson has gotten a little anti-vax libertarian but just a smidge and that don’t mean Mind Bomb isn’t a banger. At least he’s not anti-immigrant or some shit,.
Shit maybe Johnny Marr turns his bandmates into problematic people someone check on Freebass and Bernard Sumner.
Oh also the cafe had a nice column pillar situation going on and it gave me some real good ideas for the attic so here is another photo in direct violation of my “at least two paragraphs between photos” GMHHAY rule:
Aug’s a great weekday houseguest. Does his own thing while you work, eats his own food, is a great conversationalist, doesn’t drink, goes to bed at a reasonable hour. He’s headed to ATL today but will be back during the week next week. Works out perfect.
Got up at 6:30, did a McDonald’s run, where people were terrible in line, and then came to the new house, unpacked a bunch of frames for posters, and did a nice long catch-up call with my good friend Jenna. That was cathartic and great. I’m stuck here all day waiting for an HVAC company to come do an estimate and plumbing company to come do an estimate. The HVAC people did that thing where they don’t even give you an hour window, just “today, 8-5” so I got here before eight. But I needed to go to Walmart and once they didn’t show up by nine, I figured “okay, well, I am clearly not their first stop of the day so I’ll just go to Walmart now and also these people should call before they show up.” Also my pool contracting boss Ricardo hooked me up with a better HVAC company that came yesterday, so these guys are just a double bit (triple, actually), so… I risked it…
…and I made it! Great recycling center and Walmart trip today, let me tell you. Everything was a little bit later, 9;15 ish, so the collection center was hoppin and Walmart was too. I got everything I needed at Walmart, and the list was long this week, except they didn’t have buckets I need more buckets and Walmart has the cheapest buckets but no buckets so sad.
One thing I did get was zinc-based sunscreen, because I read a depressing article about how all American sunscreen contains absolute garbage. And this was in Bloomberg, about how the FDC was working on fixing this before Covid but then put it on pause, for three years now. And then they put it on pause they told the industry to keep working on it and send in regular reports, which, — surprise! — has not happened. So we still have garbage sunscreen except for Zinc and the cheapest one is Neutragena at Walmart for sixteen dollars Jesus. But anyway, that is now a thing I do.
Oh I went to the pain clinic yesterday too. I now have: a) my neck pain, which originally inspired this pain clinic relationship, b) my tennis elbow, and c) increasingly arthritic fingers, so I figured I would try and get a three-for-one deal out the situation. But, alas, I got a one-and-a-half-for-one deal out of the situation. The good news is they scheduled another round of trigger point injection shots, which just are so great and are the first thing in twenty years to alleviate my neck pain. Strong recommend. The thing about them though is they only work where you stick them in. So the procedure involves me reaching behind my back and pointing to places. Which is working. But the other thing is once an area is fixed, you really notice how much more of your back is completely fucked. So — and I know I’ve said this before — I was really hoping that I could keep spreading out the area and they weren’t going to, like, cut me off: “no man, you’re getting too hooked.” But nope, doctor is all in on “someday my shots will cover the earth” approach so we set up another appointment for me to get more, over a wider area. AND she’s going to do this weird cranial version on the top of my head and against my ears and I am so excited.
As for the arthritic hands, they were like “yeah you’re getting old, use topical arthritis gel” which is a thing I did not know exist, but I got some today at Walmart and I am excited to try it. So I give a half point for that.
And finally as for the tennis elbow, going on two months now, they were supremely indifferent. Barely talked about it. Very weird. Asked if I had talked to a doctor about it and I said “yes but it hadn’t been six weeks then and she said wait till its been six weeks and now it has and here I am at the pain clinic.” But nope. Nothing. Very weird.
Also the doctor has a person following them around with a stand-up wheelie cart with a MacBook on it whose job title is “Scribe” who just writes things down for them and they wear a lab coat and I totally think we should bring that over to the business world I want one of those if and when I ever work in an office again.
Ope, Aug is coming over to say goodbye before he heads off to Atlanta. I asked him if he had anything to impart to the GMHHAY audience. He said:
If you live in Atlanta, come by Postman books (Atlanta location May 27, Alpharetta location May 28) and support him at his readings. Details here.
He coincidentally listened to In Utero recently and tells me its as good as I remember and the riffs are great but its so much harder than Nevermind they never would have made it big if In Utero came out first.
He recently met Audrey Golden, the author of I Thought I Heard you Speak: Women at Factory Records, a book which we both coincidentally* bought. And she and Aug talked about Kurt’s musical taste and how he made the Raincoats and Vaselines “big” in America on his own and how cool that was.
Jane is at Grammy’s so no Jane news to report today. Oh she played “kitty store” with the kids at the playground yesterday where they all sat a table and said “meow meow” for a good long while and that sounds like a great game.
Have a lovely weekend! Sorry for the delay.
Oh man so much good new music today. New Blur! It’s really good! This new BC Camplight song rules! This new GBV is great! This new Taylor is fun! Strong recommend on this mix.
Happy Memorial Day weekend! Talk Monday!
here's lab muffin on why you shouldn't freak out about chemical sunscreen in the US: https://labmuffin.com/us-sunscreens-arent-safe-in-the-eu-with-video/#:~:text=As%20mentioned%2C%20the%20EU%20has,at%20a%20maximum%20of%206%25.