Good morning! Hello, etc. etc. Just back from the McDonald’s/Collection Center/ Walmart run. Everything is out of sorts. Jane is sick, so she didn’t stay over at Grammy’s, so I gotta get her in… 42 minutes. I had to do the morning errands this morning and couldn’t postpone them because it is a very busy Friday with many meetings and that is annoying my Fridays are supposed to have no meetings I do not like this one bit nope nosiree. Can’t get anything done with all these meetings. I read that “Great CEO Within” book and it was all like “put all your 1:1s and internal meetings on one day a week, one day for external meetings, and then three days for no meetings” and I was already trying that but you can’t do it, it’s a myth, I don’t know why they wouldn’t qualify that in the book with something like “it won’t work but it’ll help a small amount.” He’s all like “if you have too many 1:1s you have too many direct reports” but he is wrong. People are almost always wrong about the number of direct reports. And in any case, I do some 1:1s with people who aren’t direct reports. Because what’s the point of having important shit filtered through someone. I don’t know. When I put it on paper like that it feels wrong but it’s not, it’s right. I have tried it both ways. It’s right.
Anyway, I digress. The important thing here is that I got rid of a truckload of cardboard that had been sitting on the lawn for three months, killing the grass, and was covered in dirt (and ants, the selfsame ants that probably ate me up last week) and it was all wrinkled from rainwater and the guy at the collection center said it could still be recycled, so I felt good about that I really didn’t want to throw it in the garbage. I also gave away that giant bag of dog food that Amazon accidentally sent me — the dude at the collection center had a couple dogs and was very happy to try this free high-end Amazonian dogfood.
Only interesting new record at Walmart was a new red vinyl edition of Metallica’s Kill Em All but it was $22 so much for Walmart being cheap. Also their only organic butter is $8 compared to Harris Teeter’s $5. Everyday low prices. Lies!
They had no pool noodles, and no 100-calorie bags of my favorite almonds, which is good, because 100 calorie bags are wasteful, but useful, and I am always confronted with major dilemmas about them, and I had to buy a big can of the almonds instead which is more environmentally friendly so that is probably just as well. Hrm I just had a vision of taking my assorted domestic neuroses to the next level and pre-packaging 100-calorie bags of almonds at home from bulk and oh boy does that sound like an utterly useless task right up my alley.
I’ll get right on that.
All right so upon learning of its existence from Suzy (love you Suzy), I watched the Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour video that is on Netflix last night. I love that she called the tour the Reputation Stadium Tour. She was very happy to only be playing stadiums. Anyway it was pretty great and I have now included “so it goes” in the songs that are not terrible on Reputation. But then I went and looked at the setlist of the 1989 tour that Emma and I saw in Greensboro and the setlist was so much better. New Romantics! Is New Romantics a great Taylor song or the best Taylor song. Hard to say. Also she thanks Diet Coke in the credits which is great. Also she makes fun of herself for the repetitive lyrics to “Look What you Made Me Do” in the end credits which is some quality self-awareness cuz that song is way too repetitive. Also Taylor Swift does not know what a 767 was which was pretty interesting. Or maybe she was just spacing at that moment, but the dude did mention wingspan and whatnot seemed pretty clear.
Anyway it made me want to see the Eras tour and I regret selling my tickets. So I have registered to try this again in 2024 on the new dates. I strongly suspect there will be more US dates in 2024, maybe 2025. I think she might be doing this a while. I think she is going for the highest grossing tour of all time, which means she’ll need to hit a billion dollars gross to beat Elton John’s farewell tour, which spanned three calendar years and had four separate US legs. She might not go quite that far but she’s gonna try and beat it just you watch. This woman likes to be number one.
Also I made a little comparison of “Ready for It” and Godflesh’s “Someone Somewhere Scorned” for your amusement. Actually I did it for Annie, but you can enjoy it too. Does Substack let you embed videos? Probably not!
Oh wow it does. Well good for you, Substack. Anil Dash was going off the other day about how he doesn’t understand how a single progressive could use Substack when they support racists and fascists and I think he’s missing the parasitic angle. They make zero money off of me, I cost them money, and I should probably embed more videos, video hosting is freakin expensive and all of you click on that link I guess. I know there are counterarguments to the parasitic tactic in progressivism and they are legitimate counterarguments, but also now we are having a discussion between two rational progressives arguing tactics, not morality or anything, so let’s take it down a notch mmkay, imaginary straw man?
Shit I only have 26 minutes.
Listened to the new Aphex Twin yesterday did you know there’s a new Aphex Twin? It’s really good at both 33 and 45 RPMs, it does not say anywhere on the package which one is the “correct” speed. Context leads me to believe 45 is the correct speed — the beat sounds like one of those tedious breakbeat beats that is Apex Twin’s greatest weaknesses — but, then, maybe the whole thing is a send-up of that beat and ha ha the joke’s on you it’s really a 33 record. Side A definitely sounds better on 33 but I gotta say it sounds pretty awesome on both speeds I am somewhat surprised the return of Richard D James the Apex Twin not Richard D James the production designer on Star Trek The Next Generation is not a bigger deal. Maybe I just don't travel in the correct electronic circles anymore who can say.
All right I gotta go. Jane awaits. She is sick. Coughing a ton. She doesn’t seem to mind. Emma is coughing too but swears it feels like allergies. Maybe Jane’s are too. I feel fine. God this is her second “sickness” in, like, a month. Kindergarten is going to be so bad we’re all going to be knocked out completely. Covid wastewater monitoring levels are as high around here as they were at the peak of the pandemic so that is not super great either. Masks back on when we are out and about, which is a bummer but also the right thing to do. Gah. Gah, I say!
Moody and quiet for you today. New and old, some Sinéad, still sad about that. Some James, Burning Paris and Yo La Tengo representing the “oldies,” the rest new stuff and it’s all great I swear. Man I want to see this Sigur Ros tour I am so sad I seem to be missing that because they are not playing my back yard and I am lazy.
I hope your weekend is lovely and if you do any amazing chores drop a line and let me know all about them. Chores!
i’m so glad you watched rep on netflix and that you messaged me during. it’s a record i will fight for til my dying breath, BUT i get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
a friend told me that he heard taylor might be headlining coachella this year 😱 which i find weird but that’s because festivals scare me. so we’ll see...
i totally think you should “decant” a bulk bag of almonds into 100 calorie servings. decanting is all the rage. there’s gotta be a tiktok of someone decanting almonds and if there isn’t you can post one!