Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
I announced his death on my blog but it was just wishful thinking.
He’s probably got many minutes of rich life left in him.
I very much enjoyed having home made mac and cheese for breakfast.
I need to spread the joy of biscotti this am.
700 words on UPSUN
I have a doc’s appointment for my prescription renewal tomorrow, and I have called the clinic to confirm my scan appointment. I won’t get a call back unless they’re confused about something.
first 2500 word day in quite a while over the last 24 IT’S THE SUNSHINE
Paul and I walked at the Quay yesterday. I watched a toddler dance for 20 minutes to banjo music and we walked the entire west side from the Colonizing Tin Bastard to the place where a crow gave a lecture to a bunch of starlings. Never seen anything quite like it, colloquy lasted a while. Also got circle buzzed by a hummingbird, never had that happen before; Paul enjoyed it too.
today I decided to rehearse as if I was giving a mini concert, and back to back I did my best ever versions of the Gelis and Nicholas song and then the best ever version of The Friend Who Gave Me This Ukelele and then I did maybe my third best ever version of Alexios. Then I blew very loud into a kazoo while realizing that the song I was blowing to bits was one that wasn’t actually on my list yet.
Also I can’t find the lyrics for that song. I’m going to try to find it in my blog but it might have been too personal, so I’m considering the lyrics lost for now. October 13 2015. I can remember writing it very clearly, knowing where I was, but I think I wrote it on guitar and when I played it just now it was on octave mandolin and I couldn’t remember any of the lyrics so I just blew it into a kazoo which probably bugged the living shit out of Jeff if he heard any of it. It really helped me EXPRESS MY FEELINGS though.
Jeff went out for Ratlands this morning, and it was the best coffee I’ve ever had from McDonalds. My blood is SINGING WITH BEANS.
Has it been that long? Yes…
This is just me singing in my room, so don’t expect much. Also I had to do about a hunnert takes from crying, so this is the point my mood hit the big red NO MORE button. There was a dulcimer accompaniment but it morphed into another tune.
she was a funny cat – she definitely had more of a sense of humour than most. And she didn’t hold a grudge…. also most uncatlike. This is her consulting on me entering ‘The Evening News’ into Finale.
I have gone where my friends are waiting
Don’t you worry ‘bout me
And it’s not like I could forget you
Or you forget about me
You will miss me lots
Wish it wasn’t so
When I fill your thoughts
You will know I was here
I was here a moment ago
My old bowl is back in the cupboard
And my grave’s in the yard
Your old heart isn’t made of rubber
And you’re taking this hard
All the love you felt for me
Will never go away
It’s in the universe we made between us
and it is here to stay
I have gone where my friends are waiting
Don’t you worry ‘bout me
And it’s not like I could forget you
And you will never, ever forget about me.
All I want to do is sleep, watch tv and eat junk food. I think my pandemic grief is acting up. My mood has been terrible, even though Paul has been dragging me out of the house for walkies. I’ve been trying to write and I know what’s coming next but I have no urge. I’m thinking dark thoughts. Tomorrow will likely be different.
The chicken and ginger congee that Mike made for me is so damned good – Paul got a meal out of it today as well. Gorgeous day, windy and sunny and cloudy by turns, and warm, the way most of February really was not.
AW, RIGHT I actually am being fried (CREMATED) for my deathday, so nope, but here ya go anyway.
Jeff took me to Micky D’s this morning; ahhhhh coffee.
Now on deathwatch for Prince Phillip.
Happy belated birthday Tammy!
Letter off to Dave D this morning.
Lots more work on Bih-bah. Doot errungk! = no problem (literally: no blockage)
early catbus design – a Scythian king’s armrest.
It wasn’t Jeff’s turn, but he did half the shovelling and all the salting.
Very much enjoying Resident Alien, yet another show based on a comic book, starring Alan Tudyk and Sara Tomko.
I am feeling a little better today. Wrote some on The Three of Us. Off for a walk at Oakalla with Paul.
SUCCESS! the La-z-Boy is ensconced in the media room: all thanks to Jeff who did the vacuuming, furniture shoving around, enzyme cleaning, spider shepherding, etc etc required to get everything in place.
Burritos for lunch.
It’s just coming up on one pm. I worked on the letter for Alex; three loads of laundry including the washcloths (Jeff and I dry our hands on separate washcloths now, both upstairs and down, and will maintain that after this pandemic lifts) and the kitchen rugs; watered the baby yoda plants; went for a walk and got my bloodwork done (which I should have done Monday, but there’s nothing like finding out you have brain damage to put a fucking crimp in your week, god knows how long the CT will take), and now, if Jeff feels like it, I’ll get him something takeoutish for supper. I want a burrito but he’s into something a little less gaseous.
Called Katie last night. She was so glad to hear from me, we had a nice chinwag. She may bring Alex on Sunday, depends on what he wants.
Paul called and wanted to go for a walk because it’s gorgeous, but I been already….
Another Grogu sketch for Tom, and I’ve responded to Mary, and …. I still haven’t got them into the mail. You know the pesky, ‘you have to get dressed before you go to the mailbox’ requirement.
It’s a Harryhausen kind of a day. Have fun with this goodhearted countdown of the top ten Harryhausen stop motion monsters.
My site died for a couple of minutes yesterday. My apologies to whichever of the half dozen or so human beings comes here on a regular basis if that was when you were here.
Nevertheless I made great progress on the song project yesterday. THERE’S JUST SO MUCH OF IT and I’m stuck with it until I run out of songs.
it was actually THREE loads of laundry yesterday. At the last possible minute before bed I remembered and swapped the last load into the dryer, preventing BLEAUGH moldy clothes.
Tabbouleh and tea for breakfast. SPAGHETTI AND HOMEMADE MEATBALLS FOR LUNCH.
14% of songs posted or preposted for a full year of mayhem.
Meatball sauce is resting overnight in the fridge.
Two loads of laundry done today, and the Time Team was a trip to Montana to digga digga bone (Fossil Fever reference), and I got a letter from Ontie Mary, and I practiced although not too hard, and I have to laugh still because I need to change my strings more often, it does actually impact my ability to make the most out of the Gelis and Niccolo song.
Have fun! It’s a filk of Under the Sea
That’s a quote from Eric Frank Russell’s “WASP”.
Anyway, today:
11149 words so far on Best Roommate
Jeff cleaned 25 gigs of crap off my hard disk, so I can reinstall Finale FINALLY.
Isn’t English hilarious?
I will also try to update my OS PRAY FOR ME NOW SINNERS
I drank coffee. I POOOOOOOOOOPED and pooped again. I feel so light and free although I should probably put up a biohazard sign.
And I trained Buster, who was not having any. He has his little ways to let me know he’d prefer to run and chase treats than beg for them.
I wrote a letter to my pOp and one to Alex. There’s a little card with artwork on it in pOp’s letter, and Alex’s letter is covered in garish watercolour pencil art. Tomorrow I’ll write a letter to Mary and send some fabric from mOm’s stash along to Jan Maxwell, who already has a ton of fabric BUT DOES NOT HAVE the last little bit of sexy raygun SF fabric and will likely turn it into comfy masks in the fullness of time, whereas I won’t, likely. Although I do have a fabric project for the spring – I’m going to put a floor length door drape on my bedroom door, with black lace fabric at the bottom to let the cold air in from the air con.
Last night:
Composed three instrumentals (soundtrack style stuff) on the Kaossilator. With luck I will record them on the 1st with Anthony. One of the instrumentals is entitled: Unicorn Farts. It’s plausible….
Slept 8 hours solid. Haven’t done that in an age. No recollection of waking up until I had to pee at 4:30. Amazing how a little exercise gives me better rest, surprise surprise.
Yesterday:
Jeff dropped me off at Planet Bachelor that was (Keith is teasing me to come up with a new name, which will be some variant on “The Bachelor System” or “Bachelor Villa” or “Villa Planet” or “Larval Harpi” which is an anagram of what it says out front… yup, the house has a name. “Planet Bachelor II – The Rehoming” is also in play. We shall find out soon enough.) I helped Keith and Katie clean for a couple of hours (polishing chrome in the bathroom, taking a duster to all the cobwebs, a little bit with counters in the kitchen, throwing stuff in the trash), then mailed some letters and walked to the butcher shop and got meat and a couple of blueberry handpies for Jeff. Walking home nearly killed me. I had to stop to catch my breath three times, although I didn’t get into that heart pounding thing. (later…. Caspell Junction it is, according to K&K)
Much pedicurage, following a nice warming bath. I have to keep an eye on my left great toe, I trimmed the nail too much and I’m looking at much pain if I don’t manage how it grows out.
Recently:
Preposted 15 songs. Most are in January and February but I’ve posted well into the year when the song is associated with a particular date. I’m now up to the middle of February and so I have a little breathing room before I have to really start shaking out the oeuvre to keep up the numbers. Still have more MP3s sitting on the media drive, but now the real pressure is to record more. And more yet. I’m one tenth done. This is a bastarding huge project.
Watched Ammonite. Loved it. If you don’t like the idea of watching Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet make out at night in a miniscule bed while collecting and cleaning fossils during the day in Victorian costume including a magnificent rendition of full mourning, stay the hell away from this movie.
Rewatched King Arthur (Owen/Knightley version) again, after watching the King Arthur Time Team Special. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that movie. It’s not the best historical movie ever made, but it’s so good hearted and solid and there are so many wonderful actors in it that it’s just a treat. It’s going on the ‘watch anytime’ list.
Most recent episode of the Expanse has one of the best human vs space sequences I’ve ever seen. Dominique Tipper is absolutely amazing as she battles time, vacuum, gravity, CO2, betrayal, her own physical weakness after a trauma, and the complete sabotage of her ship, in order to prevent the death of her loved ones. The sequence went on for so long I started crying along with her frustration.
Continue to feed crows in the morning if they sit in the dogwood and caw at me. 1 to 4 birds usually show up. Watched them chase off a raven yesterday. The rest of the day it’s canoodly crow couples pitching woo in the tree, it’s quite funny…
It was supposed to start snowing last night. Nada. It’s bucketing snow down now; the world’s gone quiet because it’s Sunday morning and snowing. Now, if I really loved my brother I’d get off my ass, clear the kitchen counters and make him some whole wheat flower rolls. And I’m thinking of making little pork meatballs in spaghetti sauce for hot sammiches using those rolls.
Over and over I think I haven’t done enough on a daily basis.
Yesterday I had a bath; did two loads of laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, watched some TV with Jeff, dealt with a Mailchimp issue, practiced – including working on tunes to be recorded, called the doctor about the EEG results (still no joy), recorded a song and posted it, made lunch, called Keith, called mOm, wrote a thousand words on UPSUN and called Kenney names on twitter.
I did not do anything to push forward #LandBack, or my various political hobby horses unless writing a thousand words on a book in which MST people get their chunk of the lower mainland back counts.
My mood continues good. Knowing that my people are in a better living space (Keith is sleeping better already, something I cheerfully predicted) is a blessing. This morning we’re thinking of going to ratlands takeout for breakfast.
Please be kind to yourself and others, unless they’re fascists, in which case please damage the living fuck out of their social capital.
Schadenfreude…. Jared Padalecki’s show Walker is so bad that people primed and ready to love it because of Supernatural are urinating on it from such a lofty height that the pee is cold by the time it hits.
Kitchen mats (aka Buster’s toilet paper) are in the laundry.
moving day
moving day
if you can’t pay the rent you’ll have to live out in a tent because it’s
moo
ha oo
ha oo-ving day
Katie rented the truck for today and goes to pick it up at 10 am; I’ll go over to Planet Bachelor this forenoon and help out how I can. Jeff and I are so glad we’re not moving right now it’s quite remarkable.
Here is a lovely poem, with some context.
9,189 9443 words
As we come up on the Inauguration I find myself more and more frightened. I tell myself that Trmp and his people are too stupid to manage an insurrection, but it’s really the grift that’s the point, but I’m still afraid of good people dying, and the number of people in Canada who feel the same way as the Trumpites is huge, and this is a long term problem that will not go away.
Cartoon of a donkey and an elephant. In the first frame Donkey’s placard reads UNITY and the Elephant’s F*** YOUR FEELINGS. The second frame the donkey’s placard is ACCOUNTABILITY and the elephant’s now covered in rainbows and butterflies, says UNITY. NICK ANDERSON
Did a small shop and made borscht. Paul came by with some of John’s filk books, and best of all was Peter Alway’s Introduction to Mountain Dulcimer so I now have a picture of one of my filk friends on a pamphlet about an instrument I own. I’m going to review it again today with the instrument in hand.
Chuck Norris was at the insurrection event in Washington. What a cruel and grasping individual.
I did absolutely as little as possible yesterday. I did not help with the move, I did about 500 words on the current UPSUN chapter, I put clean laundry back in my room, I made really runny rice pudding the way Jeff prefers it, I wrote a blistering email to a family member which I sent to a friend instead, I did not practice, I did not get dressed, I booked my next recording session on the 1st next month, ever supposing that Brutal Asshole currently pres of the US doesn’t nuke Vancouver for taking the sign off the Tr&mp tower in Downtown.
Today I’m going to make a list and review my habit schedule, I can feel my good habits slipping away from me in the doomscrolling carnage subsequent to the coup attempt. I’m also hoping to convince Jeff to go shopping.
Protests in front of various high tech office headquarters by MAGAts are expected all this week. The leadup to the inauguration is going to be fireworky, I’m sure.
This image is for mOm, relating to an amusing conversation we had earlier this week.
Clippy, the long despised Word assistant says ‘It looks like you’re trying to fuck around Would you like to find out YES NO
