Category: Music

more fizzling and chortling

My my my.

So the family meeting that was supposed to happen about Paul’s future did not happen because Katie wanted to be involved and she couldn’t be until tomorrer, which is now today.

“Beep beep beep” goes the alarm on the door as Jeff leaves the house to get some Timmy Ho’s.

Ah, wonder what wonders of glaziery he will turn up.

Anyhoo, while I’m over there having lunch because that was still on offer Jan phoned Keith and told him she was in town and could be at Edmonds station soon (she was a walk-on for the ferry because she cheerfully admitted she had zero stomach for driving around the lower mainland, which looks like the wild west to everyone else in BC on the media what with every truck on the road having bad brakes, thousands of people on the road driving under suspension or without ICBC coverage, and the one in one hundred likelihood that the fucker in the Audi next to you has had A FUCKING SNOOTFUL at 11:30 in the morning and will blow so far over that the cop administering the test visibly flinches). Keith of course joyfully accepted and since he’d been given back his car by Suzanne (that all went smoothly for Keith, as usual it was a gong show on Suzanne’s end because her and bureaucracy are ‘mongoose vs cobra: the rematch’), he went to pick her up and then went and picked up foodicles for supper and picked up his nephew from school and we all chatted in the living room at Caspell Junction and drank lashings of tea.

Alex came home and I briefly interacted with him before he got on Minecraft (Keith was also playing with him for a while) and then Katie got home. She was supposed to drive Alex out to be with his dad in Langley for an overnight after which hang out with Jessica for the evening and when she was making final phone arrangements with Daxus, he pointed out that it might make more sense if she stayed put and he picked Alex up and then she could go straight to Coquitlam, because I’ve done that transfer once with Katie and it’s AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF DRIVING. (Dax is keeping his place for the foreseeable, for various good reasons.) So Katie got to stay and visit with Jan AND THEN NITA AND HER DOG ELLA ARRIVED. SWEET PUPPY. Likes people, not crazy about other dogs.

Where was Ryker in all this? Daddy Mike’s care day, safe in his other grandma’s care.

I was very emotionally exhausted by that point and also realized that I might be in someone’s parking spot so I made my way home, whereupon I was made aware that Mike had called.

He came over, bearing a brand new ukelele. He played it a bit (sounded fantastic) and then I realized he had it customized with my name – backwards. So welcome Argella, you are my latest instrument. Unlike most ukes, Argella has a spine that runs her length, so she would actually be the single most useful ukelele for a bar fight, plus she has a tuner and pickup. HEAVY tho so I need to find that uke strap.

Then we watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with him and ate halibut and chips and also shrimp and took much joy in our little social gathering.

My bucket, it’s full. THEN I GOT ENOUGH SLEEP. Woke up just in time to set up my medications for the week and take them this morning and then Jeff came back from Timmy Ho’s so we had a Tim(e) Team breakfast (the Smallhythe episode, the one where Tony sprays Phil with a hose.)

I am so happy right now. It won’t last but I report it so I can come back and relive it later.

 

Have yourself a medicated Christmas

Have yourself a medicated Christmas
It’s the only way
wifi connectivity is days away

Please take all your edibles with caution
No fair greening out
Please share or the rest of us will call you ‘lout’.

Now we’re home for the holidays
they’ll be squalid days I know
Cheek by jowl with relations dear
& we’re up to here

with snow

Have yourself a medicated Christmas
As your purse allows
Numb your brain cells, then sit in a chair and drowse
& have yourself a medicated Christmas now

feel lik crud

I am not feeling too communicative, but I’m still alive.

Threw up all my pills yesterday morning so had to take them again; didn’t feel like a human being again until sunset and was super wobbly. No vomiting since. I think All The Pill Taking has abraded my stomach valve, so I’ll be taking fewer of them at once.

I am working on a specifically feminist song. I am enjoying it. There are no lyrics except one line which comes at the end of every verse.

I can’t think of anything else to say.

Blue Lava

I have to CHARGE MY GUITAR isn’t that amusing. So my laptop is plugged in and it’s charging the battery in the new guitar. This looks pale blue, Mike got me a white one.

Lava Music Blue Lava Review | GuitarPlayer

unique no?

Also, this is just for mOm; you know how I’ve ‘invented’ a disease for Brad… I just read a reddit post and the poster, who’s a caregiver, described her mother’s physical and mental challenges…. and it sounded as if she had symptoms exactly like Brad, and she’s post COVID too.  (awake and aware and then just… not)

That gave me a turn.

the latest fic

is about a bunch of heading for middle aged guys in a cover band, their rehearsals and romances….

and the first song our two heroes rehearse is “Addicted to Love” which of COURSE is a cover band song given that it was a number 1 hit in 1985.

And it was playing on the Muzak in the store this morning so I started to laugh.

I am easily amused.

two whole errands

well three with the cat food

we left the house two whole times yesterday and at four o’clock I said something along the lines of being an old crock who can’t deal with errands

6392 words on Part II

New song in the works. I left it for a day and it was still there when I went back, and it’s also completely different to what I normally do (guitar base). I think it’s going to be a song about the dead, for Halloweeeeeen but I don’t know for sure.

This morning on facebook our dear friend Jan from the Junction showed a picture of an egg salad sandwich from a gas station which had an expiry date of OCTOBER 23 today is thE 14TH do you think egg salad lasts that long? I don’t. Bleaurgh. Futurama meme check. (A truck stop egg salad sandwich causes the character Fry on Futurama to er…. see the episode Parasites Lost,  it has much hilarity.

While making a pit stop at an interstellar truck stop, Fry buys and eats an extremely old egg salad sandwich from a vending machine in the restroom. On returning to Earth, Fry and Bender are assigned the task of fixing the plasma fusion boiler, which promptly explodes. Bender is not damaged, but Fry is impaled by a large pipe. Despite the severity of the injury, Fry’s damaged body repairs itself in seconds and the subsequent medical examination reveals to the Planet Express crew that Fry is infested with microscopic worms from the egg salad.)

Thinking this morning…

Yeah when I just-about-mortally-wounded one of the MCs in ‘UPSUN – Sweep Off Those Waves’ my beta reader (my mother) said, ‘BUT SHE GETS BETTER RIGHT?’ and there I was forced to invent a whole new branch of alien medicine to fix her….and yes I am aware how ableist this is. Ableism is proving to be tougher to eradicate in my thought processes than racism and heteronormativity. And she’s not fixed. When someone commits an act of misogynistic terror on you, you don’t just ‘get better’.

 

another perfect day

Around noon went for a walk with Paul in Everett Crowley Park. First we drove all over hell’s half acre trying to find a decent parking spot at one of the usual parks. That’s how we ended up on the garbage dump park. It’s a good place to go if YOU NEED TO PET SOME DOGGIES. I got very very tired and couldn’t walk any farther very fast. Then we got home and I nuked up some chicken vegetable rice for Paul, and then he hung around. I did his toenails (they weren’t scandalous, like the last time, but they needed to be done). Then I checked my blood pressure which was 105 over 71.

Morty Face by KushMastaFresh on DeviantArt

This is 30 points lower than normal. What in the actual hell is going on. I don’t actually feel good at that blood pressure – I sure don’t feel like DOING anything. Picture shown above is Morty, from the sci-fi animated modern classic Rick & Morty. It’s okay fOlks! you are not expected to watch it or like it; it has machine gun delivery of multiple concepts, not always in the best of taste (that’s one way of putting it, check that face shown above). But I love Morty because he’s grown a spine over the last seasons.

Paul long-term-loaned me John’s resonator guitar.  <—- this after he realized at Peggy’s that he can’t even pull a guitar out of a case without fighting it. I have to add a string but it looks like all the bottle slides I bought attracted a guitar I can use them on. They’re the kind of guitar with a big perforated metal plate attached where the soundhole usually is.

Mike called and released himself from self-jail; he brought his unbelievably sweet new parlour guitar and played nothing but songs Paul knew, which was deft of him, because Paul has happy and enthusiastic about singing along.  He also gave Paul the long anticipated tour of the Delica. Long about five I kicked Paul out (nicely) but he got to have all that social contact and stay the hell out of his own house for the afternoon, which has a crying baby in it. Ryker has a cold and he freaks out when he can’t breathe and so there is much screaming. STILL NO FUNCTIONING FREEZER AT PAUL’S PLACE!! JFC landscum, you need a blunt punt.

above-noted picture is almost 15 years old. That’s Mike and Paul at a minimalist costume party, back in the day

I had ONE Fat Tug last night ENJOY MY ABSTEMIOUSNESS.

Mike finally got to look at Suzanne’s friend Richard’s bag of photography equipment. JFC IT’S A NIKON FE an absolute classic manual camera with one of the first built in digital light meters. AND THE MANUALS for it and the lenses. Cash on the barrelhead it’s worth no less than $250, but Mike doesn’t want it because he’s not a Nikon user. I am currently considering my options, but I think I’ll advise Suzanne before taking action.

Spoke to Keith on the phone. He appears to be doin’ okay.

Currently running a 12% kudos to hit ratio on Landslide – the number’s actually going up. This never happens so I’m finding it weird.

Found out that the Seagull (the one that isn’t Smokey) was put away in E minor tuning so I noodled away on that for a while and I think I may have the core melody of some soundtrack stuff.

Mike said he used to wear a special watch with a pulse ox monitor but he said he had to stop, since it kept telling him that he was dead every night. (Thought pOp would find this amusing.) It came with his new Samsung phone. His new Samsung phone is incredible, the camera alone is goggleworthy. I don’t care, I’ll probably get a simple-phone if I ever live alone again but I’m never having a cell phone again, otherwise.

Mike says his project – his Sisyphean work project – six times now he’s tried to set up a customer service department off shore and six times an internal shift in priorities has moved it. It was in Spain, it was in the US. It was in Costa Rica. This time he just sent his luckless lead tech into the mouth of a typhoon in the Philippines. Anyway, he hopes he survives all the corporate bullcrap long enough to get laid off, with a package, (word is as a French company they’re used to making big payouts to make employees who are now surplus to requirements GO AWAY) and then he’s going to take the Delica and drive across this country and dip a toe in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Please let me know if you want him to come visit you after he’s laid off, because he IS AWESOME. HE’S SERIOUSLY THE BEST.

Jeff keeps having interesting dreams. I imagine I dream every night, but I sure don’t remember them. I guess I keep it all for waking life.

Then, a stunning variety of products, after which we watched Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is a good movie to watch while impaired, and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and James Hong are absolutely amazing in this. I believe I raved about it on my blog the first time we watched it, but it really is a trip to set a wildly inventive and ecstatic movie amid the drab exigencies of Chinese immigrant life. Mike was impressed as hell and said some variant of (with amusement), “It’s a damned good thing they’re speaking mostly Mandarin, if it was Cantonese it would be triggering.” This with respect to the ghastly way Michelle Yeoh’s character treats Stephanie Hsu’s character in the movie. THEN I FOUND OUT THAT Yeoh, Quan and Hsu are going to be a family again in a Disney action comedy tv show? WHO’S WRITING, ALLEGRA YELLS & chomps popcorn impatient-wise.

At some point Mike went home. IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE HIM.

Worked hard on Totally Boned yesterday; couldn’t stay hydrated. Didn’t practice enough. That will change lol. I need to drink 16 oz of water RIGHT NAOW

I had another perfect day, y’all. I’ll be checking my blood pressure again for sure though. Whatever is wrong with me, it can’t kill my good mood.

lovely time with Mike

Mike came by about 4:30 and we ordered fish and chips. (Once again Cockney Kings omitted the fucking cole slaw – I don’t want to order from there again) He committed retail therapy and showed up with a brand new used La Patrie which is a SWEET sounding little guitar, sharp as a knife, soft as a sigh, and we traded it back and forth a few times. It continues to amaze me how many songs that lad knows, everything from Merle Haggard to Paul Simon to Concrete Blonde. And so much Gordie Lightfoot. And the Skyrim soundtrack? I mean…. it’s a lot.

We also sang and played on the deck for a while. The next door neighbours STOPPED doing their dishes while we were singing Early Morning Rain, it was weird but also nice. Also during ‘The Bed’ and I’m thinking are they listening to the lyrics? okay….

I started falling asleep (no nap yesterday!) around 8 pm and asked him nicely to leave. It was so good to see him. And his guitar is a little sweetie. He also brought some Mango Haze over.

Can’t print out Zanne’s rental increase letter for her because I put the wrong ink in the printer and I probably need to clean the printheads.

Over to Paul’s today to encourage him to get his medical tests done, if he hasn’t already, which I doubt because he was volunteering at the charity shop yesterday.

Corn on the cob for breakfast and leftover fish and chips….

1753 words.

aircon was off most of the day, it got fucking hot in here

after all this fucking time thinking about it

I finally figured out how to carry all my instruments at once (what even the slide whistle?) yes! even Little Cosh, the Slide Whistle. (What even the tambourine? Yes, even the unnamed tambourine, which I intend to arsonize in a parking lot as the coda to Dave’s reading at his book launch. Yes, even though he is instantly appalled at the prospect, I intend to set that evil-sounding fucker on fire in a parking lot immediately after his reading, which will be sometime in November, or maybe some other time, planning sucks. (What even the spoons?) The spoons known as spoons, the ones Cindy gave me, are coming too. (What even the ukelele?) Yes, Queen Lili’uokalani was also called Lydia. I have finally named my ukelele, so I can say Lydia, formally known as Queen Lydia, the ukelele will ride along, and I will think of Mike who gave her to me as I play her. (What even Smokey?) Yes, Smokey the six-stringed electric-acoustic cutaway with a built-in tuna will be, er, crucified to it, or at least his case will be. The guitar case has plenty of attachment points, and bungees’ll fix ever’thin else. (And the mallets?) Why, yes. (What even Rowena, the howling twangy-boxed mountain dulcimer of threat, sacrifice and curse?) Yes, even that loud and demanding Melusine of magic and mayhem will be along for the ride.  (Even Ovie the Shaker Egg?) Yes, even him, if he hasn’t rolled under furniture agin. (Even a rainbow of kazoos?) Indeed. (Even Otto the octave mandolin?) Especially Otto. Despite everything he remains my favourite.

It’s a golf club cart!

If only I could look under my own dash and see what the hell was happening. If only I had a manual and could tweak my own hypocrisy, here limned by a total stranger, into non-existence. But as long as I live with humans I’ll be a hypocrite. The problem seems insoluble to me.

Zoe Baker @anarchopac
Me: when reading a history book its important to keep in mind how much hard work and suffering went into researching and writing it. Finishing writing a book is itself an achievement.
Also me: I can’t believe they cite THAT source. Only basic bitches cite that source.

 

Kaossilator ip ip ip

  • Brief walk and lovely sit in the sunshine with Paul. He had a good time on the Island and Jim being in better shape really put the heart back into him. Paul’s at his volunteer job today.
  • Dragged him into the music room and made him listen to what the Kaossilator sounds like when the battery is dying
  • HEY pOp RYERSON CHANGED ITS NAME TO Toronto Metropolitan University. Given that he was a colonizer who thought Indigenous people are scum I’m cool with that.
  • MUST go to the bank today, I still haven’t paid Keith back.
  • Otto back tomorrow or the day after, that’s good.
  • President Biden is apparently going to declare a climate emergency. Don’t be too happy; those parts that are useful will be turned into money making opportunities for big Democrat donors and when the next president is a Republican it will all be swept away anyway
  • The gay mayor of a town in Oklahoma has been assaulted and frightened so much that after five years of service as Councilman and Mayor he’s resigning. I spend a lot of time in fanfic talking about states where you can’t be out in public and Kansas and Oklahoma are definitely two places where it’s as much as your life is worth to be openly gay, especially outside of places like Lawrence.
  • The entire world with the exception of New Zealand and parts of China is wandering into the seventh wave like a bunch of fools. ERs are crashing and apart from the people who visit them and work at them nobody cares.
  • Despite a century of doctors and health care professionals wearing masks, the far right and the ignorant are still claiming that wearing a mask makes for ‘too much CO2, you’ll choke.’ Showing them pictures of your pulseox before and after masks is ‘fake news.’ Now I’m not saying people deserve to die, but some will die, with belief systems like that. And it will be the young, the elderly and the disabled who pay most dearly, just like fucking usual.
  • I predict that people between forty and eighty will just ‘start dropping dead’ as the effects of multiple undiagnosed COVID infections spread out through the population. Since these deaths won’t get added to the COVID total (no active COVID infection??? CAN’T be COVID!!), the ignorant will claim that it’s the ‘stress of lockdown when it was unnecessary’, ‘drugs’, ‘chemtrails’, ‘the heat’ and ‘the government’ that’s causing these unusual deaths.
  • If you don’t have a will please make one. I have a will, it’s out of date. After all, I no longer have any assets except my intellectual property, which is LOLOLOL completely worthless except to about 3 people. But I still have to change the will so the intellectual property is specifically called out.
  • Apparently the CME is pretty much missing us but check for nice aurorae tonight in western Canada if skies are clear.
  • Don’t blame me, the wordle of the day is ‘angry’
  • 393 words on Part II

Got to see all my descendents

It’s always very wonderful to have all of your descendents in a single room. I only held bubs once since he’s teething and enraged about it (I AM SPOSETA BE HAPPY ALLA TIME WHHHYYYYYY) and I’m getting Alex for a sleepover tonight so we just had a brief conversation about his most recent art project (his horror drawing is LUSH AND IMAGINATIVE and getting better all the time) and CBC kids games and we’ll catch up more tonight. I had one single beer. Slept like a rock in the arms of a rock.

Keith was in fine form. The meal was sushi and tempura and we et it all, all 85 bucks of it between the four of us (Jeff has been slammed by work and equally by the urge to do nothing about it, so he stayed home and tried to play whackamole with his task list. Katie had a bad day with Ryker so she was less than communicative, just tired tired tired as one gets. Keith got off to a board game meetup.

Paul had asked me to help with something on the computer and when I got there DESPITE THE ROGERS OUTAGE THAT IS ENSNARING our entire country he accomplished it. I’m impressed.

There’s a reason we have copper coming to the door.

Today, despite my misgivings about gatherings, HOUSE FILK hopefully the weather will let us do it outside. We’ve been promised buckets of chicken soup.

I have managed not to get too outraged on / by social media today so I’m going to hopefully write. 31796 so far. Yes, I done got graphomania again. Omar and Mr. Toth are eating a Fran’s takeout meal in the waiting room on the ward where Brad is and Mr. Toth just told him that he’s been diagnosed with dementia so Omar’s feeling shitty about calling him a demented old bastard and Mr. Toth doesn’t want his kid to be mad at him so he’s making nice with Omar by feeding him, always a plan.

New Beyoncé dropped

Yeah, so this is me right now. I have a crown made of pain and iron wrapped around my head and I think I’m going to have a very low key day. Also, expect the aforementioned song to be errywhere this summer, because it will be.

I am annoyed for other reasons this morning but there’s no point memorializing them for a censorious future, plus it could be argued that none of the fucking monkeys currently loose in my brain belong to MY circus. I will say that it has nothing to do with any family members.