Has honestly been a pretty good week, when it comes right down to it. Apart from the fact that as he attended to higher-end management stuff in the C suite, I ended up sitting in for the boss on all kinds of other high-level meetings all week. I have had my fill of briefing big puffed-up important people, begging for funds, and breathing the rarified air of the senior executive service. I did get our projects funded without issue, and saved the taxpayers some money to boot – I am, it seems, better at this sort of thing than the boss is, but even so, I’m glad it’s his regular job and not mine.

Although my preferred local candidates were both (narrowly) defeated by incumbents, the overall Virginia legislature shifted into Democratic control for, as the media keeps saying, the first time in a quarter-century. This means we might be able to talk about good things like sensible gun control and finally ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment and adding another (long overdue) Amendment to the US Constitution.

I still wish we could have yanked Sen. Amanda Chase back home, who’s such a terrible “Karen” that her local Republican party expelled her. We came within 10 points this time; we’ll nail it four years from now.

Outside of that, I got a bunch of long overdue trail miles in on the bike, even in the cold weather, recorded a bunch of stuff for Jonah’s record, and sat in on my friend Lefty’s “Build-A-Band” open mic night on Wednesday; it’s an interesting concept: you show up, drop your name into buckets for singer/guitar/bass/drums/keys/etc, and the host draws names at random, creating an ad-hoc band. You and your new band mates confab for a few minutes figuring out what you’re going to play, then you hit the stage for a couple of tunes. It’s weird, kinda crazy, and creates some interesting, and often pretty awesome moments; stuff like me and a couple of other guys backing open mic compatriot Keely Burn performing Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me” despite none of us actually having played it before or knowing how before a quick check of the chords on the internet. It was fun.

This weekend is the WIDA US Open Championship in town hosted by our school, where the girls are all dancing all day, and as dad owns a P.A., he’s running sound for the main stage. At least the venue’s within spitting distance of about ten good breweries; we’re all gonna need a beer when this is over; hopefully it’ll be celebratory.

That’s about the shape of things as they look here; this weekend’s going to be kind of exhausting, but probably cool. Gonna need that federal holiday on Monday, to catch up on rest and recording for Jonah’s project (which I’ll link to as soon as it goes up); because next Friday, if all goes well, is my record release day!, ahead of my “special filk guest” slot at Atomacon, where we’ll do the official release party, such as it is.

Anyway, tunes that aren’t mine – lots of “alternative” this time coming out of Spotify, which, you know, is fine, as it’s a lot of what I’m listening to in the background when I’m not listening to political podcasts. I’ll take it (and #12 is awesome):

1. “That Time Is Gone” – the dB’s
2. “Crow” – The Jim Carrol Band
3. “Take Off Your Bandages” – Robyn Hitchcock
4. “Anna Is A Stool Pigeon” – Tom Gabel
5. “Allison Road” – Gin Blossoms
6. “Sugar Kane” – Sonic Youth
7. “Spit on A Stranger” – Pavement
8. “They/Them/Theirs” – Worriers
9. “Still Lovin’ You” – George Lynch
10. “Ace of Spades” – Motörhead
11. “End of the Line” – Roxy Music
12. “Closer To Free” – Bodeans
13. “Mississippi Nuthin'” – Shovels & Rope
14. “Buffalo Calf Road” – A. Savage
15. “Brian Wilson” – Barenaked Ladies