Warning: contains promotional content!

It has been, as they say, another week. And, looking back, a hell of a year. This time last year, things were just starting to get weird as the first cases of COVID-19 started popping up around these parts, leading to, well…you know. With the vaccines starting to work their way out now, there might be some light at the end of this tunnel, but in spite of what the people in charge of Texas and my local school board are doing, I think there’s still quite a bit of tunnel left.

Keep up the masks and distancing, folks. It’s important.

Anyway, this week…I spent a lot of time on the phone with work; more than usual, which is always a treat, though with the weather starting to improve, once I logged off for the day, I spent a *lot* of time putting the new bike through it’s paces. As I write this Friday morning, I’ve got almost fifty miles logged in the saddle, on both pavement and dirt, and I am quite happy with my purchase. The lighter frame and narrow tires make the experience on the paved Capital Trail much nicer (I’m averaging five minute miles now rather than almost ten on the old bike), and it still does more than well enough on semi-rough dirt trails. I wouldn’t do any single-track downhill with this one, but I didn’t do much of that anyway.

I might take today off and give the muscles a rest, though I think I might have a 25 miler in me for the weekend. And, every mile helps, as I signed up for the VCT Winter Warrior Challenge this week, late in the process; to “win” the sweatshirt, I need to knock out a total of 282 miles between 1/1 and 3/31; apart from the hiking miles (which totally count according to the rules) I’ve logged, I’m giving up eight weeks, though I am on pace to complete this before the end of the month if I keep it up, which I will.

Apart from that, it is, of course, Bandcamp Friday, where waives its fees for artists selling music on the platform, which means a few extra cents on the dollar in our pockets if you buy something today.

And, as you were warned, I have something new out there for you to buy! I present, for your edification, The Blanket Fort Demos, a new collection of fourteen all-new tunes I recorded during this year’s February Album Writing Month. Most are the original one-or-two take demos, though I did a little bit of sweetening here and there. I like ’em, and I hope you do too:

Lots of other people out there have new stuff out today as well (my friend Madison keeps a great list), including my bandmates the Blibbering Humdingers, who’ve put up the pre-order for the new record, Positively Gruntled, which’ll be out in a few weeks (after I put my stamp on a few of the tunes, for example)!

So, yeah. That’s the story from here. All that’s left is the traditional Friday playlist. I was tempted just to post the tracklisting to the new record, though that might’ve been a bridge too far. Instead, I left it up to the spotify algorithms again, and I can tell I was listening to some classic and prog rock recently, because this looks like it mostly could’ve been recorded off any local classic rock station’s air, and y’know? That’s okay:

1. “Crazy on You” – Heart
2. “Where Eagles Dare” – The Misfits
3. “It’s Love” – King’s X
4. “Ballroom Blitz” – Sweet
5. “My Way Soon” – Greta Van Fleet
6. “Black Hole Sun” – Soundgarden
7. “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper
8. “Jane” – Jefferson Starship
9. “Synchronicity II” – The Police
10. “Infected” – Bad Religion
11. “Little Guitars” – Van Halen
12. “25 or 6 to 4” – Chicago
13. “Turning Japanese (non stop edit)” – The Vapors
14. “Roundabout” – Yes
15. “Spreading the Disease” – Queensryche
16. “Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction