So, returning to the indifferent embrace of the bureaucracy this week eventually sorted itself out, after a rough day or two to start. By the time you’re reading this, my inbox is completely tended, the groove is starting to get re-established, and I’ve already put a few presumptive public employees in their place for not knowing their role.

It’s kind of what I do.

Honestly, not much else in my corner of the universe this week, apart from forty miles or so on the newly tuned-up road bike and finishing off a novel and moving on to devouring an urban fantasy short story collection.

Thursday evening, though, I dropped the lovely spouse and the youngest off at the airport so they can take a long weekend in Massachussetts spending time with some dear friends of the family that come to us, no surprise, from the con music scene, though this trip is really at the insistence of the kids, who’ve known each other since toddlerhood, and have maintained a bi-coastal friendship for most of the last decade while the other family were living in California.

They’re going to spend some quality time geeking out together and catching up, and it’s honestly long overdue. I hope they have a great time, especially since it’s the kid’ first time on an airplane, and I think she’s looking forward to the whole experience.

My weekend, however, will be much less exciting – grocery shopping, laundry, maybe a bike ride, and keeping the older spawn in line and adulting.

And, I’ll probably listen to some music like the stuff below (as well as the USB drive full of tunes by my buddy Keith Brinegar I picked up at ConGregate the other weekend), which just comes out of the algorithms on Spotify, but has some pretty bangin’ tunes that slap (as the kids say) this week, particularly forgotten favorites likes #2 and the beautiful weirdness at #10:

1. “Wicked Mind” – Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs
2. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle” – CAKE
3. “Leash Called Love” – The Sugarcubes
4. “Welcome To The Church Of Rock And Roll” – Foxy Shazam
5. “Bulletproof” – Samantha Fish
6. “Funnel of Love” – The Young Veins
7. “Mr. Soul” – Neil Young
8. “Dark Days” – Tim Heidecker
9. “Is This Music?” – Teenage Fanclub
10. “Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth” -illuminati hotties
11. “Human Crime” – Pixies
12. “Day Tripper” – YELLO MAGIC ORCHESTRA
13. “I’m The Sky” – Norma Tanega
14. “Open My Eyes” – Nazz
15. “Soundcheck” – Pom Pom Squad

….and don’t call me Shirley!

I seem to have lost mine.

The thought of staring down over five hours of online meetings will do that, I suppose.

This short, pointless post has been brought to you by…y’know? who cares?

As of today, I have supposedly returned to the regular daily grind of a mild-mannered professional bureaucrat and leaving behind my detour into the life of a free-wheeling, wild-living rock star.

As if.

In any case, please enjoy the following brief after-action report:

The gigs at ConGregate and Confluence were, on the whole, reasonably successful. I played my shows to reasonably sized crowds, sold a few CDs (sufficient to basically cover the cost of gas to and from the venues), saw some friends, made a few new ones, and had a few days at home in between to take care of some lingering domestic tasks and get a few miles in on the trail, even if I managed to break two bikes (don’t worry, they got better)* in the process.

But yes, today, I’m back in the saddle, watching meetings get rescheduled, system test partners leave out critical information, and clearing out the inbox in spite of my “I’m not here” autoresponder.

That, however, is completely normal. No Brownian motion from liquid almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea required.

__________________________

* – indeed, I threw a spoke or three on the road bike approximately six miles from the trailhead during a particularly sweltering afternoon, resulting in my requesting a rescue from my lovely spouse, as I wasn’t about to carry the bike (spokes pop, wheel goes out of true and won’t turn in it’s allotted space in the frame…) six miles back to the car in 100° weather. The following day, I decided to take the other bike over to the state park and run the trails, getting about five miles in before blowing a tire at the bottom of a mid-level single-track run. This involved my pushing the bike two miles up an old forest service road to the trailhead, taking shelter for half an hour while a big thunderstorm/downpour passed, then hiked the bike another two miles down the mountain to the parking area.

However, a quick tube change at home, and a short stay at the bike shop for a tune-up I was planning on doing anyway, both are back in service…it just wasn’t my week.

By the time you’re reading this, my lovely spouse and I will be hitting the road for my second convention gig in as many weekends: Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA.

I’ve not been to this convention before, but this community is small enough that there will likely be some folks I know, but a bunch I don’t, which means that it’s a chance to play my stuff for people who haven’t heard it before, so I’m hoping it’ll be at least somewhat profitable.

As for my schedule, it currently stands as follows:

• Friday, 10pm, Ballroom 1 – Open Filk
• Saturday, 12pm, Ballroom 1 – Concert
• Saturday, 10pm, Ballroom 1 – Open Filk

And, whatever other kinds of things I get pulled into; honestly? Who knows.

Also – I released some new music this week!

This was a definite winner from this year’s FAWM efforts, and as long as I’ve been playing it live, people have been asking for a recording, so I took some time while I was off work this week to put one together (and it gave me an excuse to play with some of my new tools, like Band In A Box).

It’s a catchy, optimistic piece about trying to find beauty and happiness in simple things, like Jeff does on one of the best things on Disney+. I’m kind of proud of it.

You can listen to it there in the embed above, and buy your very own copy for $1.00 (or more, if you’re feeling generous!) if you dig it (and I hope you do!).

As indicated previously, I’m taking a bit of a working vacation beginnning this weekend, playing shows at a couple of cons on the east coast and taking a few days off in-between; a small tour, if you will…

My first stop is Con-Gregate 8 this weekend in Winston-Salem NC. I’ll be playing a couple of shows, sitting a couple of panels, and spending time with friends. I had a great time last year at this one as reserve performer, and they were nice enough to have me back as a regular guest this year.

We’ve got some great folks running the boards, and we’ll be doing our best to keep the ballroom full of pleasant sounds all weekend (and with some other excellent performing guests on the bill, I think we will!).

As for where I’ll be:

• Friday, 9:30pm – “Our Guilty Pleasures” (Moravian)
• Saturday, 10:00am – “When Saturday Morning Was Great” (Salem)
• Saturday, 11:30am – “Geek: The Next Generation” (Salem)
• Saturday, 1:00pm – Performance (Hearn C/D)
• Saturday, 7:30pm – “The Power of Humor” (Salem)
• Sunday, 11:00am – “The 25th Element – 25 Year of LeelooDallasMultiPass” (Salem)
• Sunday, 1:00pm – “Filk Collective (Hearn C/D)

Otherwise, I’ll be doing my thing, visiting with folks, trying to sell a few CDs, and ideally taking my lovely spouse out for a slightly delayed anniversary dinner someplace nice downtown.

If you’re in the area, maybe think about stopping by!

It’s Friday, but you’re not getting a playlist today. I took a couple of days off, just for me, to deal with some medical appointments, and because the “vacation” I have lined up for later this month is definitely of the working variety.

Go listen to your own music; I’m busy spending a good bit of the day mountain biking on the many exciting single-track runs at the local state park, and then probably going out for a beer.

Another week mostly in the books. Apart from recording my virtual Dragoncon set (and catching up with my friend running things) on Wednesday night, it was mostly just work, sinus drainage, bills, and exercise.

The lovely spouse and I did make a late night of it on Thursday heading out to the Drive-In to catch a pre-opening-day screening of Thor: Love & Thunder, which was nice, both because the movie was a lot of fun (though I suspect there’s 20-30 minutes useful exposition and entertaining b-plots that got cut in the interest of making a streamlined action-comedy ride), and, of course, the company.

That did get us home a bit late, but my body still woke me up mostly on time anyway. No worries; nothing significant on the agenda today (one catch-up meeting and some paperwork) and plans for a quiet evening at home tonight; I can rest.

Apart from that Maiden tribute show on Saturday night, the weekend looks pretty standard. Shopping, chores, and if those bike parts I’m expecting show up, maybe a little wrenching on the deck.

As for tunes this week, I’m skipping the usual “weekly discovery” playlist in favor of this one, inspired by the movie I saw last night. Taika Waititi’s take on the character is, frankly, delightful, this movie in particular leans into exactly the right kind of hair metal/hard rock nostalgia he plays with, and this playlist catches the spirit pretty well, and I’ve had #2 rolling on my internal soundtrack nonstop since the credits rolled. \m/ :

1. “Hammer To Fall” – Queen
2. “Rainbow in the Dark” – Dio
3. “Don’t Stop Believin'”- Journey
4. “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi
5. “Blue Monday” – New Order
6. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” – Van Halen
7. “Walk This Way” – Aerosmith
8. “Iris” – Goo Goo Dolls
9. “Thunderstruck” – AC/DC
10. “Paranoid” – Black Sabbath
11. “Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes
12. “My Name Is Thunder” – Jet + The Bloody Beetroots
13. “Photograph” – Def Leppard
14. “Immigrant Song” – Led Zeppelin
15. “Crazy Train” – Ozzy Osbourne

As indicated in the last post, I spent a lot of time in the company of other humans this weekend. The birthday party was low-key, but attended by a bunch of people I didn’t know all that well. That said, we spent a pleasant couple of hours chatting with our elders, and watching the birthday boy’s septuagenarian mother put the pro-choice smackdown on a couple of her conservative male peers.

That was pretty cool.

Saturday’s gathering at the farm was likewise low-key, though much larger, and we spent a nice afternoon chatting with our friends in the shade about not much of anything in particular; mostly simply being there as an emotional anchor for what was a difficult emotional day for them.

Upon arriving home, I finally managed to meet the kid the eldest is dating. Seems like a good kid, and makes her happy, so all’s good there.

And honestly, that much social interaction was enough for this introvert who is good at faking it. To recharge, Sunday morning included a long solo ride, putting 41 miles on the Trek and, sadly, giving myself an unpleasant case of saddle rash, thanks to a proper mix of heat, humidity, sweat, spandex, and skin.

Oh well, all told, I put a little over 60 miles on the bike over the weekend, and added another five to the soles of my shoes on Monday morning hiking along the river to give my ass a chance to heal up a bit. I’ll give myself a shorter one this afternoon to knock out the last dozen miles or so of the VCT summer challenge and put that to bed.

As for the week ahead? I’ve got the usual (work, exercise, etc), plus I’m booked to record my streaming 2×10 for the DragonCon filk track virtual program, and have tickets for, of all things, an Iron Maiden Tribute Band, on Saturday night, which, honestly, should be a blast.

But for now, it’s a day full of conference calls and all the cats yelling at me because the clock is approaching feeding time.

Bruen. Dobbs. Kennedy. OK v. Castro-Huerta. WV v. EPA….

From my perspective, this was not a great couple of weeks for this country. These decisions, along with some other things, have not made things better. More guns. Right to privacy gutted. Establishment Clause crossed out. Tribal Sovereignty rolled back to 1839. The government’s ability to fight climate change neutered.

It’s going to be tough to bounce back from this.

Really hoping this kind of overreach wakes the sleeping, apathetic blue giant. Hopefully we can get our shit together, because the left’s inability to get organized and eschew purity tests in the pursuit of the greater good played a big part in getting us here.

As I’ve said many times before, if historical patterns hold, we’re due for a bit cultural/political shift soon. I just hope it’s an enlightened swing toward looking after society’s best interests rather than the systemic collapse I’m fearful of.

This isn’t the kind of thing I want to be thinking about heading into Independence Day. I wish the upbeat tone of the Director’s holiday message this morning was how things looked to me, or how I felt. Doesn’t help that I’m reading a particularly well-written apocalyptic sort of novel about the collapse of human society to add particular inspiration.

On a more micro level, I did make some solid progress at work with the PMC reorg project, and I awoke to good news about a couple of my requirements getting on contract (finally) this morning. After a bout with some unpleasant migraine issues earlier this week, I’ve gotten a couple of nice bike rides in, including a largely unplanned 31 miles yesterday afternoon where I just kind of kept on going…I guess I had some issues to work out. Also had a couple of nice little dates with the spouse this week; just a few “hey, let’s get out and do something” adventures that were quite pleasant, so it’s not been all bad.

Looking to be a little social this weekend, with an appearance at a friend’s 50th birthday party this evening, and our usual Independence Day at the farm with friends thing tomorrow. I’m also only about 80 miles short of hitting my goal on the VCT Summer Challenge, so I’ll likely take a piece of the long weekend to put a longer ride (fifty miles or so) under the wheels of the Trek somewhere along the way; It’ll feel good to check that off, and start focusing on the summer music tour that’s coming up in a couple of weeks.

In any case, that’s the view from here. Today’s playlist is pretty eclectic, mixing up retro indie pop with some hard edges, jungles, weapons, and weird oblique references to those recent decisions mentioned above. Weird:

1. “The Sails of Charon” – Scorpions
2. “Stranded in the Jungle” – New York Dolls
3. “Run Through The Jungle” – The Gun Club
4. “Sufficiently Breathless” – Captain Beyond
5. “Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun” – Beastie Boys
6. “Sara Loves Her Juicy Fruit” – Albert Natural
7. “Quark, Strangeness and Charm” – Hawkwind
8. “Playing the Game” – Gentle Giant
9. “Where There’s A Whip, There’s A Way” – Faster Pussycat
10. “Me and the Boys” – NRBQ
11. “She Noticed” – Pregnant
12. “Bikini Girls with Machine Guns” – The Cramps
13. “Into The Void” – Nine Inch Nails
14. “Dragon Attack” – Queen

Unless you’re completely unplugged from the world (and if you are, I am occasionally jealous of you), you’re aware of what is almost certainly the most significant court decision of my lifetime.

Being who I am, a straight white man (aka “The Lowest Difficulty Setting”) who is nonetheless aware of his relative privilege when compared to others, I find it sometimes challenging to opine on issues that, let’s face it, have very little to do with me; can’t have anything to do with me except on an indirect level. I want to try to have respect for others in different situations, and want to do my best to not make it about me, which is what what white cis-het men appear to be best at.

This particular decision, however, can’t *not* be talked about; so I shall tread carefully.

In short, I think it sucks. I hate the fact that people who can become pregnant in this country now seemingly have fewer rights than a gun does, and I’m going to continue to do my damnedest to support candidates and politicians who’ll work against that, and I hope the rest of you do as well.

Moreover though, I hate the current overt politization of the Supreme Court and the law in general, and find the “originalism” arguments used in several cases this term faulty.

“Originalism” is, per the article linked above for simplicity’s sake, a legal theory “which views jurisprudence as frozen in time, flatly rejects the idea of the Constitution as a a living and evolving document and instead demands that we interpret its provisions exactly as the framers intended,” and is problematic.

If the Framers, problematic as they were in all sorts of other ways, weren’t concerned with adapting government to the times, they never would have included Article V, which allows for amendments, into the Constitution. That, along with my general values and study of history, leads me more toward the concept of the “Living Constitution”, which argues that the Constitution must be interpreted in light of the moral, political, and cultural climate of the age of interpretation.

I am, of course, not a legal professional, merely an interested party with a vaguely appropriate academic background.

Leaving all that aside, the conservatives on the court in the last several decades, champions of originalism all, don’t apply it consistently themselves. When it fits their worldview, they ignore it entirely.

Justice Alito’s argument in the Dobbs case with which we are concerned, posits that because there is no direct discussion of abortion nor the “right to privacy” in the Constitution as written or conceived of at the time of the Framers, such concepts can’t be used to support decisions like Roe.

Okay, fine. Many of us don’t agree with that idea. Including, apparently, Justice Alito himself, given his position on Bruen, which was released earlier last week.

The Bruen case struck down New York’s concealed carry of firearms law, which required “proper cause” when applying for a CC permit, favoring the “shall issue…” statutes a lot of other states make use of. The opinion was written by noted originalist Justice Clarence Thomas, citing the text of the 2nd Amendment, or at least the second clause in said Amendment.

Were originalism being applied consistently, there’s a lot more evidence of the Framers’ intent relating to firearms and their regulation, beginning with the first clause of said Amendment, “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” Combining that clause with the ample evidence of militia service and the requirement for arm in that context (including in numerous state laws and state constitutions of the time), there’s no particular argument made for the individual right to bear arms for self-defense or whatever other reason, certainly not to the standard of the amendment’s “unqualified command” cited by Thomas.

Said Amendment is one sentence long, and the first half of that sentence (well, the first 48% if you aren’t counting commas) is a qualifing clause.

Bullshit.

So…were the concept applied consistently, I’d still disagree vehemently with the Dobbs decision, but I’d at least see the logic in Constitutional Originalism from the current conservatives on the court. However, given that these two decisions, released within 48 hours of each other, apply the concept not only inconsistently, but shoddily and in a blatantly political manner, I can’t. Originalism is fine when it helps them bury a right they don’t like, but are happy to ignore the first 13 words of a 27 words of a constitutional amendment when it suits them.