As per usual, these four day weeks are always busier than the usual five day package. Just seems like all the meetings and briefings and problems rear their heads at the office, along with more-intense-than-usual drama elsewhere. If the world cooperates, I’ll likely knock off a little early, though the world hasn’t cooperated so far, so we’ll see…

I have, however, made it through this extra-busy week full of all the things mostly unscathed.

Mostly.

I did get word from one of my bandmates that I shared the stage with all last weekend that they’d testing positive for COVID a day or two after the con. Thus far I’ve shown no symptoms, but I’ve taken a few steps these last couple of days to stay out of the way of crowded places, be extra-judicious about mask-wearing, and generally follow the CDC Quarantine and Isolation Guidelines because I’m responsible like that. Based on those guidelines, I’ll test myself today, if only to throw off the weird psychosomatic “do I feel less than ideal because I’ve been infected, or just because I’m really good at convincing myself that I was, and it’s just usual tired-of-all-the-work-bullshit stuff” effects.

In any case, because of said positivity, we won’t be playing Fantasci this weekend down in Durham, which is honestly fine – I’d see some friends, but it’s a heck of a drive to go for one hour-long set.

Apart from that, word has come to me that several acquaintances or relatives-of-acquaintances have passed away this week, which, frankly, sucks. Also, Madeline Albright, a heck of a public servant with an inspiring story, and someone in government I’ve always looked up to. Dammit.

On the better front, we had those new appliances we ordered months ago delivered and (mostly) installed. They’re pretty, stainless steel, and some of them are wifi-enabled, which is just weird. But, I’ll take the wins where I can get them.

Nothing really on the agenda this week; given that positivity stuff above, I’m keeping my head down until I know more. Probably the usual laundry and chorin’.

As for tunes this week, I’m taking advantage of the new queueing functionality in the bandcamp app, which lets you build playlists from or shuffle your collection and all that sort of thing. Thus, this week’s list is built up inordinately of friends and co-conspirators (apart from #13, anyway – bigger, but definitely indie), but y’know? That’s totally okay – my friends are pretty damned talented people:

1. “Sorry, Mom” – Mikey Mason
2. “Sedna of the Sea” – Leslie Hudson
3. “Love Me” – The Positronic Cats
4. “Don’t Sail There No More” – Misbehavin’ Maidens
5. “Producers Are Mean!” – Night Sabers
6. “Ocarina of Love (The Zelda Song)” – Madison Metricula Roberts
7. “Dance Dance Hero” – Foot Pound Force
8. “Con Crush” – David Tyberg
9. “Waltz” – Keely Burn
10. “Battle Hymn of the Nazi Hobos” – D.J. McGuire
11. “Bela Legosi’s Not Dead” – Summer Russell
12. “Stones Speak Commentary” – Rhiannon’s Lark
13. “Prayin’ For A Sweet Weekend” – Rock Sugar
14. “Happy Holidays Too” – The Doubleclicks
15. “Shiny Objects” – The Long Losts
16. “Dancing In The Car” – Leff Whitmire

Marscon was, as it always is, a good time; it’s home. It’s the place where my con music career transformed from the guy in the back of the filk room all the way up to the guy with a well-attended solo set on the main stage. And, of course, the first event I ever played with the Blibbering Humdingers so many years ago…

It was a little weird with the policy shifts and such, but people mostly managed without drama. We played our music, though our performances were all a little rusty, as we’re *all* getting back into the habit of attending events with even moderately-sized groups of people. The audience, however, is predisposed to like us, since so many of them are friends, so even the bum notes were appreciated…and there were quite a few bum notes.

I got lots of positive comments about my solo set, sold a couple of CDs, and had conversations about possibly booking another convention later this summer, though those details are still sorting themselves out.

I’m getting well-enough known amongst this crowd that, somewhat exhaustingly, I kind of have to be “on” for the entire period; it’s difficult to get from one part of the convention space to another without being stopped by someone with a greeting or a joke or looking for conversation. I love this event, I truly do, but it’s work. Rewarding work, but still work.

Things actually wound down early this year as well – I didn’t stay for the the typical Sunday night dead-dog/cool down, as I was just too wrecked from being so damned social. I checked out early and left as soon as Mikey was done using my guitar for his Sunday afternoon set (his had a technical fail early in the con and I became his spouse’s favorite human because I lent him mine and he wasn’t forced to go buy a new one).

But now, it’s in the can for another year, and that’s okay – universe willing, we’ll do it all again in January.

As mentioned previously, this weekend is Marscon, and given that, I’m doing my usual Friday post on Thursday in order to get it out of the way, because I’ll have things to do tomorrow; even if I did take a long weekend, which I damned well deserved.

Definitely deserved it because this has been one of those short weeks that’s had way more than a full week’s worth of work to shovel through in it. I am, one can reasonably say, overloaded with work things, to the point that people are randomly commenting to me about how much I’m carrying. I guess it says something about everyone’s confidence in me to get stuff done, and I kind of feel obligated to do it, given the big raise I picked up this year – some weird sort of motivation to live up to the image that’s been created – it’s a weird Calvinist work ethic thing, even if I grew up on the opposite side of that. There’ve been a few hints dropped here and there that I’m being groomed for something bigger, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s all rumor and speculation at this point, but…yeah; it’s something I have to think on before this phantom figuratively drops.

Apart from that stuff, I’ve been working to get my exercise in (not enough, my inner crazy person says, even if 40 miles over three days is fine for someone who’s getting over a respiratory thing – at least the rain today will enforce a day of rest), and spending lots and lots of time rehearsing for Marscon shows; polishing the old stuff and trying on the new stuff for both the Humdinger and Chuck shows, and also bracing for impending weirdness at this weird year. In any case, schedule still stands as follows:

• Saturday 3/19, 11am – Large Auditorium – Chuck Solo
• Saturday 3/19, 1pm – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers
• Saturday 3/19, 10pm – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers (“naughty” show)
• Sunday, 3/20, 11am – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers

It is, I should also note, St. Patrick’s Day, which plays nicely into family hobbies and heritage. I’ll probably drink a pint of Guinness at some point this evening, and I am currently wearing a green t-shirt as part of my casual chic ensemble this morning. I doubt I’ll be celebrating much beyond that – too much to do.

I shall, however, mark the occasion with this image my friend Greg shared on the social media feeds last night; seems appropriate – you’re welcome:

And with that, all that’s left is the tunes. Almost alarmingly mellow country-infused indie mix this week, with a few diversions into famous/influential megastars and a little School House Rock for good measure. It’s almost like the algorithm gods have decided I need to relax a bit…

1. “The Past Is Our Plaything” – Dean Wareham
2. “Joy Ride” – Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles
3. “Letting Go” – Erika Wennerstrom
4. “You’ve Got A Habit of Leaving” – David Bowie
5. “Alone Again” – UFO
6. “Blueberry Dream” – The Pink Stones
7. “Would You Like to Get Some Goats?” – Melissa Carper
8. “Stay Down, Man” – Dan Reeder
9. “Modern Woman” – Erin Rae
10. “Strange” – Boise Cover Band
11. “Stop and Start” – The Sadies
12. “The Runner” – Allison Russell
13. “God Only Knows” – Brian Wilson
14. “Lolo 13” – Laura Jane Grace
15. “Three Is A Magic Number” – Blind Melon
16. “Old Time Feeling” – S.G. Goodman
17. “Kitty’s Back” – Bruce Springsteen

Marscon is, indeed, happening this coming weekend. I am, as always, looking forward to it, as I get to play music for people who like listening to it, and see friends I don’t see all that often. That said, there’s a little bit of apprehension on my part, due to some drama surrounding a last minute COVID policy change.

Knowing the con staff as I do, I know they’re trying to do the best they can, though making the shift to mask optional and not always being entirely clear what that means with less than a week until the con starts probably wasn’t the best call, especially in a world with social media where people are given free rein to be assholes, whether they’re for, or opposed to, the changes.

I’m expecting a little bit of ugliness.

Me? I’m going to be there because I committed to playing shows and people there are nice enough to want to come see them. I shall, however, be masked except when eating, drinking, or singing (and maybe even then if I can make it work), and I generally don’t have much personal time at this one anyway, rushing between commitments all day as I do. What little free time I have, however, likely won’t involve a lot of large-scale close-quarters interaction.

Anyway, all that crap aside, here’s where I’m scheduled to be this weekend:

• Saturday 3/19, 11am – Large Auditorium – Chuck Solo
• Saturday 3/19, 1pm – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers
• Saturday 3/19, 10pm – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers (“naughty” show)
• Sunday, 3/20, 11am – Large Auditorium – Blibbering Humdingers

I’ll do my best to post any updates, as con schedules are fluid at the best of times, let alone this year….

Nothing to report from this past weekend; I kind of felt like crap with sinus issues. Yay.

Not a whole lot of note to report regarding the week; it just sort of was. Couple of things of note, however…

Woke up this morning to the encouraging headline that both houses of Congress have passed the omnibus spending bill six months into the fiscal year, so we won’t have to deal with continuing resolutions for the rest of the year, which has become a serious pain in my ass.

Ahead of MarsCon gigs next weekend, I tried out a few new tunes from last month at my buddy’s open mic at Art and Coffee last night, and while I was *very* rusty, the new material went over well, as I hoped it would, especially this one, which is honestly one of my favorites from this year’s FAWM exercise.

Honestly no idea what the weekend holds; weather looks sort of shit, but I’m still hoping for some outside time anyway; we’ll see. Mostly, I just want a little time not dedicated to program and budget management.

Tunes? Zappa makes a welcome return, a not-often-thought-of favorites at #6 and #11, and the usual mix of neat indie things I’ve not heard before, which is honestly what I’m usually looking for:

1. “Minnesota Girls” – The Shackletons
2. “Valley Girl” – Frank Zappa, Moon Zappa
3. “My Cat’s Name Is Maceo” – Jane’s Addiction
4. “Queen of the Underground” – Goat
5. “Hurts to be Alive” – Whitmer Thomas
6. “88 Lines about 44 Women” – Nails
7. “Queen Sophie For President” – The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die
8. “Sippie Cup” – Horsey
9. “The Sea” – Sierra Ferrel
10. “Fisherman’s Blues” – Dawes
11. “It’s Love” – King’s X
12. “Two Shots” – Wanda Jackson, Elle King, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
13. “Teenage Riot” – Sonic Youth
14. “Better Now” – The Weather Station
15. “Sunless Saturday” – Fishbone

Much has been made of the stories of the current conflict resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Zelenskyy’s masterful social media management; the stories of bravery from Ukrainian citizens, Putin’s seemingly unhinged state of mind. Americans missing the effing point…

It’s interesting, that for, perhaps the first time since WWII, certainly the first time in my lifetime, there’s a conflict in the world that clearly aligns with our storybook notions of good guys vs. bad guys, and the Western world’s responding emotionally to it. Not saying that things are that simple; they’re not – they never are. There’s a lot going on, and it’s ripe for analysis; of people’s motivations, reactions, etc. By all means, admire the Ukraininan resistance, but be mindful of your own prejudices – Lili Loofbourow over at Slate has written one of the better pieces I’ve seen on the topic – I recommend you read it.

That said, the other bit I’m seeing is the whole revival of Cold War nuclear anxiety, especially for the generation(s?) of people two young to remember it the first time around. For the first time since the 80s, it’s kind of a real thing (even if one argues that by the time I came around in the early 70s, MAD kind of ensured that it wasn’t), and it’s bringing back, at least for some, real feelings.

So far, it’s mostly been memes from my fellow GenX’ers referencing the cultural artifacts of the time: Red Dawn, WarGames, The Hunt For Red October, but I think there’s some real anxiety behind at least some of it, even if it seems like just “one more thing” when considering the last half-decade of pandemic, America’s flirtation with autocratic maniacs at the helm, the whole giving permission for racist and fascist assholes to say the quiet part loud again, and the last forty years of trickle-down economic theory pulling the ramp up behind those who came before and leaving little for today’s young adults to look forward to.

A lot of us have been having a hard time maintaining a sense of optimism about the future and the existence of a moral universe at all, let alone one having an arc bending towards justice.

Given all that, my reaction to seeing a primer for what to do if a nuclear scenario happens in non-ironic mainstream media is one of “sure, whatever…” numbness, but kinda not.

But honestly, that’s about what one would expect from the generation that made “Meh” an emotion.

Between load-in Friday night and all day behind the board on Saturday, the dance competition ate up a good chunk of the weekend. It could have been much more frustrating than it was; not to say that there wasn’t *any* frustration, from the usual personalities, but I got through the day with minimal hiccups, and I got paid for my time. Family results could’ve been better, but it wasn’t an entirely bad day, and our dinner and drinks out afterwards with sympathetic spirits was a very nice end to a long day.

As tired as I was after that whole business, I couldn’t let the promise of gorgeous weather go to waste, so I got up and out early and put in 60 miles on the VCT. Knocked it out in well under five hours (including a couple of breaks along the way, as is only responsible, if only to refill water), and wasn’t limping too hard afterwards. Figuring my route for the Cap2Cap in May, 60 is longer than the longest stretch I’ll be facing without a significant stop-off for lunch and rest, so I think I’m in pretty good shape for the century. It felt good as an accomplishment in any case.

That said, it ate up most of my Sunday on a weekend already eaten up by other things, so I had to juggle the usual responsibilities around a bit, but still managed to get the shopping done, and I can do laundry in fits and starts through the week while I’m working. Also, my roughly monthly online D&D game was a welcome occurrence last night; hunting bandits and sharing laughs with good friends is a nice way to close out a way too busy weekend.

Otherwise, the week ahead looks pretty typical; work, biking when the weather cooperates (there’s some rain lined up for later this week), running folks around what need run around, and all that, and keeping track of a potential gig or two later this month as schedules firm up.

All of this starting this morning with ibuprofen for breakfast, since I’m not a teenager anymore – not that I could’ve done what I did yesterday when I was a teenager. I guess that’s something I should be proud of.

Let’s start the weekend off with a literary reference, huh?

The past week was, to paraphrase Dickens, the best and worst of times. On the good side, I made a whole lot of progress on projects at work, and after more than a year in, the way my work group is organized is finally starting to gel, and I’m maybe kinda-sorta becoming more comfortable in my position of so-called ‘leadership’, whatever that means. I’m not the boss, but I’m the guy the boss trusts to get stuff done, and I guess that counts.

Oh well.

I also got more than sixty trail miles under me this week, thanks to some nice weather and work meetings not running too long in the evening, though occasionally they did, and was racing the sunset to get my bike back to the trailhead.

On the worse end, I’ve been sleeping terribly for some reason, the nice weather is playing havok on my sinuses, more than half the meetings I’ve been sitting (and I’ve been sitting a lot of meetings) have been tedious, trying affairs featuring old-school grognard developers throwing up all kinds of pointless roadblocks and gaslighting leading into this major system update we’re three weeks out from deploying. This isn’t to mention the whole “war of conquest in Eastern Europe” thing we’re watching play out, which is just one more awful thing happening in this whole f**ked up world we’re dealing with in this generally awful era.

Oh, and I’m looking ahead to spending all day tomorrow behind my mixing board running sound for an Irish Dance competition. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad – I’m getting paid, it’s not that hard, and the dancing itself is cool and all that. I just know there are going to be some personality conflicts given the folks running things, and it’s just going to remind me of the studio politics I’m hearing way too much about from the girls this last year. Oh well…I’m getting paid.

This week also brought an end to my fifth year of FAWM. The final tally was fourteen original songs (which makes it a win), as well as two collaborations where someone ran with my lyrics and threw music behind them before I could manage, because…um…see all those meetings two paragraphs back. I don’t think it was my best output year, all told, but there might be four or five winners with some life in ’em. We’ll see. In any case, it’s a good creative exercise, and it’s an opportunity to practice my ‘art’ with some sort of accountability built in, which, I’ve learned, is the kind of thing that works for me.

I’ve already alluded to the weekend a bit; Saturday’s going to be largely spoken for – depending on how on schedule things stay, I might have some evening free, and I really want to get over to Three Leg Run, since their grand opening last weekend got kinda scuttled by some utilities issues on the property before we could get over there. We’ll see. Given that the weather’s going to be flirting with 80° on Sunday, I’m really thinking that I’m going to push toward that century ride in May and see if I can’t knock out another sixty miles on the VCT in the morning…then, assuming my legs still work, we’ll see what’s next.

Music-wise, this week’s “Discover Weekly” is all over the place, getting pretty heavy on the late-stage boomer stuff, what with Yoko and Nesmith, and I honestly can’t really come up with any real sort of logic to the rest of it, though things close out with one truly excellent pop tune from Soul Coughing’s Mike Doughty, with some serious GenX vibes; it’s honestly one of my favorites:

1. “Dizzy” – Tchotchke
2. “Underwater Moonlight” – The Soft Boys
3. “I’ve Been Waiting for Tomorrow (All of My Life) – The The
4. “It’s Alright Baby” – Komeda
5. “(Do Not Feed The) Oyster” – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
6. “Who Has Seen The Wind” – Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band
7. “Do You Dream In Color” -Bill Nelson
8. “Calico Girlfriend” – Mike Nesmith and the First National Band
9. “I Have the Touch” – Peter Gabriel
10. “Eagle Sails The Blue Diamond Waters” – Robbie Basho
11. “Out There” – Blake Babies
12. “Watch Your Step” – Bobby Parker
13. “27 Jennifers” – Mike Doughty

One highlight of this week’s adventures in mid-Atlantic suburban pandemic life is captured above. Thanks to a friend (check out her tunes; they’re great!) who had an extra, I scored a ticket to the Punch Brothers show in town on Wednesday night. Honestly, I’m still apprehensive about events involving lots of people, though this venue is still the only place I’ve been that’s required me to flash my vax card to enter, and I remained masked throughout except when sipping a delicious local-ish brew. I also never really bother to mix it up on the main floor, preferring a perch near the south railing toward the rear of the theater that gives me a good view of the stage and fewer people around.

The show was, of course, amazing. I’ve been a fan of Chris Thile for years going back to Nickel Creek, loved the dear, departed Live From Here, and of course, simply dig live music in all it’s forms. If you’re not familiar, Punch Brothers’ music is, I guess, “progressive bluegrass,” incorporating elements of pop, classical, folk, and pretty much whatever else they feel like. It’s very cool, and these guys are absolute masters of their instruments. They manage to pull some amazing dynamics out of voice and five acoustic instruments arrayed around a single microphone, and it’s impressive and beautiful, and maybe creates some feelings of inadequacy in this particular journeyman performer.

Anyway, it was a nice evening out in the middle of the week.

Otherwise, the week was pretty typical; lots of work meetings (both wildly productive and soul crushing, sometimes simultaneously), almost sixty miles of biking over a couple of nice days, and some fiddling with the music production software to wrap up FAWM. I also got my car serviced and inspected and a few other odds and ends, but, yeah, nothing especially…um…special.

The weekend coming up is looking quiet – there’s talk of checking out the new brewery/winery/meadery opening up down the street, but otherwise, probably just the usual.

As for tunes this week, kind of all over the map, as you can see, from torch singers to 90s alternative to genre actors to punk, and what might be the best recording of “Crimson and Clover” I’ve ever heard there at #8 – definitely check that one out:

1. “Two Little Men In A Flying Saucer” – Ella Fitzgerald
2. “Party Anthem” – Sloppy Jane
3. Penpals” – Sloan
4. “Thing of Beauty” – Hothouse Flowers
5. “Save It For Later” – The Beat
6. “G.S.K.” – Squid
7. “Bobby – The Pool Sessions” – Wolf Alice
8. “Crimson and Clover” – A.G. Cook
9. “Here and Now”- Letters to Cleo
10. “Need You Around” – Smoking Popes
11. “I Do The Rock” – Tim Curry
12. “Howling At The Moon (Sha-La-La)” – Ramones

If you’ve been regularly reading this space for the last, um, two years or so, I’ve been stressed as hell lately and not exactly in the best frame of mind.

Pretty obvious, right?

After the last few weeks, I pretty much decided that I was taking this long President’s Day weekend and spending at least a couple of days doing very little. The key moment, I think, was when my wife and daughters looked at me across a table of delicious Indian food on Friday evening and told me I looked awful.

Which I did.

So, Saturday, I took some time in the morning to do the grocery shopping, but, apart from periodically checking the washer and/or dryer, I more or less crashed on the couch and binged Peacemaker on HBOMax and ate some Girl Scout Cookies while the house was quiet (the rest of them either had work or events to deal with). It helped, at least a little.

Sunday I did kind of the same thing – a quick run out to do some errands in the morning, but otherwise, chilled around the house, bought myself a treat based on the thing I’ll talk about in the next paragraph, and finished reading a novel.

About that treat – it’s sort of a story. On Friday afternoon, I started playing with some of the inspirational widgets (collectively called “The Muse”) on the February Album Writing Month website, and generated some random words and phrases, which ended up turning into a set of lyrics for a mostly nonsense, but generally foreboding-sounding song titled “When the Seventh Rolls”. As usual, the fawmers looked, commented, and offered encouragement, and a guy I met a few years ago out in the Bay Area when the Humdingers played there dug things enough to ask if he could take a pass at writing some music for it.

Of course I told him “Yes!,” and a bit later, he turned my weird foreboding prophecy nonsense into, of all things, a honky tonk piano tune which is something I would never have thought of, but damn if it isn’t brilliant. Nice little piece of collaboration popping up out of nowhere, and it was a nice bright spot. Oh, as he used a neat little program called Band-in-a-Box to generate some of the background tracks (it’s an app that takes your chord progressions or whatever and generates backing tracks from a huge database of recordings and/or MIDI in a ridiculous number of musical styles), and other friends have sung it’s praises over the years, I went ahead and spent a few bucks on myself and enjoyed an afternoon of fiddling with it. One more tool for the toolbox.

Today, Monday, I had off because Federal Holiday, so I did some chorin’, then, because it was a nice day, I racked my bike and went for a ride, even though I felt a bit crap. There were no parking places at my usual spot on the VCT, so I went to the other end of the trail, and rode a brisk 35 miles from the east end of things, and it was good.