It’s been a relatively quiet week (at work, anyway), capped off by a welcome surprise day off thanks to the Federal Government (including unanimous consent in this Senate!) making tomorrow, Juneteenth, a national federal holiday, which, frankly, is long overdue (now, let’s just pass *any* of the election reform laws floating around DC right now, as they all make Election Day the same).

It’s also my kid’s birthday, so I know I”ll always have the day off for that…

I got a bunch of riding in, including maybe pushing myself a little too far on Monday, when I did 30 miles in >90° heat and dealt with a little bit of dehydration, in spite of having what I thought (more than two liters) was enough water. All told, eighty-five miles or so over four days, and I’m hoping for another long (at least 40 miles) ride on Sunday, so I can tick off all the mile markers for the VCT Summer Challenge.

Oh, and it’s been a pretty good week for my side hustle; apart from the Filk Quest show this past week, I booked a handful of live solo gigs coming up, pending details being worked out, including ConGregate next month in NC, the The Ravencon Summer Concert here in RVA in August, and Marscon in January, and am going to be the “song from a friend” on this Wednesday’s Trick’s Triple Six.

Between all that and the various Humdingers gigs coming up, that side of my life is looking pretty busy. I also feel appreciated because for a couple of these, the event reached out to me specifically, which makes me feel pretty good about the stuff I’m doing.

But for most of this weekend, I’m going to be stuck behind my soundboard handling the music for the dance studio’s spring recital; a tech rehearsal today and two shows tomorrow.

A dance dad’s job is never done.

Anyway, tunes. Nice little mix there, even if it’s a little firearm heavy. Mixing Zappa, and my favorite tune from my favorite ex-member of G’N’R, and what I actually consider the best song off of The Joshua Tree? That’s quality:

1. “White Lies” – Jason & THe Scorchers
2. “Moon Over Marin” – Dead Kennedys
3. “Blues from a Gun” – The Jesus & Mary Chain
4. “Hello There” – Cheap Trick
5. “The Waiting” – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
6. “Generals and Majors” – XTC
7. “Bullet The Blue Sky” – U2
8. “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” – Mission Of Burma
9. “Shuffle It All” – Izzy Stradlin And The Ju Ju Hounds
10. “Fire Escape” – Fastball
11. “All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards” – Corb Lund
12. “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” – The Mothers of Invention
13. “Einstein On The Beach (For an Eggman)” – Counting Crows
14. “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” – Huntingtons

Last night I sat down (virtually) with my good friend Frank Parker of the Nefarious Filk Ferrets for an hour or so as a guest on his Filk Quest streaming show; talking music, influences and community in our little corner of the music/fandom world. I also played a few tunes during the course of our conversation:

Looking ahead at the schedule for this particular show, quite a few of my good friends, peers, and mentors (all ridiculously talented performers) are on the agenda in coming weeks; if this sort of music is your thing, I suggest you check it out. And while you’re there, check all the other content that No Budget/FilkFerret Productions is cranking out, including fan films, chat shows, and all other manner of streaming goodness.

Little to report that I haven’t already mentioned; work has been, apart from the rise of a potential Reply-All-Pocalypse™ on Thursday afternoon, relatively quiet and somewhat productive. Got some riding in, including a wet 20 miles on Wednesday as I tried to stay ahead of a storm, and unlike all my peers on social media, I haven’t contributed to the digital panopticon by playing with trendy photo manipulation toys.

Oh, and after a chance conversation with a fellow fishkeeping friend, I ended up bringing home a school of ten corydoras aeneus to add to my tank, since hers spawned all over the place a few months back and she had like 40 of them swimming around. Here are a few acclimating to their new home:

Looking like some more rain for the early part of the weekend, I’ve gotten pulled into an online D&D game with some old friends, and the family has plans on Sunday, so I might only get 50 miles or so this weekend, which, fine. I have plenty of time to get my 310.2 miles in, and I’ve moved up the rankings a little bit on the tracking web site for the challenge.

So, tunes. Heavy on alternative stuff that clicked with folks a bit younger than myself the first time around, including the heaviest tune from a band best known for lackadaisical 90s radio pop in there at #4, and punctuated nicely with some classic rock and a former Beatle singing about Marvel Comics characters. Weird, but I’ll take it:

1. “Seether” – Veruca Salt
2. “Hash Pipe” – TOTO
3. “Love Kills” – Joe Strummer
4. “Mean Machine” – Sugar Ray
5. “Fire” – Arthur Brown
6. “Mr. Brownstone” – Guns N’ Roses
7. “Belly of the Whale (80s Version) – Burning Sensations
8. “Gone Away” – The Offspring
9. “Touch Me I’m Sick” – Mudhoney
10. “Santa Monica” – Everclear
11. “New York Groove” – Ace Frehley
12. “There’s No Way Out of Here” – David Gilmour
13. “Magneto and the Titanium Man” – Wings

My home state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, marches to it’s own beat when it comes to statewide offices in Richmond. A rhythm that’s one count off from pretty much everywhere but New Jersey.

Our elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General fall on the odd year right after national Presidential elections, unlike pretty much everybody else (except for New Jersey) who mostly line up with the standard two and four year cycles for national elections.

As such, we get a bit of national attention, since we’re seen as a bellwether for next year’s mid-terms; a predictor of the country’s attitudes toward the newly elected President; so goes Virginia, so goes the Nation or some such nonsense. I guess it makes sense, as we’re a fair representation of the national population as a whole; not perfectly, but enough to be interesting, in any case.

We’ve just wrapped primary season for those particular offices; earlier this year, the Republican party had a weird distributed convention/primary thing (the most interesting thing about it to me was that it used ranked choice voting, which I think ought to be used way more often), nominating Glenn Youngkin, a pretty typical rich guy/MBA Bro, who I guess is at least better than other possibilities, like my State Senate “representative” Amanda Chase). On Tuesday, we had our Democratic primary, where we nominated former Governor and 90s Clinton Bro Terry McAuliffe.

And, I guess, Terry will be um…fine.

Of course, I didn’t vote for him on Tuesday; not when we had a couple of pretty great, forward-looking, progressive, younger candidates on the ballot, like Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy and State Sen. Jennifer McClellan, either of which I think would have been better choices than the guy who was governor before the current one (you can be Governor more than once here, but not for consecutive turns), and either would have been significant as the first female governor of the Commonwealth (and both being other than white is also a bonus).

Similar establishment-vs-upstart races were in play for down-ticket offices (the current AG won against a younger progressive legacy, though LG will be more interesting), and in general, the establishment candidate got the nod over the more progressive ones.

And, like I said, it’ll be fine, though I’m struggling to summon up enthusiasm for a couple of old white guys (though again, Hala Ayala for LG definitely progress). I didn’t vote for any of them, picking the #2 in all three races; Carroll Foy (GenX progressive activist), Sam Rasoul (son of Palestinian immigrants endorsed by Liz Warren) and Jay Jones (not Mark Herring).

I am aware that I skew to the left of center, and honestly, left-of-left in terms of my personal politics, but I’m also a realist and recognize that I don’t always line up with mainstream Democrats, and that’s fine. The current guy, Northam, in spite of being the more moderate candidate four years ago, has done a pretty damned good job, even if he stumbled a bit out of the gate, especially since the Dem-led state legislature has kept him on track. McAuliffe did some pretty good things his first time around, particularly in terms of voting rights.

So, I’m going to do what I can to get the current ticket elected, even if they weren’t my first choices; they’re a much better option than the 45-endorsed other guys, and although you’d never know it by looking around my particular corner of the state, 45 is deeply unpopular here. There are a ton more liberal urban professionals than there are rural red-hats voting, so I feel pretty good about our chances.

And, once we get Terry in, we’ll hold his feet to the fire to keep progressive things happening and not let him fall into his old 90s “Third Way” habits.

We’re fine.

So that’s Concarolinas in the books. Our shows went pretty well, considering we hadn’t played together in over a year. I thought we sounded good enough, and the folks who came to listen understood that we were shaking off the rust, and likewise, they were definitely ready for a little music, even if it lacked a certain perfection.

The bum notes and cracked jokes are part of the magic of live music anyway, right?

I saw friends, engaged in welcome conversation, and did a little bit of craft beer cultural exchange. I sat in on a tune in Mikey’s Saturday set, and he said really nice things about me to the assembled throng (which is greatly appreciated – it’s nice to be validated). I even sold enough of my own CDs to cover my gas back and forth to Charlotte.

It was nice; it really was, even if all of us were kind of hitting a wall in terms of crowds (even if they were pretty small) by mid-afternoon Saturday. That said, we found our groove again in time to entertain on Saturday night.

Also, it looks like a few more gigs might be in the offing, both with the band and solo – more details coming as soon as things become less theoretical.

All in all, a welcome respite from the frustrating world of white-collar employment. Now back to the grind.

Going to do this today, because when I’d normally be prepping this post, I’ll be packing and heading south for my first live gigs in over a year.

It’s still a little intimidating, even if after rehearsals that showed me that I haven’t forgotten nearly as much as I thought I had, to be getting up in front of people and making music again.

That said, I’m really looking forward to seeing friends and fans* after such a long time; perhaps more than I realized. I am, at heart, a bit of an introvert, though that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss the rush of performing, nor spending time with these people that I’ve become so close to over the past decade (or longer) through our shared love of music and geeky stuff in general.

Knowing that we’ll also be indulging a bit in our shared fandom of craft beer, I did my best to get ahead (so to speak) and put 100 miles under my bike wheels since Monday, which should give me a little bit of leeway to engage in some responsible revels this weekend after our shows are done.

Speaking of cycling, over to the left you’ll notice that the challenge box includes a new one, since the VCT has started up their Summer Challenge, which, of course I signed up for; it gives me motivation and it tosses a few bucks to the Foundation in support of trail upkeep. It’s another virtual challenge, which is fine with me, since I’m mostly a solo rider. I’ll be taking on the “Birthday Challenge” level, which has the twin goals of hitting every mile marker on the Trail, and riding a total of 310.2 miles during the June-Sept period, representing six times the length of the Trail in honor of it’s sixth birthday. That second goal shouldn’t be difficult, as I regularly ride a little over 100 miles a week, and a few strategic trips will hit all the markers without issue, especially since I’m working up to a century ride by the end of the summer anyway.

And oh, according to my social media feeds, today is World Bicycle Day by United Nations reckoning. It’s going to be raining all day here, so I won’t be actively celebrating, but I will definitely be doing so in spirit.

That diversion aside, Here’s where/when I’ll be playing at Concarolinas this weekend:

• Saturday, 3pm, University D&E: Blibbering Humdingers set
• Saturday, 10:30pm, Fountainview: Blibbering Humdingers set

The schedule as it stands doesn’t highlight dedicated filk/music circle rooms, though I totally expect we’ll make some up, and I have heard suggestions that Mikey Mason might be dragging me on stage for a tune or two during one of his sets, though we shall see.

In the world of tunes that don’t involve me playing them, here’s this week’s playlist. Heavy on the classic and dad rock fronts this week, which is, honestly, okay. It largely rocks, has a nice fuzzy/rootsy feel, and there at #10 is a song the Humdingers have been threatening to toss into a set for years, but we haven’t yet managed it. Maybe this weekend?

1. “Like Humans Do” (live) – David Byrne
2. “Just Got Paid” – ZZ Top
3. “Satellite Radio” – Steve Earle
4. “Shine It All Around” – Robert Plant
5. “Blue Lamp” – Stevie Nicks
6. “Fell In Love With A Girl” – White Stripes
7. “Heavy” – Collective Soul
8. “Any Sense of Time” – The Inbreds
9. “Fly Me Courageous” – Drivin N Cryin
10. “Under the Milky Way” – The Church
11. “Trapped Again” – Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes
12. “Love Spread” – The Stone Roses

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*-It never ceases to amaze me that I have people who look forward to hearing the noises I make, and occasionally even give me money and accolades for them. Even after all these recordings, live gigs, and recognition, it feels strange to say I have “fans.”

The weekend was…a weekend.

Sure enough, it rained most of Saturday and Sunday, which the crops I see sprouting along Route 5 certainly needed, though it wrote off those days for the cycling I had so desired.

But, I got the grocery shopping done, made a killer slow-cooker pot roast, dropped into Guitar Center to grab some new cables, drank a little too much beer, and watched some mindless action movies.

In spite of the weather, though, I did get some riding in, 25 miles or so on Friday after work before the rain started, and a gorgeous 46 miler on Monday morning, which I really needed after the rainy weekend. The physical activity is good for the body, of course, but I don’t always realize how much my mental health depends on getting out in the sun, spending time with nature, and simply taking some time for me to clear my head – a couple of times this weekend, I hit that zone where it was just me and the pedals, just moving, only later noticing that I’d just plowed through five or six miles.

That feels good.

And of course, I like catching photos of trail friends, like this little black snake sunbathing on one one of the wooden bridges along the VCT:

And yes, I did more than a little rehearsing for the coming weekend, and was relieved to find that after I shook the dust off, my hands remembered how to play most of the 90 or so tunes we rotate through the Humdingers’ set list, and I loaded up the tablet songbook app with charts for the new stuff, in case of emergency.

Gonna be more of the same the next couple of days, except we need to squeeze a couple of work days in there too, as I need to ensure a couple of projects get sorted before I get to go play rock star, because that’s the way things go.

Didn’t love this week. Got the stuff done, but I never felt particularly accomplished about anything. I just spent too much time on a conference call, behind the wheel of a car, or hunched over a keyboard. Such things are exhausting, and I really didn’t want to do them, but because I am a grown-ass adult with responsibilities, I did them.

When I wasn’t doing that, I got some decent hot-weather biking in (it’s been in the 90s most of the week, which is part of the lethargy, I think), though not as much as I’d like, and it’s looking like storms on and off for the weekend, though I’ll do my best to get at least some miles behind me.

On the creative front, it’s been a little better; some folks whose work I truly admire offered up, unsolicited, some very nice words regarding some stuff that I made, which always feels good, especially when I’ve been spending so much of my time these days struggling emotionally and mentally. I also submitted some written work to a small press anthology this week, because it fit the theme and a friend asked me to; we’ll see what comes of it. Because along with all those other things I’m doing, I might as well add to the pile by becoming a published author as well, right?

I’ve also dug into rehearsals for next weekend’s “back-into-the-world” gig that I’ve been talking around, and thankfully, I’m starting find my groove again after more than a year of not really playing these tunes, and the new ones we recorded over the last couple of months for the record appear to have not completely abandoned my brainspace once I sent my tracks off for mixing.

I’m weirdly of two minds on this one; I am desperate to see friends and make music again, though, as I said, it’s been more than a year since I’ve done such a thing in proximity to real people, and I’m kind of nervous about it; I don’t want to suck or let my bandmates (and our fans) down. Plus, even though I’m fully vaccinated and then some, the idea of attending this sort of event is a little intimidating, even if they’re saying all the right things regarding protocols and precautions. It’s creeping into my subconscious as well; I had a dream the other night that I left home for a weekend gig several hours away, and right before we were supposed to go on stage, I realized I didn’t have my instrument with me.

The subtext there is kind of obvious.

Anyway; tunes. Spotify’s all over the place this week. Old stuff, foreign stuff, and things I’ve never heard. I’m not going to complain; most of it’s got a decent groove:

1. “TAXIMAN” – SAKURAN-ZENSEN
2. “Mambo Sun” – T. Rex
3. “Swamp Thing” – The Chameleons
4. “Wait A Million Years” – The Grass Roots
5. “So Gently We Go” – I Mother Earth
6. “Killer Klowns” – The Dickies
7. “Right Before Death” – ASG
8. “Blinded By The Light” – Eagles of Death Metal
9. “Ohms” – Deftones
10. “Minnesoter” – The Dandy Warhols
11. “Goliath” – The Mars Volta
12. “Cold Sweat” – The Sugarcubes
13. “I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself” – Elton John
14. “Everything You’re Breathing For” – The Parlor Mob

…I kind of love how they totally lean into the mondegreen on #8; appropriate for a warm summer evening.

It’s been entirely too stressful for the last week or so, for all kinds of reasons I’m frankly too tired to get into and don’t need to share in this particular space. There’s just too much life right now, and it’s a bit of a struggle to address all the things that need to be done in an appropriate and responsible manner, because I’m an adult and a goddamn professional, and that’s what we do.

Something’s gotta give, and today, at least, it’s this. So, in the absence of anything of substance:

I honestly don’t know what to make of this week.

Not surprisingly, given last weekend, I kind of started behind, and honestly never quite caught up. So much of it has to do with trying to keep up with everyone else’s needs, tracking the requirements of two completely unrelated job descriptions, attempting to snag a little “me” time on the bike to clear the head and keep the fitness progress going, leading to my generally feeling like I’m not really succeeding at any of it.

I guess I did put a few points on the board, getting my requirements through the office review boards and successfully fixing the bathtub/shower faucet valve insert thing in the downstairs bathroom, but mostly, I feel like I’m constantly playing a step or two behind the beat and can’t catch up.

I’m hoping for something resembling a break the next couple of days, but who knows. We have plans to get together with some local friends on Saturday for the Kickers game, though I’d be lying if I didn’t still have some anxiety about jumping back into crowded social scenes. Good thing the Kickers are not a particularly great club, so there likely won’t be much in the way of crowds.

Otherwise, it’s a lot of nothing; I’ll grab some vegetables at the farmers’ market Saturday morning, and try to get a good long ride in on Sunday, but frankly, I’m rather exhausted with the whole “life” thing at the moment.

For the random playlist, I’m going to take a somewhat different tack this week. During my regularly chiropractic adjustment on Wednesday, a lesser cover by some tv singing competition show also-ran of the tune in there at #1 came through over the office background music service, and this proto-power-ballad/latter-day-yacht-rock tune has been irremovably lodged in my brain ever since, so I’m using the original to seed the playlist in hopes of letting me move on to something else. Let’s see what happens, shall we?

1. “What About Me?” – Moving Pictures
2. “Jack & Diane” – John Cougar
3. “Make Me Lose Control” – Eric Carmen
4. “Lido Shuffle” – Boz Scaggs
5. “Believe It Or Not (Theme from “The Greatest American Hero”) – Joey Scarbury
6. “All I Need is a Miracle” – Mike + The Mechanics
7. “On The Dark Side” – John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band
8. “Reckless” – James Reyne
9. “One Perfect Day” – The Little Heroes
10. “Beds Are Burning” – Midnight Oil
11. “Bat Out of Hell” – Meat Loaf
12. “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You” – Heart

The result? Not particularly surprising: largely late 70s/early 80s “soft rock” with a few harder edges influenced by the Australian pub rock scene (which I wasn’t particularly aware of as a “scene,” but is intriguing). I honestly expected more feathered hair, key parties, and quaaludes. It’s not quite the same thing, but I kinda felt that Jason & The Scorchers’ “Golden Ball and Chain” was missing, but they’re of a piece with the rougher-round-the-edges stuff, which, if I allow myself to go down that rabbit hole is just going to end up a short hop to the early 80s Philly scene, and you really don’t need me taking a ride on the Escalator of Life right now…

Thank you for listening to my minutia-obsessed minor rock movement TED Talk.