Given current circumstances, as mentioned previously, Marscon didn’t happen as scheduled in person in Williamsburg this year, but a bunch of regulars stepped up to help create a virtual experience for those of us missing our chosen family of misfits.

In the form of a bunch of online meetups, streaming video, and all the other tools we use in these times, we had something of a convention. There were panels, concerts, and even an online masquerade, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves and had a nice little catch-up. For my part, I popped into a few rooms, attended Mikey’s show, played a show myself on Saturday afternoon for an appreciative dozen or so, and took part in the online version of Marscon’s traditional closing event, the Musical Round-Robin with a host of Marscon musical guests, past, present, and future (thanks, especially, to Metricula for organizing that one!).

In the end, though, I still miss my friends; some of whom I haven’t seen in person in more than a year, even if we’re able to stay in touch via these screens we spend so much time looking at.

The rest of the weekend was the same flavor of bittersweet, I guess. I finally finished Witcher III on the PS4 (it only took me two years), started up a new video game where I spent way too much time falling off of roofs, read quite a bit of the book I’m into, got a little outside time in, and for whatever reason, spent almost the entirety of MLK Monday just irritable and angry with no clear reason why.

I suspect it was in part because our little virtual Marscon gave me just enough of a taste of what could-have-been (if people would just do the right thing and wear their damned masks!) that I resented not having the real thing, but I think much of it was just me hitting my second six-month wall; everything is honestly tough right now; I have my patterns, as we’ve all established, to cope, though I’m just tired. I’d like a little non-crisis living for once. I’m sick of seeing the same handful of faces, even if they’re the people I love. The stinking bow on the whole pile of crap is that it doesn’t have to be as bad as it is, because people in this country (and especially in my community) are denying the basic science and not doing what needs to be done to beat this thing, for all kinds of stupid reasons and prolonging the whole affair.

Yeah, maybe here on Tuesday morning I’m still a little salty. So be it.

At least tomorrow, a little over 24 hours from now, we get to turn a particularly odious page of history and maybe, just maybe, start seeing positive changes from the new management.

So, given the last ten days or so in Washington, we’re in all kinds of uncharted territory. While the former civics/history teacher in me is fascinated, the concerned citizen in me is, well, concerned, and not in a Susan Collins way.

While I am absolutely in favor of impeachment here, because there have to be consequences for what happened last Wednesday (and, obviously, all the bad behavior leading up to it), the actual mechanics of things are going to be interesting not just because of the whole “trying the impeached after the term is up” thing, but aslo as Senate rules for a trial are pretty specific, and Joe Biden’s going to need to get his team confirmed (by said Senate) and working as soon as possible in order to address all the various problems, in particular a once-in-a-century pandemic the United States has absolutely failed to deal with effectively thus far.

I suspect the split-effort approach (Cabinet validation and such in the morning, trial in the afternoon) is workable; even given the (to put it kindly) divergence of perception of reality in Federal government. In any reasonable world (which no one will convince me we have), any trial would be a formality, really – just play back the President’s words. That said, it’s not going to be that easy, there are political considerations on both sides showing that getting 45 out of the way is in everyone’s benefit, from different points of view.

We shall see.

In any case, watching history being made is certainly compelling, although a large part of me is still sitting here mourning the fact that in normal times, I’d be leaving this stuff all behind in just a few hours and heading out to Marscon to spend a few days relaxing, making music, and spending time with dear friends. Yeah, we’re doing some stuff online, which is great, but it’s not quite the same. Something about getting a bunch of geeky musicians and creative types together in a shared space just leads to irreplacable memories. My life’s going to be poorer for not getting to spend that time this year.

And that’s really all there is concerning the weekend. I’m wrapping up some work stuff (been busy, I’m technically over 40 hours already) that needs to be in and approved by COB today, kind of celebrating internally the good things I heard (and the financial way I’m being rewarded) from my annual performance appraisal, and maybe even looking forward to some shifts in responsibility given the upcoming reorganization of our department. This year could indeed be interesting in terms of employment, if my boss and I are actually able to enact some of the plans we have brewing, which could really improve the way the organization works, but we’ll see.

And after that, I’ll finalize my setlist for 4pm tomorrow, then watch some WandaVision, which I hear is really good.

Anyway, tunes. Mix of stuff out of Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” again; alternative, classic and glam rock, and whatever the Dead Milkmen call themselves (I call them awesome):

1. “Roots” – Grumpster
2. “Bitchin’ Camaro” – Dead Milkmen
3. “Breathless on DVD”- Antarctigo Vespucci
4. “Inked in Red” – Vision Video
5. “What You Do To Me” – Teenage Fanclub
6. “Runs in the Family” – Amanda Palmer
7. “Anthem” – Rush
8. “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” – Billy Joel
9. “Someone Like You” – Bang Tango
10. “This Spark in You” – Daniel Pemberton
11. “Fat Bottomed Girls” – Queen
12. “Mr. Blue Sky” – Electric Light Orchestra
13. “Hawthorne” – that dog.

Marscon, were we in normal times, would be happening this weekend in Williamsburg. It is perhaps my favorite weekend of the year, where I get to spend time with my chosen family of creative, awesome people, making music, making each other laugh, sharing the occasional fortified beverage, and generally enjoying each other’s company.

We are not, however, in normal times. The pandemic still ravages the land, preventing large gatherings, and driving things like this out of the real world and into so-called Cyberspace.

Marscon is, of course, special to me. While not my first science fiction convention, it’s the one that feels like home. It’s where my creative self grew from the guy hiding in the back of the filk room, to the guy occasionally playing along, to becoming the bass player for wizard rock phenoms The Blibbering Humdingers, becoming the “World’s Okayest Bassist”, and finally arriving at having my own solo show last year, where dozens of people came out at 10am on a Saturday morning to see me sing my songs and buy out my stock of CDs.

It is, as they say, significant, and I shall always be grateful for Butch and all the rest of the staff for creating a space for me to experience things such as I have. This would’ve been my tenth year attending. My anniversary.

However, you can’t keep a good convention down. Like many others, Marscon is going online. This gathering is special to us, and lots of us regulars are doing online things to keep the tradition going.

That includes me. I’m planning on hosting a Marscon Happy Hour Hangout on Saturday at 4pm, where I will, do, well….what I included in the description of things:

Marscon and it’s people have meant so much to me for the past ten years. It’s thanks to everyone’s love, support, and encouragement that I’ve grown from a guy hiding in the back of the filk room to performer with the Blibbering Humdingers (and damned near everyone else at one time or another), to being the “world’s okayest” solo act!
Even though Marscon’s not happening IRL this year, I still want to be part of it, so I’m planning on doing an informal streaming set/hangout/happy hour for anyone who cares to join in. I’ll play some tunes (including some you might not have heard before!), share a story or two, and generally try to be entertaining for an hour or so, and I’d love it if you came and hung out with me!

It should be a good time, folks are being wonderful and telling me they’re coming, so I’ll have to put on a good show. I’ve got plenty of tunes, and am working up a set list (including some new stuff Marscon may not have heard), though nothing’s set in stone. Marscon, after all, is one of the original “Relax-a-Cons”, so we’re not going to get too structured. Plus, I’ll be drinking some good local craft beer while hosting and making music, and all attending are also welcome to indulge as well; it’ll be more fun that way.

I’m also planning on participating in the grand Marscon tradition that mere viruses can’t keep at bay, the Musical Round Robin, which traditionally closes the con on Sunday afternoon, but due to various conditions, we’re doing on Saturday night at 7pm, because the world doesn’t make sense anymore, and we can make our own rules, so there! Anyway, it’s where all the many musical guests Marscon has become famous for hosting (along with people like me) take turns playing tunes, making each other laugh, and generally enjoying ourselves for the entertainment of the gathered crowd for a couple of hours. It’s a thing we all greatly look forward to every year, and we’re not going to miss it.

Anyway, if you’ve got some time this weekend, pop into the FB group linked in paragraph four (and again here because I’m not a monster), and check out the events that the Marscon family is putting on to keep the magic alive.

You know, I’m all for the idea of “common ground” and “cooperation” in government; such things as these and compromise are at the heart of our Federal system. But, when we’re just a few days out from a sitting President spending a noontime rally riling up supporters to storm the People’s House and disrupt the Constitutionally directed certification of the Electoral College vote in an effort to overturn his loss in a free and fair election and seize power, resulting in a shameful event in which (as I write this) five people were killed, it’s hard to “move beyond” the conflict and hold hands.

The nation has let a lot of things go in the interest of moving past the bluster, callousness, and norm-busting behavior of the current President in order to keeping the machine of government rolling (I know, I’m one of the lifers shoveling fuel into the boiler), and in many cases, it was uncomfortable to do, but it was usually the right decision for the country.

However, when the President publicly encourages what even mainstream media are comfortable calling an attempted coup, that’s not something we can responsibly “let go” in the interest of civility, and still be able to call ourselves, even at a stretch, a functional Republic.

There have to be consequences. Bigger consequences than 45 getting tossed off of Twitter.

What those consequences might be started to take some sort of shape this weekend. Since Wednesday afternoon, calls from places as lofty as the Senate chamber and as lowly as my social media feeds for Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President as unfit to carry out the duties of his office have been made. Impeachment articles have been drafted. Calls for 45’s resignation have come from both sides of the aisle. Numerous administration officials, even particularly shady ones, have resigned in protest of the President’s actions.

There’s been silence from the White House.

The current plan, as outlined by Speaker Pelosi on Sunday, seems reasonable enough. The House will, on Monday, pass a measure asking the Vice President, who’s been “considering options”, to make a decision; invoke the 25th within 24 hours. If he does not, the House will bring Articles of Impeachment to the floor, and likely pass them quickly with bipartisan support.

It doesn’t matter than there are only nine days left in the current President’s term; there are certain actions you can’t let go without acknowledgement or consequences. That way lies madness, encourages escalation next time, and shifts us further toward Banana-Republic chaos. In a lot of ways, it’s not as important what the final result is, be it impeachment, removal, resignation, censure, or whatever, as it is that we acknolwedge the action and firmly say This Is Not Okay.

If this “Isn’t Who We Are”, then we’ve no other choice; we have to behave as if we are the aspirational idea we look to. Because, in all honesty, what we saw Wednesday is America, at least for many people. We can be better, but we have to do the work.

Finally, to acknowledge a related point: Many people I know, particularly those who are right-leaning politically, have, in earnest, dug into a “both sides” position. Were these normal times, that might be a valid argument, neither side is perfect; both have shameful behavior in their history. However, when one side is encouraging armed insurrection and attempting to overturn the rule of law while the other is working within the framework established by Constitution, both sides are not equivalent.

Don’t let this one go. Don’t equivocate. Take a stand.

Do The Work

That thing they say about interesting times? These might be some. That said, I’ve blathered on enough about politics and Constitutional interpretation for this week; if something happens, it happens, but that’s not what this particular utterance into the void is going to be about.

Let’s get dull.

This week, on the micro/household scale has been pretty mundane, all told. Apart from holiday prescription delays creating minor impediments to my antidepressant dosage and my sleep schedule, it’s been downright boring. I’ve fallen back into the “working stiff” mindset, sitting my meetings, briefing them what gets briefed, and pushing my paper for eight hours or so, then not doing that. I got a little bit of outside time (not as much as I’d ideally like, given the things mentioned in the second sentence of this paragraph), started digging into a 1200 page high fantasy epic, did some taxi duty for the offspring, and honestly, not much else.

And, y’know? I’m okay with that.

I’ve got next to nothing on deck for the weekend, apart from supporting the whole “pack the kid back up to college” thing, and coming to terms with the fact that in non-pandemic times, I’d be rehearsing feverishly for many gigs at Marscon, the annual meeting of my musical family, which would normally happen next weekend in Williamsburg. I expect we’ll do some online stuff, but it’s not quite the same. Oh well.

So there we go, banality with a touch of maudlin. Feels appropriate.

Anyway, here’s the first random playlist of the new year; 80s alternative, some folky stuff, a little riot grrl, and the darkest song I’ve ever heard from a guy mostly known for writing music for the Muppets:

1. “Racer-X” – Big Black
2. “Chick Habit – April March” – Bound
3. “Motorway to Roswell” – Pixies
4. “Six Different Ways” – The Cure
5. “Hurts to Be Alive” – Whitmer Thomas
6. “Alone Again Or” – The Damned
7. “To Fall Is not to Fail” – Dear Nora
8. “Car Song” – Elastica
9. “Up All Night” – The Boomtown Rats
10. “People of the Sky” – Sloan
11. “The Mothman Song (Believe in the Power of the Mothman)” – The Paranormal Song Warrior
12. “Brand New Key” – The Dollyrots
13. “The Hell of It” – Paul Williams

“President Trump Has Committed Treason”. This is the title of an op-ed posted on the Washington Post web site yesterday evening. This is most certainly not a headline I ever wanted to see, and certainly not one anyone is comfortable seeing in reference to this novel experiment we call the United States of America.

The front pages of this morning’s national papers look remarkably the same:

TRUMP INCITES MOB – Rampage in the Capitol forces evacuations; it’s ‘part of his legacy’, a Republican says – NY Times

INSURRECTION – San Francisco Chronicle

Trump mob storms Capitol: President Incites Crowd to Acts of Insurrenction, Violence – The Washington Post

MOB STORMS CAPITOL – The Wall Street Journal

INCITED BY TRUMP, MOB HALTS COUNT – The Philadelphia Inquirer

This, friends, is not right. The President, yesterday, addressing the crowds in DC yesterday afternoon, incited this violence (during which four* people were killed) against the US Government conducting the people’s business. Let’s look at the President’s own words:

“We will never give up, we will never concede…”

“We will not take it anymore, and that’s what this is all about…If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong”

Then hundreds of rioters with MAGA hats, confederate flags, various tactical/fascist cosplay, and weapons, stormed the Capitol building, broke through the barriers, playacted in the House and Senate chambers, raided members’ offices, and destroyed property, inspired by and in support of those words. It was, in short, armed insurrection and sedition against the United States.

This was criminal, fomented by the words of the President of the United States.

That WaPo opinion piece uses the word “treason”, which, according to the US Constitution, has a specific meaning in this country (it’s one of only three criminal offenses defined in the document). Per Article III, Section 3, it’s defined as follows:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

Let’s see…telling a group of people to “fight like hell,” who then storm the US Capitol building, while Congress was in session, armed with weapons, both manufactured and improvised. You could make the case.

If we reach WAY BACK to last winter when we went through impeachment, the buzzwords were “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”, which, according to Article II, Section 4, are described as the actions that warrant the removal of the President through impeachment; the whole operative phrase is “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Treason’s still in the mix here, but the phrase itself, originating in English Common Law, has come to have a broad meaning in the United States, to include any serious abuse of power or of the office.

Fomenting armed insurrection against Government institutions? I’d say it counts.

I mentioned a couple of posts back (in regard to that phone call over the weekend with the Georgia officials) about the possibility of 45 being impeached twice; it was mostly theoretical there, but in the hours between yesterday’s insurrection and the time I write this, several members of Congress have committed to submitting Articles this week.

I’ve come to change my tune on the theoretical, as, it seems have many others. Yes, there are only fourteen days until Inauguration (and yes, the election was finally certified in spite of interruption in the early hours of the morning), it matters; the “wink-nudge find me the votes” thing on the phone was one thing; inciting armed insurrection is quite another. Who cares if the Senate as it stands won’t consider impeachment in the next two weeks? Holding him accountable is imperative here, if only to be on the right side of history.

I suggested yesterday evening on social media, along with many others, that this might be a 25th Amendment situation; particularly section 4, which details the way in which the Vice President might declare a President unfit for the office:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

This concept seems to be being taken a bit more seriously according to the headlines this morning; several stories out there suggest that senior officials are discussing just that; having finally “had enough” of this kind of behavior. I don’t know if it’s going to happen (the Cabinet is largely still filled with loyalists, even if Pence appears to have broken with the President), but it’s another avenue.

In any case, the tl;dr version of this civics lesson is that the President, who’s been breaking boundaries and being generally awful for the last four years, crossed a line yesterday he’s not really going to be able to back away from. He encouraged violence against the government in order to overturn a legal and certified election, breaking the Republic’s sacred tradition of the peaceful transfer of power between administrations. There have to be consequences, even if there are only two weeks left in his term. Yesterday was one of the darker days in our Nation’s history, folks; it’s not going to be forgotten. Something (and this piece suggests a few somethings) has to be done so this sort of thing doesn’t happen next time.

So let’s do something; impeach (again), invoke the 25th, formal censure…something to show that Americans won’t stand for this sort of thing happening here.

___________________________

* – take that number, multiply it by about 1000, and you’ve got the number of deaths due to COVID for Wednesday. Ugh.

Today, I went back to work*. Only 270 unread emails in the queue, and 240 or so of those were system-generated cruft. Only took me about 40 minutes to address everything and move on. No crises, no bad news, and even a few encouraging developments. Other than one of the systems I have to use deciding to pretend I don’t have a role I should (but that’s nothing new**), it’s utterly normal.

I’ve learned it’s safer to not lean into good omens or make unnecessarily optimistic predictions, but had I not learned that, I’d take the circumstances described in the previous paragraph as reason to feel positive about the coming year.

But, I’m fully prepared for someone to take a huge dump on the proceedings before long.

No huge personal developments so far in the opening days of the new year to report. The end of my time off was more of the same, really; enjoying the downtime. Just the usual sort of things, no big celebrations; We spent a nice New Years’ Eve hanging distantly with friends watching Mikey’s NYE online show, having a drink or three, and eating fancy cheeses. On January first, I took part in the Virginia State Parks’ “First Day Hikes” program, knocking out a few morning miles at Pocahontas, which was quite nice, and reminding myself that it’s a nearby resource I should avail myself of more often.

So what shall we be doing this week? Honestly (and it’s beginning to become a common refrain), nothing out-of-the-ordinary. The usual things. Remarkably normal.

I shall, of course, be keeping tabs on the latest crazy coming out of Washington; it might be fun if 45 makes the history books by being impeached twice, though I’m not holding my breath. I might, however, watch All The President’s Men again and fantasize a bit.

_________________________________________

* – Well, given current circumstances, I merely walked across the hall and opened up a different computer this morning, but, as we know, this the world in which we live. The cats are a little more worked up than usual because I shook up the pattern after two weeks, but they’ll get over it.

** – It’ll come back. They always come back, especially when the “request roles” function won’t let me request the role, because I already have it, but the front page won’t show it to me.

♫ 2020, 24 Hours To Go… ♫

I should probably be sedated.

As I try to do most years, I break down the year in the form of significant digits. It’s an interesting way of remembering things throughout the year, and I kind of have fun playing around with it. 2020, of course, is 2020, and an exception to most normal things, given this once-in-a-century pandemic. This *was* the year I was hoping to play lots of musical gigs in both the band and solo contexts, but…yeah, we all know how that’s gone. I haven’t played in front of anyone but the cats in real-life since early March. In spite of that, I did accomplish some interesting stuff in that area, as well as in some other spaces as well, so we’ll see how it breaks down as I write this mostly stream-of-consciousness style, in no particular order, unless I decide to edit things further.

• 2: The number of hours I’ve spent in an actual office since mid-March. It’s all work-from-home now.
• 980ish: The number of miles I’ve put behind me on both feet and bicycle. Would’ve been way more if not not for…
• 1: The number of bicycles I’ve totally trashed on the trail.
• 93: The number of books I’ve have read this year.
• 15: How many of those books were traditional paper-and-ink and not kindle-based.
• 15: The number of pounds I seem to have added to my frame, in spite of the bike/hike miles
• 233: Number of *new* varieties of beer I’ve tasted this year (according to untappd). Probably the reason for the previous entry
• 6: Number of instances where I’d been seriously concerned about workplace shutdown because of politicians
• 8: Actual number of live gigs I played this year, in front of actual live people. Six of those took place in one weekend in January.
• 5: Number of online streaming gigs I played
• 63: Number of copies of World’s Okayest… sold, both physical and digital
• 2: The number of songs I released digitally this year
• 15: How many cents I’ve made from digital streaming of my music on the various services
• 3: The number of records appeared as a guest on this year
• 19: The number of songs I wrote this year
• 0: How many of those songs I’ve actually managed to record beyond crap demos
• 6: Number of times I’ve actually been out of the RVA metro this year
• 1: Number of Pegasus awards I was nominated for this year (as part of the Humdingers)
• 0: Number of Pegasus awards we won
• 5: Number of facemasks I’m currently cycling through
• I’ve lost count: Number of friends (that I know of) that have contracted COVID-19
• 0: Number who have died (thank the Maker!)
• ∞: Number of times I’ve mumbled obscenities behind my mask in the grocery store at folks ignoring protocol

There are probably more relevant numbers this year, but these are the ones that come to mind right now. It’s a representation of a year. Not the greatest year, of course, but it hasn’t exactly been that for any of us. Here’s to hoping that the coming one will be less interesting, huh?

At the absolute eleventh hour, after a whole big holiday temper tantrum, he finally signed the damned thing, so the government keeps running, and I can relax, at least about that, for a little while. My topical song sold a couple of copies while it remained topical, and it remains out there for your amusement, waiting for it to be relevant again, because we all know that’ll happen.

Anyway, that particular weight is lifted, allowing me to, at least a little bit, float through the in-between time; that week between Christmas and New Years where there really isn’t a hell of a lot going on, and one just sort of bobbles along doing what feels right. For me, that’s been cooking some food, reading a little less than half of a highly-regarded feminist fantasy novel before becoming kind of bored with it and moving on (though feeling kind of bad about the fact that I just wasn’t into it), drinking the occasional beer, and continuing to work my way through Witcher III: The Wild Hunt on the PS4, because I’ve been playing it for like two years now and figured I ought to finish it one of these months (I think I’m about to wrap up the “second act” of the plot, but really, who knows?).

Christmas itself around here was a pretty low-key celebration – hell, the way this year’s been going, we didn’t even put up a tree, as no one was all that into the whole idea. We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve and slept in. Of all the gifts I found for my lovely spouse, several haven’t even arrived yet, even if I ordered them weeks and weeks ago. Thankfully, the really beautiful hand-painted wine glasses I commissioned from a really talented artist friend were ready on time, and they made her very happy. The rest of her gifts will show up when they do, and she’ll have more little surprises.

I got a few interesting collectibles, a nice sweater, and a MIDI controller for my digital recording rig; it’s basically a piano keyboard to make to the digital samples and synthesizer applications I have on the computer – I’m planning on mostly using it to build drum tracks and maybe more as I develop my limited keyboard skills. I’ve spent a few hours fiddling with it and getting it up and running and building connections between all the appropriate things, though I haven’t done anything at all with it you’d call “creative”, but it’ll come.

We’re going to largely float through things for the next week, largely by ourselves, because of the ‘rona. We did have a dear friend stop by to say hello yesterday as he was making his way back home from the rehab facility out west where his spouse, also a dear friend, is recovering from a stroke a few months back. It was at least nice to chat with a friend for a bit, even through the masks and distanced in the driveway – it’s been a rough time for all of them, and I think seeing friendly faces in the midst of his four-hours-each-way drive was a welcome thing.

I got outside for an hour or two this morning, hiking a couple of miles at my favored local park, and being relieved to find that my ankle was mostly up to it. I also saw some herons, and generally feel pretty good after being out in nature for a bit. It’s been a while.

So, yeah, that’s where things are. They are.