As the thermometers outside are finally acknowledging, it’s now autumn. It’s both a favored time of year and one that tends to throw a wrench into my enjoyment of it. I definitely enjoy my time outside in the cooler weather; afternoon hikes along the river at the local park (which the dog loves), regular bike rides on the VCT (carefully dodging slippery leaves and traitorous pinecones), and heck, even seasonal chores like raking and blowing leaves. However, once daylight savings goes away and darkness starts coming early, my normally mostly managed depression ramps up a bit, especially with the fall/winter holiday season fast approaching.

Yes, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is definitely a thing I deal with.

This year, given the other stuff going on in my life, it’s been especially rough. Getting motivated and maintaining a positive outlook on the world (especially the current condition of the world) has been more difficult than in past years. That said, I’m doing what I can to manage it. Getting my regular outside time, using my therapy light, and working on giving myself permission to sometimes be a bit less productive: all kinds of self-care behavior those people who know things recommend.

And I’m mostly doing okay; mostly.

I know I’ll have better days and less-better days, and I try to be okay with that. And I talk about it; because if I do, others understand what I’m dealing with, and maybe somebody else out there will be able to move past the weird social issues around mental health and get the help they need, because I’ve had people in my life that didn’t or couldn’t, and now I don’t have them around anymore

Apart from all that stuff in the previous paragraphs, I’ve been spending a little more time playing guitars for my own enjoyment lately instead of turning it into work by prepping for gigs (though I’m working out arrangements of a couple of interesting cover tunes that’ll slot into gigs later), and reading some pretty good books. I don’t have much on the agenda for the weekend or next week, except for taking a couple of days off for the holiday and likely turning off my phone for a day or two, because that device that is such a big part of people’s lives in today’s (overly) connected world is it’s own sort of stress that I regularly need a break from.

Anyway, that’s my piece today. Here are some tunes that the algorithm spit out; mostly the typical indie fare, including a very cool bluegrass cover of a favored Pink Floyd tune at #6, and a neat tune I don’t hear often enough at #8, with a title referencing a particular punctuation device you can find several examples of in this post:

1. “See The World” – Gomez
2. “Primrose Hill” – James McCartney
3. “Seven Roads” – Stereophonic OCR
4. “Dreamboat Annie” – Heart
5. “Do You Love Me” – Guster
6. “Time >Breathe Reprise<" - Greensky Bluegrass
7. “F*ck My Life Up Again” – Marcus King
8. “Oxford Comma” – Vampire Weekend
9. “Solitaires” – Futurebireds
10. “Pretty Vicious” – The Struts
11. “Talk is Cheap” – Dr. Dog

So, the results on Tuesday were so not what so many of us were hoping for. So much of America, both the 75 million who voted for him, and the 11 million who didn’t show up, showed us who they are, and who they are reeks of racism, sexism, xenophobia, LGBTQ+-phobia, general non-neighborliness, more than a little bit of fascism, and frankly, a really shitty understanding of economics. Also, those folks in my social circles who enabled this result have taken to adopting that person’s worst impulses, and have generally been complete assholes.

So, honestly, I’m stepping away from a lot of people, at least for a while. No need to listen to people who have shown that they don’t consider so many people I care about to be sub-human. They may speak of “we can agree to disagree,” but it doesn’t take much for that veil to drop and for them to show their true colors.

I simply don’t need that kind of negativity in my life right now; I’ve got more than enough other stuff to be concerned with.

That said, I’m not giving up, and neither are so many of us. We’ll do the work, we’ll fight the bad stuff, and unlike the other side, we’ll do it with within the bounds of the law. We’ll be the loyal opposition (loyal to the Constitution and the mostly noble ideas this country’s based on), but we’re going to oppose the hell out of all the awful things the other side’s promised to do and the negative attitudes they and those that support them have adopted.

I ran across something this morning that really resonated with me, and it’s worth sharing. I think it’s going to resonate with a lot of people, particularly my nerdy brethren, though as the concept’s drawn from the second-highest grossing film of all time, it almost certainly applies much more broadly:

This week’s had quite a few ups and downs. Work was amazingly productive, even if there were a few pretty long days after the long weekend. I’ve gotten some encouraging medical news, and making progress in a couple of different areas, even if the side effects of this new pill I’m on are inconvenient. We found out that the weirdness with our solar array is most likely due to an unhappy software update, though the control panel on the dishwasher (that I just fixed in August for another issue) has shorted out…

So yeah, the good and the bad have mostly balanced out there.

Oh yeah, I also voted early. If you’re able, (and here’s a good place to check your options), maybe you should too?

All that said, there’s one thing this week that’s been weighing heavily on me. I got word on Saturday that my local watering hole and hang-out, Dancing Kilt Brewery, is shutting down* at the end of this week, another casualty of rising rents and market saturation in the Richmond, VA area.

I’m really gonna miss this place; it’s only about two miles from home, and it’s right on the way to and from a favored park for hiking and my usual cycling trailhead on the VCT. It’s been a pleasant, relaxed and welcoming place for the last half-decade, family-owned and operated, and frequented by people who I might not always agree with, but remind me of the same sort of favored characters I’ve encountered ‘back where we came from’, and are always good for a hearty greeting and spirited conversation. I made a lot of friends there over the years, and I’m going to miss seeing them regularly.

Also, the beer was wonderful, and the place was nice enough to pay me to play my off-kilter music on the occasional Thursday night.

This week they’ve been putting their spin on the traditional ‘Irish Wake’, welcoming people back to both mourn and celebrate, with discounted pours (to clear the kegs out of the fridge), some live music, and a chance to raise a final pint or three in honor of the taproom and the good times we had there.

So, I’ve been over a couple of times this week doing just that with a glass of Headless Horseman Oktoberfest, and maybe grabbing more than a few cans to stash away for when I need a reminder that there’s some good in the world if you look for it.

In any case, here’s some music the algorithm decided I needed to hear today:

1. “So Ready” – Goose
2. “How Lucky” – Kurt Vile w John Prine
3. “Whatcha Want” – Lawrence
4. “Sweet” – Jobi Riccio
5. “Glory, Glory (I am Free)” – Dea Matrona
6. “Dancing with Sue” – Wyatt C. Louis
7. “Hold on Loosely” – Joe Bonamassa, Train
8. “Superstar”- Rainbow Kitten Surprise
9. “This Is Life” – Winnetka Bowling League, Medium Build, Dawes
10. “Scars” – Fruition
11. “First High” – Nikki Lane
12. “Coming Home Song” – Sammy Raye & The Friends
13. “Harvest Moon – Live at Echo Mountain” – Melt
14. “Backmask 1983” – Carbon Leaf

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* – While I know it’s ridiculous to attribute this additional cause, the Kilt is the third brewery I’ve played at in town that’s shut down. As they say, “once is by chance, two is coincidence, three is a pattern.” I guess I should only play at crappy places in order to use my powers for good.

Another seven days passed, another bunch of hours worked, another list of chores done, another bunch of miles hiked and pedaled, another few beers quaffed…this week’s been actually pretty standard.

I guess that’s not entirely true, as those hours worked involved a lot of serious, but honestly pretty fulfilling requirements planning to hand to the developers to build some really neat stuff that’ll make our program managers a lot more productive. It’s nice to find myself actually doing the job I’m supposed to be doing instead of picking up everyone else’s work.

The chores were, on the whole, pretty meh, though it did feel good taking that shower in the eerily clean bathroom I spent an hour or two deep-scrubbing yesterday.

The miles were in old favored places, which is it’s own kind of pleasant, meditative thing, where I can just focus on the movement and let the mind wander, as I already know every tree, root, and rock along the way, and before I know it, I’ve passed by a few mile markers without specifically noticing them.

And the beers? The lovely spouse and I had a very nice time chatting with our friend “Other Chuck” at the grocery store bar on Thursday afternoon drinking those. I needed that after some pretty draining Teams calls.

Maybe this week wasn’t so standard after all; reading back on what I ended up writing here, it was actually pretty remarkable.

As for this week’s algorithm-generated Spotify playlist, It could easily be the lineup for next year’s Iron Blossom Festival or an average hour on my favored wnrn radio. All that modern and post-modern folk rock, which I’ve been listening to quite a bit lately…

…Well, that and Lady Gaga’s new record Harlequin, which is full of excellent arrangements of classic jazz standards. I highly recommend it.

1. “Mine Forever” – Lord Huron
2. “Honey” – The Lone Bellow
3. “KD and LunchMeat
4. “Summer Sun” – Ruen Brothers
5. “Fadeaway” – Bodeans
6. “If 6 Was 4” The Retrograde
7. “Fish and Whistle” – John Prine
8. “Everybody Knows” – Ryan Adams
9. “Happiness” – The Heavy Heavy
10. “The Place That Makes Me Happy” – The Moss
11. “Maestro (Tears Don’t Lie)” – Wilder Woods
12. “Right Kind of Dream” – Johnny Blue Skies, Sturgill Simpson,
13. “Every Chance I Get (I Want You In The Flesh)” – Dan Auerbach
14. “Bathroom Light” – Mt. Joy

Politico had an interesting article up this morning, “Tim Walz and the Birth of the ‘State College Voter’”, about how most Americans with college degrees don’t get them from the big elite universities like those of the Ivy League, but rather from the regional small public universities, like, say, I don’t know, Millersville University (BS ‘96) or smaller, non-selective private colleges, like Florida Tech (MS ‘05). Those graduates tend to go on to reasonably lucrative, if not exactly prestigious, careers, often in the same region of the country they grew up in, contributing to the local economy (since they’re more likely to stay close, rather than pop into the state for a few years, graduate, then leave again). Those people make up a plurality (around 45%) of degree-holders in this country, but get overshadowed by the so-called elites from places like Harvard and Yale.

It’s a very large demographic, but one they don’t typically select for in polling.

It’s also mostly where I fit into things (except for the fact that I didn’t stay in the area where I grew up, for a variety of reasons), as well as where the current Democratic Presidential/Vice Presidential ticket fit, as opposed to the all-Ivy Republicans. Also, I took and passed my own admissions exams. 😉

VP Harris went to Howard (the HBCU) and UC Hastings, and Governor Walz attended Chadron State in Nebraska and Minnesota State Mankato, came from lower-middle class backgrounds and pursued careers in public service. Governor Walz and I even have basically the same degree.

That background, as well as both Walz and Harris falling into the same GenX generational cohort, had a lot of similar experiences, and we came to a lot of the same conclusions about where we stand politically. While there’s some debate about GenX’s overall political leanings (much ado was made about another Politico article back in May about us being “safely Republican”), I, and most people in my cohort that I spend time with (admittedly self-selected) came out of our University experiences at small public colleges with a greater experience of the wider world than the small, homogeneous (and often more than a little bit racist and homophobic) communities we came of age in, and developed a more progressive worldview as a result of our experiences with people who were different than us and being exposed to things like history, sociology, and Keynesian economics that just made sense. Not that I’ve not met some conservative Xers, but in my experience and anecdata at least, they might be loud, but there aren’t as many as some of these articles claim, and I say this as someone living in a pretty conservative enclave with ties to the birth of the Tea Party movement, even if it falls within a solidly blue Commonwealth (Praise Be to the DC suburbs and cities 20 miles to the north and south).

Our unique latchkey childhood experiences also made us pretty damned snarky and sarcastic, and that’s definitely coming out in the Harris-Walz campaign messaging, which warms my snarky GenX heart.

Representation matters, and for the first time in a while, I feel represented.

Your Mom has concepts of a plan!

This work week’s been kind of a whiplash-inducing experience, starting with a two-day “retreat” during which my work team did a bunch of decidedly not-work things; like guided meditation, painting, ice-breaker games, and going out to a nice dinner; to focus on the importance of self-care and engage in some team-building. It was…pleasant. It also hit at exactly the right time of the year, after the majority of the program management tasks for all those requirements have been finished and handed over to the procurement shop.

Then the day after we wrapped it up, I spent seven hours in meetings before spending another hour in the dentist’s chair. The winds shifted pretty quickly, you could say.

Outside of that, though, the week’s been largely positive. I’m getting pretty good (for me, anyway) streaming and sales numbers on Warmest Regards, I’ve gotten some decent outside time, and spent a pleasant evening with friends on Wednesday, sharing our enjoyment of Tuesday night’s Presidential Debate.

VP Harris played TFG like a fiddle, consistently describing her positions on the issues while dropping numerous obvious rhetorical traps that consistently got under his skin, frustrating and distracting him, sending him down strange tangents about crowd sizes and silly stories about immigrants stealing and eating pets in Ohio, rather than looking even remotely “Presidential” or competent.

It was masterful, and exactly the kind of thing we were hoping we’d see and ideally expect from someone who’s made a successful career as a prosecutor. We’ll see what the polls show in the coming days, though I suspect that this debate performance will win over a significant number of few-but-absolutely-essential undecided voters out there.

And it’s going to be close, because the way our electoral system is organized, *every* modern Presidential election is close, at least in terms of electoral count (if not popular vote). Thanks to population distribution, Gerrymandering (which I link because the etymology of the word never gets explained anymore), and the Electoral College system as laid out in Article Two, Section One of the Constitution (we’ll leave whether the EC still makes sense given modern population numbers and social conditions for another day). In 2020, for example, President Biden won the popular vote count by more than seven million votes, but his victory in the EC was primarily driven by a few thousand votes each in three or four states.

Our system is kind of weird.

Writing that civics lesson of a previous paragraph seriously threatened to harsh my vibe coming off of Tuesday evening, but it’s an important reminder that the Harris campaign and those of us who support it can’t take anything for granted. 80% of the voters in this country are going to vote for a given party no matter who’s on the ticket, and the rest of the undecideds/persuadeables/whatevers are that way because they’re not particularly engaged in the process. It’s convincing those folks on the margins to first, vote at all, and second, to support your candidate where all the work of the next eight weeks or so is going to happen.

Anyway, that’s the story for now. Here’s the usual Friday music; this time a bunch of 70’s pop rock, and some more modern tunes that mostly sound like it:

1. “Hooked On A Feeling” – Blue Swede & Bjorn Skifs
2. “Found Heaven” – Conan Gray
3. “Takin’ Care Of Business” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive
4. “My Beloved Monster” – Eels
5. “Figure It Out” – Royal Blood
6. “Shake It Out” – Florence + The Machine
7. “Pinch Me” – Barenaked Ladies
8. “Voices” – Cheap Trick
9. “Mainstream Kid” – Brandi Carlile
10. “The Underdog” – Spoon
11. “Go All The Way” – Raspberries
12. “The Man Who Sold The World” – David Bowie
13. “Lump” – The Presidents Of The United States Of America

So, I’m a few days back at work after a week-and-a-half break that included all kinds of interesting things, including, as mentioned previously, my debut as a solo performer guest at Dragoncon.

That adventure, overall, went pretty well. I played some solid shows, got some nice reviews, saw some old friends, made some new ones, sold a few copies of the new record.

Speaking of the new record – if you’re interested in grabbing a digital copy, today, being BANDCAMP FRIDAY, if you buy it today from the site, I get a few more cents on the dollar.

Things at the con were remarkably easy and trouble-free, apart from some last minute confusion over which hotel they had me booked in (the original info said one hotel, then I got a reservation confirmation email from another about an hour out of Atlanta on Thursday), but even then, a couple of messages sorted that out, and I think I ended up better for it anyway.

The filk track made me feel remarkably welcome and appreciated, which felt really good, as I felt maybe a little out of my depth playing this gig. Thanks to Amber, Kat, and the rest of the track for creating such a great space to do our thing.

Apart from me, I saw a ton of great shows from folks on the track, including mainstays Mikey Mason, The Brobdingnagian Bards, The Gekkos, The Faithful Sidekicks, The PDX Broadsides, and my bandmates The Blibbering Humdingers, as well as fellow newcomers Harlequin’s Shadow, Clearly Guilty and Corwyn the Bardbarian. The Hyatt Hanover rooms were overflowing with musical riches, and it was an honor and a privilege to be part of it.

Apart from the con, I managed to bookend my break with a couple of bigger shows as well. Last Monday, we met some friends out at the VA Beach amphitheater to catch Imagine Dragons, a band I’m not hugely familiar with, but liked the stuff I’d heard previously. It was a solid show, though I was rather surprised to see how the average age of the audience was brought way down by so many nine year olds. And, this past Wednesday right before hitting the office again, I caught Dweezil Zappa again as he passed through town, still doing his “Zappa Plays Zappa” thing, celebrating the 50th anniversaries of Frank’s Apostrophe(‘) and Roxy & Elsewhere records. This is my third or fourth time seeing this guy and his band live, and it’s always a great time.

Then, I went back to work on Thursday and started clearing out a few hundred emails, which I’m almost finished with.

Anyway, here’s some tunes that are largely unrelated to all the musical acts I mentioned above, but for whatever reason, really heavy on nineties AAA:

1. “Love Don’t Die” – The Fray
2. “Good People” – Mumford & Sons, Pharrell Williams
3. “San Francisco” – The Mowgli’s
4. “Loser, Baby” – Hazbin Hotel cast
5. “Sometime Around Midnight” – The Airborne Toxic Event
6. “If You Could Only See” – Tonic
7. “Strong Enough” – Sheryl Crow
8. “A Symptom of Being Human” – Shinedown
9. “Counting Blue Cars (Tell Me Your Thoughts On God)” – Dishwalla
10. “What Wouldn’t Do” – Serena Ryder
11. “Do You Really Wanna Taste It” – Wig Wam
12. “I Want You” – Savage Garden
13. “Hanging By A Moment” – Lifehouse
14. “Kiss With A Fist” – Florence + The Machine

Leaving for Dragoncon tomorrow; splitting the trip over two days, but I’ll be there relatively early on Thursday. Here’s where I’ll definitely be; otherwise, unless something neat comes up and I have someone to cover my table, I’ll be shilling merchandise in the Marriott on the Marquis level:

Warmest Regards, the third full-length release from Chuck Parker, features more of the funny, filky, and occasionally lyrically-complicated geek-rock tunes you’ve come to expect, including musings on game night, late-night nerd movie nostalgia, unexpected encounters with explicit prose, and aggressively polite email. It also includes new versions of a couple of old favorites (because Chuck was never happy with the original recordings…) as well as a couple of never-before-released live favorites!

Ahead of the official release on August 29 (when it’ll hit your favorite streaming service!) to coincide with Dragoncon, I’m putting Warmest Regards up for digital pre-order.

If you order ahead of the 29th*, you’ll get two tracks now (which you can also stream just by visiting the link) and a link to download the whole package (including a digital exclusive track!) upon release.

If you’re looking for a physical CD, I’ll have them on hand at Dragoncon and elsewhere, and I’m joining the digital future by also selling USB drives loaded with all my records, as well as all kinds of other recordings – collaborations, demos, etc. (almost a hundred tunes!) – for sale as well.

I’m really pretty proud of the way this one turned out, and I just couldn’t wait to share it with you. Thanks for listening, folks!

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*-Though if you feel like waiting for Bandcamp Friday, where they waive their fees and I’ll get an extra ten cents or so on the dollar, that’s cool too.

Today is kind of a big deal. Today, I turn fifty years old. Neither of the previous Charles Parkers made it this far. It feels kind of weird to be here. This is, oddly enough, uncharted territory.

I am, in a lot of ways, at least below the neck, in the best shape of my life. My body can do fifty miles on a bicycle in less than four hours. I couldn’t have done that at 25. I weigh less than I did at 30. I’m almost 100 pounds lighter than I was eight years ago. I’ve got some other weird medical issues I’m dealing with, though I’m working with proper medical professionals, both in terms of physical health and mental health, to figure out how to fix things, and we’re making some progress.

Also, over the last five or six years, I’ve become kind of a big deal as a musician; sure, I’m not Taylor Swift, but next weekend, I’ll be performing as myself at one of the biggest fan conventions in the country (certainly in the top three on the east coast) and releasing my third full-length CD, which sounds rather good, if I do say so myself. I’ve gotten better at performing, writing, recording, and all that sort of business. I have fans, which, honestly, feels kinda weird, but also good.

Career-wise, I’m not in a bad place, all told. I’ve established my niche within the organization. People depend on me and my expertise. If there’s a problem, I’m the guy they call. It’s occasionally frustrating, but I’m doing good work, doing my part for the public good. I really can’t complain.

I can pay my bills, I can support my family and their needs, I’ve got a nice place to live, and a wonderful and supportive chosen family I love and can depend on, and who knows they can depend on me.

All in all, in spite of the stress and the occasional frustration, I’m in a good place, a half-century on.

I’ll take it.

Anyway, here are some tunes:

1. “She’s Kinda Hot” – 5 Seconds of Summer
2. “1983” – Neon Trees
3. “Mother’s Love” – Collective Soul
4. “Navigating” – Twenty One Pilots
5. “Breathe (2AM)” – Anna Nalick
6. “She’s a Genius” – Jet
7. “Everywhere” – Michelle Branch
8. “Breathing Underwater” – Metric
9. “I Think We’re Alone Now” – Tiffany
10. “All The Small Things” – blink-182
11. “Stacy’s Mom” – Bowling For Soup
12. “Let Me Be” – Radio Company