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!

_________________________________________________________

*-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

This week’s been less than optimal for several reasons. Taking the day off for some medical stuff that I’m stressed enough about left me with almost eighty emails to sort through this morning, and getting up at all this morning felt awful because yesterday felt at all times exactly like Saturday.

All that busy probably comes from the fact that I’m doing some filling in for the boss and the boss’s boss this week as they’re out on limited hours or leave, which is ideal, because so much about this week has been about rushing to prepare last-minute for the training symposium scheduled less than two weeks from now that was originally supposed to be in-person at a Florida conference center, then when there wasn’t money for travel, it became virtual or perhaps canceled, until all of a sudden there was money enough available to do it in-person again, for at least some people (not me, thank $diety). I’ve had to spend the week herding cats working with some less-than-easy folks rushing to prepare three or four hours of programming for the program management track, and the schedule keeps shifting every few hours.

Nothing like having to pull off miracles at the last minute, huh?

One team that seems to have managed it though is the Harris campaign, doing damned near everything right over the last couple of weeks, raising ridiculous amounts of money, and really sticking the landing on one of the most effective attack strategies the Democrats have come up with in recent memory:

Just calling them weird.

I mean, we’ve known this forever, but actually just going ahead and doing it has seriously thrown the opposition for a loop, and the article I linked above gives an excellent reason why:

Here’s why this line of attack is so effective as counterdisinformation. It runs on vibes rather than facts, which meets disinformation purveyors on their own turf with their own weapons and doesn’t give anyone details to get bogged down in.

Then it stakes a claim to normalcy, the same one that far-Right fascists crave and can never attain.

“Weird” suggests something other than normalcy; and to a political party that puts such value on conformity, it’s one of the worst things to be called.

TFG, his extra-weird running mate, and pretty much all the surrogates are unable to offer up anything but variations of “I know you are but what I am I” is that the one thing these narcissistic and fascist types truly crave is legitimacy and respect, and simply pointing out how weird and out of the mainstream they are, and rolling our collective eyes about it totally denies them that, and it drives them nuts.

Laugh at ’em, they hate that.

This election cycle has indeed been more about attitudes and “vibes” than about policy; it’s not been so much about what a candidate’s going to do upon election, but rather how a voter “feels” about some aspect of the candidate, be it age, attitude, or alleged opinions on furniture. Policy will be there, but the big concepts that have driven things are comfort with the candidates and polling concepts like “double-haters” and the aforementioned “vibes;” and for once, the Democratic camp has managed to find a way to gain the advantage.

I, for one, am here for it.

So, yeah…tunes. Lots of fun 80s and 80s-adjacent stuff, all of which generally feels good, which fits with the optimism so many of us are still feeling, at least in one particular aspect of our lives:

1. “2000 Man” – KISS
2. “School of Rock” – School of Rock cast
3. “LABOUR – the cacophony” – Paris Paloma
4. “Dead Girl Walking” – Jensen McRae
5. “Dancing with Myself” – Generation X
6. “Growing on Me” – The Darkness
7. “Head Over Heels” – The Go-Go’s
8. “You Might Think” – The Cars
9. “Angel of the Morning” – Juice Newton
10. “Better Thing” – The Romantics
11. “Stupid Boy” – Gear Daddies
12. “Rock You Up” – The Romantics
13. “Land of Canaan” – Indigo Girls
14. “Animal” – Def Leppard

So I haven’t done one of these in a while. I’ve had a rough couple of months. Really busy time at work, some personal health challenges, some communal health challenges (hello, COVID round two!) that killed some much-anticipated plans (goodbye, ConGregate), some puppy growing pains, and a national and global political situation that’s been looking down-right apocalyptic.

Things have pretty dark, to be honest.

This week, though, watching the outpouring of excitement and enthusiasm in Democratic politics, the sheer disarray the party finds itself in, is infectious, and I’m maybe seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

Watching my friends here on the left side of center, both in person and online, smiling, feeling relief, and, dare I say it, optimism…it’s a good feeling.

Oh yeah, I totally kicked Microsoft Project’s ass yesterday at work, so there’s that. I’m riding high, at least for the moment.

As for tunes this week, a nice mix; a little modern, a little classic, and a tune at #9 from the concert that was one of my first dates with my lovely spouse of twenty-six years and eight days (yeah, missed posting about that as well when we were sick…). I’ll take it.

1. “What I Like About You” – The Romantics
2. “Dancing on My Own” – The Regrettes
3. “Save It For Later” – Eddie Vedder
4. “Big Yellow Taxi” – Joni Mitchell
5. “She’s So High” – Tal Bachman
6. “Fox on the Run” – Sweet
7. “Our Own Worst Enemy” – Lit
8. “Stacy’s Mom” – Fountains of Wayne
9. “Romeo and Juliet” – Indigo Girls
10. “Only The Young” – Journey
11. “All Over You” – Live
12. “Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
13. “Alone in America” – Hotel Mira

So, this afternoon, after weeks of speculation and agitation from the chattering pundit class, Joe Biden has given up his bid for re-election and endorsed Vice President Harris. It’s surprising, but given the last couple of weeks’ activity in the op-ed pages and commentary spaces, it’s not a surprise. The party elite, for what it’s worth, decided that a change was in order, and it kind of feels like Joe was done a little dirty. Sure, in the end, it was his decision to make, but over the last couple of weeks since the debate (which, honestly, wasn’t good), he was kind of backed in to making it. I’m not saying it was the wrong choice, but the circumstances leading up to it could have much better optics.

Biden’s Presidency has been one of the most significant, transformational, effective, and progressive of my lifetime, and history will look back on it kindly. He and his team achieved a hell of a lot, against significant pressures and severely divided government. Tons and tons of stuff, more than I can probably list at the moment, though this graphic does a pretty good job of listing things, and it’s not exactly exhaustive (click to make it bigger):

The fact that such an effective holder of the office and lifelong public servant has been consistently (though narrowly) trailing against a self-centered, arrogant, twice-impeached, thirty-four times convicted felon is inconceivable to me. The fact that someone with TFG’s record is considered a viable candidate for election at all says a lot about this country, none of it good.

So, what comes next? Who knows, though if the party is smart, they’ll line up behind VP Harris immediately (which looks like it’s starting to happen), and kick off the abbreviated campaign in earnest by having her both thank President Biden, claim credit for the tremendous accomplishments of their time in office, and come out low-key swinging, making full use of her skills as a prosecutor, attorney general, and regular slayer of senate committee witnesses. Do this right, and it’ll be awesome. For an example of how such a campaign might look, Jonathan V. Last over at The Bulwark posted this piece earlier this week describing an excellent way forward.

My primary vote in 2020 went to Senator Warren, though honestly, Harris was my number two pick. I was, and remain a fan. And not just because of the historical nature of her candidacy, which I only semi-sarcastically refer to her very good chance of being the first…Gen X* president ;-).

So, thank you President Biden, for being way more effective than you had any right being; as I said, you’ll go down as one of the greats. And, going forward, I’m going to go all in for Kamala.

As Deadpool and Wolverine have been saying since the spring, Let’s F**king Go!

_______________________

* – Yeah, I said it. I’m not going to sweat a year of this Generation Jones quasi-boomer crap. She’s got the proper Gen X attitude.

I’ve probably got it in me to write a 10,000 word essay all about how this term’s Supreme Court rulings, in particular, Trump v. United States, a.k.a. The Immunity Thing™, though between all that, the polls, the hair-pulling and infighting related to Biden’s lackluster debate performance last week, as well as some more personal developments I’m dealing with, I simply don’t have the spoons.

But, I’ve got to say something, because we should be better than this. I don’t want to have to say that 248 years was a good run for American Democracy, but I’d be lying if I didn’t feel like that wasn’t how I was feeling about the whole business, and I’m far from the only one, be it innumerable pundits writing their essays this week or my grocery store drinking buddy Margie as we drowned our collective sorrows in a couple of pints of decent craft IPA the other afternoon.

All other difficulties in practical applications aside, this country was based on the concept of everyone being equal under the law, up to and including the chief executive. And, again a few exceptions aside, things mostly worked up until a few years ago, because we all operated under acceptance of that premise.

Sure, we had Nixon’s assertion to David Frost that “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal,” but up until this past Monday, things at least seemed to operate as if that statement was incorrect. Now, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and the other five right-wing justices, that statement’s basically established law as long as the “it” the President does is determined to be an “official act” by the courts.

It was a garbage decision that goes against both the spirit and letter of the Constitution and the ideals upon which this country was built. The above is the best I’ve got right now, but I’ll close this with a hearty endorsement of Rep. Jamie Raskin of MD-8’s statement on the matter:

“Today, the Supreme Court took a bulldozer to the democratic credo that no one—including presidents and former presidents—is above the law. Three years ago, after Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, Mitch McConnell explained, ‘We have a criminal justice system in this country… And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable.’ But today, far-right justices embedded with the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement conferred broad immunity on Donald Trump, even going so far as to help him keep evidence of his criminal actions from coming to light in a court of law. Today’s ruling, postponing any prosecution of Trump until after the election and holding that Presidents are presumptively immune from criminal prosecution for using their office to assassinate political rivals, organize a military coup, or take bribes, is a radical break from the rule of law which underscores how much our democratic values have been eroded and are on the line in November. Donald Trump has made it clear that, if he wins election, he will use his presidential powers to pardon all his co-conspirators and weaponize the Justice Department by firing career employees and replacing them with an army of sycophants willing to engage in retributive harassment against his political opponents. All of this would be presumably allowable under today’s horrific decision.”

No More Kings. We’re better than this…aren’t we?

So, after that “Am I going to even keep doing the thing?” post back in May, there’ve been a bunch of things worth talking about (apart from that Dragoncon post pinned up there ↑, that is)…

As I alluded to in that post, I’m working on a new record, currently untitled, that I hope to have wrapped before ConGregate in July, so I can sell a few copies to folks I know are already fans there who have my other discs, and be ready with some fresh new stuff to sell (along with the old records I’m not all that in love with any longer) to the new folks who’ll see me down in Atlanta,perhaps for the first time as a solo artist.

Said record’s coming along; I’ve got a bunch of tracks in process, a couple of covers licensed (because they’re popular live), and should be able to get things finished, mixed, tracks ordered, and title and cover art conceptualized and created in time to get something printed before mid-July.

Wish me luck…

Otherwise, I’m pretty busy, rushing headlong into the program managers’ deadlines ahead of fiscal year end, especially since, as usual, at work I’ve picked up a bunch of orphan requirements that someone else couldn’t handle, because I’m a superhero when it comes to acquisition paperwork. I’ll feel pretty good come the end of June when I ideally have all this stuff done, but until then? Crazy.

As if I didn’t have enough going on, I’ve also signed up for the Capital Trail Summer Challenge, this year, being the trail’s 9th birthday, I’m working on knocking out the equivalent of nine times the trail’s length (465.3 miles total) before the first week of September. So far, I’m making solid progress.

I also recently took a little vacation, camping with the spouse and someone-else-to-be-named-in-a-later-paragraph at Smith Mountain Lake State Park for a couple of days last week/weekend, and hitting four other parks besides, bringing my Trail Quest total up to 25 parks as of this writing. It was nice, and I even forgot about the work stress for a few days.

…and that someone-to-be-named-later? Meet Tifa:

Yeah, about eight or nine weeks ago, my lovely spouse brought this eight month old, sixty-five-pounds-and-counting mixed breed puppy into our lives. I was, at first, skeptical, though I’ve since come around, because she’s so damned sweet and eager to please, even if she’s still in the midst of a bunch of Big Toddler Energy™ that comes with puppyhood. That said, apart from her puppy chewing tendencies we’re stuck with for the moment, tearing up a bunch of things like rugs and oven mitts and toys and mail and whatever else she can get a hold of, she’s really quite well behaved, has done wonderfully in obedience classes at the local Petco so far, and last week on the camp-out, she earned all kinds of complements from fellow campers for her excellent behavior.

I think I’ll keep her.

But yeah, the size thing is, for now, kind of a lot. While she’s far from pure-bred, our research so far has suggested that she’s got a lot of Greater Swiss Mountain Dog in her (one of these days we’ll confirm with one of those doggy DNA tests), which means we’re looking at her topping out around 100 pounds, so I expect I’ll be shopping saddles before long.

So anyway…those are the kind of things that are going on around here; it’s keeping me pretty busy, so if I don’t throw up the usual “life’s been happening, here’s a playlist” post every Friday these days, it’s because I have shit to do (some of which I’ve not talked about yet), and life is cranking on and on, and I need to keep living it.