Early yesterday afternoon, word came that Senator Kamala Harris has suspended her campaign for president.

Given recent polling (she’d been stuck in the high single digits since around June, after her breakout “That Girl Was Me” moment) and the behind-the-scenes campaign turmoil, I’m not necessarily surprised, though I’m more than a little saddened; she’d been one of my favorites since the beginning.

The Senator really did (and likely continues to) have a lot going for her as a candidate: a successful prosecutor, district attorney in San Francisco, California Attorney General, and United States Senator. She’s got tremendous passion, knowledge, charisma, and tenacity (see her work on the Judiciary Committee during the Comey firing and during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings), has been a significant voice supporting progressive immigration reform (and opposition to the current administration’s policies), and as a mixed-race (Jamaican/Indian) woman, she looks a hell of a lot more like the larger American population than the crop of mediocre rich white guys she’s continually surrounded by in government.

But despite that, she had trouble getting traction in the crowded field, and didn’t articulate her positions on issues as well as some of her primary opponents have, and, as that NYT piece linked above indicates, her campaign was not the most organized affair.

Those issues aside, I really admire her ability and presence, and I really hope we haven’t seen the last of her, and I don’t expect we have. I hope she remains a strong voice for the party; this just wasn’t her year.

We also lost two more largely anonymous white guys (Sestak and Bullock) that most people didn’t even notice were running, but that’s honestly not really much of a story.

Of those who remain, I like a few, though my heart currently belongs to Elizabeth “I have a plan for that” Warren. She’s smart, accomplished, has a great story, an ambitious progressive vision for the country that, as a teacher, she’s able to articulate effectively (if people would only listen), and has shown herself willing to take on the rich and powerful in order to make things better for all of us (she’s got the billionaire and establishment running scared, actually).

But what’s really sold me on her isn’t all that, it’s this, a simple exchange with an LGBTQ+ teen at a town hall in Iowa this weekend, where she was asked about a time when someone she looked up to didn’t accept her, and she tells a heartfelt story about not aligning with her mother’s expectations, and then proceeded to offer comfort and encouragement to the kid.

Yeah, I maybe teared up a bit (as did others who’ve seen it). While Senator Warren’s got a plan for everything, she’s also got something else a lot of other politicians (and people in general) lack: Genuine Empathy. I think that’s something we maybe need more of in our national discourse.

Welcome!

My debut solo record is now available, and may be purchased in the following ways:

• as a digital download via my bandcamp page (currently free or name your price, in this age of pandemic)
• as a physical cd via kunaki
• or you can find me in person, at a show, on the street, wherever!

For you folks just discovering me, this site has, since 2002 or so, been my personal blog. I talk a lot about music, gigs, and the creative process here, so if you’re into that sort of thing, stick around! Fair warning, however; I will also talk about the mundanities of life: like family, pets, non-music hobbies, pop culture, what I had for dinner last night, politics, depression, complaining about my day job, and other random musings that have nothing to do with my occasional forays into rock stardom.

I hope you’ll poke around a bit, get to know me better!

The long weekend was, for the most part relaxing, particularly Thursday and Friday, where I mostly hung about, doing laundry, watching MST3K, and cooking tasty food. Was offline for the most part, though I did take advantage of a couple of small black friday online deals, but nothing particularly serious. Saturday, we hung out with friends, sampling some adult beverages and watching The Mandalorian. It was nice.

There was just way too much Sunday for my taste, however. I got up early and ran a couple of quick errands, then set off on US 460 W to deliver the eldest back to campus, with a stop half-way to re-record some stuff for Jonah’s project (as I’m essentially the east coast engineer) with one of the localish participants. The first leg wasn’t bad, and included burritos, so I won’t complain. Locating my friend’s house was less easy, as it wasn’t where the GPS said it was, and I had to deal with a couple of narrow, steep, slipperly driveways before hitting the right one. One was particularly steep, slippery, and obscure, such that I bottomed out slightly and knocked the front clip on my car slightly askew – luckily, it mostly snapped right back into place, though I currently have some tape on one of the panel gaps for security. It was, as they say, the last thing I needed.

The recording, however, went well, though the rest of the trip, out and back (in spite of the stop for a pint at Loose Shoe), was colored by the auto bang-up, and I was kind of stressed, and tired, as it worked out being about five hours round trip. And, as we realized the kid left her laptop at home, I need to run back out that way tomorrow.

Yay.

Keep telling myself, only three more work weeks this year…

Currently in the process of tidying things up for my short holiday work week, which has been, if I’m being honest, kind of a waste of time.  I’ve spent most of it tying up loose ends like required “Ethics Training” and sending messages to folks who are already off brining turkeys and celebrating European conquest of North America to set up meetings in early December to set priorities and whatnot before everyone bails for the last couple of weeks of the year like you do.

As for my next couple of days, I’m probably going to go dark for a little bit as I tend to do about this time, spending a couple of days off-line (other than making use of the streaming box) to decompress, cook a bit, watch some movies, catch up on a some reading, and just hang for a couple of days.

There’s also some other stuff in there; paying bills, stocking the larder, hauling a kid back to school, and doing a little bit of pick-up recording for Faithless for one of the other guest artists on the project.

But yeah, I’m going to do this stuff mostly unplugged from the crazy.

As I’ll be unplugged on the traditional day for this sort of thing, I’m posting my weekly random playlist early, which is a nice mix of stuff, actually.  Not entirely sure about the handful of covers in there (#9 is ambitious, but nobody’s going to top the Georgia Satellites’ original), but #2 is a nice forgotten favorite, and it’s interestingly coincidental that we’ve got Gilby Clarke in there, who replaced Izzy in G’n’R, after Mr. Stradlin’s solo stuff popped up last week.

Anyway, rock on, I’ll see you on the other side:

1. “Auctioneer (Another Engine) – R.E.M
2. “Feed The Tree” – Belly
3. “Alone Again” – Dokken
4. “The Girls I Know Don’t Think So” – Chastity
5. “The Wish (live, July 2018)” – Bruce Springsteen
6. “Incinerate” – Sonic Youth
7. “The Love Parade” – The Dream Academy
8. “Rock and Roll All Night” – L.A. Guns
9. “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” – Great White
10. “San Francisco B.C.” – Silver Jews
11. “I Want It All” – Black ‘N Blue
12. “Too Young to Fall In Love” – Gilby Clarke
13. “2 Cool 2 Care” – Anna Burch
14. “Outta Me, Onto You

As we returned home from Atomacon on Sunday evening, I’m confident in saying that it was a reasonably successful endeavor. For a person who’s not particularly well-known as a solo performer outside of a relatively small community, I ended my Friday “main” show with more people in the room than when I started, and I got pretty good feedback on the performance in general, and my other “guest duties” like sitting on a couple of panels went well (especially “Comics in the Media”, which is right in my wheelhouse).

I didn’t sell as many CDs as I’d really have liked, but I sold a few, I think I made a few more fans to the south, and went a long way toward establishing myself as an individual who can do this sort of thing.

I did end up killing my throat (I’m not a trained vocalist) over the course of the weekend, but that’s settling back in, especially after taking Monday off to rest, recouperate, and ease back into the mundane world, which I needed, as being an actual front-of-house convention guest for a whole weekend is a bit of pressure when you’re not quite used to it.

It was, nonetheless, a nice time spending time with friends, especially Frank, Donna, Ora, DJ, and Larry, and making a few new ones (hey Melinda and Joann!), and generally spending time around like-minded folks and enjoying some time when I get to be a tiny little rock star rather than a much put-upon program manager.

Thanks to the con (and Frank, for tossing me the official invite) for having me and making me feel welcome in what is really a new (but not entirely unexpected) role. I could stand to do it again.

It’s Friday. If you’re reading this entry contemporaneous to it’s posting, I’m either on my way to, or already at Atomacon in North Charleston, SC, where I’ve been scheduled as the Special Filk Guest for this year’s festivities. I’m looking forward to it, though a little intimidated; although I’ve been playing regularly as myself for a while now (including this past Wednesday night, where I played a kick-ass set as host of Castleburg’s Open Mic), this is the first time I’ve gotten booked as a guest as myself at a con instead of being part of an ensemble, and having my own cds to try and hawk to folks who come to see me perform.

Logically, I’m sure I’ll do fine, though it’s definitely a big step in my “career” (so to speak), which many friends tell me is long overdue. There will be plenty of friendly, supportive people around to listen and (I hope) enjoy, and I’ve got my reputation as the guy “in every band” preceding me, which I can’t imagine will do anything but help.

I’m managing the low-grade anxiety, though it doesn’t completely shut down that voice inside telling me I don’t belong. I am, however, doing my best to shut that little asshole up and get on with doing the job.

It’ll be my first year at this particular event, so I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s all about and being part of it. As for where I’ll be, here’s my parts, as excerpted from the published schedule, which, as goes without saying, is always subject to change:

• Friday, 7pm, Palmetto – Concert
• Friday, 9pm, Conservatory – Open Filk
• Saturday, 10am, Palmetto – Panel: “Comics in the Media”
• Saturday, 4pm, Palmetto – Filk Open Mic
• Saturday, 8pm, Conservatory – Panel: “The Orville”
• Saturday, 9pm, Conservatory – Open Filk

Otherwise, things have gone well enough since my last dispatch. I’ve sold a few CDs online in the week it’s been out; just about enough to cover the investment of having them made, and have gotten good feedback and a respectable amount of streaming listens via bandcamp. The con will be the “official” release, and I’m hoping I can move enough product to make the trip revenue neutral, though the spouse and I are, as I’ve said, looking at this as a mini-vacation/getaway, which we haven’t had for a while, and I can’t say I’m not looking forward to a kid-free weekend, just the two of us.

Politics have been a particular focus to me this week as well, considering the impeachment inquiry, Wednesday’s primary debate, and, perhaps most personally relevant, the current budget uncertainties, with the current continuing resolution expiring midnight on Thursday, and (as I write this anyway), the next stop-gap CR (which is only anticipated to last four weeks, setting this business up again fro Christmas regardless) has not yet been passed by the Senate or signed by the President, and given how well the public testimony is going for him this week, I wouldn’t put it past the man to use the public sector workforce as a pawn (again) to try and gain some leverage. We’ll see; I’d rather not have to swing by the office on Friday morning to sign another furlough notice. Alas, if things do shut down again, I’ll use the time to record my thus-far unreleased tune “Bureaucratic Talking Shutdown Blues”, which I dusted off once again this week for open mic. If I put it up, maybe it’ll buy me a beer or two until this stuff sorts itself out.

An interesting but unrelated tidbit I encountered while checking the usual places for the latest federal budget news, however, is worth sharing. A piece on the Government Executive site talking about the Ok, Boomer phenomenon in the workplace indicates that I, as a member of the largely ignored Generation X, by virtue of being over 40, am covered by federal age discrimination laws, which I guess is a good piece of information to have, however depressing.

Anyway, all that’s left to do is introduce the usual Friday playlist, drawn once again from my Spotify “Discover Weekly” playlist. This week it’s a lot of throwback alternative blues and alt-country, a corner of the musical world I do enjoy stepping into now and then; special appreciation goes to numbers 8, 9 and 12; Izzy (former rhythm guitarist from G’n’R) does Keith Richards better than Keith does sometimes, Jason and the Scorchers deserved better than being minor one-hitters with “Golden Ball and Chain” in ’86, and The Georgia Satellites will always be a sentimental favorite:

1. “Don’t Think Twice” – Mike Ness
2. “Born With A Tail” – Supersuckers
3. “Still In Hollywood” – Concrete Blonde
4. “Repo Man – Demo March 1983” – Iggy Pop
5. “Little Silver Heart” – Lucero
6. “Get Out of Denver” – Eddie & The Hot Rods
7. “Brave Captain” – fIREHOSE
8. “Shuffle It All” – Izzy Stradlin’ and the Ju Ju Hounds
9. “Absolutely Sweet Marie” – Jason and the Scorchers
10. “Eat Steak” – The Reverend Horton Heat
11. “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin'” -Ray Wylie Hubbard
12. “Battleship Chains” – The Georgia Satellites
13. “Haunted” – Shane MacGowan & The Popes
14. “Take It So Hard” – Keith Richards
15. “Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)” – Circle Jerks

By the time you read this, my first solo record, World’s Okayest…, will have gone live on bandcamp for digital sales. It’s a weird feeling; exciting and intimidating. Although I’ve played all of these songs live dozens of times (and it took me years to get the confidence up to do that), putting it down on what would have been tape 30 years ago and throwing it out there for people to give me shiny gold rocks in exchange for it feels, I don’t know…presumptuous and maybe a little self-aggrandizing or conceited? It’s triggering deep-seated lessons I internalized as a youngling to stay out of the spotlight and not to put on airs, y’know? I know in my logical mind that I’ve got some small measure of talent; or as I like to put it, “I’m good enough”, and it’s not unrealistic to expect that people would want to buy my stuff, because people have outright told me to record songs so they could buy them, but at the same time, as I write this on the eve of release day, I’m still more than a little anxious that people aren’t going to appreciate it or that it’s not good enough and people will scorn it for it’s inadequacy.

Imposter Syndrome really sucks, folks. On some level, I’m always going to be that fat kid who got picked on in middle school. Doesn’t matter that I’m in the best physical shape of my life, that I have a loving community of family and friends, and that I actually regularly get paid to make music; there’s always a part of me that’s going to think I’m one wrong word, one stupid action away from having everyone realize that I don’t actually belong here and kick me out of the club.

We shall not talk of the phantom gut I still regularly feel spilling over my belt. I guess I just did. Oh well.

But, I guess we all struggle with those feelings; I’m not entirely trusting of people who don’t. That said, I’m really proud that I successfully made the thing, and take definite satisfaction in having learned a hell of a lot about the process, which I’m already putting to good use. I really do hope that people like my stuff, warts and all.

As I joke, one of these decades I’ll make a living at this.

Oh well; here are some tunes that aren’t mine. Number six is one I haven’t heard in a long time, it was a nice surprise encountering it again.

1. “I’ve Got Reason” – Mikal Cronin
2. “On Your Feet” – Juliana Hatfield
3. “Sea of Heartbreak” – Meat Puppets
4. “Milwaukee” – The Both
5. “Just What I Needed” – The Cars
6. “Van Halen” – Nerf Herder
7. “Stay” – The Blue Nile
8. “Fire Escape” – Fastball
9. “Better Things” – The Kinks
10. “Diamonds Back To Coal” – Jeremy Ivey
11. “Dizz Knee Land” – Dada
12. “Superman” – R.E.M.
13. “Excitable Boy” – Warren Zevon

By the time you read this, the project I’ve been hinting at, Songs of the Faithless, the new record by Jonah Knight will have, after being up a couple of hours, will have already hit it’s goal on Kickstarter, but it’s totally worth sharing anyway.

Jonah, as you’ve probably heard, is a scarily talented musician I’ve had the honor of knowing and being friends with for quite a few years now, and he’s working on producing his latest record for release at Marscon 2020, where he’s the musical guest of honor, after being away several years.

I’ve had the privilege of being involved with this project, a “full-cast epic fantasy musical audio-drama album”, as one of the cast members, and as an instrumentalist, and have been writing and recording bass parts for much of the last month. Many of my other friends and musical compatriots are involved as well in various capacities. The kickstarter is, as Jonah puts it, a fundraising effort to support the mixing and mastering of the record, which has grown quite complex, given the nature and ambition of the project.

It’s also really cool, with an engaging story and some great tunes, and I’m proud to be a part of it. If this sounds like your cup of tea, why not click that link above and get in on the action?

So Saturday involved running the soundboard for two competition stages at the Feis for twelve and a half hours. Of course, I’m happy to do it, as it is my Dance Dad (and Spouse) Duty™, and it lets the dance school save a few bucks not having to rent the equipment. Still, sitting there digging through playlists and fading out jigs, reels, and hornpipes for that long is exhausting, and not terribly easy on my back, which has been giving me old man fits for the last week (my knocking out a few dozen miles on the bike in the colder weather over the last few days probably didn’t help, but the exercise and getting out in nature did me good, and in my opinion, does just as much to reduce symptoms of depression as much as the pills do.

As of this afternoon I’m feeling a little bit better, thanks to the magic, bone-cracking hands of Frank the chiropractor. Seriously, these quarterly appointments have been life-changing.

In any case, the girls had a pretty good showing in competition; the youngest bumped to the next level in a couple of categories, and the eldest and the spouse both looked good on the floor, even if they didn’t advance (the rules make it difficult sometimes, especially in higher age categories where there are fewer competitors).

After Saturday’s competition, they spent a bunch of Sunday working on grade exams, each of them passing and earning new ranks, much to their delight. While they did that, I muddled around the neighborhood by the dance school, playing some Pokemon and hiking five miles at a nearby county park I’d not seriously visited before. After the eldest wrapped her exam portion, I returned and hauled her back to school, and making a stop at the very nice Loose Shoe Brewing near the campus to have a pint and fill some growlers (a friend is in love, and rightfully so, with their Thin Mint Stout, so I picked him up some) on the way home.

Being Veteran’s Day, I was off on Monday, so I spent my day mostly catching up on cleaning and laundry that I missed Saturday and Sunday for being otherwise engaged, and knocked out a few more bass tracks (and packaged up another participant’s line readings we recorded last week) for Jonah’s record. Just a few more pieces there and I’m done with that effort, which is cool, because UPS dropped this off yesterday:

Yeah, I have my initial stock in hand. Now, the pressure of selling the damned things, and re-learning how to play some of the songs on it. The plan is that it’ll go up on bandcamp for download sales on Friday, unless it doesn’t, but it’ll be out there soon. At this point, I’m just sort of enjoying the fact that I made this thing, and that even if it’s not perfect, it’s a more than respectable first time out. One more thing knocked off the bucket list.

Enjoy your week, folks – they said the “s” word on the radio weather report yesterday, so I expect the next 48 hours or so with this fabled cold front. Glad I got bread and milk before the crazy started.

Has honestly been a pretty good week, when it comes right down to it. Apart from the fact that as he attended to higher-end management stuff in the C suite, I ended up sitting in for the boss on all kinds of other high-level meetings all week. I have had my fill of briefing big puffed-up important people, begging for funds, and breathing the rarified air of the senior executive service. I did get our projects funded without issue, and saved the taxpayers some money to boot – I am, it seems, better at this sort of thing than the boss is, but even so, I’m glad it’s his regular job and not mine.

Although my preferred local candidates were both (narrowly) defeated by incumbents, the overall Virginia legislature shifted into Democratic control for, as the media keeps saying, the first time in a quarter-century. This means we might be able to talk about good things like sensible gun control and finally ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment and adding another (long overdue) Amendment to the US Constitution.

I still wish we could have yanked Sen. Amanda Chase back home, who’s such a terrible “Karen” that her local Republican party expelled her. We came within 10 points this time; we’ll nail it four years from now.

Outside of that, I got a bunch of long overdue trail miles in on the bike, even in the cold weather, recorded a bunch of stuff for Jonah’s record, and sat in on my friend Lefty’s “Build-A-Band” open mic night on Wednesday; it’s an interesting concept: you show up, drop your name into buckets for singer/guitar/bass/drums/keys/etc, and the host draws names at random, creating an ad-hoc band. You and your new band mates confab for a few minutes figuring out what you’re going to play, then you hit the stage for a couple of tunes. It’s weird, kinda crazy, and creates some interesting, and often pretty awesome moments; stuff like me and a couple of other guys backing open mic compatriot Keely Burn performing Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me” despite none of us actually having played it before or knowing how before a quick check of the chords on the internet. It was fun.

This weekend is the WIDA US Open Championship in town hosted by our school, where the girls are all dancing all day, and as dad owns a P.A., he’s running sound for the main stage. At least the venue’s within spitting distance of about ten good breweries; we’re all gonna need a beer when this is over; hopefully it’ll be celebratory.

That’s about the shape of things as they look here; this weekend’s going to be kind of exhausting, but probably cool. Gonna need that federal holiday on Monday, to catch up on rest and recording for Jonah’s project (which I’ll link to as soon as it goes up); because next Friday, if all goes well, is my record release day!, ahead of my “special filk guest” slot at Atomacon, where we’ll do the official release party, such as it is.

Anyway, tunes that aren’t mine – lots of “alternative” this time coming out of Spotify, which, you know, is fine, as it’s a lot of what I’m listening to in the background when I’m not listening to political podcasts. I’ll take it (and #12 is awesome):

1. “That Time Is Gone” – the dB’s
2. “Crow” – The Jim Carrol Band
3. “Take Off Your Bandages” – Robyn Hitchcock
4. “Anna Is A Stool Pigeon” – Tom Gabel
5. “Allison Road” – Gin Blossoms
6. “Sugar Kane” – Sonic Youth
7. “Spit on A Stranger” – Pavement
8. “They/Them/Theirs” – Worriers
9. “Still Lovin’ You” – George Lynch
10. “Ace of Spades” – Motörhead
11. “End of the Line” – Roxy Music
12. “Closer To Free” – Bodeans
13. “Mississippi Nuthin'” – Shovels & Rope
14. “Buffalo Calf Road” – A. Savage
15. “Brian Wilson” – Barenaked Ladies