My Music Monday

I'm just going on record, Stevie Nicks has (another) bad song out. "The Lighthouse" was just released this last Friday. 

My opinion, of course. 

At 76, she doesn't release a lot of anything anymore. I can count three songs in four years, all of them not good.  Her last disk was 10 years ago - and those songs were all written 20-40 years prior. 

Nicks also brings Sheryl Crow along for the ride. This never works to her advantage, as she's been doing it since the early aughts. 

Four years ago, Nicks released a truly horrid song called "Show Them the Way" which implied but never said, 'vote for Biden'.  In good conscience, I can't even link it here. 

Last year (?) she felt the need to cover Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth".  It was not worth a thing. Again, not even a link. 

The only thing "the Lighthouse" has got going for it is the message. While one can try to make the case that it's for a Harris win - and in a way it is - it's really about reproductive rights. Pro, that is.

“All the rights that you had yesterday are taken away / And now you’re afraid / You should be afraid,” she sings. “Because everything I fought for long ago in a dream is gone.” 

Nicks calls it possibly the most important thing she'll ever do. And in theory, maybe it is. 

Any voice for support is good, but let's be real:  Nicks still sells lots of records - as a band member of Fleetwood Mac.  Rumours is still on the Top 100 albums in Billboard. Yes. Still. 47 years later. She is an influence for female singer-songwriters, but as a current artist, she's not horribly relevant. 

In the land of dozens of satellite stations, there isn't really one of which I can think that would air a new tune of hers. At best, the latest solo work of hers they play is from 1983. She's not reaching the people she thinks. "The Lighthouse" might be a song of awareness, but you have to be aware it exists for it to be that. 

The song isn't great. Three producers. Three songwriters. Too many cooks.  

While again, she is 76, I don't get the baby-ish whispering vocals for the verses. It truly is unlike any way she has sung before - and that's not a compliment. The chorus is vocally strong comparatively to the verses. Mind you, the strong vocals still have the three note range she has had since 1989. I get no reviewer likes to speak ill of Nicks, so they write articles about her, not the performance. 

This Protector

4-5 more weeks of these. Though in 2020 I did a few rounds of political signs I saw in the 'hood. I haven't seen many of those yet, but should I, there might be a substitute post in there instead of this trolling post - which I admit, I kind of enjoy.......and yet hate that I have to do them, but.............whatta gonna do? 

Early voting in Ohio starts in nine days. Yay!!!

Blobby's first created meme.  Yay me!!!

It has yet to go viral. 

Greg M is the first of my readers to submit a meme. 

The door is still open for those who want to contribute. 

This This This. 

People keep talking about his grifting. I'm sure he's selling $6 Timex watches to pocket the rest in "campaign funding"

Maybe...........

I cannot tell you how much I like this one. It says so much on so many levels. 

Shillybilly Vanilli at it again. Still. 

Song by: the White Stripes

Grand Theft Autumn

Not so oddly, being at home more often if giving me less picture opportunity with the cat and dog. 

I no longer pick Shep up from daycare. I can't even walk him or walk with him and 710. Simon won't come near me with the crutches. Any coaxing I've got him to come near me in the last year has all but retreated. 

At least Shep has gotten used to (for the most part) my aides in walking. Simon will bolt from a second floor window when I get out of the car with the crutches. I'm not even anywhere near him - or the house. 

That all said, pics for the next few weeks might be sparse. Or worse, unoriginal. 

First day of Autumn #1 - picnic up at the Lake. 

First day of Autumn #2 - my boys talking a walk, while I'm forced to sit and watch. 

Shep also got to go for a swim. 

Before he bolted. 

You've seen a similar version of this before. Not doubt you will again. 

As close as he's come - with my crutches in the lower part of the image. 

.....but still wanting to stalk. 

Beggy McBeggerson. 

710 has gotten to the point where he's taking pics of rando dogs. And he waved to them. 

My job here is complete!

Song by: Fall Out Boy

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!    

Gillian Welch is one of those artists that you love, hate or have never heard of. 

Me? Love her. 

Her 2000 (?) disk Time (the Revelator) remains one of my favourite disks of all time.  She would fit into the Americana / Appalachian music categories. Oddly, she's from Los Angeles, but has been drawn to this music. 

Welch's voice is unique and honestly, would take some time to appreciate. She has always released her music under her own name,  but each one of those has been a collaboration with her musical and life partner, David Rawlings. 

Their new disk, Woodland Studios (the name of their studio which was ruined in a tornado0, is just out and credited to both artists. Even more, previous disks had Rawlings backing up Welch. Here, they trade off songs with Rawlings taking lead on about half the tunes. 

As with all (or at least most) of their stuff, arrangements are sparse. I might be exaggerating a bit. Rarely is there anything but Welch's voice and Rawling's guitar and harmony

"The Bells and the Birds" is one of those few exceptions. An additional guitar and a keyboard are also present. Now and again, there is a stray harmonica ("Turf the Gambler").  "What We Had" has the most instrumentation with stings and {gasp} drums! ....albeit very very very low key drums. 

I like Welch's songs more than Rawlings, but that's says more about me than him. I'm used to her vocals, and more unfamiliar to him as a lead vocalist. That might take time for me. 

"What We Had" sounds like a discarded cut from Neil Young's Comes a Time disk. Honestly, that is a high compliment, as that is one of my favourite albums of all time. Really liking "Howdy Howdy", "Her Stands a Woman" and "Empty Trainload of Sky". 

Woodland Studios is a great listen. It's very low key, sparse, as I mentioned and still extremely compelling. Is it as good as Time (the Revelator)? No, but nothing is going to get to that quality. It's a tough one to beat. 

Books

With lack of running.....and generally needing to stay put, I have gone back to reading. And I've been reading a lot and really really enjoying it. I think for a while it seemed like a chore, but I am thinking I just didn't choose wisely. 

Meredity and Dr. Spo have both told me not to waste time on books one does not like. In theory, I get that. In reality, I'm in at that point of figuring that out and end up finishing a book that is subpar. It's kind of like running to me: I'm all in, or all out. It is not a great place to be. 

For a long time I left the world of fiction for non. It seemed safer to me. And done correctly, just as interesting, if not more so. In the last few years, I've been back to fiction almost exclusively - and in one unfortunate instance of someone trying to make a sci-fi / trans story work. It did not. 

I will give this one to Ditto and Spo - I could not finish that one, though I haven't shelved the book, thinking, "oh, I can probably finish it". 

I probably cannot. I probably will not. 

Currently, my reading list has been cultivated from things my core group has read or is reading. Again, not exclusively. 

That all said, I'm looking to build a reading list. I have a few already on my list - one book I've had and attempted 3-4 times: Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. It's challenging, at best. 

I don't think I want to try to tackle Infinite Jest. I'm good with 600-700 page books, but 1,100 pages might be a non-starter for me. A guy in my running group read it............for the second time. 

Here is where you come in.  Refer a book my way:  title and author. Fiction or Non.  I'm not horribly big on sci-fi, but if you can make a reference for one, I can try it.  It can be a new book you've just read or your favourite book. 

Yeah, there's a chance I've read it, but hey, you never know. Leave a thought / book title in the comments and I can build my reading list. 

At this point, I've been reading a book per week and I've got about six weeks left of sitting around. But even after I get back on my feet - literally and figuratively - I'd like to keep up my reading. My liberry card is current and ready to be used. 

Dazzle me. This could be infectious. Other blog readers will see your referrals and possibly pick up a book or three. 

Song by: Paul Weller

One Foot

This differently abled thing kind of blows. 

I'm in a week at this point. I'm figuring some stuff out - and struggling with other shit. 

I'd say I'm about 93% compliant with being weight bearing (is that supposed to be one word?). Stairs are my biggest problem. Specifically the ones in our house. Most others are fairly easy to navigate. I sit on a built in bench in the shower, so that helps. But you may or may not be surprised to find that door and halls are not wide enough; doors are difficult to open, bathrooms that are not ADA compliant. All these things we never quite notice when we don't have to. 

Oh, water + smooth concrete floors = crutches slipping on floor and out from under you.  The water came from the rain, so now I know to wipe my crutch pads. 

Amazingly - well, probably not - the four people (all late 20s / early 30s) standing around the gym desk when this happened, not one acknowledged or asked if I was ok. I didn't fall, but still the crutch did. 

The irony is, I want to be self sufficient. But like the guy (my age) on the way out, asked if he could hold the door for me, I thanked him but told him I had it. I guess it's just the asking or acknowledging. 

On the way to the gym, I got a text from our neighbor saying she saw me on crutches and if I was ok. I mean, that was way nice. We like our neighbors, but this particular set we don't know-know them. But she offered anything I might need, which was really nice, even if it was just an empty gesture. 

Oh - shirts matter. Those rubber/plastic crutch which you place under your arm? I'm finding some shirts catch badly, which makes the crutch go askew, making me go askew. As much as I like my running shirts, some of them are definitely out. 

It took a while, but I got someone to take my place on the relay team for the Akron Marathon this Saturday. At this point, I didn't even ask to be reimbursed, I just didn't want the team suffering. 

Last Saturday I joined the Old Man's Running Group at the bakery. I obvi couldn't run. And while I walked the week before, that was prior to knowing I should be on crutches. The reality is I cannot walk 4-5 miles on crutches. But I will still go for the social aspect. Runners understand and empathize with running injuries. 

In theory I have 3-5 weeks left of this. I'm not holding my breath. It'd be nice, but we will see. I have my first ortho follow-up in less than a week, so hopefully I will know more then. 

Song by: Walk the Moon

App of the Month

To say I'm late to the party on Instacart would be quite the understatement. 

I know many used it during the height of the pandemic, and since. Je did not. I masked up, Purell'd up and went to the store like the invincible being I assumed I was. 

Back then, I only had a potential infection to bring me down. On our group vacation last year, some in the house used it several times per day!

To be transparent, we've never used GrubHub or DoorDash either. Granted, I can be lazy, but if I'm not cooking, I can go out and get dinner myself, and probably faster than they can deliver. I have nothing with which to back that last statement up, as I have done no comparison. I just feel it to be true.

Now I've got only one good leg, two crutches and not a great way of operating a grocery store cart, let alone getting things from store to car and car to house. At least not on my own. 

Even doing the laps around the store might wear me out, and then of course, those other annoying shoppers are in my way. As 710 has pretty much 100% dog duty, I can't ask him to do the shopping too, so I thought I'd subject myself to food delivery. 

I really wasn't thinking of a post when I did this, so I might not (read: don't) have screen shots for each step of the way, including the creating of an account and my shopping list. I'll try to explain as I go along, but some of you already know better than I.  

It was easy enough ot sign-up with email / phone number. 

You then select your store of choice. The one I normally use is not an option it seems, so I had to pick another chain, which is fine-ish. I wasn't planning on getting everything via this app anyway. 

Just one view of me asking for 'strawberries'.  I didn't ask for raspberries or blueberries, yet they appear. 

It is my one big gripe with the app is how it shows the choices: all over the place.  Say I asked for granola.  There are subcategories for bars, instant, etc. But I go for a specific kind - Kind, actually, as it is its own category. And yeah, one of their products shows up, then a bunch of other brands. I had to scroll two sections and load more to get to the one Kind I wanted. It's madness!

What I don't have a shot of is after I submit my list, I almost immediately got a request for five items for which I might need substitutions. This also irked me. Kind of. Yes, it's a good feature and I selected some with an ok exchange and some with a don't get at all if they don't have it.  My irk?  All my selected items said 'plenty in stock'.  If so, then............why would I need a substitution? 

Anyhoo - I checked out and paid with Apple Pay, but there are multiple ways to exchange funds. 

All during this, it's giving your estimated delivery times. And then I started getting notifications.  I believe you're all smart enough to figure out the chain of events, so I won't go into detail. 

As I was getting this last text, the delivery person was in the driveway. 

I was going to meet her, but, you know.........crutches. So by the time I had arrived, she'd already rung the bell and was back in her car. 

The groceries were left exactly where I asked. 

Yes, I had to carry them in one-by-one, and slowly at that. But nothing in the stuff was truly bruiseable or breakable, so, I was ok. 

That said, I was skeptical on someone else picking my produce, so I eased in by ordering only strawberries and green onions. I might not have picked that package of berries they did, but they'll work. 

And I did not have them pick out protein. Fish? Je think not. Maybe next time with beef or chicken should be fine. I like checking sell by and expirations dates. I don't know what these folks check, if anything. Also, they don't the schedule in which we might use said protein. 

Overall, it was a success. I was pretty happy with the experience. As I convalesce no doubt I will use this app here and there. If it becomes a standard, who knows. 

I'd give the app 4 out of 5 stars. 

My Music Monday

Lots of new music coming out - or about to. 

It seems Tears for Fears is having yet another compilation / greatest hits disk out this or next month. It looks like it's got one or two new songs included. 

Their output hasn't been vast. Seven disks in 40 years and 18 years between the last one (2022) and the one before that. 

And a new song or two in a greatest hits package is almost standard anymore to get anyone to buy it - though with iTunes, they can usually just buy the new song and not the entire disk. Of course, I also know I'm one of the few who still buys and just doesn't stream it. 

Honestly, I don't know what format would / could play "the Girl That I Call Home".  It's a decent enough song and should be heard. Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal still blend their playing and vocalizing. 

Can't Stand It

It's that day of the week.  Only a month or so before the election, which means I only have to do 4-5 more of these. I hope. 

I'm seriously considering shuttering this thing if VonshitsinPantz wins. 

I'm going to start with which is, without a doubt, the most important of the week. 

I guess I'm glad she apologized to her neighbors, but nowhere does she admonish those in the party for KEEPING the story alive, even after this. 

And fuck - given by Shilllbilly Vanilli's spokesperson, knowing the lie came from them and literally no one gives a shit. Hate is hate is hate. 

If they lie about stupid shit like this, what will they stop at.  Though with this lie no ons is posting about Project 2025. 

Wondering how much trouble I'd get in posting this on FB along with:

JD Vance rapes and traffics 6 year old boys. 

Hey, I'm just 'creating stories' to get media attention. It doesn't get him banned from social media sites, why should it get me banned?

Again, another JDFV quote turned on it's head. 

When will assassination attempts become a fact of death?  Asking for a nation. 

Yet ANOTHER sex offender with whom he's associated.  "Hope" Diddy doesn't get Epstein'd.

Love Four Seasons. They are using their time wisely. 

He really really really doesn't hide his love for Hitler, does he? Or his outward threats to the Jewish community.....WHILE speaking TO the Jewish community, I might add. 

....that last line? Same as the train conductors to the concentration camps. 

I have not verified two of these - has anyone else?  Can anyone else?

Where was David Muir on this?  It would have wrapped things up nicely at the debate. 

A total fucking idiot.  And at a press conference, but I can find not one follow-up question.  I'd have at least two:

1. If this exists, why didn't you use it during your term? California has had a drought for decades and during your last term. 

2. Why do you think you have control of Canada's secret magic faucet??

Again: Four Seasons. 

I haven't had time to verify this either. 

Again, to ANYONE listening:  I. Will. Purchase. The. Kool-Aid. 

Boom. 

Another shooter quietly quitting. No one wants to work anymore!

Song by: Wilco