Nope, I ain’t listen to albums at all in May. I took a trip, got sick for a couple weeks, and listened to the Kendrick-Drake beef (well, the Kendrick side) a couple thousand times.
I have so many thoughts, but it's so late, I'm unsure they're even worth writing down. But god damn, how many times does one dude have to warn another dude?...
But zero albums. That trip was fun, the cold was bad and long, and the rap beef was fun af.
Kendrick good, yo.
Empire Burlesque – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Knocked Out Loaded – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Down in the Groove – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Oh Mercy – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Under the Red Sky – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
In the Aeroplane over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel (iPhone)
Plans – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
In the Aeroplane over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel (iPhone)
In the Aeroplane over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel (iPhone)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Tommy (As Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and Chambre...Tommy Original Cast Recording – Various Artists (iPhone)
Give Up – The Postal Service (iPhone)
Firefox still exists, but I assume this extention disappeared ages hence. But poetry, dear reader, lasts forever.
One of the great things about Firefox is you can add little extentions to it, so that, say, you can search any number of sites from the wee search box that's provided. You just find a new one and add it.
My favorite extention is a series of weather forecast icons at the bottom right of the browser window. The forecasts update frequently, and can be costumized to show any number of days (within reason), but that's not why I like having them there.
I like the extension because its forcasts are occasionally - not always, but sometimes - poetic. A couple days ago, it said, I swear, "Clouds Containing the Sun", instead of 'mostly-cloudy'. Right now it says (about tomorrow) 'Times of Clouds and Sun'.
I've just finished English as She is Spoke and these wee forcasts sound awfully like something from that book; they sound as if they've been run thru not-very-good machine translators a few times, before finally being forced back into delightful English.
Aside: That's the second-funniest (or at least silliest) porno title: "Saving Ryan's Privates". (The funniest, and one of the best bits of parody in human history altoghether, is “A Clear and Pleasant Stranger”, which remains just absolutely inspired.)
I recently rewatched “Saving Private Ryan” and some of the things that annoyed me when I was younger and more/less easily annoyed annoyed me still. I'll leave those for another day. But something I hadn’t been able to put my finger on after rewatching it a couple weeks ago, or so, is well-stated by Adam Gopnik below.
Looking again at my defunct, 20-year-old blog, I found this, which addresses a nagging, undefined bother the rewatch gave me:
From An Old Interview With Adam Gopnik
Robert Birnbaum: When you use the word 'shallow' about America's sense of history, I think that may be generous. It would seem to be regularly trivialized...
AG: I was stunned by that when Saving Private Ryan opened in France. The Americans did all the fighting. Not only were there no French people involved in the war, but no Canadians, no Brits. One of the things about Omaha Beach is that it was a horrible fuck up. It was the one fuck up on D-Day. The Canadians took their beaches. In a relatively untroubled way the British took theirs. The Americans just fucked up. Yet, we represent that fuck up as the only event and as in itself heroic.
The interview (which I have not yet reread in full, but quoted at the time) also contained these two unrelated but noteworthy observations from Gopnik:
Essayists generally — and certainly me particularly — tend to be more like performers than novelists. Novelists are like architects or builders. They are willing to sit in a room for five or six years and build something and they at some level don't give a damn what the public thinks. They want to make a cathedral for themselves to live in and then they open the doors. If you come in to worship that's fine. And if you don't that's fine, too. Essayists aren't like that. At least this one isn't. You have to have a bit of the ham in you. You like to do the thing and feel that the people are reacting.
And:
At some point as a writer you learn it's not what you want to do, it's what you are capable of doing, what you do well.
One of my favorite things is listening to writers talking about writing.
Ages hence, I wrote this, which I recall occasionally, and was entertained to reread (edited lightly for brevity and clarity):
Maybe I'm not as smart as I sometimes think I might be, but the other day I bought some Shirakiku's "SOFT DRINK" becuase 5 of them were only 99¢, and I thought they might be entertaining to experience. Because the package advised to "KEEP FROZEN", I found them in the freezer just now. I popped one open, and... I don't know what to do with it. The... bottle, I guess, is 3 inches tall or so, with a mouth that's no bigger than 3/4 of an inch. The stuff inside looks like a kind of steady-state applesauce that might, theoretically, squoozle out. But it doesn't move.
My agile tongue can barely reach the bottle's innards, and, unique in the universe, gravity has no effect on it. So I just stare at the little container occasionally (like a mouth-breather contemplating a revolving door), wondering what alleged characteristic(s) make(s) it either soft or drinky.
What it needs, I think, is the soft touch of a radial saw, to really open up its mysteries.
Teaching a lesson earlier today, I saw “rack my brain”† for maybe the first time (as differentiated from "wrack my brain", with a W). Or, if I'd seen it before, I never noticed. So I checked some dictionaries to see if the problem lies with me or if I'd found a simple misspelling. That led me to this, which is fascinating.
† See also, “nerve-racking”.
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S02E08-09) (MacBook)
Warriors-Knicks (MacBook)
Spurs-Thunder (MacBook)
Warriors-Raptors (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S02E10) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S03E01) (MacBook)
Warriors-Bucks (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S03E02-08) (MacBook)
Warriors-Spurs (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S03E09-10) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S04E01-02) (MacBook)
Warriors-Lakers (MacBook)
American Fiction (MacBook)
Anatomy of a Fall (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S04E03-05) (MacBook)
Warriors-Grizzlies (MacBook)
3 Body Problem (S01E01-03) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S04E06) (MacBook)
3 Body Problem (S01E04) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S04E07-08) (MacBook)
Saving Private Ryan (TV)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S04E09-10) (MacBook)
3 Body Problem (S01E05-07) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S05E01) (MacBook)
3 Body Problem (S01E08) (MacBook)
Warriors-Heat (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S05E02-03) (MacBook)
Warriors-Magic (MacBook)
Warriors-Hornets (MacBook)
The Gentlemen (S01E01) (MacBook)
48 titles watched.
Years ago, back in the States, I started to listen to all of Dylan chronologically. And then iTunes decided to obliterate the "Dylan Discoveries" playlist I was making as I went along. That, and a cross-Ocean move, killed my progress. I've been meaning to complete it ever since – or to start again, it's been so long.
Well, in March, I started again. And, because of it, I ended up listening to a shitload of Dylan – and nothing else since starting. (As I write this, Beyonce's latest has been out and all-the-news, but remains unheard by me.)
The dude is incredible. His run from "Bob Dylan" to "Self Portrait" is absolutely top-shelf, world-class, extraordinary.
25 titles – the most in a month thus far:
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
String Along – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
The Last Month of the Year – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
Make Way – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan (iPhone & HomePod)
Another Side of Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan (iPhone & HomePod)
Bringing it All Back Home – Bob Dylan (iPhone & HomePod)
Times They Are a-Changing – Bob Dylan (iPhone & HomePod)
Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
John Wesley Harding – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Nashville Skyline – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Self Portrait – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Dylan – Bob Dylan (iPhone & HomePod)
Planet Waves – Bob Dylan (HomePod & iPhone)
Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
The Basement Tapes – Bob Dylan & The Band (iPhone)
Desire – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Street-Legal – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Slow Train Coming – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Saved – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Shot of Love – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Infidels – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
95 of the mofos.
I subscribed to Harper's magazine two months ago and have yet to receieve my first issue – or, enough time has passed, my second. Who knows if I ever will; I'm dubious.
In one of their subsriber e-mails, they liked to a 1961 article† about writing your Congressman/etc. It was both well done and timeless – aside from names, it could likely be published today mostly unchanged. It included this little bit, which I thoroughly enjoyed:
"Dear Sir: Fellow on the radio says to write your Congressman so just thought I'd drop you a line. Yours truly."
A prosaic 76.
Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Narrow Stairs – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
The Photo Album – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
The Photo Album – Death Cab for Cutie (HomePod)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Kintsugi – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Traveling On EP – The Decemberists (iPhone)
Picaresque – The Decemberists (iPhone)
I’ll Be Your Girl – The Decemberists (iPhone)
The King is Dead – The Decemberists (iPhone)
The King is Dead – The Decemberists (iPhone)
Picaresque – The Decemberists (iPhone)
Picaresque – The Decemberists (iPhone)
Thank You for Today – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie (iPhone)
Ultimatum (Expanded Edition) – The Long Winters (iPhone)
Picaresque – The Decemberists (iPhone)
Look, the point of this was to listen to more full albums, primarily full albums I've never/rarely heard before.
I know that. But I did not stick to that in February....
Daguerréotypes (MacBook)
Rue Daguerre in 2005 (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E01-03) (MacBook)
Baldwin’s Nigger† (MacBook)
Hawks-Warriors (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E04) (MacBook)
Warriors-Sixers (MacBook)
Warriors-Pacers (MacBook)
Warriors-Suns (MacBook)
Warriors-Jazz (MacBook)
Clippers-Warriors (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E05-06) (MacBook)
Warriors-Jazz (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E07-08) (MacBook)
Steph-vs-Sabrina Three-Point Challenge (MacBook)
NBA Skills Challenge (MacBook)
NBA Three-Point Contest (MacBook)
NBA Slam Dunk Contest (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E09) (MacBook)
NBA All-Star Game 2024 (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S01E10) (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S02E01-05) (MacBook)
Warriors-Lakers (MacBook)
Warriors-Lakers (MacBook)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S02E06-07) (MacBook)
Warriors-Wizards (MacBook)
Lakers-Clippers (MacBook)
36 titles.
† Not a comfortable title to type....
Knight and Day (TV)
Center Stage (TV)
Fame (TV)
Warriors-Magic (MacBook)
Nuggets-Warriors (MacBook)
Billy Elliot (TV)
Warriors-Pistons (MacBook)
Raptors-Warriors (MacBook)
Pelicans-Warriors (MacBook)
Warriors-Bulls (MacBook)
Grizzlies-Warriors (MacBook)
A Letter to Three Wives (MacBook)
When We Were Kings (MacBook)
The Last Detail (MacBook)
The Rumble in the Jungle (MacBook)
Flight (MacBook)
The Swimmer (MacBook)
Sixers-Spurs (MacBook)
Warriors-Hawks (MacBook)
Bucks-Cavs (MacBook)
Kings-Warriors (MacBook)
Mavs-Hawks (MacBook)
Only 22 titles. I was busy doing stuff – holidays, birthday, etc.
You want a fucking outlier? Here's a fucking outlier:
January's sneeze total was 113.
It stands to reason that the one with the most-ever would be a 31-day month, but this isn't even close to that being an appreciable factor.
I've had only a couple/few months with mid-90s sneezes – only a few at most, in over 4 years. January's was almost 20 more sneezes than that.
And the month started off slow! A few days in, I'd only had maybe one or two sneezes, but then I was assaulted by god or whatever. In one day, I think I had 10 (maybe 12? – it was intense, regardless) sneezes. Nearly blew the damned doors off!
It was wild.
I've been meaning for some time to listen to some 1960's folk albums. My dad loved the music and often played it. Enough time has passed since he died that the idea of listening to them isn't as much of a third-rail anymore. But, still, I hadn't actually started to. Tommy Smothers died in late December and that was enough of a catalyst to start me doing just that. And so I did. Here are the complete albums I listened to in January:
The Kingston Trio (Live songs) – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
The Kingston Trio – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
The Kingston Trio At Large – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
Here We Go Again – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
Peter, Paul and Mary, 1962 – Peter, Paul & Mary (iPhone)
Sold Out – The Kingston Trio (iPhone)
Peter, Paul and Mary, 1962 – Peter, Paul & Mary (iPhone)
The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers – The Smothers Brothers (iPhone)
Curb Your Tongue, Knave! – The Smothers Brothers (iPhone)
Only 9 albums, but January is always a weird month – holidays and birthday, etc.