A Several of Things

[ateolf]

I got this cd in the mail yesterday: J.D. Robb: Electronic Music from Razor Blades to Moog. I spent a good chunk of the earlier part of the day being a nerd and randomly picking albums in my spreadsheet, searching for them in this here journal, and finding the date I acquired them to add to my shiny new column in said spreadsheet. I dunno, it's more fun to me than it should be. It's also nice sometimes to revisit those memories. And usually when I find one, it comes with more acquired at the same time (especially when traveling!). Okay, then in the evening I went to a farewell party Brett was having (he leaves to move to NYC in just a few days, well, first he's going back to his parents in New Orleans before the big move, but he'll leave Memphis before Thanksgiving). I didn't know him too well but he came to a bunch of my shows and was always really nice. Mary Beth couldn't make it so she made a bunch of baked goods and sent me with them, so that made me more popular there than I had any right to be as most everyone flipped out over her food (especially the people whose house it was being hosted at...the people who were the hosts, you might say!). It was outside in the backyard and they had a couple fires going. It's that weather that's on the edge as I went with my lighter jacket instead of my code as I left just before sunset and it was more on the side of the lighter jacket but as it went down it was maybe a bit cooler (but not too bad, but maybe just past the edge...I'm still in the situation I've been in for years where I don't have an in-between jacket, just my light jacket and heavy coat, and I always tell myself I need something in between, but I guess we don't get quite as much of that weather to very actively motivate me to do so). One funny thing is this one guy there at one point went on a big horror-story type tale about the time a few years ago him and his wife went to Hot Springs for an anniversary and there were going to get a couples massage/spa but that year there was a government shutdown and the waters are all regulated through the government so their spa could only do the massage...except the Arlington Hotel has a grandfathered contract with the waters so it's not overseen by the government so it was the only spa open. Anyway, so they went there and it's all old-school (like the bath on the row that we went to) and so he's going through his horror-story type tale about it and pretty much describing to a t what we also went through at the other bath a few years ago on our anniversary (you can see this journal entry for quick reference and that's 2019/09/29 should the hyperlink ever stop working). And at the end, I'm all like, yep that's almost exactly our experience. One difference was he had what sounded like a more normal sauna instead of that tiny steam coffin we were shoved into (the part that was the absolute worst part and I'm going those three or five minutes or however short a time it was like, oh fuck I can't breathe oh my fucking god somebody had better come get me out of this thing right now). And he also didn't have the sitz (I couldn't remember the name of it last night but Mary Beth reminded me), and that was just the weirdest part of it. Also I was introduced to some guy who's a dj and I was introduced in the context of Memphis Concrète and he was all, ah I heard about that and wanted to go but didn't, but he did mention he even listened to the playlist I'd made on bandcamp which is cool. He asked for my own bandcamp info so I gave that to him, but I'm sure he won't be into that! Still it was a fun conversation. Okay, then I had a break before the other thing I was doing and my prescription for the topical gel for my neck finally went through (this was supposed to have been with the first prednisone dose I got the week before last but had a prior-authorization with the insurance to wait on, finally came through a week and a half later) so I picked it up from the pharmacy. I haven't used it yet though. Had time to come home and relax and eat a little then go off to the Hi Tone for a show. First it was Risky Whispers. Next it was Sweat FM (he's Mallory's (aka Chelsea Bridge) roommate) from Chicago. His stuff was very pop. He had pre-recorded tracks and sang and danced to them (one song he played a saxophone on). He had a super-crazy-intense stage performance though. Like moving hardcore nonstop throughout the whole thing. And his already skimpy outfit kept getting whittled down more and more as he went on until he ended in pretty much just a thong. It was quite a thing to see. Next it was Chelsea Bridge. This was probably the most song-like-oriented set of hers that I've seen. I mean, the others have had this element along with the experimental, and this one was the same it just leaned more on the song end of the continuum. She was really good again! She also did more folk-type stuff on the violin (like, as in fiddlin') but with the loops and the droning and such it reminded me a bit of how Henry Flynt incorporated folk violin into avant garde minimalism. Last it was W1ND0W and they played a full song set (i.e. no improv section) and that was good. Anyway yeah, good show! I almost didn't even know about it but just a few days ago on Wednesday saw a flyer I think just on the Hi Tone's fb feed so glad I didn't miss it! I came home and arrived parking right at the same time as my neighbor Gabe. He wanted to talk (and then we ended up talking a long time outside). He said he'd finally started playing Earthbound so just got the stickers that Mary Beth had put on our car. So we talked about that and music and a bunch of stuff for a while. Peanut was out and was interested in hanging out and would come up to us but then back away, I guess like, this is cool but ya'll are out here differently than usual so I'm a little wary. But then she seemed to enjoy the company and just started running around the parking lot back and forth in this playful and semi-crazed showing-off kind of way. It was pretty cute. Don't usually see her being so expressively playful. Anyway, I woke up this morning I think for the first time without really feeling my neck at all upon waking up (or overnight while sleeping) in almost two months. I don't know if this represents a new development/breakthrough or if it's just a temporary thing. Obviously I'm hoping for the former but we'll see. And even though I got that new medication (the prescription version of the over-the-counter topical gel I already had), like I said, I haven't even started to use that one at all yet. I have a week to see if it hopefully stays getting better or not or just reverts at the end after the medication stops.