Week 51, 2023

The week started with a freak storm and power outages predicted to last 4 days- luckily ours was back in about 24hours- and ended with the start of the much needed Christmas break.

Reading

I came across this quote from Brian Eno:

"[S]o much of modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them. "

Makes you wonder how much of art’s beauty will be lost under the guise of a digital perfection.

I also read a pretty fun short story by Andrew Van Wey called “December 20th 1986.” It was a fun horror romp about a giant eye that shows up in a man’s basement as he tried to host the most important Christmas party of his life. This was short, creepy, seasonal and I actually finished it of December 20th.

Listening

Spotify continues to impress me with it’s ability to deliver new artist to me that are right in my wheelhouse. The lasted examples is Mindwarden’s album TIMELESS. It’s dark jazz, perfect for fans for fans of lingering piano notes, misty interiors and introspective science fiction in the mode of BLADE RUNNER.

Watching

Not much unfortunately. That’s something I want to get better at in the new year- finding interested out of the way movies to watch.

I feel like every weekend since about the middle of August I have been on overdrive with house projects, so I am designating this upcoming long weekend as house project free. Additionally, I'm working to complete my grading, finish up a client project and write my newsletter today so they are off my plate as well. 🤞 that I can get through it all before my weekend of freedom starts.

Just binged my first show in a long time. The 4th season of USA's The Sinner wasn't quite as good as the previous seasons, but it's hard not to root for Bill Pullman's  Detective Harry Ambrose as he unravels a mystery. While not the best season (that'll always be season one for me) this is a good send off for the character.

 There's something sadly poetic about the fact that we just lost Jimmy Buffet on Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer.  

Radio Margaritaville has been the soundtrack of quite a few summers for me.

After 3 days of professional development school is officially starting today. Will be good to have kids back in the building. Here's to a good year 27!

Been a busy couple days on our year-long kitchen remodel. Finally got it painted and put in most of the flooring yesterday. I'll finish that today and move on to molding and trim. Light at the end of this loooong tunnel. 

After being down and out for 2 full days (from a shingles vaccine shot of all things!) I am full of energy and plans this morning. Time to get caught back up.

So it turns out my body just hates vaccines. The Covid jab hit me harder than actual Covid, and yesterday I got the shingles vaccine (yay 50s!) and this morning I feel like I got run over by a truck.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

After a good experience recording a video for a friend's job seeker website on ATS myths I'm thinking about experimenting with some video of my own. Looking into phone app teleprompters, ring lights and Microsoft ClipChamp as a basic way to get started.

  90% of what I worry about never actually happens, and yet...  

One of my favorite accounts to follow on Bandcamp is CRQ Editions. They specialize in unusual, out-of-copyright, classical recordings which are of interest to collectors. It's a fun way to get exposed to some excellent older recordings. 

This morning I am working to Carlos Kleiber: The Chicago Debut 1978: Weber Freischutz Ov, Schubert 3 and Beethoven 5.

Link -- [crqeditions.bandcamp.com](https://crqeditions.bandcamp.com/)

Reminder to self:  The most meaningful things in life will never feel “productive”.

Spent the afternoon playing around with categories on my website. Trying to make this blog more user friendly for myself. I want to be able to easily look up notes and reviews of things. It's a work in progress, but I'm liking it so far.