Breathe It In…It’s Friday

I know that Friday is different for everyone. The weekend workers, retirees, unemployed, and the off the gridders probably don’t care about Friday. Just another day, amirite? Well, for those of us that do the 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday, Friday is church. It’s Holy Ground in an unholy, corporate world. It means you can put your cog hat up in the closet for a couple of days because you’re no longer just an employee, a face on a badge, or a name on a name tag or or embroidered on a shirt. You’re free for 48 hours. Run, my friend, run.

I’m especially excited for this Friday because I’m off work. I’ve got a full four days off from the grind and I couldn’t be more thrilled. What do I have planned, you ask? Well some pretty exciting stuff, actually. I bought myself an extension brush to clean the green algae stuff off the siding on my house. You can hook it right up the hose and go to town. The cheap ass I am I’ve been using a broken brush for a few years, having to spray the siding down with water, dip the brush into a bucket of soap water, and scrub it that way. Well I’m stepping into the 20th century now. Even bought some CLR-like cleaner I can hook directly to the hose and spray the siding down with that, hopefully making everything that much quicker.

I’m also going to pull a bunch of weeds in the yard, and mow as well. It’s pretty overcast, but rain isn’t in the forecast. Oh, and I’m taking a cardboard box and going to turn it into a little play fort for my oldest’s cat Gaea. My wife saw a video on Instagram of a guy making one. Looks pretty easy, just cut a big hole on the end of it, then three little holes on the side where you hang little fuzz balls so the cat can reach through with their paw and bat the balls. I’m sure there’s a professional version of said item, but if you were ever a parent to kids you know that a big empty cardboard box is usually more fun for them, than say the $100 toy that came in the cardboard box.

I’m hoping to have most of this done by early afternoon, as I’ve got some records to pick up and would like some spin time with the new tunes. I’ve got Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s collaborative LP Tall Tales, Gerald Clayton’s excellent Ones and Twos, and hopefully Jeff Parker’s The Relatives waiting for me. I also need to buy some plastic sleeves for my vinyl. Ran out awhile back.

Speaking of Jeff Parker, I’m going to go see him in August up in Sawyer, MI at a place called Out There. It’s a wine bar and looks like a pretty amazing place to see intimate shows. Parker is playing a solo gig with just him and his guitar, and probably lots of cool loopers and effects. I’ve wanted to see Jeff for a couple years. Guitarist in Tortoise, as well as a collaborator with tons of amazing modern jazz players. Jeff had a run of live LPs with his ETA quartet that have been nothing short of brilliant. Improvised, long form sets. If you’d want a starting point, I’d go with his solo guitar album Forfolks, then hit those ETA albums.

Another thing I want to do this weekend is reconfigure my guitar setup. I’ve been itching to do some guitar improvisations with my looper for a possible mostly guitar album myself. Throw in a little keys for color, but mostly I just want to play some guitar. Haven’t been doing that enough, and I’ve been inspired by the likes of Jeff Parker, Jonas Munk and Nicklas Sorensen, and John Scofield.

The most important thing happening this weekend is that our oldest and their partner are coming up from Indianapolis to visit. They’re arriving tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday we’re catering a little get together with them, us, our daughter and her pooch Celeste, our son and his girlfriend, and my parents. Getting some chicken fajitas from a place called La Pasadita in town that we like. I’m thrilled because a. I don’t have to cook, and b. I love chicken fajitas.

I know our oldest has been up since Christmas, but we haven’t all gotten together since then. My wife is down at their place today. She left after work yesterday and spent the night. She took today off as well and today is hitting a thrift store. Well, I think it’s just a Goodwill but like a really big one. I don’t know. Thrifting is not my thing, so I was happy to just stay home and get some work done. Last night after I finished cleaning the house I had a couple beers and watched an awful horror movie. One I found on Tubi. Tubi is nice, but my list of saved movies is like going through a menu filled with absolutely terrible meals and trying to choose the one least likely to make me crap my pants before I get home. It’s all low budget, low quality horror that was made to go straight to a free streamer like Tubi. Still, they’re guilty pleasure what can I say?

I got up around 7am, brewed some coffee, and made my son an egg and cheese sandwich so he’d have something to eat before work. Been spinning some records and enjoying some coffee. First up was Victims ‘Form Hell’ ten inch, and I’m now currently in the wily sound world of Miles Davis’ Live Evil.

Victims is the synth project of Timothy Fife and Chris Livengood. Death Waltz Originals put it out back in 2016 and I fell in love with its dark vibes and Tangerine Dream-like quality. I even interviewed them back then. You can read it here.

And Miles’ Live Evil? Only one of the best live albums ever released. So much controlled chaos and acid-burnt grooves. One of the absolute best.

Okay, I’m gonna wrap up this writing thing for the day. I got some work to do. Just not the kind I have to punch in for. This kind of work I don’t mind at all.

Happy Friday, and Happy Memorial Day for those partaking.