Short Stories of the Past Week
Short Stories of the Past Week
It's OK to Just Be a Member of the Club
2 for 1 Live Stream:
On Saturday, I made a live stream video where I created “live ambient” music and also did some inking of a printed/processed photo. Kind of a 2-for-1 deal. The music sounds very good on YouTube, which means it will sound excellent once I edit the file and get it released - probably in May or June.
Been Caught Stealing:
In a store recently for two minutes. Bought some epson salt, bananas, garbage bags. On the way out, a store employee, some kid who was maybe 18 years old, was a step ahead of me. The door beeped. He turns around - did you buy anything with a tag? No, I was in the store for two minutes and bought this. He looked in my bags and nonchalantly said, "Gee, I wonder why the door beeped?", proclaimed me innocent, and sauntered out.
Ha! It was HIM.
Amazon Music LTD:
I hate Amazon. Everything about that company is detestable today. The fake reviews. The phony products. The high prices if you're too lazy to do a simple search and find something locally. But in my world as a recording artist, I must continue having a subscription to Amazon Music, "the RC Cola of music streaming services", in order to do certain promotional things. I can't believe people use Amazon Music, but they do. Not only did I have a Prime subscription because my wife uses Amazon Prime, but I also paid for an additional subscription for Amazon Music Unlimited (AMU) because I thought I needed it.
Long story short, Amazon caused a mess - they charged an expired account for AMU and didn't notify me - I got it cleaned up, but it took too long. And in the end, I realized that I didn’t even need the extra “paid” AMU subscription, and so I reverted the account back to the Prime membership. The only real difference between Prime and AMU is that you can download tracks for offline listening. Amazon Music also has a stupid 2500 song limit for the account, so even if you pay for “Amazon Music Unlimited”, you can’t have too many songs in playlists. No other streaming service comes anywhere close to doing something that stupid. They should call it Amazon Music LIMITED, because it’s LIMITED.
Turning Old Playlists into New Playlists:
And here’s the playlist:
Book Report - “Technopoly” and “At Home”:
I'm done with listening to the reading of Neil Postman's 1992 book "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology" - it's a remarkably relevant book for 2024. Obviously, there's no mention of the internet, social media, smartphones, and other modern-day tech, but Postman certainly makes you think about it.
I'm back to Bill Bryson's "At Home". At 14 CDs, it's going to take a while to complete in the car. When he talks about 19th century British living in his affected, Mid-Atlantic accent, (Bryson grew up in Des Moines), it seems very natural.
British Steel:
Last Sunday, the 10th, I went to my 2nd British Car Club meeting with Todd Somers, who has a Triumph TR8. Even though I don't have a British car, I decided to join the club as a paying member because everybody has been so friendly and interesting. It's probably a good way to obtain a car, get a mechanic, obtain parts, etc.
Last month, I only saw a Bentley Mulsanne. This month, I saw a 70s MGB GT - those are cute. And an older couple rode in their 50s-era Rolls Royce.
Todd tried to persuade me to buy a TR8 from Ohio. It looked good, but it's not local. One guy wanted to know if anybody might be interested in one of his Jensen-Healey "project cars". He had more than one.... of course.... Ha ha ha! No thanks. Never!
I do like some of the 50s and 60s-era cars, but I'm sure they're impossible to find around here. I like the Wolseley 1500, 15/60, 16/60, and the Riley (and Morris) equivalents. I have no desire to get a Mini (Austin, Morris, or Riley Elf). There is a Riley Elf in the area, and it's nice, but it's basically a Mini.
A more practical, but still quite insane idea might be wasting money on a modern (er, 2000-2014) Jag XK8 or XKR convertible. They are beautiful cars. At least Jaguar is still in business. All that depreciation has been absorbed by some other sucker. No carburetors and chokes. They don't take 30 seconds to make it to 40 mph. They're left-hand drive. A modern Jag has more options for repair. It may not be as hardcore as owning a British car when food rationing was still going on, but it might be more sensible for a British-built "first car".
And earlier last Sunday:
Met my mom at the casino. She drove out at halftime, and had a quick win. We watched the 4th quarter of the Big Ten Women's Championship game, and then the Overtime victory. Small crowds gathered around every TV in the casino, and when something exciting happened you heard it from all corners. The guy next to me used to coach 4th grade girls. My mom played in the State Tournament back in 1950. Everybody knew the names of the players and their family members. The casino was giving away cooking pans. It was about as "Iowa" as it gets.
Afterwards, my mom won a bit more. I was up about $35. We met by The Paddock, a restaurant area, and had a nice talk. On the way out, I did the "Cliffhanger" and won my $5 back, just like last week. Then we walked out to her car, I gave her a hug, and I got in my car to drive home.
How’s the T-shirt gallery coming along? I’m adding images…
That’s it for this week!