I feel like I’ve got no time to write. That’s not true, of course. I’ve got lots of spare time. Well… not SPARE time… but plenty of time that I can repurpose towards various purposes. Recently I’ve ended up wasting it playing Diablo III because sometimes I just need some brainless activities. Theoretically it’s better than TV, right?
And even writing now, my brain’s not really focusing. It’s the drive down to HMT and Kristen’s driving, but talk radio is happening, and there’s no way to focus through that.
We’ve got a great big blank spot in our calendar coming up. Only about four shows in the next couple of months, and though it’s making both me and my wallet nervous, on the other hand it’ll give me some time for writing and web work. If I can get a jump on the prior I’m hoping to put out a new album in 2015, and if I can get a jump on the latter, it might be finally time to part ways with HMT.
Flirting with White Rose Confession at the Circuit. The Honest Mistakes kicking off the night at the Circuit in Essex, MD.
It’s a grey day as the weather wheels vast 180s. It’s been hovering in the teens and 20s for the past couple of days, bitterly blustery during the day, just crystal and cold at night. But by tomorrow it’ll be 70+, balmy and comfortable – and by Wednesday we’re back to snow alerts and winter weather warnings. 7’ of snow up in New York. Tons in Pennsylvania. I think it unfortunate that the Greenhouse Effect got dubbed “Global Warming” so early on. It gives Climate Change Deniers a very easy hook to hang their ignorant hats on. “Global warming’s obviously a myth since it was abnormally cold today”. (I Love the pic floating around, credited to Stephen Colbert – something to the effect of “it was cold today, obviously global warming doesn’t exist. In other news I ended world hunger by eating breakfast this morning!”)
In hindsight it seems obvious that weather patterns are more extreme – but generally speaking we’re creatures of memory rather than math and no number of charts and figures will compare to the average person’s vague memory of what things were like ten years ago.
Climate change doesn’t terrify me. I’m a creature of memory as well, but I know how fallible it is – and have Journals that go back about twenty years – and my Dad worked on GOES, one of the more revolutionary weather satellites – I KNOW it’s HAPPENING, but I believe in humans’ ability to adapt.
Well, at least I have faith in humans’ ability to adapt enough to survive…. I could imagine our short-sightedness pushing us to economic disaster of course. Living on a deficit for mere comfort, we’re going to get deep underwater as we deal with rising tides. New York City’s richer areas are already researching if not actually building ways to deal with climbing ocean levels. It’s expensive to do, and the longer we wait, the more expensive it will be – but despite the eventual impossibility of continuing on a purely capital economic structure, from THAT point of view it might be a blessing in disguise… sort of.
ilyAIMY rocking out at the Circuit. Full band night – including both Rowan Corbett and Pat Klink (of We’re About 9.). A big thank you to an amazing room.
With the way our government is structured, with such a capitalistic base, we don’t deal with problems till its economically advantageous to do so. Eventually it’ll be cheaper to face the problem than to continue denying it, and though facing the problem is going to be outrageously expensive, spending money is income for someone else. Maybe it’s time to invest in the construction companies? It makes sense that housing construction HAS to slow down eventually as the United States’ population growth slows, but if those companies are then turning to construction of dykes, or of rebuilding cities further inland, or construction something entirely more scifi like a floating or underwater city – well, the money’s going SOMEWHERE and maybe there’s a future for the average union scale construction worker yet.
I’m fantasizing and don’t have a LOT of knowledge on the subject – but frankly if things were moving forward unchanged, we’re headed for a world in which not everyone CAN be employed. As administration gets replaced by software and industry is replaced by automation, we don’t have NEW jobs flooding the market nearly as fast as obsolete jobs are draining out. Whether it’s self-checkout or automated toll-taking – people are being replaced by electronics far faster than we can think up new jobs, much less get people TRAINED in said jobs. It’s like elevator operators writ large. As THAT world looms, our current capitalist structure has to be revised or collapse. If you have to work in order to afford to eat and be housed, and there simply aren’t enough jobs… well, you do the math. Your elected official won’t.
And so yeah, maybe climate change and the inevitable construction boom looming on the horizon is a blessing in disguise. If I was a believer in governments that could find their ass with both hands and could walk and chew gum at the same time, if I believed in a United States government not mired in short-sighted infighting and idiotic power struggles – if I could fathom the concept of a Congress that looked more than 2 years into the future – well, climate change almost seems an ideal slow-building catastrophe, ideal for reinforcing the status quo.
I’d almost believe it was all going according to plan.
SO, Wednesday November 19th I went and checked out a new Catonsville open mic that had just kicked off a couple of weeks before. It was kind of sad – just me and the host and BaggyPantsRich (to the left there, like you didn’t know!) but that meant I got to sit and listen to BPR for about half an hour – which is well worth doing. Very cool stuff, much like I was into in college. Really enjoyed getting some time to become better acquainted with his music. I have no record as to why I took this photo – but holy crap Amy must’ve moved out around this time. – rob 10/13/21 Same – THIS is what happens when Journaling fails and all your left is weird pictures of food… … and moose!
