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Entry date: 10-5-2024 – Saturday in the Ski Area – Letters to My Friends

Dear Friends,

 

Today we are headed up the mountain to check out the Saddleback Oktoberfest. It will be a healthy distraction and should be a beautiful day. Saddleback is the ski mountain just outside of town and we go up there every once in a while to visit with our cousins or grab a meal.

 

Our friends, Erik and Jamie, are coming up to camp, too, so that will be fun. They are great people and we have a really good time with them when we get to hang out. That will also be a nice distraction. I’m excited to get some time with my friend.

 

***** 

 

Yesterday we had a really nice afternoon. We took the boat out on the lake and it felt like we were really close to Doug in doing so. After all these years, it was the first time Rhondi drove the boat and she did a really good job with it. She even let me drive it, too.

 

I have driven it before on a few occasions, but I guess it is time for me to really learn about what boat ownership means. I don’t know a whole lot, but I am glad I have a few people I can reach out to for advice. Erik is one of them, actually, and I might see if will go down to the boat with me while they are here and walk me through a few things.

 

We went to BMC for some drinks and dinner. It is one of the spots near us that Rhondi and I really like. My burger was fantastic, and it seemed like Liam enjoyed his dinner, too. Rhondi certainly liked hers. It was a really nice afternoon and early evening.

 

I spent most of my morning writing, which was a nice way to spend the day, too. I got in a groove and wrote about a number of records. I feel like I should take advantage of this time off to get ahead on those. I’m almost up to 300 records.

 

I don’t know why I thought writing about a record a day was a good idea. I’m running out of clever things to say. Of course, that is assuming that I ever had anything clever to say in the first place.

 

***** 

 

Reading magazines is good for music fans to do. At least it was. The equivalent today would be listening to cool podcasts and checking out decent websites. I’m not sure how the kids are finding out about the new bands that are cool and making some waves in their hometowns.

 

I found out about Bratmobile this way. I read some interesting things about them and the Riot Grrl movement they were part of and thought I should check them out, so I did. I picked up Pottymouth after it came out on one of my Friday afternoon trips to Zia. I got paid every Friday and often would get a CD or two on the way home from work.

 

Pottymouth is simple and raw. It’s not going to set the world on fire, by any stretch of the imagination, because of the songwriting or the musical prowess, but it has that certain something that you can latch onto and enjoy. The songs aren’t particularly memorable, for the most part, either, but they are catchy.

 

The cover of the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” is probably the first song off the record that I really latched onto back in the early 90s. Maybe that says a lot, I don’t know, but it was the first one that I started adding to mixed tapes that I made. It’s also quite raw and pretty damned punk rock.

 

In 1993 or 1994 I went to Berkeley and Bratmobile were playing at Gilman Street so I went with Alexa and my friend, KJ. It was packed to the gills and not particularly fun outside of watching the band play. I had a pretty big crush on Allison Wolfe at the time, so I tried to play it cool. I didn’t get to meet her that night, though.

 

It would be 2014 before I got to meet her over the phone when I interviewed her for an article that I was doing on Sleater-Kinney. Since then, I’ve interviewed Allison two or three more times and she’s pretty darn fantastic. I wouldn’t say we are friends, but we’ve had some good chats.

 

I do have to say, too, that I really enjoyed listening to Pottymouth today, though. I hadn’t listened to it for a few years. It’s a punk rock record, through and through, and the lyrics reflect it. I love Allison’s little squeals, here and there, too. Her voice breaks on Pottymouth like Peter Brady in the throes of puberty and it’s great.

 

“P.R.D.C.T” is a cool song. I turn that one up every time. I also like “Fuck Yr. Fans,” too. I wish I could remember more of the show in Berkeley. I just remember getting mean mugged by lesbian punks and not wanting to shove my way to the front. If you ever went to Gilman Street, you know what I am talking about.

 

“Juswana” is another track that I like a lot, too. I almost overlooked it, but as it plays in my ear buds, I can’t ignore it. I wonder if they played it when they reunited this past year.

 

I would have loved to have seen Bratmobile again. They didn’t come to Phoenix. I really wanted to get Sex Stains out to Phoenix to play with The Father Figures, but that never happened either. We were in discussions about it, though.

 

Over the last few years, I have been able to score Rhondi a few cool Bratmobile 7” records. I’m so glad she likes them, too. We spin them when we DJ and celebrate the cool stuff the band did back in the day. I may be a dude, but I have always supported the Riot Grrl movement. It doesn’t even matter if they really don’t accept me. I’m okay with that.

 

***** 

 

See you tomorrow.



I love that AI put two chairs here.

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