Dear Friends,
Yesterday I ended a long relationship with Twitter. I can’t bring myself to call it that other name. It was always Twitter to me, I suppose.
I liked the idea of being able to share thoughts, albeit short ones, with people all over the world. The first time a celebrity responded to one of my tweets (The Fonz, actually, Henry Winkler) I was beyond stoked. Over rhe years I interacted with a number of cool people, famous and/or interesting. I’ll miss that aspect of it.
I won’t miss the feeling of being part of something evil, though. That’s exactly how I feel about it now, too. I feel like being a part of it is somehow endorsing what it now stands for and that sucks. It is inevitable that I leave all forms of social media.
Luckily, I have my own.
I will miss the instant access to sports news it once offered. For the last six months, though, I had to really hunt for the sports news I was looking for. It was all political crap and tits lately and both can get you in trouble.
So long, Twitter. Thanks for some good memories. I’m going to give BlueSky a try.
*****.
Today is our annual Fall Festival at school. It happened during my first week of being part of the team in 2022, so I have fond memories. I got to talk to a few of my colleagues for the very first time at that first one I was part of and it helped me feel like I had made a good decision.
Last year, I got in the dunk tank. It messed me up for weeks as it was just chilly enough to make being in wet clothes for 15 minutes or so pretty tough. I’m not sure I can do that again. I have to travel next week to where it is very cold and I don’t need to try and drive across country with head cold or a cough.
It sounds like I am copping out, I know. I want the kids to be able to get their revenge on me. I’ll just have to find another way. Perhaps I can let them hit me with a pie, instead, for charity.
I did that back in 2022, as well.
*****
I saw little Granny on Tuesday afternoon. It was good to see her, and she was in fine form. I think having the cousins in town was good for her. She didn’t seem to be struggling to hear as much as she was on our previous visits, so that was nice. I’ll go back at some point this weekend and hang out with her some more.
It has been really nice getting to see her a couple of times a week over the last few years. I know my time with her is short, even if she makes it to the ripe old age of 100 or so. I hope she does if she can remain as communicative as she is now. If she isn’t able to talk or hear, though, I fear that she won’t last very long. Talking is about all she’s got left.
She asks me about everybody, including the animals, and she likes a fairly comprehensive report. If I scrimp on information, she always comes back around to find out what she wants to find out. I think I get my interviewing skills from her, to be honest. She would have made a very good reporter.
The gratitude I feel for this bonus time with her is special to me. There is a lot to unpack in this particular relationship, but I know she always tried to do the best she could by me and that says a lot about who she is and isn’t. Someday I will write a lot more about her.
*****
When I fell for the stoner rock thing, I fell hard. I was already a big Mudhoney fan, but when I heard Monster Magnet, they made me think of a heavier version of Mudhoney and that was a good thing. Then Monster Magnet came to town and played a place called The Library Café in 1992 or 1993.
It’s weird that I can’t remember because I was stone cold sober at the show. I feel like I was one of the only people at that show that was not high or drunk as fuck. The band seemed so completely fucked up, too. Clutch opened (I liked them then) and then a band called Paw played.
I didn’t care for “Paw” but they did have a song called “Jesse” that was about a dog and I had a dog named ‘Jessie’ at the time, too. I miss that dog so much. She was the best. Sometimes I think maybe she came back as Bailey.
Anyway, I bought Spine of God by Monster Magnet first. It had come out the previous year and when I picked it up, I was an instant convert. I went out and bought all the other stuff the band had out at the time. Spine of God is a crusher.
Some of the songs are also on the first EP which I wrote about previously, but for me, the best song on this record is the title track. “Spine of God” is one of my all-time favorite stoner rock songs. It’s right up there with “Revolve” on the Melvins’ Stoner Witch. At just over eight minutes, long, “Spine of God” never once gets boring and is sofa king heavy it hurts.
There are other good songs on the record, of course, but when I listen to it now, I find myself getting impatient for “Spine of God.” A lot of what I liked about Monster Magnet back then, when stoner rock was new to me (and to much of the world) has become a cliché in many way. I can’t listen to Monster Magnet the way I once could.
This doesn’t bum me out and as I prepped for this writing, I listened to Spine of God at least three times. Each listen brought it a little closer to how I felt about it in the early 90s when I couldn’t get enough of the band. Each listen ingratiated the band to me a lot more.
Monster Magnet kind of wore themselves out and they moved away from being the cream of the crop of stoner rock to being a kind of caricature of themselves after Superjudge came out. Even that record doesn’t hold a candle to the earlier stuff unless you dig the slick production and bloated songs.
Spine of God has “Nod Scene” and “Snake Dance” on it and both of those are quite good. I also like the last track on the version I have, “Ozium,” quite a bit and “Snake Dance” is pretty great, too. I can live without “Black Mastermind” for the most part.
“Pill Shovel” and “Medicine” are both cool, as well. I like them and when an album starts off as heavy, yet still groovy, as this one, it’s pretty great in my book. “Medicine” is probably my second favorite track on the record, come to think of it, and definitely a great sounding song.
It’s a longer record, but one that too many words will just spoil, so let’s leave it with this: If you listen to “Spine of God” right now, you won’t be disappointed. I think just about everyone can dig this song.
*****
See you tomorrow.
This is so rad! AI for the win today.
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