Good Morning.

Another fun-filled week of listening to hate radio has filled my head with astounding conspiracy theories. I was going to relate some today - but have decided to take a different tack.


My refuge throughout this project has been the parts room - tucked away off a corner of the maintenance bay. Deep enough in the back that I can set up a speaker and listen to whatever I want, pretty much unmolested during the day.

You know me - being raised by musicians, I listen to an eclectic blend of everything. My overarching music listening theory is Ellingtonian - he rather famoulsy stated, "All music is created equal; if it sounds good, it IS good." On any given day, you can find jazz, classical, New Wave, Funk, Show Tunes, and whatever else may strike my fancy.

There's some weirdness going around now that's popular with my young conductors - "We don't talk about Bruno". (Heard it once, not impressed.) But of course that leads me to my current muse, Bruno Mars. "Uptown Funk" was hard to miss a few years ago, so I hope you have at least heard of him. At the time, that was compared heavily to Prince and the Revolution, so naturally I got interested. Discovering that Bruno is a Pinoy just like me (And Javi!) was an added bonus. Today, Bruno is literally the only musician that Javi and I agree on.

I have a longstanding tradition dating back to 1983 - the first song I play every year is actually MJ and Billie Jean, usually minutes after the ball drop. No exception this year, but with Javi home, we went rapidly into the Bruno catalogue. Incredibly, he has just four albums out over an eleven-year career so far. Nevertheless, we dove right in with 24k Magic. (The video is somewhat...fleshy. Typical of a young, male, musician...but I digress.)



The new album out this year is "An evening with Silk Sonic". Very deep and soulful music, a very 1970s vibe. You might want to check this out - it's actually the first non-Prince album I have bought in a long number of years. All the tunes are great, but my favorite is one called "Skate". This video - a little less in the skin department.



Now, I gave up watching award shows years ago. In 2017, the Grammys had a tribute to Prince, which I had never seen until quite recently. You know what, Bruno is the new Prince. Here's proof:



But we must speak of the master - those Prince albums I've been buying have been vault re-issues. First was 1999, then the Purple Rain remaster, and of course Welcome to America. I have not picked up the massive Sign O' the Times tome, but much of it is out on the youspace. One of those vault releases is something called "Soul Psychodelicide", which when it was released, was called "Prince giving Uptown Funk a wedgie for twelve minutes."



The takeaway from all this?

Yeah, maybe it's been a 'tough week'. Maybe that right-wing talk radio is right, in that every week is "Joe Biden's Worst Week" of his presidency. At the end of the day, who cares? Approval ratings, press impressions, punditry, and plain old talking heads are completely irrelevant in our daily lives. You probably are slightly aware that I rarely pay attention to national politics these days - It exists in a realm that is irrelevant to me, and my so-called elected officials don't give a fuck about my tired and useless life. So why bother?

But all politics is local - Ask me how to get something done in this city, in my neighborhood, on my street, and I know everybody in power in this city, I know who to call, and I know what to do. That's the true power of the people today. We are two Americas, after all.

I don't want you to ponder any of that today. Go do something that brings you a little joy; the world's troubles will still be here in an hour, tomorrow, Monday. Do something for you.

We'll end today with what has been my favourite video on youtube for the past several weeks.