low-readership fridays
1. Yesterday I had my review at work. In six-plus years of programming since college, this is the first time I've been at a solvent company long enough to get a review, and all the night and weekend work and general ass-busting I've done over the last two years has paid off; I was given a 12% raise, and because they said my review was so long overdue, they're making it retroactive effective back to March, which will be a very nice windfall come my December paycheck. And then I got a Christmas bonus on top of that, which was about equal to the amount of the retroactive windfall. A crazy, wonderful day of work.
2. Last night I was listening to Seade -- not Sade, but rather a great mid-90s proggy pop quartet from Baltimore, who put out one excellent record on Grass Records (back in its heyday of bands like New Radiant Storm King and the Wrens, before it became Wind-Up Records and signed Creed) and then promptly disbanded. I have a lot of records like this, where I don't really know anyone else who's familiar with the band and thus I can't really talk about them in-depth with anyone, and so I Googled the band looking for information on the band members, and learned that Seade guitarist/singer/songwriter Jack Osiecki died of an asthma attack in 2000 at the age of 29. What a sad story.
3. And speaking of sad stories, if you haven't already heard, Desoto Records has put up a page on their site to raise donations for Cal Robbins, the son of J. Robbins and Janet Morgan. Cal is 11 months old and has been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy; 55% of infants with SMA do not live to their second birthday, and if Cal does survive into childhood and adulthood, he will never be able to walk. They're taking donations to offset the large medical bills, especially given that J. is a self-employed recording engineer with single-payer insurance. J.'s given so much to the music community over the last 15-20 years, and as a fan of his bands Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels, and the numerous albums he's recorded, I feel we owe him something back.
4. On happier news, Shark and Bear's CD release show is finalized. We'll be playing at Great Scott on Saturday, February 10, with our pals Harris (who made this show a reality) and some other great bands. We're also playing a show at PA's on Friday, December 29 if you're in town during the holidays and need some entertainment. Pretty excited to get the ball truly rolling on this; I'm going to try and send out as many press and review packets beforehand so we can get some ink for the CD around the time of release, rather than a couple of months afterward.
5. We have a lovely Christmas tree up in our living room; we got it at Home Depot, where you can select a Douglas or Fraser fir between 6' and 9', and they'll trim it, shorten it, and/or net it up to your specifications, all for around $35. We decorated it on Sunday, winding up a strand of 300 colored lights and countless ornaments while watching the worst Patriots blow-out in years. Sometimes I like to sit out in the darkened room at night, with just the tree lights on, and ruminate on the true spirit of the holiday. And play video games.
2. Last night I was listening to Seade -- not Sade, but rather a great mid-90s proggy pop quartet from Baltimore, who put out one excellent record on Grass Records (back in its heyday of bands like New Radiant Storm King and the Wrens, before it became Wind-Up Records and signed Creed) and then promptly disbanded. I have a lot of records like this, where I don't really know anyone else who's familiar with the band and thus I can't really talk about them in-depth with anyone, and so I Googled the band looking for information on the band members, and learned that Seade guitarist/singer/songwriter Jack Osiecki died of an asthma attack in 2000 at the age of 29. What a sad story.
3. And speaking of sad stories, if you haven't already heard, Desoto Records has put up a page on their site to raise donations for Cal Robbins, the son of J. Robbins and Janet Morgan. Cal is 11 months old and has been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy; 55% of infants with SMA do not live to their second birthday, and if Cal does survive into childhood and adulthood, he will never be able to walk. They're taking donations to offset the large medical bills, especially given that J. is a self-employed recording engineer with single-payer insurance. J.'s given so much to the music community over the last 15-20 years, and as a fan of his bands Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels, and the numerous albums he's recorded, I feel we owe him something back.
4. On happier news, Shark and Bear's CD release show is finalized. We'll be playing at Great Scott on Saturday, February 10, with our pals Harris (who made this show a reality) and some other great bands. We're also playing a show at PA's on Friday, December 29 if you're in town during the holidays and need some entertainment. Pretty excited to get the ball truly rolling on this; I'm going to try and send out as many press and review packets beforehand so we can get some ink for the CD around the time of release, rather than a couple of months afterward.
5. We have a lovely Christmas tree up in our living room; we got it at Home Depot, where you can select a Douglas or Fraser fir between 6' and 9', and they'll trim it, shorten it, and/or net it up to your specifications, all for around $35. We decorated it on Sunday, winding up a strand of 300 colored lights and countless ornaments while watching the worst Patriots blow-out in years. Sometimes I like to sit out in the darkened room at night, with just the tree lights on, and ruminate on the true spirit of the holiday. And play video games.