• Dear OPW Lazyweb: I accidentally clicked the "Hey! I don't wanna receive these anymore!" link in the automated OPW digest email. How can I turn that back on?

Also:

• Matt Casarino started an OPW post on 5/30 but just made it public yesterday because he just finished it. So, if you're interested in reading his brain-pickinz, go scroll back a week. (or, click here.)

Also:

• I watched some of the Comey testimony today. I love Comey so much and wish he was my neighbor and I want to bring him chicken cutlets and a lasagna. He just seems like a genuinely GOOD person.  John McCain, whom I respect, sadly seemed doddering and confused and like he was genuinely struggling to make sense. It made me sad. 

• In other news, come to the Bellefonte Cafe (804 Brandywine Blvd, Wilmington) on July 1st from 8-10pm for our annual Hot Breakfast Summer Concert of Happiness. Good food, no cover charge, all that. 

• Lastly, please send good vibes to the Moskosteins... JD is not doing well (he's a very old boy) and they all need some good juju. 

We're not able to attend M&M's brightly-colored wedding, for we have a previous commitment involving a 50-year anniversary and people who want us to make music at it.

I am very sad to be missing an opportunity to be with my beloved PhilaDels all at once, but alas, neither event was ours to reschedule. 

I am hoping photos will be taken, and I am hoping that those photos will be viewable someplace other than Facebook... but I figure that latter-bit is a bit much to ask for. 

In other news, Matt and I did some of the Wilmington Art Loop this evening, and after we got home we listened to Noelle Picara's brand-new EP which she just released today (I dug it) and then I felt the need to paint. Being around so many artists made me wanna paint. So right now I'm working on "HELLO, PINBALL."   Painting a circle freehand is a bitch... it keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger as I try to even it out.  I didn't wanna trace a plate or use a compass, so, this is what I get.

It's 5:54am and time for beddy-bye.

Xo

I am jealous of Thomas Boutell ​​​​​​'s fancy bullets he used in an earlier post. I don't know if my bullets here will be as pretty and diamondy as his. Let us try in a listo!

• Last night (Thursday May 25th) was a bittersweet night... about 73 million musicians and singers and players* played over 6 hours of music in a huge, free concert on both stages as we said goodbye and thank you to World Cafe Live at the Queen in Wilmington. World Cafe Live pulled out of The Queen because it was bleeding money despite all their efforts to keep it in the black, and last night was officially the venue's last night, so all of the bands that were known to be Queen favorites were on the bill and we threw a Thank You and Goodbye show to give the venue we love a royal sendoff.

1. With that many bands and players/singers, there was no way to give everyone their own time slot; so we created these giant "supergroups." For example, Matt and I told everyone they could use our saxophone-playing skills -- so two bands (Shytown and Vinyl Shockley) took us up on that as we bulked up their horn section -- we played one song with each of those two bands -- easy peasy.  And then The Joe Trainor Trio became JTTwelve (!) because Joe added a sweeeeeeet five-member horn section, he added a guitarist, and three women on backing vocals, so Matt played sax for that, and I sang backing vocals. 
2. We were sent the charts for the two songs ahead of time, so Matt and I had time to rehearse them at home. But last night once we arrived and met the two other horn players for Shytown and Vinyl Shockley, they handed us a stack of music for a bunch of other songs and said, "Just watch us for cues," and away we went! Sight-read it on stage, no time to play through anything before we went on. I LOVE THAT.  And to sweeten the deal, these guys would even throw in the occasional "horn section moves" which were a blast... nothing too nuts... but every once in a while we'd do an intuitive choreographed "pop" and it looked cool as shit.  It felt SO GOOD to just jump in, feel trusted by strangers, trust them as well, connect into their neural network and be a horn section.  God, I love being a musician.

It was a magical, bittersweet night... and I'm so happy to be part of the World Cafe Live community.  

(And I'm also very happy to hear that we now have an "in" with LiveNation... but that's a topic for a different day.)

[Edited to add on Saturday: The muscles/tendons in my left forearm that control my left pinky (The G# key, as well as all the sub-C notes on a sax) is nice and sore, as are my hands and the muscles in my neck. I friggin' LOVE playing Moose (my tenor sax) but lorrrrdy these hands hurt afterwards. Totally worth it, though!]

---------

* There is an important difference between a singer, a player, and a musician.  Just because you can carry a tune or play an instrument does NOT mean you are a musician. Can you arrange a song? Can you tell me what a diminished chord is? Can you tell me the difference between dorian and mixolydian modes? Could you music direct a show? Could you write the parts out for all of these other instruments?  No? Then you're not a musician.  Words have power.  Please do not appropriate the title of what so many of us have trained so hard daily for DECADES to achieve.  

(x-posted to xtingu.dreamwidth.org)

Deep in a comment thread from one of my prior posts I mentioned that the New York Times curates an almost-daily list of well-considered articles from both the center, right and the left. Reading these articles lets you see how the other side(s) may be thinking, without having to wade through all the crap that's online. Folks seemed interested in it, so I figured I'd point y'all to it. 

It may be hidden behind a paywall, but I reckon if you click this link from an incognito browser you should be OK. I pay for the Times and don't feel too guilty for sharing this.  

Here ya go!

Writers From the Right and Left React to Trump’s Riyadh Speech, and More https://nyti.ms/2qPF6IY

Honest, sincere question:

What does a news article or report need so you'll consider it "not fake"?   I imagine some folks may just dismiss any news they disagree with as "fake news."  But I'm trying to assess what criteria need to be satisfied in order for someone to accept that what is being presented, whether they agree with the article's viewpoint or not, as "reported accurately."

I acknowledge that humans are gloriously imperfect, and that it is physically impossible to report something without imparting some molecule of bias/slant.  But anyway.

If you are left-leaning, are you capable of reading an article from Breitbart or PrisonPlanet and evaluate it with the mindset that it could potentially be accurate? If the Washington Post cites a source "who only spoke on the condition of anonymity," would you be more apt to believe it's "real" and not "fake?" What if Breitbart cited an anonymous source? Would you instantly think, "This is bullshit" and roll your eyes? What if they interviewed Comey directly?

If you are fervent Trump supporter, is it even possible for you to read something on The Huffington Post or even the Washington Post and believe it's within the realm of possibility that it may be accurate? What if they cite an anonymous source? What if they cite a primary source? What if they interviewed Comey himself, for example? 

What criteria need to be met for you to feel satisfied that the reporter is reporting accurate information?  Do you need unedited video from Trump himself? If he were incriminating himself, would you dismiss it as doctored video? 

I'm struggling with this.

(x-posted to DW.)

I need a recommendation for a quick-and-easy video editing program for Windows.  I shot some video on my phone of a rehearsal, and I'd love to be able to slice the 33 minute video into individual songs... BUT I also want to be able to mess with the audio track if need be.

I will only use this once or twice, so cheaper is better, but whatevz.

Any recommendations?

(*cough* Matt Lichtenwalner ​​​​​​​*cough*)

Gracias!

At the Philly Airport.   It is creepily empty. I keep waiting for Bronson Pinchot to show up with a blind chick. 

Debating telling the flight attendants that it's my birthday.  

Cons: They may sing Happy Birthday, which I really don't like.  

Pros: They might make me a crown made of toilet paper rolls and stirrers. 

We shall see. 

Off to Austin! 

OK nerds, next time there's a thunderstorm, get your sexy arse over to the coolest damn site you've seen in a long time: lightningmaps.org.

Somehow this site displays real-time lightning strikes... and I do mean real time... as in, the lightning flashes, and by the time your eyeballs register the flash outside your window and then you look at your screen, a dot is on the website showing you where the lightning struck. As if that's not cool enough, if you click the "gear" icon and turn on the "thunder" option to one of the top two positions, you will also see a circle radiating from the lightning strike heading towards the dot that represents your position on the map. And the MOMENT the thunder-ring reaches your dot, HOLY JESUS you hear the thunder out your window. It is the coolest damn thing I have seen in years. 

As you adjust the various site settings, the URL changes a bit, so below is the custom URL for the settings I happen to like. Your mileage may vary, of course. 

https://www.lightningmaps.org/#y=39.8211;x=-75.4922;z=8;t=3;m=sat;r=0;s=201;o=3;b=21.07;n=0;d=8;dl=3;dc=0;ra=1;

Anyway, today (Thursday) is supposed to be thunderous for our region, so consider bookmarking the site. Works great on the Chrome browser on my phone.

(Originally posted at xtingu.dreamwidth.org)

It was very, very, very, very easy to create a new account on dreamwidth.org and to import all of my LJ entries, comments, userpics, tags, bio, friends, custom friend groups, and everything else.  I mean like stupid-easy.  Like 4 clicks easy.

Go here to learn how easy it is to import your LJ and all its goodies (or all the goodies you choose) to Dreamwidth: ​​​​​​​http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=127

Right now I'm running a job on LiveJournal that takes all of my entries and makes them private, except for one public entry that points everyone to dreamwidth.  It'll be a while before all my entries turn private though... (I figure LJ is getting a lot of traffic), but as soon as that's done, I'll purge it.

It's the end of an era.  Looking forward to seeing you guys over on dreamwidth.  If you go there, shoot me a friend request.

1,000,000 thanks to Thomas Boutell for the under-ass-fire-lighting.

Hi all!

We've been up at my folks' place since Sunday. We were eating dinner and I got a text from my dad that he had to call an ambulance to bring him to the hospital because he blew out his knee and couldn't put even a toe's worth of weight on his right leg.  I called him and he was TERRIFIED, and absolutely convinced this was "the fall," meaning the injury an old person has in their late 70s that begins the rapid decline to death.  I kept trying to tell him not to order the headstone quite yet, but he was really, really upset. By the time he got out of the ER and back home it was 11:30PM, so we all agreed Matt and I would get up to NJ on Monday (the 13th).

So, apart from snowcamming (which is now over), I have been almost entirely offline since we've been up here. I haven't read OPW or LJ; I've done maybe 10 mins max on Instagram and Twitter.  I'm sorry I haven't been more responsive.

So yep, we're still up at my folks' place taking care of them since my dad blew his knee out on Sunday.  Strangely, Mom seems to be doing MUCH better. I'm thinking with my Dad down for the count, Mom realizes she needs to step it up a bit, and she has! She isn't nearly as forgetful.  Maybe the extra responsibility is good for her.

Since we've been here, we let my folks handle their own breakfast as a test to see how their mobility is for the day... but then we wind up handling lunch and dinner plus all chores (laundry, cleaning Mom's bedroom commode, cleaning/prepping her CPAP, meal prep and serving/cleanup, shopping, snow removal, med checks, laundry, washing the kitchen floor, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, etc.)

Yesterday (Thursday) I took my dad to the orthopedist to figure out what's broken on him and what the prognosis/path forward is.  Diagnosis: Torn meniscus, but luckily it's not an entirely fucked meniscus. It should heal with some PT and TLC in a few weeks... he's already markedly better yesterday than he was on Monday when we arrived, but he absolutely still needs a walker, which means he can't carry anything.  My mom can't carry anything either... so the small "care-related tasks" like dumping and cleaning my mom's bedside commode is impossible for either of them to do... let alone carrying food to the table. So as much as we want to get home and get our lives back, we need some kind of plan to have these small tasks handled. I cannot rely on my brother or sister-in-law, which is sometimes frustrating but understandable. My parents' neighbors have offered to help out, but cleaning a chunky pee-filled commode isn't something you ask a neighbor to do... that's a family job. (Sorry for that visual.)

Matt has been so good anxiety-wise lately... the CBD + Xanax combo has been working miracles. However, yesterday was a Very Bad Day and a reminder that he is not "cured," and a reminder he mustn't get cocky and not take his meds.  Caring for my mom, caring for my dad, and caring for plus worrying about Matt yesterday made me wonder how people with kids care for several people every day of their lives with no break whatsoever. I was wiped out. 

My parents have been very kind and appreciative this visit, and they keep telling me how truly grateful they are that we're up here and able/willing to help.  I'm very happy to have been up here, too.  In the evenings once we're done with dinner and all of our tasks are done, my dad and I (and sometimes Matt)  wind down by binge-watching Nurse Jackie.  I've been enjoying it. When I asked him why he chose that show as opposed to the other million things on Netflix, cable, Amazon, etc., he said, "I like Edie Falco, and I wanted to watch something without explosions for a change."  My dad? Watching something without fast cars or explosions? WEIRD. :-D

Selfishly, I'm also happy to have ridden out the storm up here with my folks because Delaware got a ton of ice and apparently Arden and north Wilmington lost power for a good long while... parts of which didn't get power back until yesterday (Thursday) with crews from North Carolina helping out the local power company workers. I know our house lost power at some point (even if just for a moment) because I tried remoting into my home computer yesterday and couldn't, which tells me it turned off unceremoniously. (My computer stays off if the power gets cut.)  So I have no way to know if we'll come home to a freezer full of warm, stinky food or what. (Though Joe Trainor just stopped by our house a few minutes ago to return a soprano sax we rented for the sold-out Billy Joel show we did on Saturday night down at the beach, and he was able to use the garage door OK, so the power's onbviously on now.)

Today is Friday, and I'm not sure when we're going back to DE. We really wanted to go to a concert on Saturday (tomorrow) night, and Matt has a final rehearsal on Sunday afternoon for an Able Arts skit they've asked him to be a part of for their show next week.  We may just go home for the weekend and come right back up here.

It's actually been pretty OK being up here. I feel very appreciated and useful. 

Anyway, I promise to be more present online when I can. I'm sorry that I can't be a better or more responsive friend now... right now I need to keep focusing on being a good daughter and a good partner. 

Love you all.