Daily Log

Got to bed late last night. Worked on puzzle, then got stuck on a Mahjongg. Slept straight through, and woke up after 10, just shy of six hours, so a 95. Read some on Christian Nationalism, then came down around 11. Put Leonard Cohen on, figuring I needed a break from The R&B Box. I wound up feeling fairly good yesterday, but I'm feeling rather unsettled now.

Big event yesterday was that the furnace faltered. I had no idea what to do, so I called Hanna, and they sent someone out late afternoon. It sounded like it was lighting, but then shut down quickly. Error code suggested it could not verify the flame, so possibly a sensor problem. Turned out to be the exhaust vent was blocked. And the reason for that was that the cover fell off during the tree work, and I put it back on wrong. Stupid mistake on my part, one I could have easily fixed had I took a look at it, and one I should have thought of given that it had happened once before (blockage then was leaves and crap, which I did verify wasn't the case this time). Cost us $150. Not sure whether to blame myself for not fixing it myself, or compliment myself for getting it fixed quickly. Laura won't fault me on that score.

I posted a backdated Music Week last night, along with some Iran war updates to Loose Tabs. We watched a Brazilian movie, Secret Agent, which was very long, hard to follow or sustain much interest in, although I suppose it made some sense in the end. Laura has an Iranian movie she also wants to watch, so I suppose I'm stuck with it today. I had thoughts about a Substack post, but now I'm thinking that I should perhaps sit this war out and start work on the Weird book. I'm getting lots of ideas from Furious Minds, although it's hard not to simply dismiss these people as stupid and/or evil. Still cold. I have dentist on Thursday, and may just lay low until then.

Email (26 messages):

• Hanna receipt: $150.
• Substack stats for February: 91 (+2) subscribers, 7 (-116) reads. "Most of your subscribers are coming from post footer calls to action."
• American Dental appointment confirmation: Thursday, Mar. 5, 2PM. They're also annoying me with texts to confirm.
• TomDispatch: Beverly Gologorsky, Power, What Is It? Or: Why Guns? From Personal Power to Autocracy in Donald Trump's America.
• New Substack subscriber.

Daily Log

Slept a lot the last two days. Not sure about yesterday, as the clock had turned over before I got up around 2PM, but counting that overflow, I wound up with 663 minutes today. Came downstairs at 12:30. House was cold, so I checked the furnace. Flashing error numbers 13, which I think means that the lighting sequence thinks it failed so shuts down. When I listen to it, it sounds to me like it's lighting, but it turns off after a few seconds. I called Hanna to get service. Afterwards, it seemed like it did finally put some heat out, raising the kitchen thermometer from 66 to 67. Number 13 is still on. I'll wait for service. Meanwhile, I'm stting at computer, with an electric space heater on.

I'm feeling reasonably ok today. I still reserve the right to be grumpy and depressed. But I am thinking I'll postdate a February Music Week. I have a lot of unpacking/cataloguing undone, so I can skip that. I still haven't really looked at the war news. Laura tells me that Kuwait shot down three US F-15 aircraft. Also that they're worried about running out of bombs in 30-45 days.

Email (28 messages):

• Library: 2 books not renewed, so due March 5. I haven't read either.

Daily Log

Woke up about 7, with Chuck Berry songs in my head. When I sat up, I felt nauseous. I moved the trash can closer to my target zone. I felt some chugging and passed gas, but managed to contain myself. Temperature was 99.7F. I went to the bathroom, and read uneasily a bit. I came back to bed, and read a couple more pages, before going back to sleep. I slept until 2, with the same Chuck Berry songs. I got up, trudged back to the bathroom, read a bit more. I needed a shower, so I risked that, keeping it brief, chilling a bit despite the space heater. I started to feel heaves again, and considered lowering myself to the floor, but they passed. I went back to bed, but didn't try to sleep. Couldn't read much, either. Fever was up to 100.7F. After a while, I finished dressing and trudged downstairs, with my book and water. Finally took my "morning" pills shortly before 4PM. I made a lighter-than-usual version of my standard breakfast (yogurt with raisins, washed down with Diet Coke).

I realized that February was done yesterday, and that today would be March 1. My hopes for publishing a final Music Week in February dashed (although I could still post-date one). My hopes for putting out at least one new Substack newsletter were more completely dashed. Having taken acetominophen (at 7 & 3:30) and ibuprofen (just now), I'm not feeling terribly uncomfortable.

Email (10 messages):

• GoDaddy says notesoneverydaylife.com expires on 3/15.
• TomDispatch: Tom Engelhardt, The President from Hell on One Hell of a Planet

1. Little Peggy March, "I Will Follow Him"
2. Diane Renay, "Navy Blue"
3. Rosie and the Originals, "Angel Baby"
4. Fontella Bass, "Rescue Me"
5. Skeeter Davis, "The End of the World"
6. Barbara Mason, "Yes, I'm Ready" (1965)
7. Jody Miller, "Queen of the House"
8. Jeannie C Riley, "Harper Valley PTA"
9. Gale Garnett, "Sing in the Sunshine"
10. Kathy Young & the Innocents, "A Thousand Stars"
11. Kathy Linden, "Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye"
12. The Paris Sisters, "I Love How You Love Me"
13. The Toys, "A Lover's Concerto"
14. The Murmaids, "Popsicles and Icicles"
15. Lulu, "To Sir With Love"
16. Merilee Rush, "Angel of the Morning"
17. The Gentrys, "Keep on Dancing"
18. Bobby Fuller Four, "I Fought the Law"
19. The Grassroots, "Let's Live for Today"
20. The Human Beinz, "Nobody but Me"
21. Count Five, "Psychotic Reaction"
22. The Cowsills, "Rain"
23. The Castaways, "Liar Liar"
24. The Cyrkle, "Turn Down Day"
25. The Troggs, "Love Is All Around"
26. Bruce Chanel, "Hey Hey Baby"
27. Merilee Rush, "Angel of the Morning"
28. The Royal Guardsen, "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron"
29. Status Quo, "Pictures of Matchstick Men"
30. The Trashmen, "Surfin' Word"

Music Week

Expanded blog post, February archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 38 albums, 2 A-list

Music: Current count 45603 [45565] rated (+38), 11 [27] unrated (-16).

New records reviewed this week:

• Michael Aadal: Aggressive Hymns, Energetic Ballads (2025 [2026], Losen): [cd]: B+(***)
• Joshua Achiron: Climbing (2026, Calligram): [cd]: B+(**)
• Naseem Alatrash: Bright Colors on a Dark Canvas (2025 [2026], Levantine Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Eddie Allen's Push: Rhythm People (2023 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Courtney Marie Andrews: Valentine (2026, Loose Future): [sp]: B+(*)
• Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite (2024 [2026], Pyroclastic): [cd]: B+(***)
• Hilary Duff: Luck . . . or Something (2026, Atlantic): [sp]: B+(**)
• Gaudi: Jazz Gone Dub (2025, Dubmission): [sp]: B+(**)
• Gogol Bordello: We Mean It, Man! (2026, Gogol): [sp]: B+(***)
• Andy Haas: In Praise of Insomnia (2025 [2026], Resonant Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Hemlocke Springs: The Apple Tree Under the Sea (2026, AWAL): [sp]: B+(***)
• Chris Madsen/Dana Hall/Clark Sommers: Threefold (2025 [2026], Calligram): [cd]: B+(***) [03-06]
• Joyce Manor: I Used to Go to This Bar (2026, Epitaph, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
• Gil Livni: All In (2024-25 [2026], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
• Luke Marantz/Simon Jermyn: Echoes (2025 [2026], Chill Tone): [cd]: B+(**)
• Bruno Mars: The Romantic (2026, Atlantic): [sp]: B+(*)
• Megan Moroney: Cloud 9 (2026, Columbia Nashville): [sp]: B+(***)
• Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon: As of Now (2026, Lex): [sp]: A-
• Kate Olson: So It Goes (2025 [2026], OA2): [cd]: B+(***)
• The Paranoid Style: Known Associates (2026, Bar/None): [sp]: A-
• Pony: Clearly Cursed (2026, Take This to Heart): [sp]: B+(**)
• Brad Schrader: Late Nights With Brad Schrader (2025, self-released): [cd]: B
• Noé Sécula/Jorge Rossy: A Sphere Between Other Obsessions (2023 [2026], Fresh Sound New Talent): [bc]: B+(*)
• Dave Stryker: Blue Fire: The Van Gelder Session (2025 [2026], Strikezone): [cd]: B+(**)
• Mattias Svensson: Embrace (2022 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Craig Taborn: Dream Archives (2024 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(*)
• Vance Thompson: Lost and Found (2024 [2026], Moondo): [cd]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Easter Island Suite (1989-2024 [2026], Acoustical Concepts): [cd]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Phil Collins: Face Value (1981, Atlantic): [sp]: B
• The Damned: Damned Damned Damned (1977, Stiff): [yt]: B+(**)
• New Edition (New Edition (1984, MCA): [sp]: B+(**)
• The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story: 1949-1957 (1949-57 [1993], Epic/Legacy, 3CD): [sp]: B+(***)
• Rosé: Rosie (2024, The Black Label/Atlantic): [sp]: B+(*)
• Neil Sedaka: Sings His Greatest Hits (1958-62 [1963], RCA): [yt]: B+(***)
• Neil Sedaka: Neil Sedaka and the Tokens (1956-57 [1963], Guest Star): [sp]: B
• Neil Sedaka: Sedaka's Back (1972-73 [1974], Rocket): [sp]: B+(*)

Unpacking: I have stuff but haven't logged it yet.

Daily Log

Had to get up early, as the tree guy agreed to come over around 9. I woke up around 7. Tried going back to sleep, but didn't get much until 8:30. He showed up a couple minutes early, and wanted the car moved. By then, Laura had informed me that Trump had started WWIII. Nominally, it's just him bombing Iran, but that's how these things start. Another "day of infamy." Clearly, we can't say this enough, but this war was totally avoidable — even as late as yesterday, but more critically had the US had the good sense to get over their support for the Shah in 1953 and 1979. Also to realize that Israel had been secured with the 1979 peace agreement with Egypt (which could have been had 10 years earlier, and which Begin negotiated in bad faith, as was shown by his Lebanon wars). Also if Clinton hadn't sided with Barak in scuttling Oslo, while Bush gave Sharon a green light to expand the settlements, and cover by launching insane wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. (Still, even Bush demurred the "real men go to Tehran" taunts.)

Loose Tabs went up last night. I need to update it with the correct date, and to add the table of contents. I will, of course, need to add more on Iran, but I haven't started yet, and might as well tend to my tree work first. Started the day playing Elmore James, then Louis Jordan, both of which helped.

Email (21 messages, some leftover from Friday):

• New NOEL subscriber.

Daily Log

Sleep uninteresting. Read some, about the "1776 Project," then came down after 11. Spotify suggested the new Bruno Mars album, so I gave it a spin. Another nice day. One thing I would like to do is to reassemble my gas grill. I can't figure out what the problem is. It's possible the piezoelectric starter has a broken wire. I haven't been able to take it apart, or get a good look. Otherwise, I have everything pretty clean, except perhaps the manifold, which is pretty well sealed. I have some long, thin wire brushes I can use to make sure the gas flows are open. I have a freshly-filled tank. At this point, my feeling is that all I can do is to put it back together and try to fire it up. If that fails, I'll trash it. It wouldn't be a problem to buy a new one, but I'm not sure I want to go with gas again, and I don't often feel the need for an outside grill. I still have a smoker, but haven't used it in decades. I've thought about getting an electric smoker, but haven't felt compelled. At this point it's more important to just clean up the excess clutter, so I might just see how much I can live without, before reinvesting.

I didn't get Loose Tabs posted yesterday, but it's looking pretty good. I'm thinking as I go back over it today, I'll write up a companion Substack post, with a few excerpts and meta notes. I'm way overdue to send something out, and it's a readymade. I heard back from the tree guy, who's agreed to Saturday. Started a new jigsaw puzzle, but I'm not into it yet.

Email (44 messages):

• Chuck Eddy on voting (or not) for Mariah Carey for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I've never given any serious thought to RRHOF, although I have thought a lot about Baseball and Jazz, and I even took a shot once at the original everything HOF, so it might be an amusing diversion. I had to look this up, but I have 3 Carey albums rated (B, B-, B; the low grade is for #1's). Sure, she's sold a ton of records, but none to me.
• Chuck Eddy also wrote "What You Get is No Tomorrow," which has more RRHOF

Eddy said that the 17 RRHOF nominees are "easy to lookup," then offered a link that didn't make it easy enough. As best I can figure out, the nominees are:

Daily Log

Slept a little over six hours, with low pressures, 0.0 AHI, very little leak. Got up after 11, and came down just before noon. Laura has hearing test this afternoon, so we'll go out for that. Probably get sushi for dinner. Weather is nice, forecasting 65F high today, 74 on Friday and Sunday, but then a cold front blows through, with high dropping to 53 and rain possible. Tree guy is scheduled for Sunday, so I'm wondering whether he might want to move it up to Saturday. (I sent Wolf a text.)

Hoping to get Loose Tabs posted today. I think it's close, but these things never wrap up perfectly.

Email (35 messages):

• TomDispatch: Robert Lipsyte Is Waiting for ICE.

Main computer crashed again, with the window manager hanging, then going berserk. I restarted it, without much loss. In the meantime, I tried figuring out why the other computer isn't working. Looks like no keyboard input. I tried swapping the cable, which has proven to be flaky before I moved the keyboard off my main computer. I got nothing. I brought a crappy old keyboard up from downstairs, and plugging it in did nothing. I rebooted, and it came up ok. I should probably retest with the expensive keyboard before I trash it.

I ordered Air Bear filters for the house, and 4 large Sterlite baskets to help move things around. Last time I was able to order a box of six, but best I could do this time was 2 boxes of 2. I have quite a few of them now, but most are filled up with crap, and it's very helpful to have an empty one. One project I hope to do soon is to go through the saved manuals, register them, and throw most of them out (especially as most are available online). This will go into my memoir pile, which is a project I need to finally get off the ground next week.

Loose Tabs

Pick up text from here.

Daily Log

Woke up around 7, but went right back to bed, and slept until 11. Read some. Weighed myself at 217.8. Came down around noon. Dentist appointment (routine cleaning) today at 2. Laura wants me to go to grocery store after. Then we'll pick up Ram and go out for belated birthday dinner somewhere. Her initial suggestion was PF Chang's, but she seems undecided at the moment. Lots of Loose Tabs written, so it shouldn't be too hard to wrap it up. Weather is fairly mild, but I'll probably spend most of the day on the computer.

Email (29 messages): doesn't look like much.

• Eliane Radiague died (1932-2026).
• Mike Konczal: Sending in the TANKs Against Citrini's AI Doomerism.

Dentist decided I need a crown, to replace some failing fillings. Appointment is for next Thursday, March 5. We went to dinner with Ram at PF Chang's.

Daily Log

Woke up several time, but ultimately logged a fair night's sleep. I did make a deal with Donald Wolf (Quality Tree Services) to work on the tree. He drives a truck during the week, but has weekends free, so will come over Sunday morning. I figure this gives me license not to think about the roof until next week, so that's one mental burden postponed. Also postponed will be posting Loose Tabs, at least until Thursday. That will give tonight's State of the Union speech a couple days to sink in, which should be sinking enough. First thought was Wednesday, but I have dentist in the afternoon, and we have dinner with Ram after that.

Meanwhile, I've started to think a bit about music for the car, a portable MP3 player, and some sort of online jukebox. I've long wanted the latter, but none of the available software packages have much appeal. I know that Christgau keeps all of his recently reviewed albums in a big iTunes database. That seems like a good idea, except for Apple. I had a little iPad at one point, but gave it away after I lost the ability to sync it with my computer. I never did much with it anyway, but I should be able to connect a MP3 player in the car (either using the USB port or Bluetooth), which might give me an audio source comparable to my old travel cases. Not sure what else is on the agenda this week. It does seem likely to warm up a bit, but for now Loose Tabs is keeping me busy.

Email (24 messages):

• TomDispatch: Nick Turse, Donald Trump's Death Cards
• RiotRiot: Takes by the Ocean: lots of new stuff here.

Daily Log

Woke up around 9:30. Read some, and came down about 10:30. Noise as the house next door is having its ducts vacuumed. Had a package on the porch, and a bundle of promo CDs. For a long time, weekends were just like any other days, in that I did the same work — if anything, my Sunday Speaking of Which posts intensified it. But lately, weekends have become a respite from having to deal with the world, especially the business world. Mondays, on the other hand, appear as obligations to get things done. I need to get the tree trimmed. I need to decide about roof treatments. I need to take the car in for "service." I need to figure out what to do about music in the car. Laura wants to take the dog for a nail trim. I have dentist on Wednesday. We also have dinner with Ram on Wednesday. And there's always "death and taxes." Well, taxes, anyway.

Main project today will be working on Loose Tabs. I should also open up the Weird Book file, if only for note-taking. The Field book is generating lots of thoughts.

Email (light so far, 11 messages):

• Dental appointment, Wednesday, 2PM.

I want to set up a Linux jukebox program. I'd like to be able to store hundreds or thousands of CDs, and use them as a jukebox over my local network. I also want to be able to manage a portable MP3 player for my car and travel, and to be able to burn CDs on demand. The main options appear to be:

1. Rhythmbox: GNOME-based
2. Clementine
3. Amarok: KDE-based
4. Brasero: best for burning
5. Strawberry: branch of Clementine

Daily Log

Woke up around 10:30, but didn't come downstairs until noon. Reading about Michael Anton and the "Journal of American Greatness" in Furious Minds. There's a quote (p. 67, actually about a JAG piece by Jason Krein) there that I could imagine building a Substack piece around:

Krein's language throughout his post is fervent, revolutionary, and conspiratorial. The thrust of the argument is that the global managerial elite is exploitative, actively seeks to dominate, and so is ruthlessly destroying the American way of life and must be stopped. As Krein acknowledges, [Sam] Francis's approach contains a strong element of Neo-Marxism. "The managerial class," he writes, "is inevitably impelled by its internal logic to seek the destruction of any intermediating institutions, ultimately and especially the family, the homogenization, delegitimization, and eradication of culture, and the levelling, regimentation, and dehumanizing of all society." The true task of Trumpism, according to Krein, is the "destruction of the soulless managerial class, a task inseparable from the assertion of a healthier culture and a stronger elite in its place." His programmatic recommendation reads: "The political project of supreme importance is therefore the transformation of passive Middle Americans into a new ruling elite, while the ideological project of supreme significance is the formulation of a new nationalism which will justify that political project."

Couple points here:

1. The reactionary revolt of owners against managers kicked off in the 1970s, and had turned into a complete rout by 1990, so intellectuals like Krein were drafting a trend rather than leading it.
2. The rise of the "managerial class," which largely took place after the New Deal — capitalism has largely been discredited during the Great Depression, but business made a strong recovery during WWII and its aftermath, in a new context with a much larger government and more regulatory oversight (plus high marginal taxes) — was never a threat to traditional American culture (except to the limited extent that racism and nativism was seen as bad for increasingly globalized business).
3. Whatever was driving the cultural trends they so fear, it wasn't their hallucinated conspiracies. I'd ascribe those cultural shifts to a broad-based bottom-up movement based on an increasing sense of equality, abundance, and freedom, which led lots of different people, especially from the lower- and middle-classes, to assert their own individuality.
4. No right-winger ever has wanted to "transform passive Middle Americans into a new ruling elite." Like the Bolsheviks, they only imagined themselves as the vanguard seizing power in the name of people they otherwise had no regard for.
5. But they were certainly right that nationalism was the hook for rallying the broad base of voters needed to win any sort of election. Nationalism works by offering a false sense of community and solidarity, tied to a few jingoistic symbols that the elites can easily manipulate.

We went to Vora Restaurant European for dinner today, ostensibly for Laura's birthday. Our first time there, a fairly upscale bistro. We had the calimari and saganaki for appetizers, shrimp bisque and French onion soup, osso bucco and beef stroganoff, a chocolate creme brulee and a pistacchio cream cake. It was all exceptionally good, although the saganaki missed the mark (they wrapped feta in phyllo before frying it, then coated it with a honey sauce and served it with a kalamata tapenade), and the creme brulee came off closer to chocolate mousse. Laura's "official" birthday dinner will be later this week, when Ram is available.

Starting the cutover to turn the Loose Tabs draft file into a blog post. I'm picking Feb. 24 as the target posting date, which will be one month after the previous Loose Tabs.

Email (15 messages):

• Christian Iszchak: An Acute Case: two unheard albums, only one from 2026.
• Semipop Life: Comic songs
• TomDispatch: Alfred McCoy, Accelerating American (and Planetary) Decline

Daily Log

Woke up around 10:30. Read about Strauss and Jaffa in Furious Minds. I spent most of yesterday writing my answers to two recent questions. The Christgau taste comparison one is probably done, good enough for now (although at the moment I'm still thinking about my 1990s decision not to review African music). The other question could still use more work on the uses of disgruntlement for redirection. The net result was that I didn't even start with the introduction, so all that remains for today. The other major consideration is that today's is Laura's 81st birthday. She attempted to schedule a dinner with Ram, but that won't happen until later this week. Meanwhile, we probably will go out for dinner tonight.

Still cold. Laura wanted to go to Immediate Care yesterday, and we saw some snow on the way out. Car thermo read 41°F, but it was surely colder than that. No accumulation, and it's sunny today.

Email (6 messages):

• Robert Wright: "Winning the AI race" could be bad for the world. As far as I'm concerned, the notion that there even is a race is bad.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, February archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 42 albums, 11 A-list

Music: Current count 45565 [45523] rated (+42), 27 [29] unrated (-2).

New records reviewed this week:

• Idris Ackamoor Ankhestra/Rhodessa Jones/Danny Glover: Artistic Being (2024 [2025], Strut): [sp]: B+(*)
• Thomas Anderson: Letters From the Hermit Kingdom (2026, Out There): [sp]: A-
• Eric Bibb: One Mississippi (2026, Repute): [sp]: B+(**)
• Zach Bryan: With Heaven on Top (2026, Belting Bronco/Warner): [sp]: A-
• Buck 65: Do Not Bend (2026, Handsmade): [bc]: B+(***)
• Cat Clyde: Live at Rare Bird Farm: A Benefit Album for Western North Carolina (2024 [2025], Socan Canada): [bc]: B+(**)
• Michael Dease With the MSU Jazz Trombones: Spartan Strong (2024 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Dry Cleaning: Secret Love (2026, 4AD): [sp]: B+(***)
• EsDeeKid: Rebel (2025, Lizzy/XV, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
• Michael Hampton: Into the Public Domain (2025, Sound Mind): [sp]: B+(**)
• Haley Heynderickx/Max García Conover: What of Our Nature (2025, Fat Possum): [sp]: B+(***)
• Jackzebra: Hunched Jack Mixtape (2025, Surf Gang): [sp]: B
• Liquid Mike: Hell Is an Airport (2025, AWAL): [sp]: B+(*)
• Mark Lomax II & the Urban Art Ensemble: The Unity Suite (2025 [2026], CFG Multimedia): [os]: A-
• Michael Moody: The Ecstasy of Love (2025 [2026], self-released): [cd]: B-
• Gasper Nali: Chule Chule Iwe (2025, Spare Dog): [sp]: A-
• Nandipha808: No Vocal Album (2025, Stena Academy): [sp]: A-
• Grant Peeples: Code to Live By (2025, Ping): [sp]: A-
• Kojey Radical: Don't Look Down (2025, Warner/Asylum/Bellyempty): [sp]: B+(**)
• The Tomeka Reid Quartet: Dance! Skip! Hop! (2025 [2026], Out of Your Head): [cd]: A-
• Ren: Vincent's Tale (2026, Freckled Angels/Rebel Creator Services): [sp]: A-
• Ben Rosenblum: The Longest Way Round (2025 [2026], One Trick Dog): [cd]: B+(***) [02-27]
• Sault: Chapter 1 (2026, Forever Living Originals): [bc]: B+(**)
• Slut Intent: Slutworld (2026, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
• Time Cow: Scaring 1100 Chickens to Death (2025, Kullijhan): [sp]: B+(*)
• Eri Yamamoto/Matthew Shipp: Horizon (2025, Mahakala Music): [bc]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Dub Syndicate: Obscured by Version (1989-96 [2025], On-U Sound): [sp]: B+(***)
• Doug MacDonald Trio: Live in Beverly Hills (2012 [2026], DMAC Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Paul Ricci: The Path (1996-2021 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Bo Carter: Banana in Your Fruit Basket: Red Hot Blues, 1931-1936 (1931-36 [1991], Yazoo): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bo Carter: Twist It Babe 1931-1940 (1931-40 [1992], Yazoo): [sp]: B+(**)
• Nanook: Ilutsinniit Apuussilluta (2022, Atlantic Music): [sp]: B+(*)
• Grant Peeples: It's Later Than You Think (2008, self-released): [sp]: A-
• Grant Peeples: Pawnshop (2009, GatorBone): [sp]: B+(***)
• Grant Peeples: Okra and Ecclesiastes (2011, GatorBone): [sp]: B+(**)
• Grant Peeples: Prior Convictions (2012, GatorBone): [bc]: B+(**)
• Grant Peeples and the Peeples Republik: Punishing the Myth (2014, GatorBone): [sp]: B+(***)
• Sarah Mac and Grant Peeples: Live at Mockingbird (2013, self-releasd): [bc]: A-
• Grant Peeples: A Congress of Treasons (2016, GatorBone): [sp]: B+(*)
• The Roots of Rap: Classic Recordings From the 1920's and 30's (1926-36 [1996], Yazoo): [sp]: B+(***)
• Charlie Spand: Dreaming the Blues: The Best of Charlie Spand (1929-31 [2002], Yazoo): [sp]: B+(**)
• St. Louis Town 1929-1932 (1929-32 [1992], Yazoo): [sp]: B+(**)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Tommy Womack: Live a Little (2025, Schoolkids): [sp]: [was: B+(***)] A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Joshua Achiron: Climbing (Calligram) [03-06]
• Daggerboard: The Skipper and Mike Clark (Wide Hive) [03-06]
• Andy Haas: In Praise of Insomnia (Resonant Music) []
• Peter Furlan: The Peter Furlan Project Live at Maureen's Jazz Cellar (Beany Bops) [01-26]
• Chris Madsen/Dana Hall/Clark Sommers: Threefold (Calligram) [03-06]
• Karen Stachel, Norbert Stachel & LehCats: Live @ the Breakroom With Giovanni Hidalgo (Purple Room Productions, 2CD): [03-20]

Daily Log

Woke up around 10:20. Fairly decent night's sleep. Started reading Laura Field's Furious Minds, where she tries to categorize the various flavors of right-wing intellectualism. I find myself arguing with much of her terminology, which should eventually feed into me writing up my own. It's really just a struggle for power, where power is much more important to the right than to the left, because power is the only way they can sustain inequality. "States rights" wasn't ever a principle; it was only a tactic, useful when you controlled states but not the federal government. Right now, the "unitary presidency" is paramount, because they control that. Give us another president, and their focus will shift to the Supreme Court, and back to the states.

I should probably knock out Music Week today. I have sufficient data. (I just ran make, and have +40 rated.) Then I can move Loose Tabs into a blog file, and wrap it up before next Music Week.

Email (35 messages):

• Chuck Eddy: They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies. He's talking about Matty Wishnow's Christgau documentary, The Last Critic, which he was interviewed for. As he lives in Austin, he'll be on hand for the SWSX showing, and a "short Q&A." A year ago, Wishnow approached me about an interview, but he didn't seem to be serious, and we never settled on a date for a Zoom session. Maybe he was warned I'd be a bad interview? Presumably at some point Christgau will want to do some promotion, but I haven't heard anything yet from him, or Wishnow.

Daily Log

Woke up around 7. Had some problems with CPAP machine, including one involving the tank coming loose, which shut it down. I never really got back to sleep again. Finally got up a little after 9, and finished reading the 7 Cheap Things book. Mixed feelings about it. The drive to cheapness is certainly true and profound, but depends on an inability or unwillingness to accept any motives other than profit. The notion of a "capitalist ecology" also seems profound, but how much does it really say? The conclusion on the "five R's" (Recognition, Reparation, Redistribution, Reimagination, Recreation) doesn't offer much. I find it difficult to seriously credit any discussion of Reparations, either on practical political grounds or as philosophy.

Balked yesterday about hiring out the tree work. I may put it off until next week. Laura has hearing test today, so we'll probably take the afternoon off for that. I've started to play 2026 new jazz albums, for lack of anything better to play. Music Week is piling up, as is Loose Tabs, and I've been adding things to the EOY Aggregate, so lots of busy work. I'm writing a q&a comparing my taste to Christgau's, which I want to get done before posting Music Week. No one seems to have noticed the latter's absence, so I'm feeling very little incentive to deliver anything.

Email (29 messages):

• Semipop Life: 20 years, 20 K-pop songs.
• Hillside Medical: Your Visit Summary (but where is it?).
• Mike Konczal: Three Ways Terminal AI Has Changed How I Work (And Whether It's Coming for My Job): How terminal AI compresses setup, robustness checks, and iteration without replacing judgment, and whether Olivia Rodrigo caused the inflation wave.
• Farmers Insurance "final payment reminder." I figured Laura would take care of that, but evidently I'm going to have to do something. I never got a reply back from the guy I wrote about roof coatings.
• American Dental appointment reminder: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2 PM.
• Senator Marshall sent information on passport renewal, with an offer to help. A reminder of something we should do.
• Robert Wright has started "Nonzero Network," which is a discounted bundling of Substack newsletters.

Daily Log

Got up around 9. Had to come downstairs to find a bathroom. Read some, then went back up, and tried to sleep again. Woke up at noon, with 453 minutes, good readings on everything else. I meant to call the tree guy yesterday, but didn't, so maybe today. I'm not looking forward to it, but it should be done, and I don't feel like shopping around. Skipped Music Week again, although I spent much of the day adding lists to the EOY Aggregate, and I played a few things. I'm thinking about writing an answer to the Christgau friendship query. My idea about writing "missing" CG columns still has some appeal. When I was looking up the Wichita Rabbis quotes, I ran across a Dean Martin review that I thought was pretty good. Also did scattered Loose Tabs. Jesse Jackson died.

Email (25 messages):

• Xgau Sez: Health note ("completely recovered from prostate aquablation, a notoriously slow-healing procedure for old men"); asked about new Davis and Coltrane reissues, he's pushing Charlie Parker; questioning The Damned; old Okeh compilations; all-time favorite album? Monk's Misterioso, The Beatles Second Album, The Rolling Stones Now, some Louis Armstrong, maybe Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
• Substack is pushing "Polymarket embeds." File under enshittification.

Daily Log

Slept past noon today, over 500 minutes. I woke up several times, my mouth very dry, but didn't get up, and able to go back to sleep after resetting the mask. Overcast outside, looking gloomy, but 62F, so not cold. I didn't work on Music Week yesterday. We went out for Laura'a dentist appointment. I went on to the doctor's office for my anemia panel. We picked up some groceries at Dillons, then went to the eye doctor's office to adjust Laura's glasses, and to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Killed the afternoon. I heated up leftovers for dinner. I missed a phone call from Thelma, but called her back, and we talked a long time. Turns out she's moved to Murfeesboro, Tennessee, near Nashville. I continued adding items to Loose Tabs. I should move on to the Weird Book.

Email (30 messages):

• Mike Konczal: Where I've been lately.
• Hillside Medical: Looks like anemia panel didn't find anything untoward.
• Farmers Insurance payment approved.

Daily Log

Woke up at 9:30. Tried going back to bed, but couldn't sleep, so wound up logging just under six hours, a 95. Read about "cheap work." Came down at 11, and started the day off with yesterday's R&B Box disc (starts with Ray Charles). Yesterday we went to a GLC dinner and speech by Moti Rieber, a reconstructionist rabbi who had lived in Wichita during the early 2000s. He has since moved to the Kansas City area, and has been active in "interfaith" left-leaning political lobbying. Laura has followed his evolution from classical Israel loyalist to genocide critic. This was his topic last night, and he did a pretty good job of outlining the history of Judaism, Anti-Semitism, and Zionism starting with the Roman era. I might have quibbled with a few of the details, or wished for some further elaboration and clarification, but his accounting made sense, as did his eventual moral reasoning.

Rieber was one of three Wichita rabbis who organized an "interfaith" trip to Israel in the mid-2000s. They organized and chaperoned a tour of the Holy Land, with local representatives of the Christian and Muslim faiths: the former was represented by the Rev. Sam Muyskens (who led a prominent "interfaith" group at the time) and his wife; the latter was represented by three lay members (not theologians or clerics), who happened to be civil servants (two Arab-Americans worked for the police; the third, from Iran, worked for the water department). On their return, they organized a confab to rhapsodize about their "interfaith" experiences. Everyone tried to be positive, until a question was raised about checkpoints, where the police took exception to the harsh and abusive treatment by young IDF recruits. Thus the secrets of apartheid and repression were let out of the bag, spoiling the hasbara spectacle.

Of the three rabbis, Davis was the main one (Temple Em-anuel), a classic pro-Israel liberal, with Rieber slightly to his left, and Wernick staunchly to his right. I thought I had written about this event at the time, but was unable to find mention of Rieber in my notebook. I did, however, find the following:

• June 2, 2004: A fairly long disquisition drawing on a letter from "a Wichita rabbi [who] protested the demonstration, and especially some of the terminology used in the postings." As I noted at the time, "One of the signatures of debate over how to achieve peace in the Israel/Palestine conflict is how little semantic difference it takes to render communication impossible between sides." There is much in this note that is still worth pondering today. For example:

  Israel's apologists are unable or unwilling to distinguish between the past and the present, because they are stuck in their past. They still feel haunted by centuries of persecution. They still insist that Israel is facing a struggle to exist. They are able to persist in those convictions because they can more or less plausibly point to opponents who mirror their views; indeed, the Israelis' ability to project their story seems to have such an impression on the Palestinians that the Palestinian story comes back as an echo: most obviously, substitute Nakba for Holocaust. Israel has provided the Palestinians with the concept of a people hated and tormented by the whole world, Israel has given them a taste of what such an implaccable foe feels like, and Israel has given them a model of the need to stand and fight, even to the point of martyrdom (or Masada-dom). And any time the Palestinians do fight back, that just reinforces Israel's story.

  My reference to "Masada-dom" looks close to prescient 19 years before the mass suicide attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Rieber took the usual pains to condemn that uprising as a criminal act, and I don't disagree, but he was also clear that the conflict didn't start then, and that Israel had other options than the genocide its political organization launched.

• January 27, 2005: When Wichita State University's Ulrich Museum arranged for a presentation of the work of Palestinian-American artist Emily Jacir, the pro-Israeli came out en masse to protest. I wrote about these events at some length, including a letter from Rabbi Nissim Wernick, who "found it outrageously inflammatory and blatantly false." (Much of the focus of the art was on Palestinian villages that had been erased after 1948, with further attention to the checkpoints installed since the 1968 war. I describe the art in some details herein, which has much more subtlety and nuance than Wernick can dare acknowledge, or possibly even conceive of.) I followed this up with reports on July 28 and July 29. By then Iraq had turned into a major fiasco, so that weighs into my thinking. Much of interest here. Consider this paragraph where I look for larger patterns (which, by definition, disregard the conceit that Jews and Israelis are singularly perpetual victims, and therefore entitled to defenses that trample on the rights of everyone else):

  If we were to make a comparative study of colonial settler movements, we would find many failures and a few successes. One major success was the United States, where the native population was reduced over 90% and crowded into tiny patches of relatively undesirable (especially for agricultural purposes) land. There are many reasons why the Zionists face a much more difficult task, but two are likely to be their undoing: the immigrant Americans figured when to stop pressuring the natives, and the national identity of the U.S. was flexible and inclusive enough to permit Indians to leave their reservations and circulate in the larger society. These points provided a way to break out of the struggle, saving the Native Americans from extermination and/or saving immigrant Americans from perpetual war. Israel's identity as a Jewish/Democratic state makes this very difficult. The non-Jewish population under Israeli control is close to 50%, and trending against the Jews. On the other hand, Israel's military dominance is so complete that they can enforce the status quo indefinitely, so why should they let up? Who's going to make them? Any local revolt can be met with withering force. No external power can or would challenge them. And political logic, the almost automatic resort to force against fear, makes it virtually impossible for them to reform themselves.

  In recent years, it's become common to view Israel as a "white settler colony." This is often taken as a moral rebuke, not all that unjustly, but the interesting point is to use this as a prism for making comparisons: which colonies succeeded or failed; what made the difference between success and failure; and how did both natives and settlers adjust to success and failure?

• August 20, 2006: I copied a letter from Rabbi Michael Davis, published in the Wichita Eagle, and followed it with a response I wrote (framed as a letter to the Eagle, but too long for their attention span). This was dated a week into Israel's war against Lebanon, where I noted that Hezbollah rockets had killed 44 Israelis, while Israel's bombing had killed over 1,100 Lebanese. If you scroll down in the file, you'll see that I posted notes on Israel's warmaking, going back well into July. For instance, on July 25, I cited a report that "IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz had ordered the military to destroy 10 buildings in Beirut in retaliation to every Katyusha rocket strike on Haifa," and referred to a Billmon piece on "War by Tantrum":

  As Billmon notes, the Romans had rules like that. As he doesn't note, so did the Nazis. All three reflect blind faith in absolute violence, the belief that any problem can be solved by beating it to death. There are lots of problems with this. It shows the world that you have no scruples, but perhaps more importantly it shows that you don't know who your enemy is, so you're blindly flailing. The result is that you almost never actually hit anything that might do you some good, even if the theory worked, which mostly it doesn't. For example, in 2001-02, Israel blamed all suicide bombers on Yasser Arafat. Hamas would blow something up, so Israel would take it out on Arafat. That hardly discouraged Hamas, at least until they saw that every time Israel kicked Arafat his popularity went up.

  We keep reading about behaviorism -- the idea that you can train a dog or a child to behave by hitting him when he misbehaves. Well, sometimes that works, but sometimes it just makes him scared or skittish or plain mean, and sometimes if he's big and clever enough he'll learn to hit you back, maybe even when you're not looking. But it never works if all you do is hit someone else. And the fact that you can't tell the difference or don't care isn't something he's going to compensate for.

Email (20 messages at 4:47PM):

• New Irreversible Entanglements album coming March 27.
• Wichita Public Library renewed two books, both now due March 5. Little chance I'm going to read anything significant in either (although I can surely think of some automation tasks for Python; I have pulled out my old copy of Python in a Nutshell, 2nd edition, so 2006).
• Gene Seymour on Robert Duvall.
• Phone call from Hillside Medical, wanting me to come back in for lab work, to run some kind of anemia screen. I went in this afternoon, and they took some blood. Earlier test results put hemoglobin below range, evidently not for the first time.
• Scrounging around Facebook, I saw a "people you may know" and send friend requests to Anita Bigelow and Michael Leiderman. I haven't done that for a while. Nor have I accepted many friend requests — I'm sitting on a few, mostly from people I don't know at all.

Daily Log

Woke up about 10:30, again. Read about "cheap things," then came down around 11:30. Discovered I hadn't written anything in yesterday's entry, so jotted down a couple lines. Replayed a disc from The R&B Box, worked in the jigsaw, and ate breakfast.

Email (8 messges):

• Current Affairs: Interview with Jamelle Bouie seems spot on: "the central danger facing American democracy is not mass apathy or popular authoritarianism, but a crisis of elite legitimacy and institutional misalignment with a public that has already changed more than its leaders realize."
• Project Syndicate: Some promising articles, including: Stephen Holmes: "Rubio's Silk-Stocking Diplomacy" ("the sugar-coated racism" delivered to the Munich Security Conference); Jonathan Levy: "The Future of American Hegemony" ("why episodes of social breakdown can preserve and even reinforce the existing order"); Erin Lockwood: "Will 'Sell America' End the Dollar's Hegemony"; Dani Rodrik: "The World Needs Europe to Get Its Act Together — Fast"; Yanis Varoufakis: "Elon Musk's $1.25 Trillion Mirage" ("the spectacularly specious valuation of the recent SpaceX-xAI merger"); Slavoj Zizek: "Trump the Rebel King" (his "dual status as both the top enforcer of US law and a de facto criminal gang leader").
• Hillside Medical: looked at lab results, read summary. Nothing very surprising: several measurements slightly under range, but all close to mark (except for always low HDL). Possible anemia? Blood sugar 111, A1C 5.7; former was flagged (reference range to 106), latter not.

I wrote up the Friday dinner in Facebook:

I went to the grocery store mid-week, with no real dinner plans, but I saw some cheap lamb that looked like a 2-inch cross section of leg, bone in the middle, and thought about making rogan josh. Last time I had it in a restaurant was severely lacking, leaving me wanting to make my own. I went back to the produce section, and picked up ginger, garlic, an eggplant, a cucumber, and tomatoes, and bought some extra yogurt and cream. I had a head of cabbage already, and some potatoes to use up. The plate below is what I came up with: the lamb up top, some paratha (which I had frozen), chick peas (canned, cooked in the lamb stock with tamarind), bharta (eggplant), cucumber raita, cabbage, and roast potatoes (which I thought would be more interesting than rice). Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Got 10 likes, a couple comments (from Jan & Josi).

Daily Log

Woke up about 10:30. Didn't write anything here (which allowed me to copy the template forward). Spent most of the day tacking things onto Loose Tabs. Got the interior started in a new jigsaw puzzle. It rained early. I was surprised the night before to hear thunder.

Email (7 messges):

• I put up a Bluesky notice for Dan Ex Machina's anti-ICE song Açaï/a>.
• GoDaddy: Domain name for tomhull.com needs to be renewed by 03-15.

Daily Log

Slept until noon. AHI was up to 3.5, and leaks were up, but I logged enough time for a 100 score. Lots of work to do today. I'm making rogan josh for Mike & Gretchen. I cut up the lamb and marinated it last night. Also made a bit of stock from the bones, but I'm not sure what I can/will do with that yet. I also made the cabbage side, and roasted an eggplant for bharta. I cut up strawberries and macerated them for strawberry shortcake. I'll need to bake the shortcakes this afternoon. First need to start the lamb cooking, then the eggplant (not a rush, as from this point it's mostly onions and tomatoes). I have a bag of small yellow potatoes, so I thought I'd skin them, dress them up with olive oil and spices, and roast them. I also need to mix up some raita. I figure I'll heat up some frozen paratha, and we'll have the usual condiments on hand. One idea for the lamb stock would be to cook dal or chick peas in it. I recently threw out a lot of old lentils, so I'm not sure what I have available, but I certainly have a can of chick peas. With whipped cream on the shortcake, that should work as a dinner.

Opened a planning document for the "weird" book. Nothing much in it yet. I figure the book proper will be in a LibreWriter file (draft file opened up back on September 6). That looks good enough to work from. I sent the file to the dinner guests, on the off chance that they might take a look at it.

Email (41 messages, but I probably won't get to most until tonight):

• GoDaddy auto renewal for tomhull.com ($21.99).
• Robert Wright: Trump + AI = ?: The case for hope.

Daily Log

Got up before 10. More than half way through Shivani's thin book. It's not very good, especially on Trump's appeal, which mostly boils down to Hillary's lack of appeal. Main takeaway so far is not to use "neoliberal" too much (which is to say, hardly at all). I have an appointment to see Dr. Tibbe at 2, so I'm pacing myself for that. Sneezing a bit, some sore throat, cough, none exceptionally bad. I think it makes sense to get a check up. I doubt anything is seriously wrong, but one should go through the motions (I think).

So nothing else need be done until then. Mike & Gretchen are coming over for dinner tomorrow night. I bought lamb, so will make shahi korma. I also have an eggplant and a head of cabbage, so that should be good for two sides. Dum aloo is also possible. For raita, I'd need a cucumber, or spinach, maybe a tomato. I could stop by the grocery store on the way back from doctor. When Gretchen offered to bring something, Laura suggested chocolate ice cream. I was planning on strawberry short cake. I may cook something tonight, just to get a step up on the side dishes. I'm undecided about rice.

Occurs to me that maybe I could do an Indian variation on roasted potatoes, like this one. The lamb will have its own gravy, so no need to cook potatoes in more gravy (as with dum aloo). I was looking at this when the computer went haywire. I rebooted, which took an alarmingly long time, but came up ok. I did a software update, which didn't require a reboot.

Email (33 messages):

• Ben A. Wajdi has been pestering us about writing a Wikipedia page for Robert Christgau's Book Reports. He has a company called Buland Enterprises, based in Austin. I finally wrote back to ask for rates. What the hell? I could do something like that. (I had a Wikipedia account long ago, and made a couple minor edits. I've long wanted to set up my own Mediawiki, which seems like a good tool for a couple of contemplated projects.)
• Intakt Records for March.
• TomDispatch: John Feffer, Trump Goes Rogue as a Globocop.
• I got a 2:45PM appointment confirmation from Hillside. I showed up for what I thought was a 2:00 appointment, but they had no record of it, so they worked me in. Nothing much to the session. Tibbe listened to my lungs, and thought they were pretty clear. He wrote a prescription for antibiotics, so I picked them up on the way home. I got a pneumonia vaccination, and they did the annual checkup labs. I walked off without my book, so had to circle back. Meanwhile, I went to Dillons to get a cucumber, onion, and tomatoes for tomorrow night's dinner. Stopped at Gyro Express on the way home.
• Laura sent me Allen Sepinwall's review of Dark Winds (Season 4). We haven't started it yet, but it's in the wings. We watched the first episode of Season 4 of The Lincoln Lawyer last night, and we're two episodes into Riot Women, and there are probably a couple more unfinished (like Astrid).
• Nice encouragment letter from a 25-year-old French reader.

Mar 2001