Catching up with June 2026

I've been playing "baseball" in the park with boyo. We have one of those foam bats and balls. He is still learning, but he seems to enjoy it. Not to the point of wanting to play actual organized sports (thank goodness) but to the point where other kids will come over and join. It all feels very wholesome.

Played a Cosmonox show at the Snug this weekend. I liked the venue's grody old-school Portland energy. When we got there, there was an unexpected early show (note to self: should book an early show there) with some very young people playing enthusiastic ramshackle pop music. I enjoyed it and felt like a senior citizen. Anyway, the late show came on and it was pretty uniformly great - people playing feedback cello and drums/sampler, us playing on the squawky card box, a guitar looper doing things that were actually interesting, and of course the latest evolution of the Vardaman Ensemble. The sound was particularly gnarly, but that has never stopped me, as you may know.

On the way home from the school bus this morning, crows were yelling at me. Caw, caw, all the way down the street! I pick some raspberries from the bush. (side note: all of our garden projects and fruit trees are succeeding in a way that makes me worry about this year's fire season) Then I turn around and a coyote is trotting along with a dead goose in its jaws. 

Speaking of senior citizens: If your Apple //c from junior high school is still chugging along (mine is), may I recommend to you the A2CDVI HDMI adapter from Joe's Computer Museum? It's a cheap way to get amazing image quality out of your forty-year-old computer as you continue to make album covers on it and play Total Replay during down moments.

 

Souled American

Public service announcement: If Souled American is playing in your town, see them. It looks like they're swinging through California, then the upper Midwest, then the Northeast.

I caught their show last night in Portland. I had seen them several years ago and wasn't sure what to think. It had been in some rock bar (Berbati's Pan, wow, how long has it been) and they had gone on late so I was halfway in dreamworld. But last night - hooray for early shows - I was on the right wavelength. I sat down in the balcony and after doing a few nervous crosswords, the music stopped and the band started playing. I could feel the universe's frames per second rate change. Slow, deliberate, human, stately, a little incomprehensible. 

I had always admired Joe Adducci's fretless bass playing on record, but it's magnificent to see it live and try to figure out what makes it work. I think by the end of the night I had deduced some basic patterns, but I wasn't close to cracking the code. There were things he did that did not appear to even make sound, yet seemed to be crucial. 

They had an "elegantly understated" t-shirt that just had their band name/wordmark on it in quarter-inch letters where the pocket would be on a pocket-T:

Souled american

I admire the commitment to minimalism, but I saw myself having to explain the spelling and capitalization choices to normies and decided to steer clear.  Kind of the opposite of the band shirts I wear the most, which don't even have a legible band name. And ultimately a band t-shirt should distract from my dad bod, not emphasize it. 

Rock Mix (Focus)

YouChoob Music in all of its wisdom promised me a "Rock Mix - Focus" that contained Rllrbll, Eternal Tapestry, Pere Ubu, some other stuff that I could conceivably use to promote focus. I click on it and get this:

I suppose throwing my speakers out the window when the Doors come on might result in a sort of focus?

The Minor Thirds / April recap

Friend of Tape Mountain Chris P./The Minor Thirds has a new single/suite/epic/minepic, a five-in-one called Reckless. I always like when Chris goes a little dark and this is no exception.

Things I did in April and early May:

Went to Seaside on the beach. I'd never been into Seaside, thinking it a little declasse, but looking at it with fresh eyes, it's compact and fun, the sort of place that's fun to walk around for a long time with a kid. The kid got a stuffed octopus. I was very pleased that he has assigned the cephalopod they/them pronouns.

Bought wine at a yard sale. I take a particular forbidden pleasure in buying weird wine at yard sales. This wine was much less weird and old (and spoiled) than some of my previous finds but still pretty tasty.

Played Dragon Quest IX. So twee, so silly. Lots of opportunities to dress up little ciphers in silly outfits. Run around doing repetitive tasks while riding the exercise bike. And even by DQ localization standards, this one is bonkers. Any game that shamelessly spits out lines like this is A-OK by me:

Success! The Top-Flight Knight Fight Quest has been transgressed with finesse!

Hung out at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park and hiked with the family in early spring. So nice. Everything endlessly blooming and budding. Critters aplenty for JL to gawk at. Need to head back there.

Went to a PTA convention (!) Was delighted to see that the only other bicyclist at the convention was our old housemate (and JL's friend for decades) James.

Logo parade: Telesecundaria

 For Guatemalan online middle school education. I like the CRT bump in the back!

Logo parade: Latinglow

I keep finding weird small-company logos and wanting to post them. Here's one:

Source

From the awesome Frontera Collection Song of the Week

Grab bag Feb/Mar 2026

My old bass bow is in pretty sad shape, so a friend is having me audition a carbon-fiber model from her luthier. I'm never going to be an arco superstar, but I have to admit that having a functioning bow is great. Playing low drones is physically very satisfying.

The other day when my boy stepped outside after the rain had stopped, he said, in the world's best, most sincere voice, "What a beautiful world!"

Last Saturday I went to get my windshield replaced (pro tip: don't choose the people your insurance company recommends) and since it would be a wait, I decided to walk from industrial Clackamas to see what "Riverside Park" was all about. I walked a half hour past endless Safeway distribution centers and found a peaceful spot on the river. I heard the plop of people casting their lines, plus, naturally, speedboats, while I read a book. 

Liz Gizzad!!!! Not to be confused with that King Quizzarth and the Glizzard Kuixarth, this was a band that put out a great 7" back in the day that was all about making a beat and a lot of over the top incomprehensible noise, sort of like a British version of certain bands I've been in. Music starts about 5 minutes in: