Wednesday is my day off from retail work, which makes it my designated day to record my parts for each week's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio and to try to get around to doing whatever else needs doing. I always run out out of Wednesday before I run out of Wednesday things to do.
The above boiler-plate introduction to This Week's Wednesday notwithstanding, it's become clear that I'm much better off trying to get my parts of recording the radio show completed and sent to Dana before Wednesday rolls around. Over the past few weeks, Dana and I tried out the practice of switching our playlist programming calls from Tuesday nights to Monday nights; that change is now permanent, though flexible depending upon whatever else complicates our schedule. After Monday's phone call, I finalized this week's playlist, then annotated the playlist and recorded my back announcements and patter during a break at work on Tuesday. It only took me a ten-minute session to record during the workday, and those recorded bits did not require any changes. I was able to send the folder to Dana before moving on to an interview I had scheduled for Tuesday night.
Tuesday night's interview was for my book Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, and it was a chat with 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong. It was my second interview with PA for this project, and it won't be the last, as I intend to speak with each of the group's members multiple times. An attempt to do this second interview last week was scotched by tech issues; the issues were more or less resolved in time for this week's stab at it, though user error on my part resulted in a failure to record the last twenty minutes of the conversation. I'm undaunted...well, only a little daunted. The project (and its learning curve) continues.
As we finally got around to this week's Wednesday, I had an 11:00 am appointment to get my snow tires put on. I had originally intended to do this two weeks ago--y'know, before the heavy snow periods commenced--but circumstances forced me to postpone. Lousy circumstances! Since the original date, I've had to fire up the ol' Cub Cadet to clear the driveway twice, shoveled the driveway manually one other occasion, and navigated two snowy 'n' slushy round-trip commutes that would have benefitted from more seasonally-appropriate treads. But now, my intrepid vehicle stands Syracuse winter-ready. Ramones on the radio, eyes on the road.
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| Fun fact! There is historical evidence that it snows in Syracuse. |
I opted to wait for the tire service rather than dropping my car off and picking it up later. In that situation, I might normally bring a book to read. Instead, I brought my spiral notebook and a ballpoint pen, and I resumed work on a new short story I started a few months back. Building upon the (I think) six paragraphs previously scribbled into my notebook, I wrote nineteen more paragraphs while sitting in the waiting room, all but finishing the story in the approximately 75 minutes it took the service folks to complete the job. I had a lot of the story in my head already, but it ain't real until it's on paper.
The story is "Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Battle Of The Band," continuing the foul-mouthed hijinks of the titular planet-hopping rock 'n' roll combo. This is my third story about the lad and lasses in Guitars Vs. Rayguns!!; unlike previous entries, I'm not going to try to sell this one to AHOY Comics. I think it's too long for AHOY's needs, so it's heading straight int the files for my upcoming short story anthology Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies, which I hope to transmogrify into book form this...Spring? Sure, Spring. Whatever.
Here's a taste of the newest story:
"The Hindenburg. Dresden. Hiroshima. Band practice. Oh, the fucking humanity.
"My planet-hoppin' rock 'n' roll group Guitars Vs Rayguns!! had just achieved a milestone. It was the first time we'd ever returned from an interstellar tour with all members of the band still alive. Yeah, even the drummer! Fuckin' KICKIN', man! Rock AND roll!
"Our sense of stupid-ass accomplishment was short-lived, as our bass player quit. It's funny that it's so hard for us to hang on to bassists and, y'know, drummists. The rhythm section is what keeps a band together, but Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! can't keep shit together. Granted, the high turnover rate in our percussion department is due to drummers presenting such a tempting target for drunken space-bar patrons when tempers get warm and rayguns are drawn. That's why our current drummer Leiko's been such an asset--she's short and she knows how to fucking duck when a lethal blast buzzes her way. But bass players? Bass players are just dippy...."
With snow tires duly mounted, I picked up my fresh supply of new comic books at Comix Zone and got back home around 1:00. Brenda and I needed to stop at a bunch of stores today, and we split our itinerary into two separate jaunts. Trip # 1 began at Five Below, moved to Target, doubled back to Panera for a late lunch, zoomed to Aldi, and finally brought all of our purchases back to Casa Cafarelli. Once those groceries and tchotchkes were put away, Trip # 2 sent us to Price Chopper to fulfill the rest of our shopping list. Back home again, I took some time to start typing up my new short story while swigging a Mexican Coca Cola, editing as I went. After a bit of that, we had a small supper of (delicious) leftover meatloaf sandwiches, later followed by cookies for dessert. Mmmm--cookies! Life is good.
Brenda and I watched a little TV before she ended her evening. I returned to the computer to finish the short story, import the transcription of Tuesday's Paul Armstrong interview, and also cut and paste "Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Battle Of The Band" into the master file for my short story collection.
In the ongoing annals of trying to make my Wednesdays productive, this week's Wednesday wasn't bad at all. But there's still more to do, much more to do. Let's see how next week's Wednesday meets that challenge.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here
