CareFREE drumming

April 22, 2024 6:59 PM

Junna's drumcover of Babymetal's Doki Doki Morning (It's your weekly free thread!)
posted by Gorgik (52 comments total)

Is sympathetic neck pain a thing?
posted by Gorgik at 7:00 PM on April 22

Sympathetic neck pain is definitely a thing.

There’s an Associated Chamber Music Players, and they have a thing where you can sit in with chamber music groups of strangers and it’s near me and soon! I haven’t played chamber music in a while and it’s one of those things I always wish I did more of. I’m signed up, we’ll see if they need me. Maybe they don’t actually need me anyway, my instrument is super common in that location. But we can dream!

No news on the job front. As my only source of income right now is doing sound and busking, I’ve lately found that I need to know how to tell folk on the street when I’m playing that I’m busy. Lots of people are interested in wanting to rap with a fiddle. I would be so interested in that if it weren’t for the fact that that money is what’s feeding me at the moment. I don’t want to deter people from being interested and I don’t want to tell people that that’s my food money for the next week cause it’s a little embarrassing and sensitive.
posted by wurl1tzer_c0 at 7:13 PM on April 22 [4 favorites]

I've been working through the "Adam Savage's Favorite Tools" playlist someone linked to in the recent "Adam Savage's Favorite Pencil" post. It's fascinating, but he is a BAD influence on me! In one of them he discussed airbrushes, and right now I'm desperately wanting to spend $$$ on an airbrush setup just because they're SO COOL.

I dunno, I could take up painting fantasy/D&D miniatures again like I did through my 20's, but with far better tools than I had when I was on a shoestring budget back then? And maybe sell them to recoup some of the cost?? I know this is an utterly foolish idea but it's a hard one for me to let go of. First World Problems...
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:15 PM on April 22 [3 favorites]

Re: music, I guess I've re-played the first track on Cindy Lee's Diamond Jubilee a half-dozen times today, while knowing there's more on it that sounded pretty good. Andy Cush's review at Pitchfork, April 12: 9.1, "The sprawling and spectacular Cindy Lee album is an essential trove of music. Each song is like a foggy transmission from a rock'n'roll netherworld with its own ghostly canon of beloved hits."
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:21 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

I had a great week last week, a week which led me to feel optimistic about the future. That was foolish, and I knew at the time not to trust it. This week has been bullshit and misery.

I think this might be me making progress? Like if the theory of "the body keeps the score" is that I've stored up a bunch of fear and denial and other negative emotions in my somatic body in a repressed state in order to function in my life, than having times in my life when I'm unlocking those and getting rid of them might be a good thing. A bit like Thetans only real.

I just sort of am looking for maybe a program that is designed to let me get rid of these things without this chaos? I've found a few things like Somatic Experiencing, which reading about it is sort of what it sounds like and seems to have creepy overtones. But I'm wondering about Gestalt therapy? Or something else that involves intense voice work? I use voice tension release stuff all the time intuitively already.

If I weren't scared of COVID I might have found a choir to sing in as therapy, as I know how to sign-sign 4-part. But that's sort of a virus playdate.

Anyway, I have a medication adjustment appointment next Monday, and maybe the conversation with that guy, who specializes in these things and you describe what you're going through and he sort of knows what to give you... maybe some adjustments can be made to get me closer to where I need to be.

I will say, last week was a good week. And I am actually feeling hope for the first time in a couple of years. That's an important change to have in one's life.
posted by hippybear at 7:24 PM on April 22 [8 favorites]

Yeah, I decided to try to paint my Blood Bowl minis. Started with the Orks. Have gotten most of their main kit colors done. But then hit the details. And my eyes were not great. Got a cool lighted magnifier thing. Got some detail done. Then started having an essential tremor...

So, maybe not. Airbrushes do seem to be cool as foretold.
posted by Windopaene at 7:24 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

Also tonight's album is Marillion's Clutching At Straws and zero regrets.
posted by hippybear at 7:25 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

I've been dabbling in pixel art, so now for the first time I have a decent likeness for my profile pic :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:44 PM on April 22 [8 favorites]

it's a beautiful day in Toronto and it's peak cherry blossom day as well
It's serious business here. Even hotlines to call to track the progress
Besides High Park there's other places in TO

.
posted by yyz at 8:03 PM on April 22 [2 favorites]

I went to the site of my new job today for fingerprinting. I am freaked out to hell. Specifically that you are not allowed to have any electronic devices or contact with the outside world (this probably tells you what the business is and why I'm not in love with this job) for nine hours. This terrifies the shit out of me in the 2020's and really makes me want to bail. Meanwhile they will probably be ready to hire me by mid next week and I can't stop panicking in fear. How the hell am I going to get job interviews elsewhere when I'm locked up and isolated for 9 hours (this does not look like a place where you can leave for lunch either) from 8-5 and can't answer calls and can't get back to anyone to schedule an interview before all the slots are gone? What happens when the next insurrection hits and I don't know about it all day? The one good thing was meeting my HR guy there IRL and he was lovely, too bad I can't work with him. Seriously, this job hits almost every single bad thing I wouldn't want in a job and I'm petrified that this is the best I can get in my new "have to get hired before the budget freezes" situation. And my HR lady friend retired today, sigh.

I got two job interview calls today. One I had to decline (same low level type job but elsewhere, I'd have to use vacation time to interview for it and I won't have any) because the soonest they could do the interview was the week after my first week on the job, which made me sad. The lady tried to get it moved up for me, but could not. The other one was for an organization my friend works at--same field I'm in, smaller org--for Thursday. THANK GAWD. Please, please, please, universe, God, St. Anthony, St. Expedite, rescue me from having to take the bird in hand here. I seriously went out to a St. Anthony church today to pray for rescue and I am not simpatico with Catholicism.

In other news, play is going well, I saw a bunch of cute corgis over the weekend, and I fought with my mother because that's what we do when we see each other for 24 hours. My birthday is this week and I will be taking the day off from the job hunt, at least.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:10 PM on April 22 [8 favorites]

So,
Des sabot. Originally, wooden shoes worn by 'workers' you know, like the stereo-typical "Dutch" clogs. Not really relevant but I've always found them kinda compelling. Lederhosen, as well.

My wife/partner/friend got a medium-fancy electric bike about a year ago and then, of course, the company went bust. And now the thing needs to be serviced and there's no chance until August. Which means I will 'have' to figure out how to repair it myself - because unlike a regular bike, this stupid thing is built with all kinds of senselessly complicated, finicky parts. Looks good, rides great when it works... but that's that.

I was over at my parents a little while ago and they still have and watch a TV. (We watch TV on our computers at this point. Even 'normal/broadcast' TV.) And they have three remote-controls. Because their stereo is also routed through the thing, the black-box in the middle, the one under the other one there... Turning on the tv you have to turn the various boxes on in the right order, set each box to the right ... fucking designation or something ... and then finally it goes on. And then, of course you have to choose OMFG. Enough.

In the 90's I had a BMW motorcycle - a couple, actually. One 'old' one 'new.' I really liked the old one but I had a chance to buy the new one and so I took it because it was 'new.' A great bike, lovely, intuitive, comfortable. But it was built such that the owner could not really do anything to it. Any repair beyond the most basic required a kit of specialized tools that you could only buy for an exorbitant amount of money. And BMW de-certified the network of smaller mechanic shops that had previously serviced their bikes - so you had to go to the dealership.

None of this is satisfactory.
I've even googled where I can lodge my sabot to bring it to a halt, but no luck (because, who are we kidding? They went evil.)
posted by From Bklyn at 2:06 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]

I could take up painting fantasy/D&D miniatures again like I did through my 20's, but with far better tools than I had when I was on a shoestring budget back then?

If the expenditure won't dump you in the poorhouse, then go for it Greg_Ace - maybe don't fret about making it pay or try to justify it that way, what counts is the pleasure you will derive. Go for it!!!
posted by dutchrick at 4:09 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed Junna's exuberant drumming!

I got a Bluetooth receiver or something to plug into my partner's ancient stereo. I'm not sure I'll enjoy the sound quality more than my tiny Bluetooth speaker, but it's fun to tinker in a minor way.
posted by dragonplayer at 4:33 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Last week was a busy week: I went to a film showing, held by a film professor I know (from a different university than I attend, I met him through the Fargo Film Festival); only I and one of his students showed up, so I'm glad I didn't give in to my introvert anxiety and skip it. Thursday I was a "table facilitator" for a humanities organization: they bring in speakers a couple times a year, and these events are called 'conversations', meaning there's obligatory but not forced discussion of the topic the speaker brought to the event with the people at your table, and then there's a Q&A with the speaker after the discussion. This speaker runs programs to promote diversity and reduce conflict largely through building empathy and reducing stereotyping; at my table I had two religious leaders, a woman running a youth mentor program for at-risk kids, and two immigrants that help new immigrants integrate into the community -- we had no problem coming up with diversity discussion.

Film Student Update: Still don't have my film for my final project back from the processing lab; it was finally shipped yesterday. I got the bill, which needed to be paid before it shipped, on Friday and fowarded it to the professor because he said he found the funds for school to pay for developing...I got the "thank you for your payment" email Monday after lunch and I regret not paying the $50 myself Friday and it probably would have shipped then. For Wednesday's class we're playing with foley -- I found a minute of a Buster Keaton movie that my partner also liked, so we divided up the sounds and have to find materials to record the sound effects on Wednesday, and add to the film to play for the rest of class.

Burying the lede: I had applied for an arts grant for the project I'm working on with my film professor outside of class -- and it got approved! Professor/director/partner admitted he really didn't think we would get it, or wouldn't get approved the full amount we'd asked for, but I was more optimistic. I had met someone from this arts organization last fall and they were like DO YOU NEED MONEY FOR ANYTHING PLEASE APPLY WE GOT MONEY TO SPEND (only slightly exaggerated) so unless our proposal was bad I figured we'd be fine. So, after class Monday we got together and outlined our plan for the summer. We basically have from June to November to film, edit, and show the film to the community (a requirement of the grant).

So, the film: it's a farcical recreation of an event, showing police ignorance over illicit drugs (my professor has a history of drug use, he's recovering, so different aspects of drug use -- not in a positive way -- feature in his films). My role is as a producer (I'll be editing it as well), so the main thing I figure I'm going to learn is how to make someone else's movie. I am on board with the story and what the professor/director/writer is trying to tell, but ultimately this is his story, not mine, and my role is to support and make sure the film gets done. All of the other things I've made have either been literally my creation from start to finish, or I'm just helping in a small role, this is probably the most real-world filmmaking I've been involved in.

Which leads to probably the most important thing I've learned this year -- and it has been a year, I started film school last May -- is that most films are not amazing and that is very cool. I'm not trying to say I've seen a lot of bad movies, but I've seen a lot of movies made by people just enjoying making movies, and the fact that they succeeded is more important than anything else. Even big-screen, on-people's-must-watch-list films have problems and mistakes and weaknesses, but they're still good movies. This idea is liberating: I'm still blaming my lack of creative output on writer's block, but it's also the fear of making something that's not great. If anything, the fact that I'm not making a short film every couple months is the 'not great' part. It doesn't matter what it's about, just making a movie is the hurdle that needs to happen, the rest just comes with through the process. Of course, I haven't started yet, but I see the path and need to figure out the next steps.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:47 AM on April 23 [10 favorites]

Spend Saturday listening to Taylor Swift's latest album. It is not good... It's not even really bad... It's boring...
posted by Pendragon at 6:51 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

I hate spring colds. I don't know what it is - something new circulating around my wife's school that she brings back to me plus allergies, but I got knocked off my feet for the better of last week (hence the derail in my Fallout posts over on Fanfare.)

And to top it off, stupid cold made me feel so weak that all I could do for my 50th was drive to my nearby favorite strange hole in the wall deli/beer joint, talked with Marlene, the proprietress, munch on a pastrami sandwich and read a Nero Wolfe novel. I mean there are worse ways to spend your 50th birthday, but it wasn't what I had envisioned!
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:51 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]

After age 30 or so, birthdays ending in 0 are often...fraught.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:48 AM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Got a lot of spring cleaning done this weekend - I’m still undecided whether to swap out my whole entertainment center and may solicit opinions with A/B pictures in next week’s thread.

Started playing Helldivers 2, which I’d been holding off on because even Starship Troopers’ fascism-in-jest is Not Cool, but literally nobody will shut up about it and part of being a game designer is playing things you’d rather not in order to stay current.

I found the fun - and the frustration - in it but I don’t see myself falling wildly in love with it the way I did The Finals.
posted by Ryvar at 10:51 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

My disappointing apartment search has gone from frustrating ("all of these are terrible") to dead in the water (there...are none). Backup plan was to see if my partner's landlords would let him renew his lease there after all with me on it, but then his landlord just uhhhh died??? Like out of the blue dropped dead. So who knows! Yay housing insecurity, it's for mid-career professionals now too!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:07 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]

Dragon's Dogma 2 has utterly captured my interest. It's a bit clunky in some of the UI interactions as if they just ran out of time (or patience) in making all the user systems interact smoothly. I'd say the first game is a bit more slick and joyful to play. But, DD2 has a lot more of what made the first game great: places to explore, play styles to try, game systems to interact with, and emergent gameplay driven by two generations of console upgrades leading to much more enemy and object persistence in the game world. My biggest complaint is that they've gone all in on natural light shaders and high dynamic range effects but have not applied any cinematic visual post processing, which means the whole game is drab and low contrast, to the point that it's sometimes impossible to play on a projection screen.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:11 AM on April 23

(I realize I possibly don't sound sympathetic enough to the dead person and his family but that is not the case at all, it's really very sad! I wish we were not under such a tight timeline that we need to ask them for decisions at this hard time but...that is the case.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:12 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]

After some prodding from a guy at work I've restarted my amateur (ham) radio activity. I got licensed during COVID, but haven't used it yet. So now I've climbed the roof and got a mount up, but I'll have to wait a couple of days for some spare time to string up the antenna.
posted by Harald74 at 12:18 PM on April 23 [3 favorites]

The Three Bunny Problem. During my morning walks, I usually encounter rabbits grazing at the top of the canyon. If it's one rabbit, it usually just stares me down while I walk past. If it's two rabbits, one clearly acts as sentry while the other one continues to graze. But then there's the Three Bunny Problem, in which Sentry Rabbit seems to lose control of the situation and the other bunnies graze, stare at me, or run every which way. It appears that the Three Bunny Problem is unsolvable.
posted by SPrintF at 12:40 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

I went to a special final run of the 1970's era BART trains in Oakland on Saturday. Big turnout with lots of train/public transit nerds with fancy cameras to record the last voyage for posterity. BART raffled off a few of the number plates from the old trains before we all got to board. They also handed out little passports with a commemorative stamp, stickers, and a papercraft train to fold up. Amazingly my lower back held out for the long (over one hr) wait in line for the train. Guess the lidocaine patch is doing its job.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:40 PM on April 23 [4 favorites]

Well, drewbage1847, this is what Happy Unbirthday is for. When you are up to it, have a celebration for the half-century mark for most of your body parts (teeth still have a few more years to go).
You earned it, you deserve it, and nobody can take it away from you.
Happy several decades!
** corks pop, confetti flies, balloons drift away into the horizon **
** also, there should be cake **
posted by TrishaU at 7:48 PM on April 23 [4 favorites]

I think this is too ChatFilter for Ask, so I thought I'd put it here...

I'm trying to think of phrases along the lines of "I need X like I need (some unwanted or unneccessary thing or circumstance)." A couple of well-known examples are "like I need a hole in my head" or "like a fish needs a bicycle".

A couple I've come up with are "like a farmer needs a tux" and "like a yeti needs manscaping".

Any suggestions?
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:45 PM on April 24

the ottawa county board of commissioners had a member of the satanic temple give the invocation before their meeting

this is that wonderful place in michigan where they tried to shut a library down because it wouldn't pull certain books from the shelves and fire the health commissioner because she did her job during covid

needless to say, they're not happy

oh, and the funny part is, the minister who sued them was an episcopalian they'd refused ...

i'm not sure i understand why calvinists are fighting so hard to keep people from being unsaved ...
posted by pyramid termite at 4:23 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I like this TED talk by Ethan Hawke: Give yourself permission to be creative.
posted by Harald74 at 7:36 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

right now I'm desperately wanting to spend $$$ on an airbrush setup just because they're SO COOL.

Perhaps watching a bunch of YouTube how-to videos and some truly amazing miniature painting (overview of final result starting at 26:46) wasn't necessarily the best way to convince me to drop the idea, since all it did was inspire me to follow through on my impulse. The spirit was willing and the flesh was weak! Although I need another expensive hobby like a bear needs Charmin, it appears I've got one anyway. Or at least I will next week, when the boxes start showing up at my door. Hopefully at some point I'll have pictures I'm willing to share in a future free thread.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:25 AM on April 26

My boy cat Rocky asks me to blow marijuana smoke in his face. He asks for it. I don't hold him down; he could walk away; he literally asks for it.

Anyway, every time, without fail, within 5 minutes of be blowing a righteous lung load into his face, he gets up and has to go eat.

Like, it's instant munchies.

Even I take a couple of hours to get the munchies! But Rocky Cat? Oh no! He's all "huff puff must go eat". It's about the same timescale between orgasm and thinking about ordering a pizza.
posted by hippybear at 4:50 PM on April 26

I GOT OFFERED A BETTER JOB TODAY. One of my top jobs. I'm so happy and relieved, you have no idea. Tentative offer, I have to go get fingerprinted again next week and then presumably after that, but OMG I'M SO RELIEVED AND HAPPY!!!!!
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:02 PM on April 26 [12 favorites]

jenfullmoon: I've done nothing but root for you every single step of the way across your difficulties and I can't wait to hear your post that you've been at your new job for three months and its even better than you imagined it would be. I hope the Universe pours out its blessings on you in this new employment situation.
posted by hippybear at 6:54 PM on April 26 [3 favorites]

There are double rainbows going on here right now! 🌈 🌈
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:31 PM on April 26 [3 favorites]

What does this mean??
(throwback to a 2010 meme)
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:00 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

Someone on my Mastodon mentioned they were having the "first cookout of the season" with photos of them in front of their grill. They live in Texas.

I grill literally 12 months a year. I live 100 miles or so from Canada.

Why are Texans so seasonal about their grilling when I just go light up the grill and cook in January if I want?
posted by hippybear at 3:59 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

You're not doing it performatively.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:28 PM on April 27 [2 favorites]

HI GUISE!

HEY I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU ALL!

ALSO THE SIGNUP RPOCEES IS A LITTLE

ok the all caps thing is a bit much, you know im drukn

anyhow. now typ o correcitons

the signup rpocess is a little hard when your drunk

i maybe thats a feature bot a butg

anyhow, i really do love you all

you're beautfiucl


and i a mtoo, for now.
posted by sOCK dRUNKPUPPET at 4:57 PM on April 27 [2 favorites]

you're beautfiucl
and i a mtoo, for now.

Drink a glass of water, or you may not feel so "beautfiucl" tomorrow.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:44 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

I have to admit, I'm impressed that you could even navigate the sign-up process in such a state of inebriation. And then you found your way to the only free-form comment thread on the entire site to comment into! That's a skill level I haven't encountered in quite some time.

I hope we can hear much more from you in the future, sOCK dRUNKPUPPET. Happy Five Dollar Windfall to MetaFilter!
posted by hippybear at 6:22 PM on April 27 [2 favorites]

Weell, you know,

thats the

pwoer

of

love
posted by sOCK dRUNKPUPPET at 7:10 PM on April 27 [2 favorites]

not lvoe?
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:27 PM on April 27

[NOT LVOEIST]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:28 PM on April 27

Meanwhile I have only had one drink in the bar because I had to drive people here, and cops be swarming in the streets here, darn it.

Oh well, I can drink at the theater tailgate party tomorrow, have 3 hours of recovery time once the show starts.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:40 PM on April 27

Metafilter: You're beautfiucl
posted by Coaticass at 1:34 AM on April 28

Hippybear maybe you could start a troll choir. They sing outdoors under bridges where ventilation and a good acoustic coexist. (Why not masked though? I never understood that.)
posted by Coaticass at 1:44 AM on April 28

Aw rats.
Authorities have removed Chigao's rat hole. Photo
Previously on Metafilter
posted by yyz at 2:31 PM on April 28

Though many of the long-time residents in Roscoe Village have said the rat hole was a feature of the area for more than 20 years, the imprint achieved internet fame only months ago.

Once again, fame ruins everything. Hopefully it'll eventually show up in an art gallery or something.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:09 PM on April 28

I hope it's preserved.
Maybe if we call it a Banksy?
posted by yyz at 4:07 PM on April 28

I'm growing increasingly worried over my boy cat Rocky. He's got to be 18 years old at this point, and watching him walk is a bit painful, as he seems to be actively not wanting to move his joints sometimes. When standing sometimes a limb will give way and he recovers, like I've had this happen while walking, but it isn't a thing cats generally do. Cats really don't show pain much, but I do fear he's just kind of lingering with some level of pain much of the time.

He isn't showing any signs of not wanting to be here anymore. He's enthusiastic about things, he's taken on new hobbies [sitting in the middle of the room and yelling at me for no reason], and he's enjoying new things [he's suddenly started demanding I share potato chips and tortilla chips with him. he's never asked for people food before]... He plays sometimes, and he purrs a lot when I'm petting him and even sometimes just starts purring for no reason!

But wow, he just seems so creaky and achey.

Anyway, I needed to put this worry someplace. Maybe now it will let me go for a while.
posted by hippybear at 4:07 PM on April 28

Sorry to hear it. Age is no fun for any of us...
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:11 PM on April 28 [1 favorite]

It is hard when our feline companions hit the creaky stage.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:15 PM on May 1

I am currently sitting on hold with largeCreditCardCompany due to an MFA issue which locked me out of my portion of a joint account and I'm about to lose my mind. Spouse is primary and can't find his card, so that tells you how well this is going.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:16 AM on May 3