Observations 2021-10-01

  • Casey’s show at Golden Dagger. The door person trying an olive for (allegedly) the first time. The sour face he made.

Observations 2021-10-02

  • Arriving in Dallas to join the Ohmme/Deeper tour. Ohmme taking me straight from the airport to a nail spa, where I got my first pedicure.

Observations 2021-10-03

  • Eating a Cajun seafood dinner on the patio of the venue we were about to play.

Observations 2021-10-04

  • The lizards all over the streets in New Orleans. Jumping from the ground onto trash cans. Observing us from perches on fences.
  • The power lines along the Louisiana interstate reaching out seemingly endlessly into the ocean.
  • Wanting to liberate the Chick-fil-A billboard plastic cows from their dastardly job.
  • The bucket drummers in rhythmic harmony with the trumpet player on the opposite end of Jackson Park.

Observations 2021-10-05

  • The small house boats docked in the bayou along the elevated Louisiana highway.
  • The sound tech with a gun in his pants, pounding beers all night and swearing profusely at the mildest inconveniences.

Observations 2021-10-06

Observations 2021-10-07

  • A great, raucous show in Nashville.
  • Walking to the Nashville Parthenon with Viv.

Observations 2021-10-08

Observations 2021-10-09

  • Meg Duffy’s guitarplaying on “Through Me” by Flock of Dimes.

Observations 2021-10-10

  • Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime.”
  • “For the next 30 minutes or so, I watched Anderson unpack and construct this rig. She worked with deep absorption, with quick expert movements, clonking pieces together, kneeling and then popping upright, tightening knobs, unfolding frames, zipping zippers, testing the connections of cords. It was strangely mesmerizing. Every time I thought the case was empty, she would pull out something else: a microphone, an iPad, a synthesizer, a chunk of wood. Before long, Anderson had assembled a multilevel architecture of screens and keyboards. One entire keyboard was just for her feet. From somewhere, I didn’t even see where, she pulled out a futuristic-looking violin, and she hooked it over her shoulder, and then suddenly the whole rig started to vibrate with noise: thumping bass, organ chords, tinkling piano, wild gusts of piercing sustained notes. She seemed to be marshaling whole armies of instruments, lining them up in different formations, setting them against one another.” Sam Anderson’s profile of Laurie Anderson.

Observations 2021-10-11

  • Workin’ on the studio.

Observations 2021-10-12

  • Watching a clip from the 7 Worlds Collide documentary, in which I was twelve and Sammy was eight.

Observations 2021-10-13

  • Chet, Jakob, and Andy’s beautiful jazz renditions of country tunes from an obscure, early-twentieth-century songbook.
  • Buying tamales from Claudio, the legendary Chicago music venue traveling tamale man, in person again.

Observations 2021-10-14

  • Estimating the national average hand-washing time back down at four seconds, tops.

Observations 2021-10-15

  • Making new calculationz for Sammy’s studio desk.

Observations 2021-10-16

  • The swollen vaccination site on Basil’s leg making him look like a Canadian Mountie.

Observations 2021-10-17

  • Dr. Dog playing “Ain’t It Strange” for Sammy (because we sang it on the Tweedy Show) at Metro!

Observations 2021-10-18

  • Carving pumpkins, watching Halloweentown with Casey.

Observations 2021-10-19

  • The idea that every band practice needs a designated secretary to document ad hoc changes to song arrangements and such.

Observations 2021-10-20

  • Mom, seeing the Beyerdynamic M160s above my drums: “Ew, those mics look like wieners.”

Observations 2021-10-21

  • Sima’s amazing eggplant dish.

Observations 2021-10-22

Observations 2021-10-23

  • Casey and Dana’s Halloween party — Myths, Legends, and Conspiracies themed.
    • Hayden and crew’s bleach cult costumes.
    • Casey’s real flight suit, for her “pilot who saw a UFO” costume.

Observations 2021-10-24

  • The horse with cow-spot fur.

Observations 2021-10-25

  • Treating my nightstand like a library: if I haven’t picked up a book in over a month, it has to go back to the shelf.

Observations 2021-10-26

Observations 2021-10-27

  • A blip of self-doubt lately, about my music ideas, about my craftsmanship, about my long-delayed and under-executed personal projects.

Observations 2021-10-28

Observations 2021-10-29

  • Playing drums for the Cosmic Country Showcase headlined by Patrick Haggerty, AKA Lavender Country, creator of the first explicitly gay country album ever (in 1973). Patrick’s amazing stories about training and working in Cuba, getting kicked out of the Peace Corps, raising children, everything.

Observations 2021-10-30

  • Walking with Mom and the rest of the Team Susan Miller Tweedy at the annual Light the Night Walk for leukemia and lymphoma research.
  • Another joyous night of Cosmic Country Showcase / Lavender Country.

Observations 2021-10-31

  • Pancakes with Halloween candy in them, cooked by Casey.