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Public Image Ltd – No Birds (1979) – Audio Only

This could be heaven
Shallow spreads of ordered lawns
I like the illusion, illusion of privacy
The careful trees blending so perfectly
Bland planned idle luxury
Life in lovely allotted slots
A token nice, a nice constitution
A layered mass of subtle props
— John Lydon

Public Image Ltd - No Birds Video

I like my little patch of suburbia.

I have a bird bath outside the window at my desk and it’s fun to watch the birds throughout the day. With the summer heat though the bees started taking it over and the birds were going through hell. I ended up making a “bee bath” right next to it to lure the bees away. Had to empty the bird bath to get the bees to switch and get the new bath established as I gradually moved it farther and farther away. With no water in the bird bath, all the birds left.

It was a no win, the birds couldn’t use it with all the bees swarming so it pretty much had to be done.

After about a week I’ve started the bird bath back up. It will get busy again but it’s slow right now and I think some of my regulars have moved to other spots. After a bit there will be new ones to come and take their place, and so it goes.

— David

Bee Bath

Neil Young – Rockin’ in the Free World (1989)

Colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin’ their feet
People sleepin’ in their shoes
But there’s a warnin’ sign on the road ahead
There’s a lot of people sayin’ we’d be better off dead
Don’t feel like Satan, but I am to them
So I try to forget it any way I can

Keep on rockin’ in the free world

— Neil Young

Neil Young

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July.
— David

Hasil Adkins – Gonna Have me a Yard Sale (1994) – Audio Only

Gonna have me a yard sale
Sell everything
Everything you got
So if you come back
I know
You come back to me
— Hasil Adkins

Hasil Adkins

Wife’s out front with a friend, selling vintage things that didn’t sell at the antique mall. It looks like they’re doing good. Most of what doesn’t sell will be donated so I know they’re selling things priced to go.

I’ll help set up but I won’t do yard sales, can’t stand them. A $60 toaster oven going for $5 and some guy offers me $2.50. I don’t want to deal with that crap.

Another time, my wife was inside while I was taking care of things, I saw something of mine that shouldn’t have been out so I was bringing it in. A dealer saw it in my hands and wanted to buy it, I explained it was mine, wasn’t for sale and shouldn’t have been out. She knew my wife from the mall and got on the phone and called her to try to get her to sell it… wtf.

It was an old Fisher-Price toy worth $20-30.

Y’all might have heard about the storm we had at the end of May, we got pretty lucky.
— David

Storm Video
Storm Damage

John Williams – Hymn to the Fallen (1998)

Cemetery for soldiers killed in battle

But You Didn't

Remember the time you lent me your car
and I dented it?

I thought you’d kill me…
But you didn’t.

Remember the time I forgot to
tell you the dance was
formal,
and you came in jeans?
I thought you’d hate me…
But you didn’t.

Remember the times I’d flirt with
other boys just to make you jealous,
and
you were?
I thought you’d drop me…
But you didn’t.

There were plenty of things you did
to put up with me,
to keep me happy,
to love me,
and there are
so many things I wanted
to tell
you when you returned from
Vietnam…
But you didn’t.

— Merril Glass

Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On – Live in Amsterdam (1976)

… Let’s get it on
Let’s get it on
You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout
— Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye on Stage

In the process of making some changes to the back end of the website store and how it syncs with eBay.
— David

Jimmy & Johnny – I Can’t Find The Doorknob (1958) – Audio Only

I hear ’em screamin’ and a-havin’ a ball
Commotion’s comm’ from the end of the hall
I’m missin’ out on all the party again
‘Cause I can’t find the doorknob, I can’t get in
My baby’s in there and it’s makin’ me sad
I hear her laughin’ and it’s makin’ me mad
I see a dim light in the lover’s den
But I can’t find the doorknob, I can’t get in
— Jimmy Fautheree

Image of 45 RPM single

Doorknobs would be something to learn. Not much competition, easy to ship. 

Went to a “Trade Days” where they sell antiques and collectibles. Acres and acres of vendors.

Still don’t know what I should be searching for. I brought $80, left without buying anything. I looked up a few things but no luck. My wife who’s been doing this since the ’90s bought about $700 worth of vintage things for the antique mall. There’s good deals out there but they’re not obvious, you need to know what you’re doing. I still don’t.

If I was doing this on my own I would have probably quit by now. For the hours I’ve spent it hasn’t been profitable but with my wife in the business I’m out there anyways. I’m just taking my time looking around, no pressure, I’m lucky. It would be hell to try to start this from scratch and try to make a living off it.

— David

Carload of vintage buys
Boxes and Bags of Vintage items

Elvis Costello – Radio Radio (1978)

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they’d never seen me
— Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Selling on the eBay store is going well, 100% positive feedback, 85 items sold of 170 listed (as of today exactly half of my listings have sold), every item shipped and received on time. No returns or customer issues. 

I had an issue though that has convinced me that I need to run the store from the website. I’ll still be on eBay, they are the biggest market for the things I sell but I need to become more independent and less reliant on a single platform.

The main difference this means is I’ll be here more, working on the website more. Actually turning it into a business. (I should have sold 850 items and had 1700 listed by now – that’s on me)

I’m expecting to resync the website with eBay next week, there are some items available on eBay that aren’t listed on the site. In the future I’ll have things listed on the site that won’t be available on eBay.

— David

On the Air – Peter Gabriel (1978)

Every night I’m back at the shack
I’m sure no one else is there
I’m putting the aerial up
So I can go out on the air
— Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

I’ve been working on the station’s music scheduling/playlists. With such a diverse library there’s a lot of juggling when setting up different rotations that flow from one genre to another and having it sound right, some things just don’t work together. A lot of it is just experimenting and then listening back and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

I added new rotations over the weekend and have been fine tuning it over the week. Set it up the tentative schedule last night. I thought it sounded great. Still tweaking it here and there but I’m happy with it as it stands. 

This morning I looked at the stats and all my listeners were gone.
Current listeners 0, they had all dropped off.
Haven’t had 0 listeners in the middle of the week in years.

After about 10 minutes I started getting some listeners but they weren’t the same ones.

I normally listen to the station from my computer, before it goes out streaming. When I want to crank it I listen to the online stream on the home stereo. 

I was listening on the stereo, music was flowing and I was really wondering what happened – the new rotations do sound great, what was going on? 

Then I got knocked off, lost the stream. Went back to the computer and the other listeners got knocked off too. 0 listeners again.

Apparently we’re having technical issues.

— David

Madness – Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day) (1983)

… Walking now, over covered ground
There’s a chance if I move around
I need a moment to reflect
On the friendships I have wrecked
Why is it time, don’t I always try?
… I hear them saying (tomorrow’s just another day)
— Carl Smyth

Madness Video image

I’ve given up on scheduling. I was getting things done unless it was on the schedule. 

I had set up a schedule with repeating reminders that would reset everyday on a “To Do” list. Every two or three days I would go through the To Do list and check off everything I hadn’t done.

Things need to get done, but like rust – another day, another week – it’s not a big deal until it is.

— David

Simon & Garfunkel – The Dangling Conversation (1966)

Yes, we speak of things that matter
With words that must be said
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”
— Paul Simon

Simon and Garfunkel

The blog police say to keep your readers engaged you have to update regularly.
Next week I’ll be adding to the site and making some changes to the backend but for now I got nothing. All is good.
— David

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
— John Darnielle 

https://youtu.be/ii6kJaGiRaI?si=Mj_ajq2gB8Hkz9I8

2024 was rough, hoping 2025 brings some sanity.
— David

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
— David Bowie

https://youtu.be/tRMZ_5WYmCg?si=TPMFLx75tLgyJuXR

https://youtu.be/uipFm4lZHaU?si=69OGLlYcnDJHrWcj

Things are going to slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it’s overturned
The order of the soul

When they said repent, repent
I wonder what they meant

— Leonard Cohen

Into this house we’re born, into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan
Riders on the storm
— The Doors

https://youtu.be/iPRSxwZBmcM?si=Ed0SORuqMPOplWa4

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

— Helen Keller