Well, 21 and change. I was hoping to bump it close enough to 22 on the week that it would pop over to 24 and change but unless I run tomorrow and explicitly break the ten-percent rule that ain’t happening. If I ran tomorrow I would just go for it and get 25 in and that would be dumb.

So tomorrow is an off day except for mowing the lawn and suchlike.

DS9 rewatch is up to The One Where Worf Kills His Brother (or Not). Have been putting in only perfunctory time in RoF, but am clearly showing improvement in both plane control and gunnery. Too bad the MM portion of the game is dominated by five-year players, because that’s a hill I’m simply too late for.

In thinking about fooling myself into using the computational devices to exercise enthusiasms and skills long fallow I’ve been budgeting an hour a day to dump a song into the iPad using GarageBand. No fancy shit and fussing with good mics or anything, just headphones, the cheap guitar (which I have come to love for its’ questionable tunings and thing squawky tone), and the iPad. It’s super easy to get hypnotized into getting it perfect instead of getting it done, as is the case with all computery things. So far I’m about five songs into a familiar set. Next I hope to start transcribing and butchering stuff I have found from the weeks of Victrola and Edison YouTube listening I have been rocking. We’ll see. Or hear. Or something.

As a consequence of my reanimated interest in Rise of Flight, I’m haunting flight sim fora. They are unpopulated, and the regular users engage in recriminations and fingerpointing to the nth degree, clearly symptoms of contracting demand. I have no idea why the market for this has gone away and don’t really care enough to try to figure it out. But today, buried amidst the unappealing crumb-fights, I came on a new phrase.

One of the responses to the commercial abandonment of the sector was the emergence of varying open-source sims, one approach of which is generically termed DCS, for digital combat simulator. I think the idea was initially to create a reference data set incorporating feature definitions and APIs that would permit cross-platform, open-source development of various hardware simulations, not just airplanes.

At any rate, the outcome in flightsim-land has been incredibly detailed simulations of cockpits for a variety of aircraft. The primary application of the sim, then, is procedural familiarization for extant real-world aircraft. The new term I learned today? “Study sim,” for sims that emphasize extremely detailed interactive representations of every little thing necessary to complete an actual flight procedure on an actual aircraft. I love the term.

The warmly self-congratulatory NPR show the “TED Radio Hour” is apparently presenting a groveling feature to none other than Tony Robbins this evening. At four in the afternoon on a Sunday in one of America’s cities of the future, KUOW is devoting an hour to positive self-delusion. As a fundraising tool, I suppose it works out, and suspect it might.

I am highly amused that Robbins sounds somewhat like Penn Jillette, fast patter, hoarse baritone, and all.

I had totally forgotten that KING went public in spring 2011. I’m so happy to have a non-ad supported classical programming station on the air locally.

KING’s programming is a far cry from the range of material heard on WFIU in my youth, with not nearly as much screechy and blippy 20th century stuff, but that’s OK – I can get my Xenakis fix whenever I want it now. It’s still delightful to listen to Elgar by the fire while looking out the window at the snow or reading.

This weekend, Seattle Soundfest happens at a variety of venues in Seattle. The venues are:

Neumos
The Comet
The Funhouse
The Vera Project
El Corazon

Soundfest has umbrella pass pricing for the events at $150 (which includes free beer, probably PBR) and $100.

Single-day pass pricing is $40. Individual shows are also priced; I only looked up the prices for the shows I want to attend.

The full published schedule is here.

http://seattlesoundfest.com/schedule

Please note that while the schedule lists starting times for each band and the organizers undoubtedly intend to hold the bands to them, there is nearly no possibility that these time will be accurate for shows that include more than four bands.

There are many, many bands playing. I do not want to see them all. I have identified the artists I wish to see and note the published starting times and locations.

FRIDAY AUGUST 19th
NEUMOS – $25 (6 bands, doors at 6p)
Avengers, 9:45. Jello Biafra, 10:45 (5th and 6th)

FUNHOUSE – $12 (6 bands, doors at 6p)
Austin Lucas, 9:15 (4th)

It’s not likely to be able to catch Austin’s set and then catch Penelope, so my plan here is just to catch Austin.

SATURDAY AUGUST 20th
EL CORAZON – $25 (6 bands, doors at 4p)
The Dickies, 7. Angelic Upstarts, 9. The Vandals, 10. (3rd, 5th, and 6th)

NEUMOS – $25 (6 bands, doors at 6p)
John Doe & Exene, 10:30 (6th)

I might actually just sit this night out. The only band I haven’t seen listed above is the Angelic Upstarts.

Seeing John and Exene is a possibility, though, because Exene is sick (multiple sclerosis) and it’s not clear how much longer she will be able to tour. I had thought that they might slip Dave Alvin into their lineup because I saw that the Blasters are playing the next night in town, but he’s playing gigs in California on both the 20th and the 21st. Looks like the Blasters in town on Sunday will be a Phil-only incarnation.

SUNDAY AUGUST 21st
THE VERA PROJECT – $17 (5 bands, doors at 6p)
Cro-Mags, 8:30. Zero Boys, 9:30 (4th and 5th. Very likely to be on schedule.)

NEUMOS – $20 (6 bands, doors at 5p)
The Blasters, 9:30 (6th)

EL CORAZON – $30 (6 bands, doors at 4p)
Stiff Little Fingers, 10:00 (6th)

This is only a little tough. There’s no realistic way to hit all three of these shows for the headliners. The Zero Boys, of course, are from my home and even though I have seen them a zillion times, the last time was over a decade ago at Second Story in Bloomington. The first time was at Ricky’s Canteena in the same town when I was seventeen.

I have never seen Stiff Little Fingers nor the Blasters. Both are treasured bands in my listening habits, but especially the Blasters. I nearly *booked* a Blasters show when I was about 19; I can’t recall the details about where it was to be or why it went off the rails but for whatever reason it never happened. So it will be hard to miss both bands. But the main reason I go see bands these days is to see old friends, and the Zero Boys are old friends indeed.

Final tally: Friday night at the Funhouse for Austin and Sunday night at the Vera Project for the Zero Boys. That’s $12 and $17, so no pass for me.