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Photo of the marquee and crowd outside of Webster Hall in New York City. The text on the marquee is: "SUGAR - SOLD OUT - MAY 2, 3 & 4."

Caught the last of Sugar’s three night run at Webster Hall. Excellent show (set list) with three special guests at the end. Of the shows I’ve been to recently, this was a particularly well-behaved crowd, I didn’t see any of the over self-medication that I’d seen in the past.

Closed on the old apartment this week. It feels great to be closing that chapter of transition, which started over a year ago.

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Black and white photo of Dave Brubeck at a piano with text: "SORRY, NERDS 5/4 IS DAVE BRUBECK DAY"

Dave Brubeck Day is tomorrow, so a very happy Dave Brubeck day to all who celebrate.

I broke my guitar tuner last week. In the process of purchasing a new one, a new microphone ended up in my shopping cart. I tried it out during our weekly jam—massive difference. This one has much more definition than the old, cheapo mic. So much definition that I was slightly afraid of it when I started singing. It will take some getting used to for sure.

In other musical news, a couple weeks ago at the local, two guys were talking about getting together for a jam. Someone overheard the conversation and said “JP plays bass!” I was very clear about my ability, or lack thereof. They said, “perfect” and I thought that would be the end of it.

Friday night one of them walked by, clapped me on the back and said “you’re hired”. My immediate thought was oh shit.

Now, I give this jam even odds of ever happening. Just in case, I should probably practice a more.

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After a couple weeks off due to prior commitments, the “band” was back together this week. I had good intentions to practice over those two weeks, but I mostly picked up my bass only to move it to the other side of the room. Despite the lack of practice, we had a good jam and sounded alright.

I really do need to get back to a good practice routine. My playing ability is certainly somewhere shy of “intermediate” and I’m not going to progress by playing once a week. I think I need to do something that puts the fun in fundamentals, which might help keep me on a regular routine and, in turn, increase my dexterity and speed–two things that I am lacking.

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A portion of a drawing from an IKEA assembly instructions document that shows where to place the provided hex wrenches so they become part of the furniture.
IKEA turns wrenches into fasteners.

I believe I may have assembled my last piece of IKEA furniture–for a while, anyway. Not that I mind putting together furniture, quite the opposite, actually. I know I’m not making anything since this isn’t carpentry. However, I do derive some joy from having had a tiny hand in the finished product.

This one was my most complicated assembly to date. It felt almost like a final exam of sorts; now I can graduate to even more advanced furniture, if I so choose.

One of the neater details on this piece is the use of the two hex wrenches to hold it together. This also serves as a handy storage spot for those wrenches. They will need to be pressed into service again one day since this one’s not going to fit out the door in one piece.

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Photo of a number table tent on a wooden table. The number is "86".

On my Birthday, we got 86ed from some place in Park Slope (see photo). The woman behind the counter wasn’t all that impressed by my attempt at humor after she handed over this number. Perhaps she’s tired of the not so original reference, or maybe she thought it was some sort of middle-aged 67.

I did up a very quick app (I’m using the term very loosely here). Thanks to generative AI, I spent less time on this digital version than on laying out the printable version I was using before. It’s just a little tracker to help me stay on the right dietary path using the DASH diet (from the days before the government added beef tallow to its recommendations). After using it for a week, I made a couple tweaks and am pretty happy with it. You can check it out here: Simple DASH Diet Tracker, if you’re interested in such things, the code is on Codeberg.

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