TL;DR — Standing ovations from me for everyone except Boston. These shows are going to change a lot over the next 6 weeks, and can’t wait to see where they end up. Best/most recognizable music choices across the board.

Troopers: For a show connected in name to the last two (awesome) shows, that energy and story-telling was missing. Amazing dynamics by the brass, but the loudest passages seemed restrained.

Colts: My favorite Colts show since 2014. Uniforms are crazy, in a good way. Brass was loud, but definitely a step down from everyone else in quality/intonation. I loved the theme, props, even the voice overs weren’t terrible.

Blue Devils: Bluecoats did giant chairs better in 2018. Loved the musical choices, great high brass. I was engaged for the whole show, not always the case with BD.

Boston: You have 100+ brass players on the field. Why does all of your sound come from speakers and not the field? Really gross, and I had them in last place because of it. Costumes are awful, but the show was fun. Loved the middle act playfulness. Guard was unreal.

Blue Knights: Fire the synth bass player. You have 12 tubas who sound immaculate. And you couldn’t hear a single note they played in the entire show. I hope there’s a plan for some kind of uniform change or prop color change, because that’s just too much terra cotta orange for 12 minutes. Ending felt like it needed more energy. I thought the judges got placement wrong here, and BK should have been in front of Troopers.

Another successful Tuba Christmas performance in the books. My first in Philly. (And by far the coldest one I’ve ever been to.)

Cool to see fighter jets in close formation circling over Philly this afternoon. I presume it’s for an Eagles v Steelers stadium lflyover.

I’m thinking about seeing Wicked this weekend, but I understand it’s just half the story. I saw half of Wicked the Musical once, so I’m wondering if it’ll be the other half. Does anyone know if the movie is the right half for me to see?

(The half I saw was the left half. Gotta’ love obstructed view lottery seats.)

UA 1631 SEA 🛫🛬 IAD

Back to the real world, having now visited all 50 states. I guess it’s time for a new bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.

Best interaction of my Alaska cruise on a very French cruise line: A Flight Attendant coming through the aisles of our charter flight back to Seattle is offering champagne before we take off.

An elderly French grandpa traveling with his grandson reaches out his hand and says “oui oui.” Then stops midway, switching to English: “Wait, is this from champagne in France?”

FA: “Well, it’s sparkling bubbles.”

Frenchman: “Ugh, no.” Withdraws hand.

end scene

Saw The Decemberists in Philly on Wednesday and in DC tonight. Almost entirely different set lists, and both were amazing shows. Decemberists audiences are so friendly, and multi-generational as well.

I decided to start 2024 off by declaring Podcast bankruptcy. I deleted the Overcast backlog (80+ GB worth) of unlistened episodes going back to 2016.

Connections Puzzle #171 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟨🟨🟨

Connections Puzzle #170 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Connections Puzzle #169 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

It’s literally not. Not even figuratively literally, but literally literally.

I was happy to receive my absentee ballot on Saturday, and to drop it off at the Bernalillo County clerk’s office today. I’m all civic dutied-out.

Day 3 after mail-in ballots were sent to voters in NM. Still no ballot in my mailbox. :(

Day 2 after mail-in ballots were sent in New Mexico, and mine still has not arrived. I’ve seen several posts on social media of neighbors and freisnds receiving theirs.

Another update tomorrow.

New Mexico county clerks sent vote-by-mail ballots to those that requested them yesterday.

No ballot arrived in my mailbox today.

Another update tomorrow.

Good news if you’re looking to travel soon. Enterprise car rentals just emailed me to let me know they’re now, a mere 6 months into a global pandemic, requiring masks in all locations.

That was a truly whelming WWDC Keynote.

Economics are weird. My weed eater ran out of cutting string. A replacement cartridge from the brand that made my weed eater is $17 for 16 feet. Plus shipping.

So instead I bought an 855 foot roll of the same plastic string. For $31.

It appears I picked the right VPN app.

Shine Armor probably could have pulled their CNN commercial that starts with the phrase “It’s a war zone out there” tonight. Assholes.

It’s hard for me to imagine hating NASA, but they’re about to launch humans into space from American soil for the first time in years, and they’re showing photos of dogs dressed as astronauts from people on Twitter on their live stream. #LaunchAmerica

Check out this great deal in the Valentine’s meats cooler (that’s apparently a thing at my Kroger’s):

Bob Knight & Gene Keady are hanging out at the IU/Purdue game today. My proudest moment as a PSU 🏀 fan was yelling insults at Keady as he went into the tunnel for halftime, getting under his skin so much he flipped me off. Anyway, all that to say Knight and Keady both suck.

“Give us your tired, your rich, your huddled masses of cash, yearning to breathe compound interest.” – John Roberts and his bigoted, piece of shit friends, apparently.