I may go see In the Heights tomorrow with a friend! And today was Rory’s first birthday! He is 1! Not my babydog anymore he’s a real boy! We had a party with friends at the dog park and he ate a pup cake and tried to eat the birthday hat and generally seemed to have a good time.

msbelle, I'm glad to hear the news about your mom.

Hec, I'm glad Matilda's dental adventure is over. Is Emmett in grad school?

Dylan is getting a Presidential Award for Educational Excellence this year and I'm so proud of him but also incredibly relieved he didn't graduate 8th grade during the Trump administration.

Congrats to Dylan, Jessica!

My kids' National Honors Society certificates were signed by Trump. My younger son wanted to rip it up, but I wouldn't let him.

Is Emmett in grad school?

Oh no! He's still finishing his BA. He's kind of on the six year plan. We made a mistake sending him to college when he was still 17 (turning 18 that September), and not really ready for it. He would've benefitted from a gap year. Also, he spent a few years where he was working full time and only taking one or two classes a term.

Anyway, he took a full load this term, back at his original Uni. He should be done by this time next year, at age 25.

J's taking a gap...series of years. I don't know if she'll ever go back. Good for Emmett for returning!

Timelies all!

We went over to our friends' house so Mr. S could have a playdate with their daughter(who is 6 months younger than him) and we could catch up with them.

Another sign of incipient summer: saw my first lightning bugs of the season just now.

I think I mentioned here that a guy bought the property next door and wants to buy ours so he can make a small development. Looks like it’s going forward. We’ve been looking for a new place and today We took our second visit to a house we are going to put an offer on. It’s VERY odd property in a totally charming small town a few miles outside of An Arbor. It has has a ginormous goofy looking garage, which is perfect for Jason’s car reviewing. It has an old front house and a newer back house, which are kind of smushed together. If we get it, we’re going to rent out the front house, which makes it affordable. [link]

We can walk to downtown Dexter, which looks like this [link]

It’s VERY odd property in a totally charming small town a few miles outside of An Arbor.

That sounds very intriguing!

J's taking a gap...series of years. I don't know if she'll ever go back.

I have faith that she'll get where she needs to go.

So, I need you to pretend you care about music nerd stuff for a minute because I want to share my excitement about something but I can't have it out on the wider interpipes.

The band Neutral Milk Hotel is the most famous group to come out of the Elephant 6 collective of musicians mostly centered in Athens, GA. (See also: April Ludgate's favorite band, and Stephen Colbert references, plus "where Flea used to live.")

My friend and co-editor, Kim Cooper did the 33 1/3 book on Neutral Milk Hotel which is really the only history of that scene, which has only gotten more influential through time. But there are dozens upon dozens of bands associated with Elephant 6 (Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, of Montreal, Elf Power, Beulah et al.)

Anyway, I'm on an FB group dedicated to E6 bands (including many members of various groups) and one guy on there decided he wanted to do a documentary on the history of E6. He got on Patreon, rounded up money, went to Athens, interviewed everybody and made this documentary.

And then, because it was in the spirit of Elephant 6 (which was anti-commercial, and into lo-fi technology) instead of releasing the documentary, he made one VHS tape of it. And he sent it to the first person on the Patreon list. And they were supposed to send it back, and he would send it to the next person etc. Very Quixotic.

All the people who ponied up money went fucking nuts because this is not what they signed up for. And it got especially contentious because the people who actually still had functional VCRs and got to see the documentary said it was fantastic.

So much ill-feeling was generated that he withdrew the one VHS copy and now nobody can see it.

Except...one of the people who got the VHS tape made a digital copy of it and put it up on the interpipes and I just ganked it. I stumbled upon it on one of the great Interweb islands where all the digital Flotsam and Jetsam comes in with the tide. (And I trust all of you to know the distinction between flotsam and jetsam.)

And here's the kicker: It really is a fantastic documentary. One of the best I've ever seen on any rock scene. It's got tons of unseen archival footage, and contemporary interviews. It's beautifully edited and tells a moving and coherent story.

So even if you don't know the particulars of this moment in music history, imagine stumbling across some legendary lost film or production that's hugely important but impossible to see. That's this.

Wow, it's already been taken down.

But I got it!

More on it: [link]

This is how it was distributed. So crazy: [link]

Wacky: [link]

How exciting, Scrappy! That is a heck of a garage, so I can see how it would work with your DH’s job. And Dexter looks fun.

That sounds like a heck of a ride, Hec.