My Week XXXI with Pictures

 

Sunday saw the dramatic return of Imperator Bookstooge as he swept back into the blogosphere. Spheres of influence were shaken and the status quo destroyed as he vowed to take over Devilreads and make it safe for everyone, not just illiterate dumb dumbs who wouldn't know a good book if it hit them over the head. The Imperator knows he has a long struggle ahead of him and that defeat is most likely, but this has not deterred our intrepid hero. All Hail Imperator Bookstooge!

Monday was one of those days I got home from work and all plans evaporated because of how tired I was. I had visions of doing laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, etc. 2 weeks ago we got hit by a snow storm that dumped over a foot of snow on us and it is sticking around. I'm trudging around each day through snow that has piled up to my knees in places. I come home exhausted.

Tuesday I was by myself as Short Round went with his wife to an ultrasound to see their newly conceived baby. It was a nice day (above freezing) and while the job sucked (to be fair, all jobs suck this time of year with this much snow), I still had energy at the end of the day. I did laundry. Go me!!!!! I also listened to a lot of Enya's albums as I needed something very easy and soothing to help me settle down from doing all those laundries ;-)

Wednesday was the day I overcame and did even MOOOOR chores. I hadn't vacuumed our place in over a month (don't judge me) and it was time. I broke out ye olde Rainbow Vac and got a ton of stuff off our floors and out of the carpets. Every time I vacuum, I tell myself I need to do it weekly (I do!) but then a month passes and this situation happens, time after time after time. I guess I just don't like vacuuming. But in my defense, Mrs B likes doing vacuuming even less than I do, so you can consider me the clean freak of the pair ;-) Whilst I was vacuuming, I shanghaied Mrs B into sweeping and mopping. I might be the clean freak, but the freaky deaky has to be shared.

Thursday, well Thursday turned into a good day. It was sunny, it was at the freezing mark (amazing how warm freezing feels when you been below it for weeks) AND I got some Mr Macs Deluxe Cheeseburger mac-n-cheese for lunch. Considering it was between 800 to 1000 calories you know it was good. Mrs B had a good day too, so that made for a good evening together as we enjoyed the general goodness of the day.

Friday wasn't as fun as Thursday.  The job wasn't easy and by the time we were done I was hurting. I was setting pins on a property line and the ground was frozen, so I had to use a power drill and then whale on the pin itself to drive it flush. THEN I had to put a wooden tall stake next to it as a witness. Oh, did I mention I had to shovel out a foot of snow at each point, enough so I could kneel down and do all that work? Yeah, it was brutal. Ended up taking 2 extra strength tylenol for my shoulder and elbow when I got home.

Saturday I have plans.  I'm part of our church's men's group that meets twice a month from 8-9:15am. We're currently studying 2nd Peter. On a good Saturday we'll get through 5 verses :-D  Then my brother is coming over and we'll shoot the breeze or maybe play some Munchkin.  Finally, at 2pm I'm heading out to play some Magic with one of the teens from church. We're going to try some of the "new" Precon Commander decks I have from '21 or '22. I am really looking forward to playing some Magic!

And that's a wrap for the week!

Then It Fell Apart (Non-Fiction) 2Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Then It Fell Apart
Series: Non-Fiction
Author: Moby
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 382
Words: 119K
Publish: 2019

Wikipedia has this little bit to say about this book:

“The memoir predominantly deals with Moby's life from 1999 to 2009 with some flashbacks to his early childhood. In particular, the memoir deals with his surprise at the accidental success of Play, his descent into alcohol addiction, and his decision in 2007 to finally go to rehab in order to stay sober.”

I read Moby’s first memoir, Porcelain, back in 2017. I enjoyed it and so when I was looking for non-fiction books to fill up my non-fiction category, I found out Moby had written a second memoir.

This book alternates chapters from 1999 to 2008 and then from 1968 to the 80’s.

Moby claims to remember stuff from 3 years old and on. Some of it pretty terrible in fact. I can’t say he’s lying, but most kids do not remember things from that age, not even the really bad stuff. The one thing that bears him out though is his later behavior, which has all the classic signs of an abuse victim. Then again, all one has to do is take a Psych 101 class to learn what those behaviors are. The 1999 and on parts were about his meteoric rise to fame and then his gradual descent. It was the typical shallow rockstar story of drugs, alcohol and sex. The book ends with him going to an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting and realizing that he did need help.

My problem is that not once is there any sense of shame or regret. He goes through people (not just girlfriends) like they are disposable. It was exactly the same as how he wrote about people in Porcelain. A name, a situation, then we never hear about them again. We don’t hear how or why he stopped hanging out with them, beyond the occasional “and I was a dick to them” general blabbings. It was trademark narcissism. I was hoping since he’d gotten clean around 2008 that he’d grown up between then and writing this book. Sadly, it seems he hadn’t.

He didn’t handle fame very well and his drinking, drug use and promiscuity were simply accelerated by it. This was a journal of self-destruction. I also had my doubts about the accuracy of things portrayed. Memory is a porous thing (hence my weekly journaling) and details are easy to misremember OR to be remembered in a light that makes us feel better about ourselves.

Overall, this felt like I had been dragged through a sewer and had many, many instances of second hand shame, as there wasn’t any on Moby’s part.

I had a large collection of Moby’s work on hand while reading this and would have it playing in the background. I listened to his earlier works, which I didn’t care for, then his three big album hits (Play, 18 and Hotel, with Play and 18 including the B-sides songs) which I did enjoy quite a bit and then his later stuff which I once again did not enjoy. It felt like he was a musician doing “musician’y” things for his own enjoyment or other musicians rather than for the masses like me. I can understand why those three albums made waves and I can understand why his other stuff didn’t.

If Moby ever writes a third memoir about getting cleaned up and his life after fame, I’ll be tempted to read it. But I don’t know if I would or not. I can’t take another book of non-repentance.

★★☆☆☆

Blue Monday Variant + Lyrics

ORIGINAL LYRICS

How does it feel to treat me like you do?
When you’ve laid your hands upon me
And told me who you are
Thought I was mistaken
I thought I heard your words
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how do I feel?
Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They’ll turn away no more
And still, I find it so hard
To say what I need to say
But I’m quite sure that you’ll tell me
Just how I should feel today
I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn’t for your misfortune
I’d be a heavenly person today
And I thought I was mistaken
And I thought I heard you speak
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how should I feel?
Now I stand here waiting
I thought I told you to leave me
While I walk down to the beach
Tell me, how does it feel
When your heart grows cold? (Grows cold, grows cold-)

---

The lyrics have no concrete meaning as far as I can tell,  just a collection of feelingz oriented phrases.

I like this Variant edition by Orkestra Obsolete because it’s much more mellow than the original. And it’s just weird with how they use the old timey instruments and whatnot. And those masks! I, and Zorro, approve.

♪The Last of the Rockstars♪

I have never seen the movie The Last of the Mohicans. But I heard the soundtrack back in the 90’s and immediately bought the cd. Ever since, it has been a staple in my (admittedly sparse) musical repertoire.

It has also led to one of those situations that married couples will find happening to them after being together for years. I don’t know how it started, but whenever we have a favorite food and one of us is about to devour the last of it, I’ll just randomly break out with “The Last of the Delicious Food X!” and start booming away with this theme song. It’s funny because we can always just buy more of whatever we’re eating on our next grocery run 🙂

But sometimes, like today, it’s not funny. Because food items stop being made if they’re not popular enough. And when you come to the last one, it is a very bittersweet moment. You are filled with the goodness of the item being devoured but sad on the inside because you know you’ll never be able to consume it again.

So it is with those very mixed feelings that I present the Last of the Pineapple Coconut Rockstar Recovery! I have eulogized this before, in the form of An Ode to Energy Drinks, but now I must mourn. As this post goes live at 0500 Eastern Standard Time, I will be sitting on my couch, reading all of your posts, slowly, ever so slowly, sipping the last can of this delicious nectar. So rejoice with me as I savor the delicious flavor and mourn with me as I know this is the last I will ever taste this nectar.

♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪

Pineapple Coconut Rockstar Recovery, I who am about to drink you, salute you!