in no particular order…
POWER OUTAGE: As I sit at my keyboard, we have been without electrical power for about 30 minutes, the consequences of a major storm that dumped tons of rain with winds of 40 miles per hour or more over the course of several hours. Power outages beyond the occasional blip that cause the electronics to blink don’t seem as common as they were 10 years ago. But both power outages and loss of cellular service are a fact of life in the rural south. Unfortunately, we’ve modernized. We’ve turned in our gas range for an induction hob. So no coffee in house until the power returns unless why try to use the Weber to boil water. A French neighbor has rung the bell, though, to let us know that she still cooks with gas, so we are welcome to come over. It’s getting towards lunch time. Nice to have an option. (Edit: After about two hours, power was restored for us, though not for everyone in the village. Friends were still without power 18 hours and counting after the storm hit. Winds exceeded hurricane force. Trees are down throughout the region. Major highways are closed. Houses of friends are damaged. Serious storm.)
pétanque: Over a year ago, I was part of a group of expats organized to form an association, basically a nonprofit that is recognized by the regional government, to make use of the town’s underutilized indoor facility for playing pétanque, a steel building with an interior that can be configured to accommodate 15 terrains (courts) as well as a small kitchen. The building’s primary use over the years has been to host community yard sales and the distribution of the Christmas trees sold by the school’s equivalent of the PTA. A typical French bureaucratic snafu complicating our application developed. Apparently, although we were never notified, our application had been approved. But in the meantime, and without knowledge of our effort, a different group composed entirely of native French in the village had the same idea and began the same application process. After some huffing and puffing, the leadership of the two groups held a meeting, smoothed things over, and decided to merge their efforts. The French group will fold into and take leadership of our association, which is fine with us given that we agree on how things should proceed and that our group will have equal representation on the board. Shout out to our secretary Annette, who has taken on the work of getting the mounds of paperwork sorted.
REVIEWING MODERN POP: I cruise YouTube daily. I enjoy trying to figure out what Sabine Hossenfelder has to say about the science of particle physics. Clips of The Crown bring back pleasant memories of the initial binge watch. And I enjoy listening to the music videos of my favorite artists like Gov’t Mule. Check out Warren Haynes’ version of She Said, She Said if you get a chance. Great Beatles cover. As always, the algorithm has suggestions for me. And the suggestions have been running to reaction videos. If you’re not familiar with the genre, it’s apparently become very popular and, not coincidentally, a significant source of income for some of the more savvy YouTube operators. And the videographers, all a third as old as I am or younger, react to what I would consider the classic rock groups. If you take them at their word, they’ve never heard the music of the likes of Jethro Tull (Is the lead singer the one whose name is Jethro and is that a flute?) or Led Zeppelin (They’re almost as good as Tool.). And so, I had a thought. Dangerous, I know. I should use reaction videos of my own, not as a way to make money but as a way to explore modern music that I would otherwise not be inclined to expose myself to. There might be hidden gems. I can report that Chappel Roan is not a hidden gem. In fact if you follow the Grammys, you’ll know that there’s very little that Roan hides at all. But there’s Billy Strings and Mon Rovia and, to my surprise, Billy Eilish. I’ll put together a post with more samples sometime soon. Above is the video about the group Wolf Alice, 2.5 Stars out of 4.
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