It's hot as fuck outside. I have a million-and-one phone calls to make today. A gang of site visits. 3 varieties of caffeine transmission. We are listening to Trans Am circa 1997 as a coping mechanism. Special band at a special time keeping me on the rails today. Life of a weird union rep.

I like to watch the fireworks reflect off windows. I also enjoy hot coffee and cold leftover pizza for breakfast.

Much like last year's event, I've somehow managed to watch most of this crazy ass match. Great cause. Make a donation.

Best photo of me and my kiddo at her grad party

Hitting the nostalgia sauce pretty hard today at work... who I am and what I do today is directly related to what I was and what I was informed by in the past.

HVAC contractor at my place doing a new install telling me their top rep/estimator for the last five years moved on to be a pastor at a mega-church seems particularly on brand. BTW, he’s doing “very, very, very well” for himself in his new venture.

Hotel we’re staying in has a portable record player with Dave Mason’s “Let It Flow” at the ready in lieu of a functioning fart fan.

Workweek winding down, and I keep being bombarded by early 90's emo and hardcore nostalgists. I was in both scenes back in the day, but also was lucky to have been exposed to a whole lot of other stuff. Kerosene 454 used to put on hellacious shows. Here's collection of their singles and ep's. Enjoy

At my daughter’s graduation, and there’s a kid with a Palestinian flag on his mortarboard. Another classmate wearing a Palestinian flag scarf… Her high school is in a prototypical American suburb. Constant reminders that the kids are alright.

Hassan with an incredibly nuanced description of how unions really work within politics and how that relates to rank-and-file. The primary goal of any union is to do what’s best for membership, and, additionally, with trade unions what’s best for the craft.

Was listening to a podcast that was tangentially discussing the early 90’s Southern California hardcore/emo/screamo scene… was bummed to find out just how quickly Christian weirdos co-opted the scene and created an antithetical scene designed the divert folks from the growing alt culture. Fuckers.

Song for the day... hell, album of the day. Lanquidity is one of those touchstone albums, and "Where Pathways Meet" hits the spot. Somewhere between ritualistic repetition and chaos.

My new favorite thing?

My kiddo and his buddy at the sneaker convention… this generation’s gun and knife show.

What to do on a boring Saturday night in my city… go see a Supertramp cover band.

We do May Day stuff on May Day, Roosevelt Park, Detroit…

My office for the day

Hourlong drive to go entice 5,000 kiddos into apprenticeships with the trades… listening to Michael Parenti on the way in.

Doing my normal weekend routine… getting shit done around the house while listening to leftist anti-establishment types and trying to continually educate my old ass. @austerityismurder.bsky.social has had Clara Mattei on his podcast previously. Check it out via @realprogressives.bsky.social

It’s odd to me that there isn’t much public pushback to the mass corporatization and industrialization of the once strangely beautiful underground black market marijuana culture/economy. I present BA Johnston, a Canadian wild ass circa 2022. Happy Friday to those who celebrate.

@blastpoints.bsky.social … you got any clues? Help a brother out.

Look what i found in the wild @johneltenney.bsky.social

It's one of those damn days...

Q:Who was your 1st legitimate love in jazz? A:Sam Rivers. I was in my early teens. Saw a picture of him in a book about jazz that my grandpa had laying around. I then sought out his records. This is this a sample of the shit that I heard. My brain has been fucked (for the better) ever since.

… and now we move on to Weather Report. No gods and no masters, just Weather Report tearing a hole through the space/time continuum a year and some change after I was born.

At my daughter’s first big track meet of her senior season. Got the headphones in and am enjoying this fine morsel of oddball musicianship.

Peak Zappa playing in the background whilst I do wage comparisons across 90 or so contracts. Fun stuff for a Friday.

It’s a trifecta of stimulants kinda day

Crazy days... somehow this is a song I go back to the well on when I want to recenter.

Some days it’s like this; contracts/proposals all spread out, multiple drinks going, pens/markers in various colors, post it notes out the ass, spreadsheets and lists just teasing me on the 1’s and 2’s. The fun life of a union rep. And I’m cranking the MF Doom Special Herbs box set to stay sane.

Working on a holiday, but the strange musics gets me through the bullshit... today's soundtrack includes this gem:

Be like Sonny Sharrock and call out apartheid and genocide when you see it... all the way back in 1988.

Those damn “what were you like in the 90’s” videos got me a bit nostalgic. In 1993 this 7” was everything for a moment. Was lucky enough to catch Avail live in Detroit (Grounds Coffeehaus most likely) around this time too.

Out of pure boredom, the missus and I decided to watch the new-ish Matlock show. It's the most ridiculous boomer-targeted, self aggrandizing, "me-generation" nonsense I have ever had to sit through. I was actually angered by it. If it's a critique of the boomers, then well played. If not, yikes!

Did pie squared for Pi Day

Playing in the background while I ignore the world around me and consume various forms of caffeine and fruit juices.

Album of the day for dealing with the bullshit...

Late night of working on contracts, classification job descriptions, and grievances... this is the shit that gets me through. Also, Caffeine. Lots of caffeine. Caffeine and avant-garde music.

I follow chainsl4yer9000 over on Insta for bite sized revolutionary thought and insight. In a recent video he was able to articulate past/current power/wealth/justice dynamics into the following: Power concentrates Wealth insulates and Consequences disappear It has struck with me for days.

It’s a nice and sunny day in Detroit. Ventured out of my Corktown office to successfully represent a union brother in a disciplinary hearing down the road from both of Detroit’s Robocops. Figured I’d stop and pay a visit.

Straight from the folks fighting this horrendous shit on the legal side of things:

The bowling community is pretty kick ass.

As a union rep, I cannot "not work" today. I've got grievances to file, jobs to protect and workers rights to defend. I am in full support of the general strike, but I'd like to simply state that that there are folks that wish they could participate but cannot due to the very nature of their work.

Stumbled upon videos of this wild shit in Insta... I'm infatuated.

Blue collar, tradesman, iron worker, native… ICE don’t give two fucks. Incredibly dastardly shit.

Misinformation, misinformation signal boosted… the actual information. Can’t make this shit up.

I got hit by a pick-up truck on a picket line. The driver was spooked as they were not ready for a hundred-plus construction workers aggressively pacing in front of their workplace. They floored it. Nobody pulled a gun. None of us were trained for the situation. Everyone went home safe. Fuck Ice.

Stayed up all night for Wrestle Kingdom,Tanahashi’s final match and subsequent retirement ceremony. At my kiddo’s bowling tournament an hour later. Her team’s taking pics of me napping and goofing on me. They don’t know that I was crying over a guy playing air guitar one last time a few hours ago.

At 50, I've been doing some retrospection. Who I was. What I was into. What I was about through my many mutations. I stumblebummed into situations/opportunities. The 90's "underground" music scene was such a kismetic case. I was at this show. I'm a lucky motherfucker. META-MATICS were peerless.