blessingx

Hopefully. But seriously folks, yes, the first night with the drain, the four different painkillers in rapid succession night, was easily the toughest. That zero to ten pain scale may need a few more digits. Interestingly, as I understand it, depending on how difficult the obstruction phase is, the rupture can even be a temporary relief for some, before the leaking fluids and infections retake the lead. Obviously, not your case Rob and it sounds like it was pretty awful. Also thanks for the monetary heads up. Retirement is overrated, right?

I’ll wait on A.I. judgement until I get the bill. As for good luck, if I’m an optimistic type, there were several steps, including a doctor’s actions on his day off, I could point to. Also we were only caught once out of six pediatric ward escapes exploring. So the peas power remains.

^ Ugh, no more! Here: drove home from the hospital with my happy family. After a couple trips to urgent care, it was decided Esmé had some undiagnosed virus. A "stomach bug". A week into and third visit, diagnosis found - the appendix that ruptured sometime in the last week. 😵‍💫 High pain threshold is sometimes a disadvantage. Rushed to Stanford Packard hospital and then (similar to Knucks above) with viral infections filling all pediatric beds transferred in the night to San Francisco Van Ness. After another week, lots of antibiotics, a drain installed, some morphine, and several visits to the hospital's Teen Lounge, we were given the okay to come home. Lesson learned: Trust the fever. No matter the other symptoms and/or how patient is feeling, keep an eye on that temp. There may be something behind the thing. Thus ends my medical advice. E's proud portrait of parents on the day before leaving "the penthouse". The dad looks like a dick.

Honestly, I bought the LP because of the cover.

And then there were none. Garth Hudson, last surviving member of The Band, has died. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/garth-hudson-the-band-dead-1234804659/ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/21/garth-hudson-founder-member-of-the-band-and-bob-dylan-collaborator-dies-aged-87

Hope it’s a fun, big O birthday.

Hope it’s a wonderful day.

Great read… Jazz Off the Record In the late 1960s, the recording industry lost interest in America’s greatest art form. But in a small, dark club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, jazz legends were playing the best music you’ve never heard. https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/slugs-jazz-ethan-iverson/ Ex. ‘More than Davis and perhaps even more than Coltrane, Tyner is the true architect of what followed. His signature harmonic device, the fourth chord, was disseminated on Coltrane’s hit recording of “My Favorite Things” in 1961 and widely adopted overnight. Lacking the note that would make a chord either major or minor, fourth chords have a mysterious stasis, refusing to commit to the system of tonality that defined European art music. The effect was both ancient and contemporary: a circle of stones, lit by fire, right next to a jet plane.’

I’m sure the cabinets will be beautiful too.

CEO of AI Music Company Says People Don’t Like Making Music https://www.404media.co/ceo-of-ai-music-company-says-people-dont-like-making-music/ 🙃

Beautiful guys.

Adding Magnum photographer Constantine Manos, who also passed away about a week ago. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/remembering-constantine-manos-1934-2025/

Went to the Battle of the Bulge 60th anniversary exhibit at the [next to NASA Ames] Moffett Field Museum. That tree stump doesn’t stand a chance.

#1 reason to consider buying any Blu-ray player - the oldest film currently streaming on Netflix is The Sting from 1973! That's like yesterday!

Hope it was a great one.

For those without AppleTV+, it’s free this weekend (1/3-5). Time to watch Slow Horses. https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2024/12/get-a-free-all-access-pass-to-apple-tv-the-first-weekend-of-2025/

You and I are a lot alike on the reflection front. What's the old quote I can never find a record of? "We live just long enough to doubt everything we believed in" (or something similar)? Anyway, within photography, and I know not everyone agrees, gear got good enough at least a decade ago (and probably much longer - four decades?) and common big photographic questions answered (at least in pursuit of realism?), so whatever constitutes image making now seems at least partially tied with experimentation and alternative views, no? I mean is a mouth camera much crazier than the fact that the mouth camera is a film pinhole camera in 2024? Anyway, looking forward to other orifices in 2025. 🫠

Vinyl-focused listening bars inspired by ones in Japan are opening across New York, attracting audiophiles and city dwellers looking for a respite from the cacophony outside their doors. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/style/vinyl-listening-bars.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE4.DoPV.rDeIpFwipn7h&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&tgrp=on. (gift article)

I dunno. Maybe. Maybe, even likely, but she's an artist across media for almost 40 years. This is another one focused on image-making and even on the narrow photography front going from EVF to eye contact OVF or waist-level can have impact, why not experiment elsewhere and stare in each other's eyes? I think of Errol Morris' contraptions to do the opposite. Again, this may be all be for attention and notoriety, but there's a decent chance it may not. And I kind of like aiming for relevance. 😉

Whatever your current mood hope you have a decent New Year’s Eve and Day.