(Front, L-R, John-With, Chanteuse Mary, Lovely Jamie, Joy, (second) The Architect, TLB, Vic Incendiary, Jon-without (back) some guy and Chris-from-Montana. Photo Jasper).
Now in the morning pre-dawn, smoking the first cigarette of the day- I don’t smoke in the apartment except for those irritating eCigs and looking out over the parking lot at Big Pink I realized the Bluesmobile is sleeping next to a sign that appeared overnight advising me it can’t be there at 0800, so I wound driving in my pajamas at 0530 to find a new place to put it, and I gave complete credit to having to be someplace else early, and then back inside to inhale coffee and get through the mail, to discover all the US-versions of the Beatles albums are available for $120 pre-order, special price, AND since I heard about it at Mary’s birthday at Willow, which was also holding Restaurant Week and in complete chaos and was interested but I am not sure I even still like the Beatles, but heard some of the BBC sessions on NPR and what the hell- they were the framing band of high adolescence and then into the nightmare of the Apple Store, which has been hacked, apparently, and I can never remember if it was just an “identify” or an actual complete email address, or which one of those, the personal or the account that I use for commercial purposes, and that went around and around with new security questions and rescue addresses and a wilderness of verification and I think, at the end of that, I have preordered music I rarely listen to.
(Another masterpiece cake from the talented hands of Willow’s pastry chef Kate Jansen. Photo Jamie.)
Anyway, in the process of updating my credit card information- why do I store it with the Apple people anyway? Since Steve Jobs died I have no personal relationship there except with the laptop although the Android phone I have had for a couple years only holds a charge for a couple minutes these days, particularly if I am taking cool pictures like the ones of the canal in all modes, so maybe I should upgrade to an iPhone 5a so only me and the NSA know who I am talking to. I like the idea of a new phone, but really, with over 70 million compromised card accounts out there from Target (yes, I shopped at the one in Culpeper in the period of vulnerability) and Neiman-Marcus (I didn’t) and three other vendors (I don’t know), I was wondering what the fuck? A third of the US population compromised? What do they have on me? And should I do a credit lock just in case? I looked the people up who will reportedly “freeze” credit unless I ask for it specifically by opening my account and that, Ami, just makes too much freaking sense. Why on earth do we do it the other way around, so some Bulgarian punk can open a new account, change the mailing address and be off on his merry way buying all sorts of crap-maybe Beatles tunes- that I will never know about, much less listen to?
(Chanteuse Mary starts a new decade by blowing out the candle. Photo Jamie)
Anyway, like I said, I have to be somewhere way too early this morning, but if you want to galvanize your day, and think about why everything is completely nuts, I have three articles for you, and a link to Credit Freeze. I don’t agree with all of it, but there is certainly a lot to think about, nest pas? I need to talk to Marlow about Paris:
(Marlow’ pic of the canal St. Martin. Photo Marlow)
Credit Freeze:
http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html
What’s next on the Climate:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/15/the-rise-and-fall-of-global-newspaper-coverage-of-global-warming-and-climate-change/
How we are being altered by our devices:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/if-a-time-traveller-saw-a-smartphone.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_Daily%20(96)
And then finish it off with this dry demolition of the mess that is foreign policy and why:
http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.2060/article_detail.asp
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303