BEST THING I’VE SEEN ALL F*%#ING YEAR: (Gotta watch the language around the little ones.) Click this, and scroll down some: My dad, making stuff for his incubating grandson. Check out the Gary, with the extended midsection! Man.

The story goes, my dad used made me my first toys “on the job” at Great Lakes Steel in Detroit. Completely on the clock, in their wood shop. Cool tanks and a barge and other stuff I could drool on. Soft edges, natural wood. My dad. For me. I get kinda choked up writing this, and ain’t afraid to broadcast that.

I remember dad telling me something about “how things were kinda tight when you were born” and he made the toys to save some loot. I saw them when I was home the last time, as he’s using them as reference for The Grandson. My dad.

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THIS ONE IS BLOWING MY MIND: Here’s a cat who’s scanning in his Field Notes, and then this software deal called “Evernote” indexes the text, makes it searchable and in the machine. Incredible. What a world. Thank you for using Field Notes, Mr. Dawes. Much appreciated!

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DAYWRECKER WARNING: Alert! Streger’s got some chops, finding this one. This guy knows how to ferret out some pretty wild links. Go undergound with this one: NYC Subway Historical Maps.

From long ago: 1939 System Route Map.

From a year before I was born: 1972, New Yorkers!

This one is for all my buddies, both flesh and digital, in the city: Cam, Damien, Cooley Bros., McMenamin, Cousin Tom, Lopez, Eric Baker, Paul Safsel, Hush, Billy Fowks, Pieratt, ACL and hell, while we’re at it NYC-wise, all the guys from The Hold Steady, whom I wish I was pals with. They just seem like cool fellas. Lookin’ forward to that new record.

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MY FAVORITE PAVEMENT LYRIC: “A redder shade of neck on a whiter shade of trash.”

Is that from pop culture? From “Shady Lane.” Such a great song. So snarky. I had a buddy describe Malkmus as “Aristocratic.” Interesting. I drive by his house all the time and think about him in there, smoking a pipe, dreaming up odd word combinations, wearing some kind of down ’80s down jacket vest thing, laughing little laughs, noodling out weird guitar solos, etc. This is where my mind goes.

I went to a barbeque here in town one time and Malkmus was there with his family. It took everything in my power to keep my cool and leave him alone. Fan vibes, you know?

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NO LINK TO BE FOUND HERE: Sometime you just gotta think: I get one life. How am I going to live it? Been brooding on that one, here and there, in blue sky moments, pitch black moments, under shower water, in the heat of battle, etc. Trying to be cognizant.

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ON THE PLAYER:

01. Pavement - Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement
02. Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor
03. Lifter Puller - Slips Backwards