On Jan. 12, 2024, Sweden’s The Awesome Machine will reissue their 2000 third album, …It’s Ugly or Nothing, through Ripple Music. It is the first installment of a OBI-inclusive vinyl series the label is beginning that’s been dubbed ‘Beneath the Desert Floor,’ and the Californian imprint could hardly have found a more suitable example. The first seven seconds of opening track “Never Said I Never Fail” tell you at least 80 percent of what you ACTUALLY need to know going in: the first introductory snare hit already seems to be running at pace to the next and the guitar and bass join in with an absolutely righteous punch of raw, hard fuzz and thick bass. Plus handclaps!

Another 10 seconds pass and vocalist Lasse Olausson arrives, immediately clenched of gut, pushing lyrics through partially restricted airways in a gruff delivery that was a defining feature of the band who first got together in 1996 and would culminate at the end of their first decade in 2006. Momentum is there. The push is there. The thing has barely started and you’re at full speed, all go, all in, no bullshit. They didn’t call themselves The Awesome Machine for nothing.

During that time, The Awesome Machine — Olausson, guitarist Christian Smedström, bassist Anders Wenander and drummer Tobbe Bøvik at the century’s turn — were one of a rising generation of Swedish heavy rockers. Based in Gothenburg, they shared a rehearsal space with Mustasch. They hung out with guys from Tiamat and In Flames, The Crown, and were a part of a national Swedish underground that, while of course led by acts like Dozer, Demon Cleaner and Siena Root, was (and is) an entire ecosystem unto itself.

Bands like Abramis Brama (still going), Firestone (who begat Truckfighters), Astroqueen (now back), the aforementioned Mustasch (still going), Norrsken (who begat Witchcraft and Graveyard) would have been contemporaries as well, perhaps joining The Awesome Machine on stage as they lay out the declarative stomp of “Son of a God” from …It’s Ugly or Nothing, which is one of the album’s several standout hooks and follows “El Bajo” (video premiering below) with its chorus “hey!”s and catchy bounce, completing a salvo course started in “Never Said I Never Fail” that brought cowbell and harmonica on “How Am I to Know” — the spread of self-titled-era Clutch‘s influence isn’t to be discounted — before diving back into the shove.

Which is a big part of what they do — the shove — but not all of it. “Cruise Control” answers the nod of “Son of a God” with four quiet minutes of ambient guitar noodling. The Awesome Machine would grow increasingly atmospheric over their time, culminating in their to-date swansong, 2003’s The Soul of a Thousand Years (discussed here) — during the recording for which Olausson would develop the throat infections that caused him to leave the band — but those impulses were always there and “Cruise Control” is a respite from the physicality of the other material on …It’s Ugly or Nothing, and a preface to 10-minute organ-inclusive closer “No Share,” which let’s assume wasn’t a timely reference to Napster, and which also pulls back on tempo to breathe a bit.

That’s fortunate, because getting there is a chase scene through “Supernova” and the swinging “Looking for Sweet Opium” — that’s the part of the chase where they break through the pane of glass — before the volatile “Out of Fuel” seems to gnash its teeth with tension early and find catharsis in Bøvik‘s later bashing, and the originally-penultimate “Used to Be” drives their energy to a feverish point and lets go into the softer intro contemplation of “No Share,” which if you were a newcomer to the style circa 2000 and happened to pick up this import CD from some Swedish band — maybe on the All That is Heavy store, which is how a lot of these transactions were done at least for me in those days — might just be enough to keep you as a convert.

Its classic-heavy sensibility, poise and engrossing payoff are, and I’m just being honest here, what it’s all about, and in beginning ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ with The Awesome Machine, Ripple clearly knows it. They’re not alone, of course. This year and last, Sweden’s Ozium Records released two rare tracks compilations, 2022’s God Damn Rare (discussed here) and 2023’s God Damn Rare Vol. II (discussed here), and in 2022, Daredevil Records hosted a digital reissue for …It’s Ugly or Nothing‘s predecessor, which was 1998’s Doom, Disco, Dope, Death and Love demo (discussed here), originally available only on CDRs and inkjet printer artwork. It’s amazing the things you can be nostalgic for, folks. I wonder if they have any copies left.

The Awesome Machine have long been an example in my mind of a band from the post-Kyuss era, the turn of the century era, who never got their due and whose work is treasure waiting to be discovered by a subsequent generation of riff heads. If you think back to about the time The Awesome Machine were kicking around and labels like Akarma were mining old crates of vinyl to unearth lost classics from the heavy ’70s, from about 2000-2005, the ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ that launches with this LP (the album’s first vinyl issue) is no different and, I’ll gladly argue, no less crucial in its mission.

Why? Because any story of aesthetic changes over time, and the shape of history bends to the eye of the viewer. Bringing The Awesome Machine — and potentially scores of others like them, from Sweden and beyond — back for another look is a reminder that any narrative thread one puts to the decades of heavy music can only tell a piece of it. Nearly 24 years later, …It’s Ugly or Nothing still encourages its audience to dig deeper.

But whether you take it as an educational exercise or not, whether you immediately go search out The Awesome Machine‘s 1998 self-titled debut, or The Soul of a Thousand Years, or 2002’s Under the Influence after hearing these songs, …It’s Ugly or Nothing is foremost an absolute blast of a heavy rock record, and as a herald of the new oldschool, it’s been gifted with an entirely new resonance.

The video for “El Bajo” is below, followed by some comment from Tobbe Bøvik on the track, and info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

The Awesome Machine, “El Bajo” video

Tobbe Bøvik on “El Bajo”:

El Bajo is one of the eldest compositions by the band, written way back in early 1999. It really defines the sound of The Awesome Machine. With its distorted bass intro, heavy drums, fuzzy guitars and raunchy vocal chorus it really sets the pace of this stoner classic. Accompanied by an action packed desert-car-chase video, it will please any fan of the genre.

THE AWESOME MACHINE “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” reissue
Out January 12th, 2024 via Ripple Music (vinyl only)

International preorder – https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/beneath-the-desert-floor-chapter-1-its-ugly-or-nothing

US preorder – https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/product/beneath-the-desert-floor-chapter-1-the-awesome-machine-it-s-ugly-or-nothing-obi-edition

Ripple Music is proud to launch the “Beneath The Desert Floor” series — unearthing long-lost treasures from the early days of stoner rock — and team up with Swedish scene veterans THE AWESOME MACHINE for the reissue of their cornerstone album “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” this January 2024.

An indestructible mass of fuzz-drenched heft, their 2000 cornerstone album “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” is eleven tracks of uncompromising stoner rock goodness for the ages. An authentic classic of Swedish-brewed mastery that old and new fans will welcome with open arms and ears in their record collection!

About the “Beneath The Desert Floor” series, Ripple Music founder Todd Severin says: “There were so many amazing albums released in the underground heavy stoner/doom/desert/heavy psych during the late 90’s, early 2000’s that have gotten lost in the passage of time. These albums, from incredible bands, came out in a time before social media was fully formed to help push public awareness before the vinyl resurgence happened so they were never pressed to wax before digital channels existed to spread the music far and wide. My goal is to do our part to change that. To look beneath the desert floor and see what gems and treasures lay there. And spread them with the world.”

The Awesome Machine on It’s Ugly or Nothing:
Lasse Olausson – vocals
Anders Wenander – bass
Christian Smedström – guitar
Tobbe Bøvik – drums

The Awesome Machine on Facebook

The Awesome Machine on Instagram

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Instagram

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

There are a ton of records like this. Issued in the aughts, or right around the turn of the century, largely forgotten as bands and/or labels have phased out, trends have shifted, and the infrastructure through which audience communication has shifted. But now as then, The Awesome Machine kick ass. The Swedish heavy rockers are a band who will make a few things clearer about what was happening in heavy rock around the country at that time, beyond the formative days of Witchcraft or the by-then-manifest charge of Dozer, and deeper into the underground.

Going deeper into the underground would seem to be Ripple Music‘s direct intention as it unveils It’s Ugly or Nothing as the first part of a series called ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ that will reportedly hone in on albums like this that are at risk of being lost to time. So much the better with the catalogs of imprints like Nasoni, Elektrohasch, People Like You (which originally released this album), This Dark Reign, Molten Universe, or PsycheDOOMelic, among many others, so ripe for a new generation of listeners to explore. Then you get into reissuing comps and we could be here all day filling out installments of ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ on behalf of Ripple, who it should be noted continue to plumb the modern underground as well with their ‘Turned to Stone’ split series and constant stream of ‘regular’ offerings.

And The Awesome Machine have had a couple rare-tracks collections turn up on vinyl through Ozium Records in the last couple years, so this isn’t completely out of the blue, though frankly even if it were it’d still be cool.

From the PR wire:

Ripple Music launch “Beneath The Desert Floor” series with special reissue of THE AWESOME MACHINE’s stoner rock classic “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing”.

Ripple Music is proud to launch the “Beneath The Desert Floor” series — unearthing long-lost treasures from the early days of stoner rock — and team up with Swedish scene veterans THE AWESOME MACHINE for the reissue of their cornerstone album “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” this January 2024.

The legend says that the stoner rock genre was born under the baking sun of Southern California in the mid-80s, somewhere between Palm Desert and Orange County. A sun-baked, punk-infused and largely psychedelic-driven response to the Pacific NorthWest’s grunge movement, its most iconic torchbearers were named Kyuss, Fatso Jetson, Fu Manchu or Sleep. Way before social media existed, it didn’t take long for the first cassette tapes to cross the pond and spark an inextinguishable fire in what would become the cradle of European stoner rock: Sweden. Among the scene forefathers Dozer or Lowrider stood a myriad of hyperactive bands, among which THE AWESOME MACHINE.

An indestructible mass of fuzz-drenched heft, their 2000 cornerstone album “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” is eleven tracks of uncompromising stoner rock goodness for the ages. An authentic classic of Swedish-brewed mastery that old and new fans of the genre will welcome with open arms and ears in their record collection!

About the “Beneath The Desert Floor” series, Ripple Music founder Todd Severin says: “There were so many amazing albums released in the underground heavy stoner/doom/desert/heavy psych during the late 90’s, early 2000’s that have gotten lost in the passage of time. These albums, from incredible bands, came out in a time before social media was fully formed to help push public awareness before the vinyl resurgence happened so they were never pressed to wax before digital channels existed to spread the music far and wide. My goal is to do our part to change that. To look beneath the desert floor and see what gems and treasures lay there. And spread them with the world.”

THE AWESOME MACHINE “…It’s Ugly Or Nothing” reissue
Out January 12th, 2024 via Ripple Music (vinyl only)

International preorder – https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/beneath-the-desert-floor-chapter-1-its-ugly-or-nothing

US preorder – https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/product/beneath-the-desert-floor-chapter-1-the-awesome-machine-it-s-ugly-or-nothing-obi-edition

https://www.facebook.com/awesomemachinetheband

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

The Awesome Machine, “I Never Said I Never Fail” official video

This past Spring, Ozium Records offered up God Damn Rare, collecting together demos and off-album pieces, outtakes and so on from long-defunct Swedish troupe The Awesome Machine. The Gothenburg-based band, who might be considered one of the multitudes whose work demonstrated the inevitable unreliability of corporate social media to archive with any sense of permanence — that is, when MySpace disappeared, so did much of their presence other than on the CD/LP racks of those who already owned their records; there’s a lesson in there somewhere but sometimes it feels like humanity is trapped in the current social media sphere even as it evolves, disintegrates in part — called it quits in 2006, and just the other day announced that the same label will stand behind a God Damn Rare Vol. 2 in 2023.

I’m not saying The Awesome Machine are back together, that they should get back together, or that I know anything in any regard about anything, ever, but two rare tracks collections shows an awful lot of contextual interest on the part of a group who aren’t looking to get back out again in any way, not to mention Ozium, and the hint dropped below with ‘In 2023 many great things will happen’ feels significant. These guys were ahead of the pack in the aughts, and it would be interesting to see how they fared in a return, if in fact the God Damn Rare offerings are a precursor to such a thing, but even if not, they’re worth investigating for the generation of listeners who’ve come up in heavy rock since they broke up. If these pique interest even just toward that, so much the better.

The band’s posting of the complementary cover art and quick announcement of the release follows from the aforementioned modern social media sphere. Preorders to follow:

So 2022 is almost to an end, a year that brought many surprises in The Awesome Machine bandcamp. And it’s not over yet. In 2023 many great things will happen, this being one of them. The great label @ozium_records will release God Damn Rare vol 2.

We dug out even more demo’s, outtakes and rare/unreleased stuff. Artwork is once again created by the fantastic Johan Anderberg.

Pre-orders will soon be available so keep an eye on Ozium records bandcamp website.

https://www.facebook.com/awesomemachinetheband

https://www.facebook.com/oziumrecords
https://www.instagram.com/ozium_records/
https://oziumrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://oziumrecords.com/

The Awesome Machine, God Damn Rare (2022)

The gradual return to activity of Swedish heavy rockers The Awesome Machine continues with Daredevil Records‘ inclusion of the band in a series of demo reissues that captures the early days of modern heavy rock in Europe. The first installment in the aptly titled Demo Series was fellow Swedes Boogieman with their demo from 2002, and for The Awesome Machine, the label digs back further, to 1998. Consider that this followed less than a year after the Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age split, or a year before Acid King put out Busse Woods. More locally, Dozer were issuing demos around the same time. This is early days of what we now think of as stoner and heavy rock, and The Awesome Machine were right there.

As previously announced, in addition to this, Ozium Records will in May issue God Damn Rare, a collection of previously-unreleased and off-album tracks spanning the band’s career, which capped in 2006. More info on that is here.

Goes without saying maybe, but I’m curious as to whether this is all leading, if and when, to some more proper return on the part of the band, be it shows or a new album or both. Nothing on that yet, but golly their early days did rock.

Enjoy:

DEMO SERIES VOLUME 2 : THE AWESOME MACHINE – doom, disco, dope, death and love DEMO 1998

https://daredevilrecords.bandcamp.com/album/demo-series-vol-2-the-awesome-machine-doom-disco-dope-death-and-love-demo-1998

1998 – 2002 were fantastic times for the new growing Stoner Rock scene. So many bands hit the earth and so many bands never got the chance to release an official album. But a lot of demos are flying around since that period. We try to bring some of those bands with their great demo recordings back and give that influential sounds a wider attention.

The Awesome Machine was one of the most important bands in the early 2000s. After their great demo, released 1998, and their contribution on the legendary Burn the Street Vol. 1 Compilation (1999) and different split and compilation releases, they conquered the scene with their excellent 10″ in 1998. This 10″ is still one of the early Stoner Rock masterpieces! After that the band signed a record deal with PEOPLE LIKE YOU Records and became one of their leading bands. 2000 they released …IT `S UGLY OR NOTHING and 2002 the groundbreaking UNDER THE INFLUENCE before their masterpiece THE SOUL OF A THOUSAND YEARS saw the light of day. The band broke up in 2006.

Recorded at Hot Dog Stand Studio, Kortedala, Sweden August 1998
Engineered by Paul Vahala

The Awesome Machine:
Guitar: Christian Smedström
Bass: Anders Wenander
Drums: Tobbe Bovik
Vocals: Lasse Olausson

https://www.facebook.com/awesomemachinetheband
http://www.facebook.com/DAREDEVILRECORDS
https://daredevilrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.daredevilrecords.de/

The Awesome Machine, Doom, Disco, Dope, Death and Love (1998)

It wasn’t until I was writing recently about their 2003 swansong, The Soul of a Thousand Years, that I even knew this collection was happening, but the thing about The Awesome Machine was that, if you knew, you knew, and clearly Ozium Records knew. The collection of demos and remixes, etc., is titled God Damn Rare, and it’s out sometime next Spring — given vinyl production delays, things like nebulous release dates are becoming more common; you will see that until somebody opens up another plant or two; also, how has no one turned that into an artisanal thing? boutique vinyl production? — but preorders and a teaser clip are up now, and surely there will be more to come through the Ozium page on Bandcamp.

[EDIT: April is the targeted release date as of Oct. 26, 2021, and hopefully that pans out. Sooner the better as far as I’m concerned. Further update: So far as I know, no one has started a boutique vinyl pressing plant. Fair enough.]

Here’s preorder info:

The Awesome Machine – God Damn Rare – For release spring 2022

Preorder: https://oziumrecords.com/product/lp/god-damn-rare-by-the-awesome-machine-lp-red-black/

The spirit of Kyuss lives on years after their breakup, and Sweden has churned out a number of quality stoner rock bands in recent times, such as Mushroom River Band, We, Spiritual Beggars, and others. The Awesome Machine was another such band, and one of the better late-period Kyuss soundalikes to be heard in some time. A lot of stoner bands seem to stick to the tried and true, and in that respect The Awesome Machine was no different, but they were excellent at what they did. Containing previously unreleased material. Demo versions, remasters, remixes spanning from 1998 – 2005.

Tracklisting:
1. God Damn Evil
2. By No One
3. For The Weaker Ones
4. Gasoline
5. Digging
6. Shakedown
7. Ompa Bompa
8. Above All
9. Sun Don’t Shine
10. Demon King
11. I Never Knew (live)

https://www.facebook.com/oziumrecords
https://www.instagram.com/ozium_records/
https://oziumrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://oziumrecords.com/

The Awesome Machine, God Damn Rare teaser

Released in 2003, The Soul of a Thousand Years was the final of five albums from Swedish heavy rockers The Awesome Machine. It’s probably not their best-known work, which might be their 1998 self-titled debut or 2000’s …It’s Ugly or Nothing, but for a decade from 1996 to 2006, they developed a take on meaty fuzz riffs and particularly Swedish burl that no one else ever managed to do in the same way during their era. After their 1999 second album, Doom, Disco, Dope, Death and Love, which was self-released, their last three LPs — the aforementioned …It’s Ugly or Nothing, 2002’s Under the Influence (also a gem) and The Soul of a Thousand Years — were all issued through People Like You Records. Now a subsidiary of Century Media — and it may have been then as well for all I know — the German imprint centers mostly on psychobilly and garage rock, very post-Hellacopters stuff, and acts like The Bones and so on. Their website doesn’t even mention any of these releases, so apart from the secondary market, they’ve been unavailable for however long.

The lineup on The Soul of a Thousand Years was vocalist Lasse Olausson, bassist Anders Wenander, guitarist Christian Smedström and drummer Tobbe Bövik, and the record is rife with hidden guest appearances from around the Gothenburg metal set of the time, but the impact is much more about the songs themselves. They open spacious on “Eating Me Slowly,” with big drums behind bigger guitars and vocals that soar largely because of the gutted-out power pushing them forward — Olausson reportedly blew out his voice during the recording in such a way as to have done permanent damage, removing his ability to tour and factoring into his leaving the band; listening to the record now, I believe it — but even in that track there’s an immediacy to the chorus that finds ready answer throughout the 12-song span.

With quiet stretches in the eventually-bursts-in-volume moody highlight “Scars” and the later more gradual build of “Not My War” (the vocal layering there is subtle but worth specifically appreciating) that prove no less memorable than anything that surrounds them, cuts like “Forgotten Words,” “Hunt You Down,” “My Friend,” “Black Hearted Son” and “Bring Out the Dead” are ragers worthy of anything from the era you’d want to set them up against. “My Friend” careens and stomps with an intensity that’s raw despite sounding so full — oh, that bass is a delight; see also “Deadly Caress” and, well, just about everywhere — and all the while, the four-piece let loose killer hooks regardless of tempo or other aesthetic intent. For instance, they necessarily tell you that in “Hunt You Down,” with its great, lumbering swing, that it’s King Kong doing the hunting, but you get the idea anyway, and the song still gets stuck in your head. It is a multiple-tiered win.

And a multiple-tiered album. At 12 songs and 50 minutes, you would be within rights to call it a relic of the CD era, but one could hardly accuse The Awesome Machine of filler. The tracks vary widely. “Hunt You Down” moves into “Scars” moves into “My Friend” moves into the drum-centered, keyboard-inclusive interlude “Ghosts of Patroklos,” which is one of several short instrumental breaks where the forward shove of The Soul of a Thousand Years lets up. After “Black Hearted Son” delivers one of the collection’s most engaging heavy rock onslaughts and the subsequent “Deadly Caress” rolls out its own slower, creepier, still-chorus-minded and still-definitely-weighted fare, the analog pops and manipulated, sounds-like-an-old-78RPM guitar of “Tom’s Serenade” (Tom who? I don’t know) step back before the final movement of “Bring Out the Dead,” “Not My War” and the broader-echoing, intentionally-melodic closing title-track — the lyrics of which are largely kept to repetitions of the title-line — brings the album to a jammy, surprisingly fuzzed finish, consistent in its roll but purposefully left more open in its structure. If it’s a bid to emphasize how far The Awesome Machine have pulled their audience since the outset pair of “Eating Me Slowly” and “Forgotten Words,” the message of a journey undertaken is well received.

For a band to have established their sound five records into their career isn’t a huge surprise. The Awesome Machine knew their game and obviously knew how to put a full-length together from a procession of tracks. Frankly, they proved that before The Soul of a Thousand Years even came along. What their final album managed to do, however, was push the aggressive tendencies of Under the Influence into a more coherent form around tight-crafted, distinct songs. If you think about the progression of fellow Swedes Dozer and the shift they were undertaking at the time toward harder-hitting material, The Awesome Machine weren’t so far apart in ideology, but their melodies, the spaces they cover across their last offering and the identity that emerges therefrom is theirs in its entirety. This record, whatever identifiable genre roots and stylistic familiarities it might present, stands on its own in the strength of its writing, performance and overarching production.

After Olausson left, The Awesome Machine continued on by bringing in vocalist John Hermansen, who also made a debut in 2004 with Mother Misery. There are live videos available, but to my limited knowledge, apart from the two-song single “Demon King” released as a 7″ in 2005, there were no other proper recordings of that lineup.

I might be proved wrong, as The Awesome Machine just recently announced a deal with Ozium Records on their Facebook to issue a collection of rare tracks from throughout their career in limited numbers this Fall. No tracklist or specifics on that yet, but that there’s continued interest in the band some 15 years after their breakup should tell you something about the quality of the work they did together.

This was a record that, when I was a beardless lad discovering my way from more aggro metals into heavy rock groove, helped me understand that transition and how something could be heavy in a different way. Accordingly, it continues to hold a special place, and I’ll tell you honestly that putting it on even after a number of years of not hearing it, the songs came right back like old friends.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading.

—

The Patient Mrs. is away for a few days, visiting old friends of her own. High school friends, in fact. We met in high school, so I know them as well, but the number of people I keep in touch with from that time in my life is about two-point-five — including my wife — and I’m pleased with that, generally speaking. But she’s well earned a couple days’ respite after having her work/life balance upended for the last year and a half. Let her go get drunk and have ladychat. It will be rough on Sunday when she comes home and invariably does the I-didn’t-do-any-work-for-three-days-so-I’m-totally-overwhelmed-and-also-really-exhausted-because-three-days-of-hardcore-social-interaction-is-draining, but worth it in the longer term. Not an undertaking I expect she’ll regret. She’s back on Sunday.

I meanwhile have been working on putting together a couple interviews. I’ll say outright that it fucking sucks to write about a band for 17 years and not be cool enough to get the guitar player to do a Zoom chat. That is humbling in a way that the music industry has always been humbling. Not that I’m owed anything, not that I’m entitled to anyone’s time or anyone’s entitled to mine, but yeah, oof. In the meantime though, I talked to Amber Burns from Witchkiss yesterday afternoon about her new band Guhts, and in about 25 minutes I’m on with Pat Harrington from Geezer with a plan just basically to catch up. Also there was the Hippie Death Cult interview that went up today, so I’m trying to keep up with that after being kind of derailed for the Quarterly Review a few weeks back. Making up for lost time and whatnot.

And of course I’m on full-go Pecan duty for a couple days. Dude has camp for a couple hours in the morning, so that’s good. Yesterday he had speech in the afternoon and took a nap — thereby facilitating the Guhts int — and today we’re going to go to the Turtle Back Zoo and bum around and ride the train, ponies, carousel, etc., for a while before probably going to Costco and back here for dinner. We’ll see. I’m not in a terrible rush or particularly worried about it. The truth is he’s a pretty good kid, and a little more prone to cooperate when he’s not showing off for his mother. I have high expectations for him, but he consistently meets them in a way a three-year-old might. I expect the zoo will be crowded since the weather’s nice, but it’s all outside so I’m not concerned about plague exposure so much as sun exposure. Hats and suncreen for all. Maybe a mask for me. He’ll have snackies.

Tomorrow’s a loaf day, which means morning cartoons (Daniel Tiger, maybe some Peep), and then my family is going to come hang out, so that should be good. I’ll be up early working on stuff for Monday — gotta stay ahead while you can — so if you need me for anything, I’m around.

Whatever you’re up to, I wish you a great and safe weekend. Have fun, hydrate, watch your head. All that stuff. Back for more shenanigans on Monday.

FRM.

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