— पांच हजार सात सौ सतहत्तर —
I'm in the middle of my 15th listen to Lady Gaga's new album,
Mayhem. I've had somewhat mixed feelings about it, but it's packed with undeniable hooks and I like it more each time I listen. There's been plenty of talk about how much it sounds like her earlier work, and this is true. It's getting
incredibly good reviews, better than I expected really, as much of it sort of sounds like "generic Lady Gaga" to me. She's always been a master of hooks, but the composition of the music under her vocals isn't as novel as it has tended to be in the past. It makes me wonder what kind of staying power this album really has, but then, how many of her other albums have had real staying power? Nothing has ever quite matched
The Fame or
The Fame Monster, in terms of either staying power
or compositional impact.
Still, I am in a mode right now where I cannot stop keeping the album on repeat.
— पांच हजार सात सौ सतहत्तर —
— पांच हजार सात सौ सतहत्तर —
I
was going to take myself to a documentary at SIFF Film Center last night, but when Shobhit asked me how much tickets were, I went to check online and discovered it was listed as sold out. I decided not to waste my time taking the trains down to Seattle Center only to discover I could not get in.
Instead, I stayed home. We had tacos for dinner, using baked beans and sauteed vegetables Shobhit had made a couple of days before—the ones that mixed onions, bell peper and sprouts. It did not make for tacos anywhere near as good as they had been the last time we had tacos, but adding some grated cheddar cheese added to it. They weren't bad.
We spent all evening watching
The Righteous Gemstones. We finally finished up season 3, and season 4 had only premiered last Sunday. We were surprised to discover that it was a flashback episode of sorts—all the way back to the Civil War, and starring Bradley Cooper (who Shobhit recognized far more quickly than I did), with none of the series regulars appearing. It was a very interesting choice and actually a very good episode.
— पांच हजार सात सौ सतहत्तर —
I just finished my Zoom lunch with Karen—she was unavailable tomorrow, which is when it is normally scheduled, so we rescheduled for today. I got updates on her mom in the assisted living home she was moved to near Portland, Maine to be near Karen's sister; on the house in Tulalip which is finally put together enough to start taking things to fill it with; and on a couple of her travel plan ideas.
The only thing I told her to update her from my end was that Shobhit and I have started marriage counseling—that being the reason why rescheduling any of our lunches to any Mondays is best avoided. That's all I told her, no particular details, but Karen responded incredibly positively to that information. Which makes sense, really—honestly no matter where people are at in their marriage, assuming the therapist is a good one, therapy is really never a bad idea.
I kind of wanted to tell her how my Birth Week is almost entirely scheduled and confirmed, which is kind of exciting to me, but there wasn't time. Next time, I guess. At the moment I have only one day during my Birth Week without confirmed plans—
confirmed being the operative word, because I still have a plain aimed for that day.
Anyway I'm going to get back to work now.
— पांच हजार सात सौ सतहत्तर —
[posted 12:58pm]
