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Post by orzelc on Mar 24, 2021 18:15:33 GMT -5
That's amazing. Kudos.
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Post by orzelc on Mar 14, 2021 6:20:23 GMT -5
On a very different note, you could probably throw in STOP MAKING SENSE thanks to the "Singing 'This Must Be the Place'" reference.
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Post by orzelc on Mar 10, 2021 18:42:28 GMT -5
I suspect that the oeuvre of Rocco Sifretti is not so much on Letterbox'd....
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Post by orzelc on Mar 4, 2021 5:36:28 GMT -5
In the unlikely event that you're not already following Tad on Instagram, he posted a photo yesterday of his pedal board; I don't understand what most of it is, but I bet that'd be good for a couple of days of guitar-nerd content...
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Post by orzelc on Mar 1, 2021 7:11:39 GMT -5
This is a little bit beside the point, but I'm stilling trying to wrap my head around all the references to photography/photo shoots in the ODP lyrics. Hanover Camera is a decent starting point, simply because "camera" is in the title. Who's being photographed/filmed? Why? And where? * There's all the stuff about the lighting made it look like she was captured/a hostage in Hanover Camera * The hand over the lens * The lens cap in Riptown ("The lens cap was losted so they stretched out the shoot") *...then revealing that this might be about shooting movies, not taking photographs ("The director's distracted, he's losing his light/ the actors are wrapped up in robes for the night). This thing about the light is picked up again in Hanover Camera, and the double meaning of "light for photography" and "light" as a possible reference to meth, makes it interesting Also: That the "actors" is wearing robes must mean they have very little clothes on for the shoot. Finally: "She tries not to date other actors" and "another sick smile in the spotlight" (ref. "Dust in the spotlight/ we're just overacting" from Slapped Actress) * The entire verse about the narrator taking a picture of a woman walking into the water (rolling her eyes back in their sockets, and giving the photographer the finger) in Unpleasant Breakfast * ...and it's picked up again in the final parts of the song ("That girl in last year's picture/ is now haunting her own hallways") * "Second loaction" is mentioned both in Lanyards and Riptwon. Could mean almost anything, but "location" tucked in with several references to movies/photgraphy/photo shoots, sure rings a bell * Not exactly a photography reference per se, but it just struck me that Lanyards ("The scene stuck in my head of her spread out on the bed") picks up the opening lines of Spices ("She sent a picture of a plethora of poker chips/ spread out on a bed between a mouth and a leg") As I said, I don't know what to make of this. There's plenty of throwbacks to the rest of the catalog here. Holly seemingly going to California to do porn, the whole metaphor of actors/making movies (Slapped Actress, but also Sketchy Metal, Eureka, Spectres and probably others I forgot), Mary's "moving pictures" in The Swish, Both Crosses etc. But that's all connected to, yes, moving pictures - films, video, movies. I guess everything about the lens cap, the lighting and the "hostage" thing in Hanover Camera an Riptwon could be about that as well, but the verse in Unpleasant Breakfast, which for some reason seem significant, is clearly about taking a photograph. I can't back it up in any way, but I have a distinct feeling that the same photo the narrator took that summer, is the one hanging on the fridge in T-Shirt Tux. A couple of things from this: -- The actors in robes are clearly in a movie of the type Holly filmed in "Curves and Nerves" -- The "Unpleasant Breakfast" bit is just that since the previous summer (where she struck a weird but endearing pose for the narrator to photograph) the girl has had a breakdown (lots of anti-psychosis meds), and she's referring to the photo as a reminder of what she's lost. -- Somewhere else (FB maybe?) I saw references to a speech from a cop show about how it's really bad news whenever a victim goes to a second location with a killer, which I think makes a lot of sense. I'm not overly concerned with trying to make every one of these people part of a single grand narrative, but that's how I read those phrases.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 7, 2020 19:52:03 GMT -5
The Feelers -- There was an early morning meetup A mansion on the mountain Maestro still had glitter on his face He led us to the office And once my eyes adjusted I took a little look around the place On the mantel was a portrait Of his father and a fortune He'd amassed by being ruthless but polite And a bottle with a model A specific British clipper ship It's just there was a pistol and a pipe Really minor correction: I think it's "On his desk there was a pistol and a pipe" I liked this one quite a bit. If I was inclined to connect it to other songs, I might look for links to "The Stove and the Toaster," what with the repeated mentions of the kitchen. And Las Cruces is pretty close to mountains.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 7, 2020 19:47:18 GMT -5
Some additions/corrections:
> She sent a picture of a ... of poker chips
> Spread out on the bed between the mouth and the legs
> She said ... many people, I whish you were here
"Plethora" of poker chips. She said "There's Pretty many people" >Hadn't really seen her since the previous winter
>... dropped dead numbers.... december
She was a drop-dead number since later last December
>(An entire verse a bit murky to me here)
So now we're back in sex and up to old tricks We're acting on the tips, trying to find the right play, yeah She said "Meet me on the corner by Central Smoke and Gift, I'll be just before daybreak"
> But she wants to make it clear that she's done with all that other stuff
> Sick of all the trauma/drama (?) tired of all the talking...
I think it's "trauma club" and "talking drugs"
> And all the majorettes had the sun in their eyes
> And all the old cars....
looked fatigued.
(Old cars are a staple of parades in the US)
> The cops and... had me nervous as hell
The cops in the kilts they had me nervous as hell
(Dunno what that means; maybe the NYPD pipe band from the "Fairytale of New York" video?)
> We're at the table and she's yelling out her order
> A ... vodka and a diet Dr. Pepper
Narrow?
> Something.... black wax paper
Something wrapped in a black wax paper
> We're gonna see where this goes
> Pouring liquor and the .... sugar
> Something .... and a salt (?) shaker
> .... ice breaker
> .... see how this goes
Pouring liquor into spun sugar Something [indistinct] in a salt shaker She said that we should get an ice breaker We'll have to see where this goes
(He fumbles those last two lines a little, I think)
> We're in the .... taking ... the water
> We'll been taking .... every day after
> Driking liquor ... ship wrecked sailors
> We're gonna see where this goes
We're in the weeds and we're taking on water We've been taking on whatever they offer Trading liquor for the shipwrecked sailors We're gonna see where this goes
> Turning (?) liquor and the .... sugar
> ..... and a salt shaker (?)
> She said we should try to do this every Easter
> And then we'll see how it goes
Turning liquor into spun sugar Something [ester?] in a salt shaker She said we should try to do this every Easter I said let's see how it goes
("Ester" might make sense as a drug chemistry component, but I'm not that kind of scientist.)
Hope that helps. I think this may be my favorite of the new tracks; very creepy and atmospheric, but I dig the riff. It also feels a bit like it goes together with "You Did Good Kid," musically if not in direct lyrical content.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 6, 2020 19:57:37 GMT -5
Just watched last night again. The start of Frighten sounded a bit odd. The look on Tad and Bobby's faces. Slapped Actress should be on every setlist Yeah, I think Tad screwed up the riff somehow; I'm not a guitar player so I can't say what it was. It seemed like the rhythm was wrong. Once the full band came in, he adjusted whatever it was.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 6, 2020 9:34:17 GMT -5
I wrote up some general thoughts on the weekend on my blog, because I'm a writer and this is what I do: chadorzel.com/?p=605Awesome shows, overall a way better experience than I was expecting.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 4, 2020 17:07:09 GMT -5
I really enjoyed it and found there are some advantages over the Brooklyn Bowl experience. Normally, my plan is to hit the restroom right at the end of the warm-up band's set, but without an opening act that was not possible. No worries though, it was surprisingly easy to make a trip to the restroom in the middle of the show, and make it get back to my front-row vantage point by the television. The big advantage of watching on the Chromebook was I could just carry it into the kitchen with me when I needed another beer...
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Post by orzelc on Dec 3, 2020 23:02:37 GMT -5
Sadly, Zoom on my Chromebook didn't play well with the livestream-- I could either get the stream audio, or see the Zoom window, but not both at once. And, well, given those options, the choice is obvious...
I may try tomorrow's soundcheck on the desktop, but it's a less comfortable setup in a great many ways. Awesome sound on the stream, though.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 3, 2020 9:35:22 GMT -5
I don't think you mentioned Criminal Fingers, who we've heard before, but not digitally, and not in this version. From the Twitter listening party, I learned that Steve plays on the 7" version, and that this version apparently dates back to the actual HIW sessions in 2009-10. I still think it's a really good song. I could've sworn I had a digital copy of "Criminal Fingers" already, but I don't see it in my iTunes, so I don't know why I thought that. Maybe I was getting it on a streaming playlist of some sort? Anyway, I didn't talk about it because for whatever reason it was familiar enough that I didn't think of it as a new song. Which maybe counts as a review of sorts: "It sounds like I've heard it a whole bunch of times already." I do agree with doctoracula and others who have said that "Beer on the Bedstand" sounds a bit more like a Craig solo album track.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 1, 2020 8:03:53 GMT -5
Weird, @thesemiracles work. I think "Hurricane J" is one of the best songs on the album and has been a recent live highlight. Much better than, say, "Rock Problems" (barf). And cre618 I disagree, I think these unheard songs that were left on the floor are some of the most mediocre of any of the recent batches to be freed from the vault. Maybe I need to listen more. "Beer On The Bedstand" clearly falls in the Craig Finn Solo Album songs that accidentally ended up a Hold Steady song camp. From my one re-listen on a hike yesterday, here's my ranking of the songs on this album. PS: I love this album. I also love Teeth Dreams. 1. We Can Get Together 2. The Weekenders 3. Hurricane J 4. Barely Breathing 5. The Sweet Part Of The City 6. The Smidge 7. Our Whole Lives 8. Soft In The Center 9. A Slight Discomfort 10. Rock Problems I really like Heaven Is Whenever too, and I don't think any of the bonus tracks would have improved the album in a big way, due to sequencing and dynamics. The exception might be The Smidge -> At Least Not Tonight. This is my HIW ranking: 01. Our Whole Lives 02. Sweet Part Of The City 03. We Can Get Together 04. Rock Problems 05. Hurricane J 06. The Weekenders 07. Barely Breathing 08. A Slight Discomfort 09. Soft In The Center 10. The Smidge I'd go: 1 Our Whole Lives 2 Weekenders 3 Hurricane J 4T Sweet Part 4T Get Together 4T Soft in the Center 4T Rock Problems 8 Slight Discomfort 9 Barely Breathing 10 Smidge There's a four-way tie at #4, because basically any permutation of the order of those songs looks perfectly reasonable to me.
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Post by orzelc on Nov 29, 2020 20:27:53 GMT -5
So, I got the deluxe re-release, and have been listening to it repeatedly for the last several days. Thoughts on the new tracks (well, new to me-- I know some of these have been around in other versions, but I didn't have any of them):
-- Separate Vacations: This is awesome, and I'm not entirely clear why it didn't make the album. I already like it better than a handful of tracks that are on there. Maybe it's just that the lyrics skew a little older than their typical? The whole "Your friends think you've settled" thing has more of an old-and-married vibe than most of their songs. But then again, so does "Soft in the Center," so it would be less thematically awkward here than on, say, AKM. Then again, maybe it's just helpful to have a legendary extra track that's hard to find (see also "Curves and Nerves").
-- Beer on the Bedstand: This one I know why it's not on there: because any royalties would've needed to go to Warren Zevon's estate, because the melody is straight up the same as "Carmelita." Which is not a complaint, really, because I like "Carmelita" a lot. I probably slightly prefer the piano version to the guitar demo.
-- At Least Not Tonight: This is really good, but feels like it needed... something. I like the idea of it more than the execution, but there isn't anything obviously _wrong_, it just feels like it could be better than it is. Maybe it just needs to be live?
-- Wonderful Struggle: In contrast to "Separate Vacations," this one maybe tries to skew too young. It's kind of interesting that a ghost of it lingers in "A Slight Discomfort" ("Our struggle still feels wonderful most days"); Craig said in the listening party thing on Twitter today that they'd thought about calling the whole album some variant of "Wonderful Struggle."
-- Going on a Hike: Musically pretty good, but might be trying to be a little too cute lyrically.
-- We Can Get Together (Alternate): Big solo! I'm not sure what I think of this; on the one hand, if it had always had the big solo, I probably would've thought it was awesome, but having lived with the solo-less version all these years, I can totally see why they did it that way, too.
-- Various demo versions from the "Avatar Sessions": As always with demo tracks, two things jump out at me. First, Craig's vocals on demo tracks are always kind of dialed back-- he's done the same thing at the sound check events before Brooklyn Bowl shows-- in a way that makes it a little more clear how hard it must be to get the intensity needed for the final vocal takes. Second, most of these have a few extra lines in the lyrics that are sort of interesting to hear, but ultimately the album versions are a little better for the streamlining.
I didn't notice anything unusual in the main album tracks (unlike the weird extra backing vocals on the STAY POSITIVE reissue), but it's been fun to revisit the record. It's got some shaky stuff on it (I'm not big on "The Smidge"), but the high points are up there with their best ("Our Whole Lives" is one of my favorite Hold Steady tracks).
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Post by orzelc on Jul 11, 2020 6:38:32 GMT -5
It's sort of fun to invent colorful backstories for this kind of thing, like Dylan and his band were playing poker late at night in a hotel room, and Bob wanted to call a big bet but was out of cash. So he said "I'll write a song with a much-mocked pop star," and the bass player said "What, I win, and you'll write a song with who, Michael Freakin' Bolton?" "Whoever you like," says Bob. "Michael Bolton," says the bassist. "Show 'em," says Dylan, and his full house (queens over jacks) loses to four deuces.
Truth is, though, Bob's just a weird guy.
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Post by orzelc on May 31, 2020 18:44:18 GMT -5
My immediate impression of "You Did Good, Kid" was that it's a song about a guy who's turned informant (possibly to protect his house on Sycamore St.). He's wearing a wire to a drug buy (strapped into a harness by "wolves," "they made a movie starring you," etc.), which is why it's all nervous and tense (hyped-up, jokes not landing, etc.), and the title is what the cops tell him afterwards.
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Post by orzelc on May 11, 2020 18:01:43 GMT -5
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Post by orzelc on Apr 8, 2020 18:29:40 GMT -5
We've had to make a sudden and awkward transition to teaching classes online, which is particularly challenging since I'm doing a lab science for non-science majors this term. I ended up mailing 50-odd diffraction gratings and 22 laser pointers out to students in the course so that they could do a couple of lab-type activities at home. And now I'm spending multiple hours per day with a Zoom meeting window open on my computer, either as virtual office hours, or for one of the umpteen administrative things I need to do. Or because I'm slightly misappropriating college resources to do a Zoom cocktail hour with friends from college...
The hard part is for the kids, who are 8 and 11, and suddenly doing school online. Though from a parental standpoint, it's not a huge change in our relationship with the 11-year old who just spends all day in the bedroom with the school Chromebook. The 8-year-old, though, powers through his school work in about an hour and a half, then wanders around the house banging on stuff. He did learn to ride a bike a couple weeks ago, so that's been fun, but he's still too wobbly to be sent out on it without an adult close behind.
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Post by orzelc on Mar 19, 2020 7:10:33 GMT -5
...for COVID-19.
Obviously a lot of heavy shit going down these days, but in the interest of distraction/procrastination thought I'd throw up a post here just to say that I hope everyone is well, and staying safe in difficult times. We're currently working from home with the kids' schools closed, keeping our cool with lots of kid art projects, TikTok videos for the middle schooler, and some improvised parkour obstacles out in the yard when we need to burn off some kid energy. Gonna be a long couple of months (at least), but we'll get through it. Especially now that I know my favorite bar can still do take-out wings and growler fills from their beer selection.
Anyway, stay safe, wash your hands, and listen to some good records.
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Post by orzelc on Jan 11, 2020 8:52:48 GMT -5
The thing with Steve's name, and also "Black Eyed Sam" in the Franz segment, seems like the reporter recorded the interviews, and then they paid somebody else, who didn't know the band, to transcribe the audio. You'd like to think somebody would proofread the copy afterwards, but it's not too surprising that that slipped.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 12, 2019 7:12:17 GMT -5
Great shots as always. Out of curiosity, how many total shots did you take to get these? 366 less a dozen or two of just the disco ball that I was trying to get something stupid artsy with. A lot of them, especially the confetti ones, are all about the same as I am just holding down a high speed shutter to capture maximum confetti carnage. It's always a relief to know that it's not just me. I took something north of 3500 pictures on our most recent vacation trip, and was pleased to end up with 300 that were pretty good. Lots of those are sets of nearly identical fast-shutter photos of the kids hoping for one where everybody's eyes are open and nobody's making a transient stupid face.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 9, 2019 18:02:26 GMT -5
I think Banging Camp got a boost this weekend from having a natural horn part, so it made both Friday and Saturday sets. T-Shirt Tux and You did Good, Kid, likewise, though being new-ish they were probably more likely to appear anyway.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 9, 2019 5:11:17 GMT -5
Great shots as always. Out of curiosity, how many total shots did you take to get these?
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Post by orzelc on Dec 8, 2019 6:25:28 GMT -5
Something to salvage your sermons from: As we’ve done three of the last four years, my birthday present from my wife was a ticket for the Friday Massive Nights show and soundcheck. When we got the email with details about the soundcheck, it included a request for people to email in questions to ask the band. The thing that immediately came to mind was “A lot of the new songs have horn parts; have you ever considered recruiting a brass section for a live show?” We’ve been going through a crazy period at work, though, so I didn’t get around to sending it, but filed it away as something to consider asking if they took questions from the floor. When I arrived for the sound check, though, and got on the line outside the Brooklyn Bowl, we could hear the band inside running through some songs. They were doing either “Banging Camp” or “Entitlement Crew,” one of the tunes where there’s a definite pause then the band comes crashing back in, with a horn part in the studio recording. And lo and behold, there was an audible horn part. I said “Whoa, horns!” and one of the guys in front of me said “Maybe it’s Franz on the keys?” but then it came again, and we all said “No, those are live horns.” So, anyway, that was a question crossed off the list… (Also considered: "Will there be a deluxe with-bonus-tracks reissue of Heaven Is Whenever?" and "Why do you never play 'Our Whole Lives' live?" but I doubt either would get answered...) The soundcheck event went pretty much as it did last year-- they played a couple of songs that made the set later that night, and a couple of rarities that had been played the night before (“Arms and Hearts” and the brand new song that’s definitely not named “Frog”). The highlight of the Q&A was probably the moderator, fiction writer Adam Wilson, setting up a question about nostalgia saying “The title character in ‘Blackout Sam’ is someone whose time has passed, I think…” to which Craig said “Passed? I think he’s dead.” Craig was sounding pretty hoarse at the sound check, so I was a little worried heading into the show, but they came out hard and fast ( set list), with a lot of energy. At the start of the eighth song, “T-Shirt Tux,” they brought out “The Horn Steady,” Stuart Bogie on sax and Jordan McLean on trumpet, who played for the next handful of tracks, took a few off, then came back for “Entitlement Crew,” “Banging Camp,” and “Massive Nights.” I played trumpet up through high school, so I’m a total sucker for live brass parts, and this was more or less exactly what I hoped for. The horn parts work best on songs where they’re somewhat isolated-- on “Blackout Sam,” and coming in after the break on “Entitlement Crew” and “Banging Camp.” On “Massive Nights,” they were pretty well drowned out by the “Whoa-oh-oh-oh” from the crowd, though. I don’t know anything about Bogie and McLean, so I’m not sure how much they play live vs. in the studio. There were definitely some moments where they seemed to have a “Holy shit…” look, particularly early on, but everyone seemed to be having a grand time. At one point in “Banging Camp,” I saw Tad talking to them during a verse, and when the “La-la-la-la” backing vocal that he would normally do came up, he stepped back, and they ran up to his mic to do the part, then ran back to their own mics stage left. (I think that got an extra cheer, but it was hard to tell…) It was also interesting to do a little compare-and-contrast, because they played both “Blackout Sam” and “Hostile, Mass” at the sound check without the Horn Steady, and then with the live brass in the actual show. Tad, Steve, and Franz fill those out pretty well, but there’s a definite extra element added by live horns. (In many ways, though, the coolest bit of “Blackout Sam” both times was Tad and Steve doing the guitar “solo” in unison.) There was a nice head-fake at the end of “Massive Nights” when Craig did his “The chaperone said… The chaperone said…” thing that has in the past often led into “Citrus,” but instead he gestured to Tad who started “Stuck Between Stations.” There was some sort of glitch with Galen’s amp at the end of Stations, which held things up, otherwise I think the transition from Stations to Hoodrat would’ve been amazing; whatever the bass problem was continued through Hoodrat, but in the song they covered it with extended guitar noodling from Steve and Tad during the bridge. The encore was entirely Almost Killed Me tracks, starting with “Certain Songs,” which I’m not sure I’ve heard live before; definitely not just Franz and Craig for the first verses. Then “The Swish,” “Hostile, Mass” with the live sax solo, and of course “Killer Parties.” Definitely a high-energy show-- the only slow songs in the main set were “Blackout Sam” and “One for the Cutters,” neither of which can be said to lack intensity. A couple of different people said during the wait for the show that Friday is kind of a sweet spot crowd-wise; I can’t speak to that only having been to Friday shows in these residencies, but there was definitely good energy. Obligatory unified scene report content: I talked briefly with some people I definitely know from online and past shows-- Kyle, Brendan (who deftly extracted himself from talking to the extremely drunk guy next to me), and Rich (with whom I commiserated about the problems of being a tall guy at a rock show)-- and several other people who I hadn’t met previously and whose names I forget because I drank a LOT while the happy-hour pricing was in effect. Galen and Tad both commented on my “Obscure Pop Culture Reference” T-shirt, so I feel vindicated in my wardrobe choices... Anyway, a great time as always. I wasn’t all that fired up about moving quickly Saturday morning, but managed to make my way to Penn Station in time for my train to Albany, and got enough of a nap to be nearly human by the time I got home. One of these years, maybe I’ll swing more than one night in Brooklyn.
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Post by orzelc on Dec 1, 2019 6:16:07 GMT -5
I'm taking the train down Friday morning, doing the soundcheck and show Friday night, then train back late morning Saturday. This is a change from previous years when I've driven down, but I had a thing in that general part of Brooklyn a few weeks back, and it was easier to get to on the subway from Penn Station than I had thought.
It's going to be one hell of a week at work (we're starting to move labs and offices to a new building), so I'm really looking forward to this trip.
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