If you want to read something else by me, then get my new novel, The Front Yard War!
This song is about the modern corporate habit of having virtual meetings. I've been in some of these things with hundreds of people, and they are usually ridiculous wastes of time wherein the company could have just sent an email out and saved lots of money instead of having everyone stop doing productive work and waste an hour listening to the CEO talk some drivel. In this song, the main character gets a crush on one of the coworkers and enjoys the virtual meetings because he can stare at her in a way that one could not do in real life without making someone quite uncomfortable, all the while thinking, "She's so pretty." I bet this sort of thing goes on a lot and is probably one of the few good things about virtual meetings. Musically, the song is vocals, guitar, and drums, though I also made good use of the toy piano mat. I opted not to use the lyrics in the third input part on the recording, but I may throw it in live from time to time. Lyrics are below:
There are 400 people on this call with Zoom,
but only one who makes my heart go boom, boom, boom!
I'm staring at Ruby.
I don't hear a single word the CEO speaks.
I could stare at her beauty for weeks and weeks.
If people knew I was taking this long of a peep,
they're embarrassed by love these days, so they'd probably call me a creep, but I'd still be staring at Ruby.
She'll never see her very own face,
just the reflection that takes its place.
She's got those 21st Century eyes,
and she's got me full of sighs.
She might even be ruthless, but I'm ruthful.
I'll never meet her in person, life can be so cruel, but I'm happy
staring at Ruby.
For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!
This book dates from 1991 and early that year before Nirvana and alternative music in general started selling millions of records (the Nirvana entry mainly covers Bleach). As a result, it's a treasure trove of 1980s college radio, filled with fun bands and cool music. It's mainly punk rock and new wave, but it covers reggae and hip-hop as well, generally anything cool and underground from the mid-1970s, when Trouser Press started as a zine, to the publication date. Covering 2,500 musical artists, the book is a great resource for music if you're looking for something new (albeit that it's old now if it's in this book) to listen to that is likely pretty good or at least interesting. One nice thing about having this book in 2026 is that it's a lot easier to hear this music than it would have been back then when one had to track down an obscure and possibly out of print record. Today, you can find most of this music on the Internet somewhere. I've been getting rid of most of my books because I was tired of dragging them around with me, but this is one I'll be keeping. When I can't find anything new worth listening to, I'll dip into it and check out some old band that's new to me. The book is out of print (though available used and even reasonably priced if you dig a bit), but you can probably find the reviews from it at TrouserPress.Com, and they have all the issues of the magazines that predated the record guides there which is very cool of them. They still publish books today, though the last record guide like this was a volume back in the 1990s covering that Nirvana/alternative music goldrush.
If you want to hear some music made since 1991 that might have fit into Trouser Press's editorial scope also, then give my latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp! And if you want to read some more, then please read my latest novel!
Another older song I wanted to give the solo treatment to, this song stemmed from seeing an EMT hit on a convenience store clerk. It's vocals, guitar, and drum machine, plus a sampling of the Russian radio station The Buzzer (I was writing an article on the station at the time).
For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!
So I emailed or used the website form to contact everyone running for Ohio governor asking for their position on sticking the governor's and lieutenant governor's names on highway signs (if you need a catchup on this saga, click here).
No one's replied back yet. Given that enough time has reasonably passed for a reply, one can conclude that all of these candidates suck, though I'm sure if pressed some may claim the email got caught in the spam filter or whatnot. However, clearly, if they don't care enough about a voter when they're begging for votes to at least send a form reply ("Thank you for bringing that matter to our attention. We will consider it after doing further research" being the bare minimum of courtesy), then they certainly won't be responsive when they get into office, which doesn't inspire hope for the state government's future. Nevertheless, I'll follow up with some phone calls if I feel ambitious. It would be helpful, however, if others could join in. Send them an email. Give them a call. Talk to them if you see them in person. Tell them you want to see DeWine and Tressel as the last names on these signs and then you want the vanity overlay signs gone in 2027. Otherwise, the campaigns assume it's just a piece of crank mail about an issue that no one else cares about, but I suspect the majority, if not vast majority, of voters would prefer not to waste taxpayer money on political vanity by manufacturing and installing metal signs with the names of politicians on them across the state. Some may say this is just a small issue when the national government is in massive debt yet still finds the means to go around bombing and terrorizing people around the world, but that's exactly the point. If government cannot even resolve a simple, small issue such as this one, what hope do we have of them solving any larger problems?
The answer isn't encouraging. Anyway, on to the candidates. At this point, they all deserve to get some birdpoop on the metaphorical highway signs with their names on it, so let's do it. On the Republican side, there's Heather Hill, Casey Putsch, and Vivek Ramaswamy. On the Democratic side, there's just Amy Acton. Don Kissick is running as a Libertarian while Tim Grady is running as an independent. Another candidate, Renea Turner, didn't get enough signatures, so she's out of the running this election year (unless she decides to run independently), so I didn't contact her. The first thing you have to know is that all of these candidates must be slightly insane because American politics is fairly toxic these days, yet what else can we do? It's a democracy, so I do appreciate them at least being brave enough to give things a go. Most likely, the next governor will be Ramaswamy since statewide Ohio is essentially a one-party state, and he seems to have enough money to just buy the Republican nomination. However, if Trump proves toxic enough, then he might even drag down the Ohio Republicans and, despite the general incompetence of Ohio Democrats, Acton might squeak into office, in which case we can all look forward to being welded inside our homes the next time a new virus circulates.
Yes, it's a depressing election already. Back to the individual candidates:
Hill seems a longshot. It's nice that the Republican field offers a choice at least. Maybe she'll drop out and endorse Ramaswamy before the primary and get a position in his administration. Sometimes that's what longshot candidates do.
Putsch, smelling like a true believer (however daffy the true beliefs), seems less likely to be aiming ultimately for a spot in the administration but even more of a longshot. Still, if someone is technically on a ballot, anything is possible. Most Americans only vote for stuff they see on tv though, which is why a lot of the time political positions in America can basically be bought. If anyone ever complains about political candidates, point them to the lazy American voter. Hill and Putsch both have websites; people could research them.
Ramaswamy seems like an Asian Obama. He's well-spoken and somewhat of an outsider to Ohio state politics, but, as with Obama, don't expect much to change if he gets in. Maybe he'll allow you to pay your income taxes in crypto currency or something, though that's already in the works. He seems like a lock for the nomination because he's spending a lot of money to obtain it and seems likeable enough for an Ohio Republican state politician, which is somewhat akin to being more likeable than a head of rotting cabbage. Alas, almost anyone would be an improvement over DeWine, who combined the worst of both Democrat and Republican (he'll postpone an election because he's worried over germs yet force a woman to bury her aborted fetus). In any case, Ramaswamy's tied so closely to Trump though that I suspect Trump's unpopularity may sink his candidacy and we'll end up with the awfulness that is . . .
Acton might be the worst Democratic nominee in recent years (I remember her from the virus panic, and, yes, I also remember the time they ran the guy driving around without a driver's license), but she might end up winning by default because no one else bothered running and Trump sank the Repubs.
Kissick (doesn't seem to have a working Website yet--a clue perhaps he's not serious--and no, I'm not linking to fucking Facebook) and Grady not responding surprised me because I doubt anyone else even pays attention to them. Ramaswamy's probably looking forward to sticking his name up across Ohio and Acton's campaign is probably incompetent in the grand tradition of Ohio Democrats, but I'm surprised not to have heard back from the minor Republicans and the independent guys. It's not like these guys are busy dealing with other media. Ohio newspapers are fairly moribund these days, so that's why you get perhaps the best 2026 Ohio gubernatorial race coverage on an obscure blog. As Trump would say: Sad. That's Ohio for you though!
If politics make you cry and you need a laugh, then read my latest novel!
This is an old GoGoBots song that was fun to give the solo treatment to. It's basically an old detective pulp novel (well, a chapter from it at least) in song form. My kiddo wanted to play something, so that's him on this mat piano he had which we used as a percussive instrument as well. Otherwise, it's me on drums, guitar, and vocals.
For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!
No, the pair in the picture are not announcing a bid for governor and lieutenant governor of Ohio, USA, but it is a gubernatorial election year here, which means perhaps we can finally get rid of those stupid politician names on the welcome to Ohio highway signs. It's been about 3 years since I ran a post about this issue on the blog (you can get caught up on the now-decade-long saga here). Nothing good has happened in the meantime. The funny cartoon I sent to my state rep and state senator at the time went unaddressed (both of them, Bride Rose Sweeney and Matt Dolan, kinda sucked anyway, so I wasn't surprised). Ohio's lieutenant governor filled J. D. Vance's Senate seat, so they made the Ohio State football coach the new lieutenant governor (no, I'm not making this up--they seriously do this kind of dumb shit in Ohio--it's a bit embarrassing) and, of course, spent thousands of dollars probably to change the name on the highway signs. Worse, Pennsylvania, probably fueled by that current governor's presidential hopes, stuck his name on welcome signs.
Sigh. Well, let's see if any of the current candidates for governor will do away with the practice. I'll keep you posted if I hear back from any of them. Maybe I should hit up the new rep and senate candidates in my districts as well, but let's see how ambitious I feel this year.
If politics make you cry and you need a laugh, then read my latest novel!
This is another older song I've been playing again, so I gave it the full one-man band treatment. My kiddo was getting rid of a book with sounds--well, actually, the book disappeared/was destroyed years ago, but we were finally getting rid of the press buttons sounds part--so I made use of it on its way to the trash. Otherwise, it's the usual guitar, vocals, and drums.
For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!
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