The Other Sandy

Something brought "People Are People" back to my mind, so I borrowed Depeche Mode's The Singles 81>85 from the Queens library system. I hadn't heard some of these songs in ages, since I had their earlier albums on cassettes but didn't rebuy all of them on CDs. Some of the music sounds like toy music these decades later due to the synthesizers being used, and the songs sound brighter, partly as an '80s thing and partly as the band's shift into darker sounding stuff mostly happened later.

I still remember my surprise when 2013's Delta Machine had a low end that sometimes made my car's speakers buzz.

It's nostalgic and sometimes a bit funny. This singles album also reminds me that while it's not something Depeche Mode is primarily known for, they've been writing occasional, somewhat political "message" songs their whole career, no matter what some disgruntled listeners of 2017's Spirit had to say about it on Amazon.com, but you know what the "what can't they leave politics that aren't mine out of music and stick to fluffy stuff!" crowd is like.

Speaking of Spirit, here's one of my favorite songs from it, a love song.



I tend to have a preference for songs that tell a story or paint specific images of times and places, something evocative. The first stanza of "Cover Me" sure does that for me. The music also takes you places and has a cinematic feel.

Though you guys can rarely hear my music the way I do, since I often sing along with the melody or harmonize on a lot of songs. With Depeche Mode, I'm singing right with Dave Gahan or with Martin Gore, or creating my own harmonies on some lines and/or putting it into a register of my own. For "Cover Me," it's a mix of Dave and one of my own registers, with occasional harmony to what Dave's singing.

If anyone had told me in the '80s that Depeche Mode would still be a band and still be putting out music I find interesting over 40 years later, I would've been so surprised.

Discord on Desktop wasn't opening for me for two days, but then I went to a troubleshooting website, did one of the things, and now I'm back. I Ended Task on all the Discord stuff in Task Manager, which fixed the problem.

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I had a somewhat weird brain thing last night. Macy's decided not to set off the July 4th fireworks near Midtown, so Queens wouldn't get to see any, so I drove a friend around last night with us looking for homegrown, personal, illegal Queens fireworks or trying to get a view of downtown Manhattan where the Macy's fireworks were. We were on a deadline, so I had to figure out places to go in real time while driving instead of stopping and using my phone's map as I sometimes do for routes and live traffic conditions. I could feel my brain tilting and turning my mental road map as I figured out routes and locations while driving. I don't often have to change directions and destinations often enough and fast enough for it to be that noticeable.

My phone may have destroyed my memory for retaining phone numbers, but my map and direction sense (in areas I know) remain keen. (I am not someone who can instinctually know where, say, west is.)

After about half a year, a friend asking about my LiveJournal led me to contacting LJ Help instead of trying and failing to figure out a solution myself to why I was now only allowed to make Private posts, no Public, through the FAQ. Turns out I needed to turn off Cyrillic services at the settings page. Who knew? Not me.

But is turning off Cyrillic services why I now can't leave a comment on a Russian friend's LJ? I don't want to contact LJ Help again so soon, also while figuring out a delicate way to ask if this is why I'm now prohibited from interacting with Russian LJ users.

I turned Cyrillic back on and tried to comment, but it still wouldn't let me do it. ~sigh~ Has turning it off once revealed me forever more?

(Will she now be prohibited from commenting on my LJ if I start posting new things there again?)

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Also! I got an AO3 comment on one of my recent fics. The first comment in two months on anything new of mine. (The other few were rereads of old fics by longtime readers, which I very much appreciate, but it'd be nice to get something on a recent work.) I am initially cautious, because my spambot to actual comment ratio for the last several months is stupidly high on the spambot side. It's talking about the actual story, omg!

Then it revealed itself as another "I have art for you, contact me at a different site" spambot.

I kicked myself twice, the second time for getting hopeful.

It's already been scrubbed off AO3 by someone else, so I assume I'm not the only one it spammed.

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With where Macy's decided to situate its fireworks barges this year, Queens won't get to see jack. I had some thoughts about going somewhere to catch them--Brooklyn for Macy's? Long Island for their own local stuff?--but not with this heat. I'm not getting in my car early to try to avoid traffic and then try to find somewhere comfortable nearby to spend the hours waiting.

Hopefully some Queens locals will let off some illegal personal stuff to make up for it... and won't get harassed and found by the NYPD police drones.

All my talk of shopping for new podiatrist-approved sneakers, seeing if I can take advantage of any July 4th sales, that's not happening because it's too hot to live and will continue to be until at least Monday. With my Chiari, I fall apart in the heat, so I can barely move indoors or outdoors, especially before darkness falls.

When I am going outside, I'm wearing the SAS walking shoes since my left sneaker is too busted.