The Mysteries

No, not the Rolling Stones’ song.

There is both an up and down side to scanning all of my old negatives and slides from decades ago. Occasionally I hit one of these sorts of images, and think “damn! I was already able to do decent photography, even at the start of my development.

That was taken at the Abbey near Mission shortly after they finished the outer shell of the church proper. There were no pews, none of the usual furniture one would find as part of a worship service at all, there was dust everywhere, I don’t think there was even a door hung in the entrance. Our church young people’s group asked if we could get a tour of the monks’ new facility, and they showed us around everywhere, construction site and all. We sang a song in this vast chamber and the acoustics were amazing; our final note continued quietly ringing forever.

But, there are times I look at things and remember the event around the moment captured forever and I get to thinking about what I said and did at the time and wonder ‘why did anyone put-up with my nonsense? I was incredibly verbal and rarely listened to anyone, denying both them and I the opportunity to share — truly share — a moment together. I was such a dolt.’

This happened on Twitter about a week ago.

🚨🚨WARNING🚨🚨

The following involves an integral plot-point of the film Moon written by Nathan Parker and Duncan Jones, directed by Mr Jones, starring Sam Rockwell. I highly recommend it, and the following will reveal the conceit of the story, which needs to be approached with no knowledge of its existence. Like Parasite, which if you haven’t seen that, you need to get on that as well!

This post was intended to act as a mirror of a particular day in the life of the 2020 Election, post Voting Day. As it was, it got interupted on the Saturday — or "Day IV" when I was constructing it — when several media networks and print outlets finally declared VP Joe Biden the succesful candidate for the position of the President of the United States. So, here it is, despite not having a complete record of the day's tweets by me, as part of the ups and downs of the day roll in. Enjoy.

06:59 — Right. There’s breakfast out of the way. Now it’s time for a shower, dress, make some coffee, and watch as numbers shift inexorably towards the inevitable removal of the most odious lickspittle in all of history.

7:03 — [profuse thanks to Matthew Inman / @Oatmeal for the above graphic, one of many at https://theoatmeal.com/comics/donmojis]

07:32 — Something to remember is pointed out by the @nytimes’ @NYTnickc: "The votes being counted in Pennsylvania do not include any mail ballots arriving after Nov. 3. Those are being kept segregated. This count is for votes in by Election Day." So, in essence, IT'S ONLY GETTING BETTER!

Also, anyone expecting a quick bipartisan resolution may be fooling themselves: "The Trump campaign hints that no one should be expecting a Trump concession. “This election is not over,” a campaign attorney said in a statement." — @AnnieKarni, @nytimes

In response, according to the @nytimes' @katieglueck, 'a Biden spokesman says that if Biden wins and Trump refuses to concede, “The United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House”.' He has until noon January 20.

07:46 — The greatest downside of this, in my mind, is that the pandemic prevents the sorts of public elation and celebration to properly mark this great occasion in the fashion we've historically observed.

Two US military personnel kiss in Times Square, NYC LIFE Magazine, August 27, 1945

07:54 — According to the @nytimes' @David_Philipps in Las Vegas, "we’re expecting about 50,000 votes to be released at 9 a.m. here (noon ET)." VP Biden is ahead by only 12,000 votes, or less than 1%. This feels like it could become a recount candidate.

Speaking of which, @migold (@nytimes, and actually in NY City) says that because there is 'a narrow margin between candidates, “there will be a recount in Georgia,” the state’s top elections official said. Biden currently leads by about 1,500 votes.' So, Georgia is Florida.

Adds @migold, 'more than 4,000 votes are left to be counted in Georgia, as well as an unknown number of overseas and military ballots that are still arriving, an elections official said.' When viewed as percentages of the total vote, the two candidates are tied.

Meanwhile, any minute will see more numbers from Arizona's Maricopa County (Phoenix), which will all but complete the state's numbers.

08:14 — Looking more carefully at things, that last comment is incorrect: Maricopa County is where the *majority* of uncounted ballots are located in the state. It seems there are 204,000 early ballots to tally there, plus a few provisional and other ones. We won't get them all this now.

08:21 — Reports the @nytimes' @Nate_Cohn: THE RESULTS ARE IN! "Trump wins the new Maricopa County, Ariz., ballots by just five points. Don't know if it’ll allow a race call, but that pace won’t cut it for the president to win the state." Trump trails by 1.4% or a bit over 40,000.

08:49 — NB: the use of “lickspittle” waaaaaaay up there is not just a desire to use a word which is satisfying to say aloud (which it totally is!), but is perfect on its description of That Guy’s* character: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lickspittle

At this point, I watched the previous evening’s episodes of A Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyer.

13:43 — Something that makes me shake my head is this change over 2016’s vote in Ohio. I know that Rs worked hard in the area, but… HOW DID THIS ACTUALLY BECOME A REALITY…‽

Full map of change vs 2016 on the @NYTimes’ site: NYTimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-president.html

14:30 — According to @nytimes' @stefsaul in New York, "Biden gains more ground in Georgia, netting 2,725 votes in Gwinnett County, a blue-leaning suburb of Atlanta. He now leads Trump by more than 4,000 votes in the state." I make it 4,153 according to the numbers on their site.

Meanwhile, the @nytimes' @Nate_Cohn reports that "I don't think we're getting a call in Georgia for weeks, but we have such a good accounting of remaining ballots that Trump may need a tabulation error to win."

Now, all of that said, about an hour or so ago, I saw an interview on @CBCNews Network with someone who was senior advisor and controller to Al Gore in 2000, who says he still has PTSD from the final days of that campaign. He added that, while a very narrow margin, it's not over.

Sure, it's reeeeeeeeally, close, but given the recount in Georgia that has to happen, plus the PA ballots arriving after Election Day being segregated (processed and counted separately, but, for now, not added to the current totals), it's up to AR and NV to end this tonight.

14:40 — Clark County (Las Vegas) will release another batch of results in the next 90 minutes, and Arizona another batch of Maricopa Co (Phoenix) results in 3½ hours, but there doesn't seem to be any surety that those will be final numbers from those states.

I haven't seen or heard any expectation as to what time VP Biden will make a statement to the nation, other than "Prime Time" (frankly, this entire week has felt like "prime time"), but whatever the results are when he takes the stage, we won't know much more for a few weeks.

15:12 — The other thing I wonder about is when / if we'll see something concrete to matters of the sort below. There's a metric tonne of this sort of shenanigans throughout the administration's time, and it cannot seen to stand, surely?

US elections

Special Counsel has opened an investigation into Trump's use of the White House for campaign-related activities, Reuters reports: twitter.com/i/events/1324503050703183873

17:01 — From @nytimes' @katieglueck, in Wilmington, Del.: "People familiar with the Biden campaign’s thinking say he may speak tonight even if the race isn’t called, but the tone will be shaped by the results that are in. Things are still fluid."

This morning, I was thinking back about my very first record purchase. It consisted of three 45s, and were (as far as I remember) as follows:

“Yah Mo B There” by James Ingram and Michael McDonald

“Hold Me Now” by Thompson Twins

“Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins

After that, I really got into jazz (post-bop, cool school, hard bop, early fusion), rock (nearly all of its forms), folk, blues, Beethoven’s sonatas and symphonies, Brian Eno’s minimalism, and lately into the newer forms of rock: hip-hop and rap. All of them suit my moods at some point during the week.

Now, in my mid-50s, I’m listening to a lot of soul and R&B, especially material from the late-’60s and early-’70s. It seems I have come full circle and returned to where I began. There’s something so satisfying hearing Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield singing about things which were top off mind then which are at the same place today.