Hello! Hello!

Things have been crazy around here, in the way that contracting occasionally gets — for a hot minute I had effectively three jobs, but things are wrapping up and settling in and generally feeling a lot more manageable. Still don’t have news I can share on the secret project but we’re so close.

Months like these are one of the things I love the most about consulting, and especially the kind of consulting that I do, where I’m focused on the beginning of a project, getting things started and pointed in the right direction. I occasionally get the itch to go flat out, as hard as I can — and then take time off. Full time employment doesn’t really support either side of that — if there is “crunch time” it lasts too long, and then doesn’t back off enough once it’s over. Consulting is a better fit for my sprinter’s personality.

In other news: Let’s talk about Carter Vail.

If you know about Carter, it’s because you heard Dirt Man when it blew up on Tik Tok earlier this year. I’ve been listening to him a ton the last few days, because he was on tour in San Francisco with Yung Gravy, who I won’t link to because I don’t care. I went to that concert for the opening act and then I walked out.

If you’re in the path of Carter Vail’s tour and you like indie rock and gigantic dudes I encourage you to do the same. Be home by nine!

(Nothing against Yung Gravy — I literally discovered him because Carter Vail was opening for him. I like his music fine but I have no relationship to it — and I find it too alienating to stay in a crowd of people who are intensely enjoying something that I feel nothing about.)

I am too tired to really complete the thought here but the thing that I find really affecting about Carter Vail is that he writes both about fish uprisings and breakups. He is incredibly handsome, incredibly sincere, and incredibly weird.

Oh, and his new single is his best work yet.

That’s all for now— more soon—

Nat