Happy New Year!

I am standing in a very long line at Meijer checkout. The guy in front of me literally only has 2 bananas and the couple of carts in front of him are loaded up. About 3 minutes ago I could see him assessing the other lanes and realizing his current position is the most optimal. He started to pace a little bit, and then he looked at me and held up the bananas, laughed and said, ’I’m beginning to think the bananas aren’t worth it’. I half smiled and shrugged. As I post this, he is still right in front of me. As we move into this new year, it might be worth considering: Maybe the bananas ARE actually worth it.

Song: This Could Be Any Holiday Song

Moral Heroes!

If only we would look into our own lives with the same level of scrutiny we liberally apply to other people's lives. It's so easy to be critical of foreign bodies. It's much more difficult--though more rewarding--to put our own body to the test. We're all philosopher kings when it comes to other people's business. Where does that philosophy go when we look in the mirror? It is reduced to sterile rationalizations. We're naturally charitable when we face the mirror, but we take out the aggression born of our own well deserved insecurities when we evaluate others. This is why I hate humanity. This is why it was a sin for Eve and Adam to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge. It gave man an insight that he couldn't wield. It gave him the tools of divine intelligence with no idea how to use them.

Song: Don’t Be Trifling

Song: The Old Salt

Midterm Reaction

Good news from the races I cared the most about: 1. John Fetterman won, thank God. I haven’t rooted as hard for a candidate to win since Nina Turner’s last run. Also, good on Oprah for endorsing Fetterman after basically being responsible for creating Oz. Grown up shit. 2. Steve Chabot is now free to maunder through Ohio’s network of dying malls, which seems like something he’d enjoy doing. 3. It looks like Mark Kelly is going to defeat school shooter candidate Blake Masters in Arizona and Warnock is going to edge out everyone’s favorite badge-having, abortion-paying-for, CTE Sufferer Hershel Walker. Bad news: Ohio is sending our answer to Ted Cruz to the Senate. JD Vance is an annoying, phoney, epic-posting nerd with a highly punchable face. I guess at least some jobs may be generated from the adrenochrome processing factories he will definitely be bringing into the state.

3 Observations

1. Anyone who insists on being referred to by their honorifics, or fosters a community that does it for them (Dr. Jordan Peterson, Dr. Ron Paul, General Flynn), is definitely a fruitcake, and very probably evil. 2. If something scares you, demystify it. Understanding the how and why of disturbing things in the world (and especially in yourself) allows you to overcome them. John Berryman said 'we must move in the direction of our fear'. Scooby and the Gang always end the episode removing the mask from the monster. Everyday Jihad. 3. It is always better to seek a correct understanding of things than to win an argument or reinforce an opinion. It is also easier once you dismantle that part of your ego. the flexible reed isnt snapped in the current. Not doggedly pursuing internal and external validation will also allow you to be healthier and kinder, which is way better than winning anyway.

Instrumental: Recently (Extended by God Remix featuring Langston Troxell

Instrumental: Car Chase

Song: Preach

Tom Waits

People go to school and practice different vocal exercises and learn music theory to sing professionally. One of my favorite things about Tom Waits is that you don’t need any of that to sound like him. You just need to have smoked a certain number of cigarettes, drank a certain amount of whiskey, and had your heart broken a certain amount of times over about a 20 year period to get to his standard sound.

Song: You Can’t Unshit Your Pants

Songs: ‘Light Stabbing’ and ‘Maybe Give In?’

Che

“I believe (Che Guevara) was not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age.” — Jean-Paul Sartre. “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.” - Che Guevara

Song: A Song For Froggy

New Vibe Just Dropped

It seems that at the age of 41 I have unlocked a new mood. It’s the one where you wake up irritable and grumbling for no reason, mumble ‘goddammit’ a lot, and only feel motivated to sit around, drink Coffee and chain smoke. I am calling it The Nick Nolte Vibe.

Time Travel

On June 28th, 2009, Stephen Hawking through a party for time travelers. No one showed up. I have heard people say this is evidence that time travel isn’t real. I disagree. I think it’s evidence that time travel is real, because who would want to hang out with Stephen Hawking? I have great hope for the future.

Song: Morning Routine

“God Damn America”

As time moves on, I realize no one has more clearly and concisely diagnosed the foundational sickness of The United States as Jeremiah Wright. Like all visionaries and truth tellers, he was demonized in the media and abandoned by his alleged friends for political expediency, but listen to what he says here. It is undeniably true, and powerful in its righteousness. I go back to this a handful of times a year, and it always gives me chills. Until the original sins Reverend Wright lays out here are addressed, there will be no moving forward.

Song: We Will Have Plenty of Time to Cry In Hell

My Top 5 Favorite Films Of All Time

1. The Life Aquatic 2. In Bruges 3. The Departed 4. No Country For Old Men 5. The Big Chill

Inconsiderate Amusement Parks

why are they playing this sentimental country music over soundsystem at the amusement park? Dont they know my girlfriend just broke up with me? it is awkward to cry in line for a roller coaster. why did the mailman give me this letter? is he trying to prevent me from feeling better? look at him in his little asshole shorts delivering heartbreak from his little asshole bag i hope a bird shits in his little asshole pith helmet

Song: Enoch Was No More

Smells Like

After a chaotic morning at work, I picked up an ‘easy’ client around 1pm. It was generally an enjoyable and no hassle encounter, but what he said (jovially) when he got in my car has stuck with me. ‘Wow Mr. Spencer! It smells good in here! It smells like a cake! What are you wearing?’ I had not purchased any bakery items that morning. I sniffed my shirt. I sniffed my arm. Do I somehow smell like cake? I literally only wear deodorant and patchouli. Do I have the sugar to such an extent that I literally make my surrounding area smell like a confectionary treat? I played his observation off and I think he bought it. However, I am worried that I smell like a donut.

Waking Up

Have you ever been woken from an incredibly vivid dream that you were you were so deeply into that it seems like your entire psyche and each individual sense had to travel great and varying lengths to return to this world? It’s like you know youre waking up, but only insofar as you know your eyes are closed. All of the sensory elements are still present in a kind of ghostly way. Then the images fade. Suddenly you are enveloped by the darkness of your closed eyelids. Then you start to get a sense that you are attached to a body. Maybe you can feel it stretch a little. There are still some auditory elements of the dream world present—and definitely whatever emotional and identity associations you had in the dream—but suddenly you are aware that the stretching body you just detected is attached to the eyelids you initially became aware of, and then you notice that these things belong to you. You become aware of your breathing and open your eyes. The last remnants of whoever you just were dissipate and now you can hear the alarm, which ostensibly woke you up. It’s 6:15 am. You had set the alarm for 6. It took a full 15 minutes for each part of your essential being to reunify into your corporeal state. It feels like each part came back, but sometimes you wonder.

Official Video: I Hope You Fucking Die

From the new smash hit album GOLIATH, available now on Bandcamp here: https://bringmethebeasts.bandcamp.com/album/goliath

Song: I Will Haunt This House When I Die

Song: Goliath

Socialism is a Matter of Proximity

One of the best things about following community pages (especially school and neighborhood pages) is that everyone is a socialist when it affects them directly. Good! Solidarity. One of the worst things about following these community pages is to realize that these people you know directly or indirectly are actually people, and you may not like them, and you can see their pores with everything they post. It’s easy to be a socialist with an abstract proletariat, but when it’s people you know—who outwardly disdain and rage against their own side of the class war as soon as it leaves their county—it requires a certain amount of perspective and humility. I can do it (inshallah), but it is alarming when you see it up close. Solidarity with all of the people! You don’t have to be perfect (and certainly not whatever crazy version of ‘perfect’ I have in my head) to deserve freedom.

Song: But You Needed A Ride Home