N.P.: “Kuss” – Eisbrecher

Number of times thus far in January that I have angrily but accurately addressed the incompetent driver in front of me on the freeway as “you minivan motherfucker” whilst threatening and detailing painful kickings of ass unless their driving improved posthaste: 7.  Number of those with handicap plates: 4.  Number from Oregon: 3.

N.P.: “99 Problems” – Hugo

I’ve been trying to get more into photography recently.  I have no delusions that I am a “photographer” of any stripe, but like the rest of you, I find myself taking a lot of pictures these days, so I figure I might as well start paying more attention to the photograph…lighting, composition, et cetera).  The picture supra is of my keyboard.  It was given to me by Hayden McCabe in an effort to prevent me from having some kind of homicidal breakdown in the early part of this decade. And it has indeed been a life saver.  Anyway, I use that keyboard to make music.  I try to play at least 30 minutes day, but have some pretty grand aspirations about musical projects I’d like to do.  Really lofty shit: rock operas, concept albums.  I have books to write,  TV projects and movies to finish, riots to incite, revolutions to lead….but none of it is getting done.

I have been having (and presently have) significant anxiety about the amount of truly great entertainment that is suddenly available to all of us at any time, all the time.  Until fairly recently, cable companies were running the show.  They’ve been running the show for over 30 years.  Unfortunately for them, they have not really been forward thinking in any way on this.  And because they have been running the show for so long, they assumed they would simply always run the show.  ‘Twas always thus, and always thus shall be.  Because they thought that they were too big to ever fail, they made a lot of monstrous deals based solely on the assumption of permanence.  They’ve invested in technology which was myopic even in its hindsight.  That probably doesn’t make sense.  But that’s the reason that right now, in 2018, large cable companies are still rather pushing “bundle” deals that include a landline.  A LANDLINE!  Absolutely no one wants or needs another land line in 2018’s United States of America.  A sat-phone, sure, but a landline?  What the hell for?  Xfinity (back when it was Comcast) invested boatloads of money into the creation, acquisition, and improvement of fiber optic cables in an effort to do to the telephone industry what they had done to network TV:  relegate it to the past.  But the iPhone surprised everybody and instantly changed the entire playing field, and now exactly no one wants a goddamn landline, and they sure as hell aren’t going to pay for it.  They changed their name to Xfinity, but they’re stuck having to sell a product that they know their customers don’t want, i.e., landlines.  So the only way they can sell landlines to cell phone owners is to make the cable/internet/landline bundle cheaper than any cable/internet deal.  One of the features the company is presently touting is “Caller ID across your TV, tablet, and smartphone.” AND SMARTPHONE!  So your smartphone can tell you if you’re getting a call on your landline.  So you can presumably put down your smartphone and pick up the landline.  Morons.

Anyway, the whole point of this rant, if there is one, is that when the cable companies were running the show, the ubiquitous complaint was “400 channels and there’s never anything on.”  And we were paying $100/month for 400 channels of nothing.  Then the internet happened, and Netflix’s streaming happened, for a fraction of the cost of cable, giving us virtually total control of what we wanted to watch and when.  And that’s when everything went to hell.

Damn…I didn’t realize it was so late.  I’ve got to run.  Meet you back here soon, and I’ll finish this silly little rant then.

N.P.: “Safe and Sound” – Capital Cities

For the record, I walk in three speeds: swagger, saunter, and stagger.  Any attempts to make me do otherwise will result in rancor and ruckus.

N.P.: “Beyond” – Samael

Dearest Reader!  How oh how in the hell have you been?  Me?  You wouldn’t believe most of what I’d have to tell you, which has a lot to do with why I haven’t bothered telling you much lately.  But I suppose that’s going to have to change at some point, and now seems like as good a point as any.
It’s not going to be pleasant, our little catching up, and it may not even be particularly funny.  Who knows, maybe it will.  Maybe I’m full of shit and I’m just going to disappear for another year or 10.
But probably not.  I’ve missed you.  Turns out I don’t make a lot of sense without you.  And I have to be honest here: I left you alone for 10 years and damn, have you made a hash of things.  What happened?  I thought you had things under control.  What happened to The Cause?
Things have slipped, attractive and intelligent reader.  This world is no where near where we could be…where we should be.  Yes, of course, obviously, I have to admit and accept my absenteeism of late…why should you be expected to fight these fights alone?  But still, I never thought things would get to Where We Are Now.
I’m not sure exactly where to even start, and if it’s like it is here wherever you are, then you probably have things to do just now.  As do I.  “Promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”  Something like that.
Damn…t’s really good talking to you again.  Maybe we can make this a regular thing.  Tell you what…meet me here tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens.

N.P.: “Secret World – Live”  – Peter Gabriel