Monthly Archives: December 2021

December 31, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

It’s the end of 2021, dear reader.  Around The Haunt, it was a fine year.  Challenging…it was very challenging, but inescapably good.  I hope your year was good as well.
Happy New Year, dear reader.

N.P.: “Don’t Go” – Sleaford Mods

December 25, 2021

Very reflective this year…you know I don’t believe in ghosts, but the dead are on my mind this year, much more so than years past.
Merry Christmas, dear reader.

N.P.: “Christmas Is The Time To Say ‘I Love You'” – Billy Squier

December 23, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Ho ho ho, dear reader.  This is my favorite time of year, but even a quick trip to the grocery store becomes a hassle.
I’m writing a Christmas story called The Proctologist and The Snow Globe…I made a lot of headway on it Monday and Tuesday, but then I got super-busy.  Not sure if I’ll be able to finish it by Christmas.

N.P.: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – Gary Hoey

December 21, 2021

Hot damn, dear reader…it’s the first day of Winter!  The shortest day, the longest night (in this hemisphere, anyway).  It doesn’t get any better than this on the Gallaway Calendar.  I’ve been so sisypheanly busy recently that I neglect to post my favorite Christmas video back on Krampusnacht, December 5.  Belatedly, here it is:

N.P.: “Red Eyes and Tears” – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

December 17, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Got the studio moved, and it’s up and running in it’s new room.  Going to work on the books tonight.

Wednesday was the first day of the ridiculous and pathetic new mask mandate in California.  The night I had dinner in neighboring Sacramento County, Home of the State Capitol (“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.).”  I haven’t been in that foul county for months, so was a tad shocked when I was practically tackled by two employees when I came in without a mask.  After a brief discussion, they fucked off.  But everybody in the joint was masked up.
Thursday night I went out to dinner here in Anhedonia County, and not one mask.  I’m much more at home with the data-driven free thinkers.

N.P.: “Magnifishit” – Skinny Puppy

December 16, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Today was weird.  Off, somehow.  Maybe it was because I was awakened stupidly at 05:00.  Whatever the cause, it was just a pain.
Tomorrow I’ll be moving the “Studio B” to a different room in The Haunt…one that is more able to contain loud sounds.  I dislike moving, even if it’s into a different room.
The books are slowly (all too slowly, dear reader) shaping up.

N.P.: “Wise Up! Sucker – 7″ Version” – Pop Will Eat Itself

December 13, 2021

Last week, NBC’s Brian Williams suddenly quit/retired from television news with the following statement:

Well, look at the time. I’ll try to keep this brief. After 28 years of peacock logos on much of what I own, it is my choice now to jump without a net into the great unknown. As I do for the first time in my 62 years, my biggest worry is for my country.
The truth is, I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist. I believe in this place. And in my love of my country, I yield to no one.
But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It is now at the local bar, and the bowling alley, the school board, and the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for.
Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution, elected by their constituents, possessing the kinds of college degrees I could only dream of, have decided to join the mob and become something they are not while hoping we somehow forget who they were.
They’ve decided to burn it all down with us inside. That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman.
To my coworkers, my love and thanks…
As a proud New Jersey native, this is where I get to say, “regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.”
What a ride it’s been. Where else, how else was a kid like me going to meet presidents and kings and the occasional rock star? These lovely testimonials that I can never truly repay make me hyper-aware that it has been and remains a wonderful life. It’s as if I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning in Bedford Falls.
The reality is though, I will wake up tomorrow in the America of the year 2021, a nation unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it, which is what you must do now. My colleagues will take it from here.
I will probably find it impossible to be silent and stay away from you and lights and cameras after I experiment with relaxation and find out what I’ve missed and what’s out there.
Every weeknight for decades now, I’ve said some version of the same thing. Thank you for being here with us. Us, meaning the people who produced this broadcast for you. And you, well, without you, there’s no us.
I’ll show myself out. Until we meet again, that is our broadcast for this Thursday night.

N.P.: “Losin’ Your Mind” – Pride & Glory

December 12, 2021

When victimhood becomes currency, there will be counterfeiters.  Jussie Smollet should be sentences for the crimes he’s been convicted of, then tried for perjury.  For both crimes, the sentence should be punitively augmented with “hate crime” designations.  I find the notion that this country has anything called a “hate crime” abhorrent, but if you insist on having it, then you need to deal with false accusers just as harshly as you would any other hate crime perpetrator.  Staging a hate crime is a hate crime.

Rain has returned to The Creek, finally, thank Christ.  The end of October, it rained 6″ in one day, and then that was kind of it.  Until today.
I didn’t write nearly enough last week.  I have dim, dark hopes about the coming week, but honestly, no decent literature will be committed this week either.  Things are a bit hectic now, as things are this time of year.

N.P.: “Dashing Dame” – Deathproof