*as always, I do my best to stick to proper grammar/avoid typos, but this is written as it comes, so…. It’ll all be ok.
Oh how tired am I of the never-ending song and dance of the political grifter appearing to grey up my eyes, to bleat lies in my ears, to make me drink the sour milk they’ve left on the table for generations. How tired am I to be witnessing yet another grift happening now, as a tricky little shrug of a human travels to warm her seat wherever she can to prepare her next landing once she’s done bleeding out her kill. Here we are, sailing on our shared little boat on this planet. How she clings to our boat like a barnacle. She represents the rot of a callous generation. I’m tired of the dogmatic sect that refuses to openly claim her and her acolytes, to loudly admonish them for doing the opposite of what their tenets demand of them. She represents an ideal that never existed: that of the a******* dream. Within that dream exists a fatal flaw. It was created to divide and conquer. As long as this grifter remains seated in that hollow place of colonial power, she will continue to extend that rift making it harder and harder for people to be able to recognize each other, and to continue to fracture us all into groups of enemies. Whose dream is that? I’m uninterested, and I’m pouring the milk down the sink.
I’m grateful that I can put the extra feelings down in writing, and in making stuff. I have a song on my new project/album that draws on the feelings of frustration stemming from living under such a condescending eye, the generational shrug, the personal acceptance of responsibility for one’s own space and how it moves and interacts with the world. It’s so disappointing living in such a beautiful part of the world, loving it as deeply as I do, but, as a kind, also frustrated guy said to me a couple of weeks ago, to be surrounded by people who treat politics like sports teams is exhausting. It was such a perfect comparison, I’m still thinking about it. You’re not cheering for a winning team. If one side loses, we all lose. That’s the drift. We are all on the boat, and what good does drawing a line down the middle do in that situation? And as long as there is one person suppressed by policies made and enforced, that is one lifeboat gone. There’s no ‘winning.’ There is only aging and dying. Staying healthy is a gift, and a luck of the draw. Learning more about each other, the land we’re on, the world we’re in, is so much a part of living. You ‘Just Asking Questions’ guys - what are you doing with the answers? If you aren’t holding out a hand, literally or figuratively, to someone else, and to carry on learning without leaving anyone behind (well, let’s leave fascists in the dust, ok?) what’s the point other than to build up your own ego? Or protect the Mine Mine Mine mentality? Or bury your head further in the sand/up some grifter’s butt? No good.
Last night, my partner and I sat in a crowd of people to watch Sophie B. Hawkins and Paula Cole play some music. I know there were people there that I wouldn’t agree with in everyday life, and vice versa, but the work being done on that stage brought us all together. This is why making stuff, supporting art is so important. It is one of the great connectors. Rallys, protests, concerts, plays, galleries, street art. To see people willingly disengage from beautiful, interesting, challenging work breaks my heart. Years have been spent devaluing music alone, shoving it into an invisible format so it moves further into the background where invisible hands shape your taste, redirect the money, shove it in their own pockets, unseen, unchallenged. I’m still furious that I spent time uploading my own modest body of work to a platform that is part of such a diabolical system. It reveals its complicit face more and more by the week. I’m heartened by young bands coming up, and I hope they can make a go of it. I hope they help work on a new foundation for music, one not built on the aged-out aspects of fame and fortune, but a new shape and structure. I hope I hope. Ireland is showing the way with their basic income for artists announcement, which shocked the hell out of me. It can be done.
We have a municipal election tomorrow. I am seeing the regular ‘mayors have no power’ blah blah. If parties are allowed to interfere in matters of municipal concern, we are beholden to the whims of that party. I want a future for my nephews, for future generations, to include what billionaires don’t want you to figure out: diversification of portfolio. Tools that will help us in any eventuality. Narrow channels choke out flow. This is the one remaining area where we can show that community, the people together on this ship doing what they can are the actual realization of the best humanity has to offer. The sky above you, the ground below you, the people around you…. there’s the gift.