Making plants taste like meat will not matter when people no longer know the tastes + textures of meat
Also, why did it end up “chicken fingers” and “fish sticks,” not “fish fingers” and “chicken sticks”?
self worth your self
only people with no self-worth believe there are worthless people
random 20220114
History vilifies the happiest
the powerful laugh themselves to sleep
Currently Day 10 of my COVID+ journey. 3 days ago, I lost 90% of smell & taste. Hasn’t returned yet. I may have fought off Delta not Omicron. It’s been a dark, sobering lesson that you don’t own your senses, and your memories of sensations are only on loan
to the soul, laughing is like a toilet bowl in the middle of the night lit from within
lol every social media post is a potential statement to police, Eventually anything posted on the internet will require mediated deletion
Quality Covid 20220114
Still positive 6 days after first one. I guess it’s officially high quality Covid.
“Inspected By 01” again. They are one busy inspector, for sure.
random 20220111
all of our physics would break down if not for the assumption that there’s a fixed amount of mass in the entire universe
no one inside a mob is aware of the moment of mob-rule. Balloon basket passengers traveling in 100mph winds do not feel (or even hear) the wind. They are within the wind; they become the wind
We have flooded our perceptions of others with aspirational archetypes to displace demeaning stereotypes. Equal dehumanization and evisceration of empathy can still result, however, from even the most benign intention
Over-reaction has become the only way most people “get out in front” of potential problems
random 20220110
outsourcing math to an AI eliminates all moral pressure in human decisions
there’s no such thing as artificial intelligence. it’s either/or
my homeowners and car insurance company portrays its customers as game show winners in its tv ads
comfort is too often conflated with safety
complacency is a form of comfort
complacency is creativity’s fetal position
So much wiki-gurgitation mistaken for knowledge
random 20220108
things that just are need no explanation
My drafts folder knows everything
In every political discussion, ppl reveal what they will cover up as much as they illuminate their views
anything that happens anywhere to anyone now also happens everywhere to everyone
Fear of never being able to surf is a surfer’s only fear
You can’t be an omnipotent idiot (it’s either/or)
pottery was an early social media platform
Quality Covid 20220108
“Certificate of Quality”
“Inspected by 01”
I’m an official breakthrough case. No Abott Binax tests anywhere in the neighborhood, but managed to score a few of these at random pharmacies in the blocks around my house. This FlowFlex test has a fortune cookie vibe, but the way I’ve felt in the last few days is no joke. We’ll lay low, and test again in a week to see exactly how “quality” my Covid is.
Vampires In Love (live, solo)
My favorite new track this year. Written with Composer+Producer Masaya Ozaki (https://masayaozaki.com), in response to a call he received from a music licensing company for “summer songs about adventure and time.” Every once in a while, I write with no irony. Anti-confessional mode, you might say.
“Screw off, I’m happy.”
– Summer2021
lyrics
sometimes words don’t mean anything
with you i don’t need to speak
our future lies
across the great divide
and there’s nowhere i’d rather be
you’re my queen
you can lean on me
you’re my dream
nothing comes between
all the world can melt away
all the colors turn to gray
there’d still be nothing left to say but
you and me
baby can you see love is in reach
even where sunshine’s never in view
and in a thousand years
love never disappears
it’ll always feel something new
Clouds Over LA (Sarsaparilla Sessions 20210210)
A song written in 2018 in Laurel Canyon, CA. Performed this year in Lowell, MA (which we affectionately called Lowell Canyon while living there for 8 months in 2021).
LYRICS
time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
or faded memories
of deleted scenes
you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams
clouds over LA
dance alone
between skies
distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky
lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
3 Generations To Erasure
People with power in any system know that any human custom, behavior, or thought process can be eliminated in 3 generations.
Take human custom “X.”
“X” is outlawed during Gen 1.
Gen 1 becomes the last to experience “X.”
Gen 2 relies on the accounts of Gen 1 for their view of “X.”
Gen 1 says:
“X was overrated.”
“I don’t really miss X’ing at all.”
“Your mother and I X’ed, but that was another time.”…
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AustinTown (live, 20210128)
Austintown, OH, is the driving midpoint between New York City and Chicago. Written election season 2004 in Austintown at the Best Western off Rte 80, in view of the Quaker Steak ‘n Lube across the highway.
performance recorded Jan 2021 at the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda Factory in Lowell, MA
from Hola, Sayulita (2010)
LYRICS
When they dig us up – they might never know
We dug deep – left our evidence as far down as they will go
They might even think we were older than dinosaurs
Arrogance thinks we’ll see the end of the world
That we’d be last ones – to ever see
the truth/the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
They’re gonna say we went backwards – all the way back
Before we went forwards again
Here it comes around again
And there goes the
the truth
ah, the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
Escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
Brighter Than Stars
“I’m brighter than you stars!” New York City taunted, waving their walk signs, shaking their streetlights at Orion, the sole visible constellation that Fall night.
“Pfft,” said Rigel, Orion’s brightest star, “what are you, a hundred years old?”
“Shut up, I’m almost five!”
—-
Fwiw, Capella, Vega, Sirius, and Deneb were also visible over the City the night of the story. They’re each close enough to us to eavesdrop. And close enough to each other to gossip about us behind our backs. …
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[A Few Words On] Comedy Dehumanization
The death of comedy signals an upstream, tactical conflation of embarrassment and shame.
Banning jokes is a means to censor laughter, not words.
Fwiw, what is the world’s most offensive joke?
Well, that depends on who laughs.
Any word can be made dirty.
“Milk, milk, lemonade, around the corner fudge is made…”
Any words can be made hurtful.
“Shut up you unwashed leek!”
Kidding not kidding.
Coerced silence and arbitrary language fences lead only to false enlightenment.…
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Free Baggage
medium mirror
“Free-stuff? More like free baggage!” Luna piped up, looking at the discarded wedding memento, a painting inscribed by guests with personal wishes to the newlyweds, now left to the sidewalk free-cycle giveaway wilds (presumably by one of the ex-spouses still residing in the brownstone behind the wrought iron rail on which it leaned).
“Divorce is rough,” I posed.
“Drain the jacuzzi.”
“Jacuzzi’s long empty, Kid.”
“How so?” she asked.
“Well, divorce is different than letting go.…
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Truth In Paradox
The paradox of truth in the context of privacy arises where lying is not always unjustified, or even unproductive.
Sometimes, lying is downright forgivable, even necessary.
Anonymity and pseudonymity, for example, are forms of lying. But in these cases, untruth protects the truth. The “lie” is IRL armor; shielding a true identity.
Everybody lies about what’s going on inside their heads.
“How are things?”
“Great!”
The initial question often feigns interest. The nicest ensuing answers can feign reality, or at least, obscure nastier truths, if needed.…
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smile your being
There’s nothing more dehumanizing than relying on technology to get you through the day. To outsource all your gathering of knowledge and perspective, to a network that has no human sensations or emotions, is the essence of dehumanization.
Technology, however, has no monopoly on dehumanization. Not only can nature “de-human” quite easily (think tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroids, etc), it also offers up diseases such as Alzheimer’s or ALS that strip away self-consciousness and self-awareness. That which “humanizes” you, i.e.…
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[dispatch] July 29, 2021 at 04:23PM
the acoustic zen of an almost-moved-out-of home is never underrated, however wistful https://t.co/Axrgo7MXfc
— ../westy (@westyreflector)
Jul 29, 2021
via IFTTT
ok [sarsaparilla session 20210330, lowell ma]
Solo acoustic version of “ok” from Hola, Sayulita! (2010), and also included on my early-years greatest hits collection Your Song Is Beautiful: 2002-2012 (2012).
This performance is from March 2021 in the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda factory, my temporary home Lowell, MA for the last 8 months. We leave Lowell for good in ~2 weeks on 7/31. I will be wistful about this place, but am also ready to return home to NYC, if only for a few months.…
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[aired] broken heart > wasted soul in a metal shop
my track broken heart wasted soul off 2017’s cipher /e dreams settling in behind the ambience and noises of a metal shop is my fav google alert on my name of late
:^D…
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