Category Archives: writing

Neil/Joni vs. Spotify/Rogan & How the Left Continues to Devour Itself

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Note: This started as an informal Facebook post on 1/21/2022 addressing the controversy of Neil Young pulling his music off Spotify in protest of some of Joe Rogan’s recent guests. Watching everyone pile onto the “Cancel Rogan/Spotify” bandwagon was starting to bug me. Not only has his show on Spotify been grossly miscategorized by the mainstream press and it’s dangers highly exaggerated but the movement to shake Spotify’s support of him, I believe, is built on dangerous and false pretenses. I tried to get all my thoughts out and be brief as well. I definitely failed at the latter.  (Some of the grammar has been tightened up since originally posting)

 

 

I am 100% with Rogan on this and here’s why… first off don’t respond if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing. Unfriend me or whatever. I have no use for people who form their opinions based on twitter posts and out-of-context media clips. This complex world is too nuanced for that.

 

I heard what P. McCoullough and R. Malone said on Joe’s show, some of my thoughts were rattled for a bit but in the end it changed nothing for me. Glad I could hear their claims for myself. Glad I could hear that both of them might have drifted a little off course. Glad I know not to listen to much of what they say in the future. There’s simply better data than what they were touting; you might have to dig a little but it’s out there.

 

I’ve watched a slew of the “discredited” guests he’s hosted and I still safely believe that the vaccinated are 1000x more protected from CV19 than the unvaccinated and that a certain subset of masks (n95’s etc) really do their job well most of the time. This is where the latest data from around the world has been clear.

 

Where I commend Rogan and his guests is over their concern with the informational inaccuracies, mistakes and in some cases full on misinformation presented by the White House, CDC, NIH & WHO over the last 2 years. I’m not a ‘conspiracy theorist’. But not all that is considered a conspiracy always turns out to be so…

 

Also throughout the pandemic the lack of messaging for self-treatments like exercise, Vit-D/zinc, healthy eating, losing weight, and sleeping well, has greatly bothered me. Since healthy folks fair MUCH better than their counterparts when infected it seems like not hammering home this message was a hugely wasted opportunity.

 

To me this is a big failure of the powers that be. And it’s a little crazy that this post is maybe in danger of getting taken down as “disinformation” for even saying something as simple and obvious as that… Because if the CDC hasn’t said it then it’s considered false.

 

Much of what was once considered conspiracy thinking over the past two years has landed MANY a professional and media personality discredited, defunded and deplatformed. Problem is lots of this “crazy talk” turned out to be true in the end. Pick your example, there’s a ton.

 

It’s a good time to mention that I am triple boosted and if I had to go back and do it again i would DO THE EXACT SAME THING…

 

Anyways. This over-arching narrative, that has been our guiding light, has been breaking down through revelations of upper level email leaks and unignoreable facts of of happenstance; everyone is beginning to see the relativity and effect of so many falsehoods. The cognitive dissonance this has all been sowing isn’t helping with the cohesiveness of our already fractured society. Whether this shift is based on “bad intel” or is intentional I find I’m trusting CNN/NPR/MSNBC/etc as much as I trust the entertainment at FoxNews.

 

I don’t agree with, or take seriously much of what Rogan’s two guests (mentioned above) said. But I DEFINITELY don’t think silencing these voices prone to dissenting from the excepted narrative is the answer. Their concerns, as best I can tell are worthy; they think there’s something they know that we’re not being told or that the Powers At Be are ignoring altogether… You don’t want to live in a society where professionals are afraid for their careers to speak out when they think shit is going sideways. But we are getting closer to that everyday. And in the end, correct of not, the point is that dissent is the engine of self correction.

 

Far too often over the last 24-months we’ve seen esteemed professionals and scientists being totally blacklisted from the media for things they said that later turned out to be true… And then on the cover of Newsweek “yeah… Evidence kinda’ looks good for the lab-leak theory…Whoops.” Have those blackballed folks been allowed to monetize on youtube yet? Nope. Have they any options for appeal for raising a very valid concern? Also a big fat “nope”.

 

We need all the conversation we can get, even if it means crackpots like Alex Jones get a spot. (yes, I shudder to even type that) When the conversation ends there’s no other option but violence. These hive-minded shifts to gleefully cancel anything/anyone they don’t like is, to me, the death of all that is holding our democratic society together.

 

As much as I HATED the living fuck out Donald Trump but I’m still queasy about him getting deplatformed from everything (esp considering North Korea still has a Twitter account… do we want to know who’s in charge of drawing the lines?)

 

THIS SWORD CUTS BOTH WAYS. Lemme say that again but a little quieter and plainer “Censorship is a sword that cuts through the left, the right and the middle”

 

That leaves us where we are today. The Democrats have performed horrendously over the last two years and I anticipate an electoral bloodbath in both ’22 and ’24. I hate to say that but I don’t see how middle-lower class & rural America (the largest voting demographic) can possible relate to a bunch of liberal ‘city-folk’ who label everyone with white skin and any success at still staying alive as a ‘racist’.

 

But far-be-it for the left to notice such a digression. They’re too busy cancelling the fuck out of each other on twitter, the toxic social cesspool that Dave Chappelle correctly pointed out “Isn’t a real place”. Then again that just might be his “white- privilege” speaking. (you can thank NPR for applying that trope to the wildly famous BLACK comedian.)

Are things going off the rails or is it just me?

 

Oh it gets better. In response to this craziness the conservatives are again going full-blown-moron in response to the ‘call out culture’ of the left… Maus, the amazing graphic novel based on a surveyors account from Nazi Concentration Camps; is being removed from school library’s in some red controlled states because a bunch of whacked-out asshole, Christian alt-Right-wingers feel threatened by it. Whats Next Elie Wiesel’s “Night”? or how about Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”?

 

This is madness. I really can’t imagine a world where everyone doesn’t have access to these great works of human survival and perseverance. And I can’t image a world where huge corporations get to to decide what content you and I have access to and what we don’t.

 

But if you’re gonna go on blattering about what a dangerous tool Rogan is PLEASE, if nothing else, at least watch his 8min response to this new controversy. Don’t watch what CNN and NPR show you. As expected they cut out and ignore the important pieces.

 

Full disclosure, I’ve been listening to Joe’s show for years. I don’t know of many other podcast hosts willing to sit back and let the guests do the talking in such an open ended, natural way. It’s my opinion he has a wonderfully creative and curious mind and allowing some insanely great convos to flourish. And though at first sight he comes across as a bro-y meat-head he possess a refreshing amount of humility, constantly joking and playing down his own considerable intellect.

 

JRE has on an incredibly wide-range of guests, a majority of which I have little to no interest in. I personally dig the brainy ones. I took a chance and watched the recent interview with Jewel and it was one of the most inspiring and amazing interviews I’ve ever seen. Some of his guests, like Matthew Walker, Rhonda Patrick, Jordan Peterson, The Black Keys, David Sinclair, Wim Hof, Jamie Foxx, Peter Attia, James Nestor amongst many others, have truly changed my life and mind for the better.

 

The reason I say all this is because It has seemed to me, anyways, that the people who consider him alt-right, a misogynist, trans-phobic, racist, anti-gay, whatever… prob have never actually watched his show or have any idea what he is actually like. Seems they most likely read twitter posts and watch out-of-context take-down attempts on the mainstream media outlets a ways to inform their opinions. None of the wild accusations I’ve heard has ever squared with what I’ve personally witnessed in the 100’s of hours I’ve listened.

 

I love Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, always have, always will. But they are on the wrong side of this in a big way. Censoring voices you don’t agree with isn’t the way forward. Messaging to America that “you’re too stupid to think for yourself so we’ll control the info spigot” is a dead-end that will only strengthen the resolve of the craziness on the far right. Remember when they were the biggest proponents of censorship? Is this the direction we on the left really need to follow? That said, Joni and Neil will quietly put their music back on Spotify once this all dies down. That you can bet on.

 

So this brings me back to the original point of this whole way-too long thing. Actually LISTEN to what Joe has to say in today’s 8min response. See for yourself and then make up your mind and cancel Spotify or and talk shit or whatever.

 

In all aspects of life information is getting twisted before it reaches our ears. Always find the source and then only form your opinion. And think hard about what it means to pressure corporations into becoming a blunt tool for censorship. With effective censorship comes the ability to control with ease. You don’t have to take my word for it. Look it up.

 

Here’s Joe’s Response

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZYQ_nDJi6G/…

5 Quick Tips for Winter-Storm Driving in Texas

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Needed to make a few trips away from home during this ice-storm and was truly inspired by what I witnessed out on the roads here… So here’s 5 quick tips in case you’re not used to driving in the ice and snow. By my estimation, this soft-headed contingent might be as much as EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE currently on the road in Texas.

  1. If you have 2WD, bald/racing tires or a car that’s an inch off the ground: Stay the fuck home. No matter what. Even if it means you will die by not leaving. You’ll just end up killing other people (and yourself) with your ridiculously ill-equipped vehicle. Your lack of common-sense, as you do things like slide back down inclines into all the traffic behind you, will not endear you to anyone on the planet. Stay home.
  2. If you have a 4×4/AWD (with grippy tires) then proceed with caution by AVOIDING ALL OTHER CARS. Even if it means putting a couple wheels up on the sidewalk and blasting through red-lights. Just get the fuck away from the clumpy packs of other drivers. Do not let these harbingers of death surround you. They will creep about and spinout and roll into each other like it was some creepy slo-mo bumper-car ride at some inbred county fair. Remember all car packs consist of at least 72% petrified morons continually shitting themselves out of fear; this causes them to do exactly the wrong thing at all times. The other 27.9999% are too dumb to be scared. The .0001% is me. This statement is probably a fact.
  3. When your car drifts or slides in an undesirable direction LET OFF THE BRAKE AND PUT IT IN NEUTRAL (Even with an Automatic Transmission). Prob solved. Every time. Trust me.
  4. When you need to stop: Begin braking 10x earlier than you are used to doing by VERY LIGHTLY touching the brakes in quick spurts. Also throwing it in neutral (see #3) always helps; this keeps your wheels from spinning and will snap you back into a straight line. Your car has no clue what’s happening. So it does what it’s told by the gas dripping into the engine.
  5. If you decide to venture out (after passing the above qualifications) don’t’ drive 3-fuckin-MPH. Seriously. You’re like a wall standing in the middle roadway that everyone has to try to avoid. You become a huge fucking problem and a legit excuse for roadrage. This is why you have 4WD. You’re in the middle of it now… JUST FUCKING DRIVE. You’ll be okay (see steps 2, 3, & 4)… If your heart can’t take going with the given traffic flow, or faster when required, please refer back to the last sentence of rule #1.
  6. Please forward this to anyone unaware of the stupidly lethal combination of cars and ice and dummies.

Making Art & Music Under the Magnetic Fields

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Creating anything I care about is typically a grueling process.

It begins with great enthusiasm and some shiny vision lodged deep in my minds eye. Hypnotized by the ‘beauty and importance’ and driven by excitement I always underestimate the amount of actual work it will take to bring it to completion. In truth, I’m usually quick to dispense with long-term details and dive right in. And no matter how often I go through this cycle I never seems to anticipate just how hard bringing an idea to life always tends to be.

A few days ago I set about designing a cover for Magnetic Fields, a new single that should be dropping in a matter of weeks. The cover itself will have fairly limited purpose as a thumbnail for streaming sites like Apple Music and Spotify so the pressure isn’t so great.

Taking the first steps in designing it required weeks worth of kicking this line-item from one “to-do” list to the next. Not sure why but this avoidance phase seems to be part of my operation. At the very least it’s something I have learned not to resist too much when possible; forcing artsy things will tends to make the final product suck. Procrastinating can get me firing on all cylinders, especially when something was suppose to be out the door yesterday but “creating from emergency” isn’t a method to employ too often if you plan on experiencing some level of old age.

I think my ‘process’ is dogged not so much by “having too many irons in the fire” but of “having too many irons and only room enough for one at a time in the fire. And they get changed out quickly” It really doesn’t matter how pressing or important something is to finish, if that something is something I don’t wanna do on a visceral level then it becomes boarder-line impossible to even start working on it. (see: Unemployable)

These past few weeks my muse has been very busy…

…and I’m very grateful for this. She has been keeping me back-lit by an intense musical glow. I’m always thankful when my oscillating interest-pallet pivots back to what I know best; music. As many of my close confidants know my infatuation with music has been steadily waning causing my enthusiasm to be increasingly  spotty these last few years. Turning what you love into a full-time job can become back-breaking and soul-crushing at times. Who knew?

So as music, my first love, began gaining weight I naturally started looking elsewhere for some levity and fun. This has lead me into all kinds of interesting wormholes; most having nothing to do with music. (And huge props to the internet! You can learn about literally ANYTHING at ANYTIME! That fact will never cease to amaze.)

Anyways, I have mostly lived the bachelors-life over the last decade with, for the most part, the freedom to do whatever I want when I want almost everyday. A situation like this allows for a truly inordinate allotment of time to pursue any and all whims. For long swaths of time my curiosity has lingered and latched onto topics from the universe and space to trying to understand what makes brilliant stand-up comedians and athletes tick. The list of what has captured my attention over the years is pretty extensive and varied. Unfortunately all this random knowledge hunting doesn’t seem to pay the bills. Or at least I haven’t figured out how to make money by reading every Carl Sagan book and scouring the web for all the Christopher Hitchens lectures that exist.

Speaking of money and tangents…

If I would have (could have, more like it) put all this time and energy into playing music, and music only, I’d probably be as good as I thought I was as a delusional teenager learning my first chords. I was definitely slow on the uptake when it came to understanding the importance of self-criticism. I write a little more on this here: The Sad Plight of the Young Artist.

A few of the better examples at my Instagram account.

Back to it. One such blip of interest that hung on my radar long enough to blur the screen was watercolor painting. It’s an art form I’ve always had a certain fascination with with. Watercolor can blend realism and dream-states into a single image in a way that nothing else can. While looking for the next fix I took to fussing with the tools of the trade and began splashing up paper just to see what happens. One technique I loved to experiment with is letting the tone-filled water run rills down a tipped-up page. Turns out gravity and nature can paint cooler things than I’ll ever hope to. Click the image for a some of the examples that resulted from this process.

Figuring what to do for a cover for Magnetic Fields has been a looming chore since deciding I would release ahead of the album. The main hangup is that any desire to make art has been MIA since early last summer. Not sure why; just the way it is. So in the spirit of least resistance I shuffled through those old, drippy paintings and a few resonated loudly enough for some vague concepts to percolate.

My biggest problem with chucking a project past the finish-line…

…is detaching “what I’ve made” from “what I wanted to make”. I’m hardly ever able to make what’s in my mind come out just the way I see it. Sometimes what I make turns out better and cooler than I imagined… But mostly this isn’t an outcome that can be counted on; usually I’m somewhat disappointed with the final product. The trick is either accepting it for what it is and jumping back into the endless revisions near the drawing-board with the piles of torn-out hair under it. Often though nothing I try helps and eventually I reach for the “Omg-Fuck-It” sign; leaving the troublesome new prototype on the factory floor to collect dust and rot.

I suppose on some thin level that making art is a lot like having a kid, which I don’t have any of. You can have a baby and hope to mold it into your own image with your value-sets and outlooks but in the end she/he/it/they/whatever is going to be unique unto themselves. As a parent I imagine one of the biggest jobs is eventually accepting this and seeing your child not as an extension of yourself but as an entirely independent being with it’s own whacked-out personality and mixed-up thoughts.

So comparing a living-child to a 6″x6″ image that was mostly assembled using Photoshop trickery seems a bit lofty. But I think the analogy here works. Whether I throw on the horse-blinders and blitz something out the door or try to control every aspect of the operation, in the end, acceptance is the only way to finality. And acceptance is the hardest part for someone with perfectionist tendencies and it’s why I’m stuck with a considerable amount of songs. Sometimes you just gotta throw up that sign and let the kids go on and be their fucked-up little selves. So in a sense I am trying to be better as a parent and simultaneously have many more kids. It’s a tough balance when your goal is to shove them out the door as quickly as possible. They deserve to be the feral little monsters they were born to be.

Art for me is way faster and easier to make than music.

I’m not going for the extreme adherence to my vision with art because mostly I can’t. I just don’t have the same level of skill and control as I do with music; I have way less excuses not to nail when making songs. Designing this single-cover was like a scaled-down version of what I want my song writing/recording process to be. Fast, easy and over. After scanning the paintings to the computer I started playing around with fonts and layouts. Once I found some balance and cohesion I then drew the font by hand (it looks more hand-made this way; obviously…) then imported everything back into PS where I tweaked about for a few more hours while listening my friends doing live-stream shows. (See some working versions here) Once I had had enough I slept on it. In the morning, after some deliberation over styles with a friend, I whipped together a final version. That was it. I’m hoping that this condensed, walled-in approach will bring wider-perspective to my way-too-lengthy music making process.  Maybe it can bring some brevity to my way too lengthy writing process as well…

Here’s some of the many versions I passed through to find the final cover-art.

Regardless of whether it’s art or music…

…there’s one final stretch of road that has to be traversed. The space on this continuum is positively littered with stalled-out song heaps now trapped forever in the twilight of birth. Although this doomed wreckage may find itself being visited by the scavenging songwriter from time to time; for the most part this place is a monolithic graveyard of failure’s best attempts. It’s hard not to look around and notice all the wasted effort it took get these malformed songs to their final, unintended resting places. And walking away empty-handed smarts like hell on it’s but what may be worse is the way the sentiment hangs on; chipping away bits of resolve with each slow step toward starting anew. Moving on after a failure, for an artist of any sort, requires a hefty amount of functional delusion I guess.

Well the good news is that just venting some of this psychobabble can really mash the reset button down. Clearing the cluttered slate of these languishing reminders fills me with some sparkly forward-momentum and the urge to once again pile the slate high and start on something new.

In the meantime I’m releasing the new single, Magnetic Fields, right here for the first time. This is all the fan fare it will receive for a few weeks at least. It’s my way of thanking you readers who actually slogged it through all 1710 words of this.

Thank you for listening and please, have a listen.