Talking heads on the radio say we can live through a nuclear war

Hi do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, excellent music?

Oh, I made an Instagram for this blog. These posts are few and far between and only moreso now with teaching and a baby who walks. It’s crazy when your baby starts walking because all of a sudden it’s just zoom zoom zoom. One minute she’s here and then she’s over there. Now she’s behind the couch crying and you think maybe she’s stuck back there but no, she’s just upset because there’s a Magic: the Gathering card that’s just out of reach.

I’m all for taking Robert Kraft down. Let’s just all forget about the team he owns. The one I happen to root for based on the random geography of my birthplace. Okay? Thanks. Drake Maye baby! Let’s go.

Here’s a great playlist. You want to listen to it soooooooooo badly. Let’s talk about what’s on it, and then some other stuff, and then some poetry.

There’s just no one doing it like Perennial. It’s mod chic. It’s synth punk. It’s garage rock. It’s classic yet modern. It’s full tilt. It’s fresh air, so take a deep breath. If they were a pitcher they’d be out there going fastball fastball fastball strikeout see ya. Their live show is can’t miss. Many things can be described as lightning in a bottle. Perennial is the lightning that escaped from the bottle.

Once again let me say it: I think my favorite genre of music is “this shit would probably have been huge on 90s alt rock radio.” I fell in love with this band the moment I heard their first song (“Star” — which somehow only has 300 views on YouTube?) in November 2024 and now here they are dropping their debut record and it rips.

The spoken word intro is completely my shit and grabbed me right away. I didn’t know I needed banjo emo in my life but here it is and I love it. This rules.

I told a friend (who loves Petey) this was kinda like if Petey was a little more emo-coded. It’s earnest, it sounds huge, and all the instrumentation is great. Hopecore at its best.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Day and Night

Not sure what I even need to say here but let me try this.
Carly Rae Jepsen: Canadian pop icon queen.
Day: the time of the 24 hour cycle when the sun is visible in the sky.
Night: when the sun disappears. Where does it go? Who knows.

and some songs…

Spanish Love Songs - “Good American”
SLS has never sounded better. They were already one of the best so the next step might be…world domination? Dylan’s voice is captured so well, and the production flourishes shine thanks to Chris Walla. Catch them on their independent tour though by now it might be totally sold out. Much respect to them for doing it this way. It would be great to have more bands go around the traditional behemoth corporations to play.

Greg Freeman - “Cahokia”
At least in my circles, I haven’t seen much talk about Greg. Everything I’ve heard from him has been great. His new record comes out in October and I’m very excited. This song is incredible.

Best Ex - “Losing Streak”
Consistent catchy bangers? Yup, that’s Best Ex.

Gollylagging - “Red Fish”
Boston rockers keep on rockin’. Love this song.

Good news only today.

Currently reading: Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

I love a book that gets me hooting and hollering multiple times in the first few pages. The prose absolutely hums. Nature is queer and weird and beautiful.

Currently watching: Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (AppleTV)

My crush on Tatiana Maslany that started with Orphan Black only grows. She’s so good as always. This show is tense and darkly funny. Jake Johnson is a welcome addition to any show. Highly recommended. (I have seen 6 of 10 episodes.)

Currently listening: The Joy of Baseball

I am a huge fan of both Molly Knight and Joe Posnanski. They’ve had some great guests including Alex Edelman, Ken Burns, Michael Schur, and Megan Amram.

Currently playoff bound: The Boston Red Sox

The worst 75 game start (31-44) ever to make the playoffs. It’s probably not their year… but they’re in, so we’ll see.

Currently balanced budgets: NYC & Seattle

Democratic Socialist Mayors in New York City (Zohran Mamdani) and Seattle (Katie Wilson) turned major deficits into balanced budgets. No one will learn anything from this and they will still be attacked for made up reasons.

Recent gig that rocked: The Hayley Williams Show

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a huge venue. Hayley put on a great show. An extremely Crit-coded moment happened to kick off her set. “Accident Prone” by Jawbreaker came on the house music, the wife and I both went “Jawbreaker!” About a minute into the song, it cut out and the lights went down. It was Hayley time. Hell yeah.

That one verse of “Parachute” really knocked the wind out of me. We all know the lyrics of course so I was surprised just how emotional it made me. We were walking out and I was shaking from it to the point where my wife asked me if I was cold and shivering. The Macklemore/Kraft thing happened just after my show, so good for her for adding a “free Palestine!” in “Ice in my OJ” and also making her pre-show music all the artists that dropped off of Ed Sheeran’s tour. Even if that means no more Jawbreaker.

Trans existence is beautiful

I need everyone to remember when someone says “trans ideology” that’s not a thing. When someone says “trans issues” there’s no issue. Some people are trans, and some people just can’t handle that. The normal response to someone being trans is “oh, okay.” Anyone using those phrases or talking about who gets to play what sports is a sick weirdo, full stop. I’m so sick of Democrats (or anyone) who can’t or won’t stick up for trans people. More Democrats are starting to adopt the right’s language around this and it’s maddening and disgusting. If you’re going to fall for this scam panic, I don’t know how anyone can trust you to be in an elected position of power! I just don’t know how smart you really are. Just talk like a real person. How about this: My opponent has a bizarre obsession with a dozen kids who want to play sports with their friends. That’s weird right? A dozen kids in the entire country! I’m here to talk about the real world horrors we can all see with our eyes. Everything is too expensive. Housing is unobtainable for many. The President and his family are a crime syndicate actively looting the country. Our food is making us sick. ICE is murdering people in the streets. There are very real, immediate problems and I’m here to help with those and to punish the people responsible for the mess we’re in. Imagine politicians speaking clearly like that. People are clamoring for it. The space is there waiting to be filled.

Some of the lines they love to repeat are “they want to trans your kids!” or “they are trans-ing your kids!” They claim this is happening at schools, because they love to get a ricochet shot in at public education when they can. At best what this means is that a teacher is using a student’s preferred pronouns at school. Making a child feel welcome and loved, what a scary concept! Schools can’t afford books and materials (“there’s no money” we’re told as $2 billion worth of bombs goes to Israel for the third time this month) so the idea that there’s a secret medical lab off the gym where surgery is being done is a little hard to believe. Like most of their arguments, they all fall apart after about 10 seconds of questions. These surgeries are not happening, at school or anywhere else. Studies have repeatedly shown this, but they won’t let facts get in the way of their bullshit. (I mean, the big brain President still thinks solar panels are no good because sometimes it’s cloudy and wind turbines are no good because sometimes the wind isn’t blowing. Yes, apparently he’s never heard of batteries.)

First of all, anyone not sticking up for trans folks is just plain wrong on the morals. Go fuck yourself forever. But even just looking at PoLiTiCaLlY or in terms of eLeCtAbiLiTy, it’s absolutely insane. Using right-wing talking points against trans people (“trans ideology” or “just about safety in sports”) is never ever ever ever going to get a single person who was on the fence to vote for you. So, what are you doing? Seriously, what is wrong with you? You’re not getting any votes, and you’re just wrong. What are you even doing in public service? You’re willing to sacrifice a vulnerable population in exchange for absolutely nothing? Again, even as a political calculation, that’s just so stupid. Who’s going to be next? Who else will you give up if you think that’s the right move? Why not just call it like it is: anyone who cares about anyone else’s gender is a weirdo. Anyone who thinks blue is for boys and pink is for girls, and boys are supposed to do this and girls are supposed to look like that… you’re stuck in an outdated binary system. There are so many real things to worry about in this world and someones gender expression just should not matter to anyone else. Let people live. If you don’t like it, ok! Fine! Don’t be their friend. They wouldn’t want to be your friend anyway because if you’re hung up on that, you’re a loser.

That’s all for now. Call your mom or your siblings and say hi. Donate a small amount to a food bank in your area. Post support for your trans friends and/or your favorite band. Share something joyful. Seeing my friends happy makes me happy. That’s the best. Oh! I nice chat on Zoom recently with one of my favorite artists and the coolest people around, I am slowly working on getting it together into a coherent piece. I’m excited about it. Here are some poems I wrote. Enjoy or don’t. Love you, bye!