Too early for this debate status

So here it is, completely uncut:

i don't think politics is a fun sport or game, and that's why i don't think debates are a good way to assess candidates. we are going to call "the winner" the candidate who gets in the most meme-worthy zingers, and "the loser" the candidate who uses a poor choice of words, seems "flat," gets attacked and doesn't sufficiently retaliate, etc. there is simply too much at stake in 2020 for this kind of measurement. if you are truly curious about who a candidate is and what you think they'll do as president, look beyond the show: check their records. a few of the people on stage tonight have made careers out of eating oil money, locking up children, endorsing segregation, and generally playing the "game" that brought president trump to power. meanwhile, a few other people on stage have consistently taken positions that actually help normal americans and seriously threaten corporate/fascist domination.

yes, all the candidates are democrats, and yes, any of them would be an otherworldly improvement over our current situation (even "we can't get anything done, so why even why, fart" guys like hickenlooper haven't, you know, raped someone, at least as far as i know). but there are pretty substantial differences that need to be explored (some of "our people" actually seem to support endless war), and the meaningful dialogue about the direction of the party is not going to occur in the "you have 30 seconds, entertain me" format. it's going to happen when democratic voters are open, thoughtful, and considerate about what kind of future they envision, and what paths they think will best enable that future.

so if you'll permit me this final piece of open-ness (if maybe not thoughtfulness): i would rather have a ragged, mistake-prone, disagreeable, charmless president who can make change than a charming, smooth, witty, "presidential" president who. oh. doesn't support medicare for all

Aime Cesaire

Eia for the royal Cailcedra!
Eia for those who never invented anything
for those who never explored anything
for those who never conquered anything
but yield, captivated, to the essence of things
ignorant of surfaces but captivated by the motion of all things
indifferent to conquering, but playing the game of the world
truly the eldest sons of the world
porous to all the breathing of the world
fraternal locus for all the breathing of the world
drainless channel for all the water of the world
spark of the sacred fire of the world
flesh of the world's flesh pulsating with the very motion of the world!

I obviously wasn't born to work

I was born to hang out with my wife, my friends, and family

NYtimes by the book quote 1

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

I have a lot of issues with this question. I realize the purpose of the hypothetical is to reflect some deeper insight into the subject’s aesthetic sensibility, but I can’t help but take it literally. First of all, I have several friends who have coincidentally written books, and some of these friends I haven’t seen in years. I would obviously prefer having dinner with three old friends as opposed to three famous strangers, regardless of how talented they were as writers. Over the past 20 years, I’ve often found myself in professional situations where I’ve had to have dinner with arbitrary collections of random authors, many of whom were nice and a few of whom are brilliant. Yet the experience itself is almost always uncomfortable. It seems like the first half of dinner involves everybody trying too hard to be overly complimentary to everyone else at the table, and then the second half of dinner is just people complaining about how they don’t sell enough books or make enough money. It never feels like a real conversation unless everyone at the table is drunk. Moreover, the fact that this proposed scenario involves the possibility of selecting guests who are “dead or alive” really forces my hand. It seems insane to pick any living person if dead people are eligible. There is no author alive who’s a fraction as compelling as any dead garbageman, and there’s no theoretical discussion about the craft of writing that would be half as interesting as asking “What was it like to die?” to someone who could respond authoritatively to that query. The only problem is that dead people might not understand what was going on, why they were suddenly alive, or why they were being forced to make conversation with some bozo at a weird dinner party. They might just sit there and scream for two hours. And even if they kept it together, I’m sure they’d be highly distracted. If I invite Edgar Allan Poe to dinner, it seems possible he’d spend the whole time expressing amazement over the restaurant’s air conditioning

Ok I know people hate Jonathan Franzen but

“its only aesthetic weakness, really, is that much of it is repetitive, incoherent, and insanely boring.”  -on "A Frolic of His Own"

That's great!

Too old for YA Fiction

It really troubles me when adults say that "Young Adult" is their favorite genre.  Adults would never say "Baby food" is their favorite food.  Twentysomethings would never call "AARP" their favorite magazine.  Young Adult books are written for humans aged 12-18.  This isn't to say adults cannot read and appreciate them-- there are good ones out there!  An intelligent, moving book is an intelligent, moving book.  There seems to be a lot of serious YA fiction that is much more emotionally engaging and realistic than the majority of supposed "adult" fiction (James Patterson, etc).  But any adult who calls "Young Adult" their favorite genre can't be exclusively referring to those books.  They are talking about Divergent and Twilight.  They're talking about never growing up.  They're talking about being too impatient to read anything that requires a high school education.

Brian Evenson in Full Stop

On the one hand, I do understand that people have very difficult things that happen to them, and I think those things should be acknowledged and addressed. But also, in something like a fiction workshop, I kind of think that at the beginning of the class you should give a blanket trigger warning that you may be reading things that are disturbing. I also don’t really think it’s necessarily good to tell people in advance what they’re going to face, partly because it makes them tense up against it and have a different response to the story. I also don’t know that trigger warnings are all that helpful. If you have something that’s a really serious issue, you probably need to talk to a professional about it rather than just being warned that it’s going to appear in a story so that you can avoid it.

Intelligent Critique of Jazz Music

Having listened to dozens of albums on Youtube, I've found that

80% of jazz: random, nearly unlistenable crap.  Four guys in a room playing whatever they want, regardless of what the other guys are playing, regardless of there being anyone else listening in.  Every note is interchangeable and one part could be any other part.  Lots of annoying atonal horns.  No dynamics.  No hooks.

10% of jazz: Peaceful background music

10% of jazz: Thoughtfully constructed, emotionally interpreted soul/dance music.  Not as good as any classic Stevie Wonder record.  But still pretty decent

Camping weekend

All alcohol consumed:

FRIDAY...
At least three Yuenglings
Two cups of wine
Pickleback shot
Another half-shot of whiskey

SATURDAY...
At least three Yuenglings
Two alcoholic seltzer things
Two cups of wine

SUNDAY...
Morning Yuengling!
Afternoon alcoholic seltzer!
Two Rogue Dead guys for dinner

TODAY!
Alcoholic seltzer
Stella Artois
Yuengling

So responsbile!

Books I am into and books I am not into

These days I am into many things!  Including:
- Autofiction/memoirs/memoirs disguised as novels and vice versa (David Shields, "Liveblog," I wanna get into Maggie Nelson)
- Books by women
- Books that have blurbs from Brian Evenson and David Shields (like "Sustainability" by... someone... which has two blurbs... from Brian Evenson and David Shields!)
- Weird fiction/horror
- Histories of Europe/the European canon (wanna read more Kafka, again)

But there are many things I am not into, like:
- Books about optimization
- Books that have the word "fuck" in the title
- Most science fiction
- Most imagined worlds
- Most worldbuilding shit
- Most character-driven stories

Here's my hilarious new self-help book: Get Fucked, you Fuck: the best fucking guide to fucking every-fucking-thing, motherfucker.

Indie rock by women

There's a sort of depressing lyric that sounds self-pitying and narcissistic when sung by a man but revolutionary and invigorating when sung by a woman.

I think men with guitars have said every thing that can possibly be said.  Women with guitars (and pianos, and drums, and synths, and nothing) are just getting started.

I think women have a range of emotional experience that typically makes them better people than men, and probably also makes them more natural singers and songwriters, especially in the pop/rock idiom.

Here are the women bands and singers I've gotten into this past half year:
Japanese Breakfast

Sharon Van Etten

Snail Mail

Elastica

Mitski

Jay Som

Soccer Mommy

Molly Burch

Solange

And here are the women bands and singers who I want to get into in the next half year:

boygenius (and all comprising members)

Hole

Anna Burch

HAIM (maybe)

more Sharon Van Etten

more Mitski

Joni Mitchell

When I listen to these singers (or think about listening to them) I am inspired to write.  I want to write something that has a hook that's as emotionally on-point as "Pristine" or "Lovers in the Parking Lot."  I want to make albums that are as fearless as "Be the Cowboy" and "Soft Sounds from Another Planet."

There's just one problem.  And it's that I'm an emotionally stunted, musically inept white man.

Five songs from this week #2

1. "I Need a Lover" by John Cougar (Mellencamp): What is the reputation of this song?  The people who love it-- do they think it's a great work of art?  I don't know if I think it's a great work of art.  But by golly is it ever an effective rock song.  The music is all dynamic and shit but the vocal melody is just the same line over and over again.  It's a neat trick!

2. "Pristine" by Snail Mail: Took a couple of listens to get into this one.  I will defend the shit out of Snail Mail against all haters.  There are like three distinct, distinctively devastating hooks in this song.  You have to possess talent to put that many great hooks in a single song.  Talent, and patience, and discipline, and all that.  The sentiment is teenage but not obnoxiously so.  I mean I'm assuming it's played at Forever 21 or whatever but it's just clearly a richer and more rewarding song that that.

3. "Andromeda" by Weyes Blood: I only listen to music by sad women.  Sad women are the truth!  I think it's inherently interesting, what a woman can do to a rock song.  A woman's rock song can never just be about, like, being into sixteen year old girls.  And even it is was, it would still be fascinating.  This song is very slow and very pretty.  Maybe too slow?  Still trying to decide if Weyes Blood is "hypnotic" or "boring."  I always feel dazed when I'm listening to them/her, but I'm not sure if it's a happy daze or what.

4. "Just Like Ringing a Bell" by Titus Andronicus: Sad men, angry men.  It's possible I'm just not as into this band as I used to be... That being really into TA requires you to be really into your teenage years/early twenties.  This song has a nice galloping "Toys in the Attic" style thing going on, though.

5. "Healer" by Chromatics: I can't believe I'm becoming one of those heroin-addict kids who "chills" to "vibey" "ambient" "wave" music that just goes bump bump, doo doo, chime chime, bump bump.

If only there was a device

That I could carry around with me all the time-- say, in my pocket-- that I could use to record my little thoughts that I think... Ideas about blog posts, really clever little things.  If only there was a way to create these blog posts without being tethered to my stationary-ass laptop.

The troof

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/opinion/politicians-voters.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Trump voters

You've got to have a truly Christ-like heart if you can see suffering rural Trump voters and not think, "ha ha ha, ha fucking ha, you fucking idiots, ha ha."

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission..."

Said the asshole.