Excuses For Travellers
On The Subject Of Current Events And Future Plans
Boy, it has been a rough first couple months of 2025. Each passing day feels like a full week. It’s hard not to wake up in the morning an almost instantly feel like the world outside is completely falling apart. Try as I might to avoid The News for the benefit of my mental health, it’s way harder then I thought it would be when I resolved to do so on January 1st.
All of these external forces weighing down on us normal folk has made life hard enough for the past…(what’s 31 plus 28 plus 8?) 67 or so days. On the home front, we’ve been dealing with some family issues as well. Remember back in the old days when I used to rail against Baby Boomers all the time on the blog? It turns out I was right about everything. And that was before I had ever given an iota of thought to how that generation might present monumental challenges to us as they age and their health inevitably declines.
So, yeah. We’ve got a lot going on over here. Hopefully that’s an acceptable excuse for the lack of posts lately. I definitely owe you paid subscribers a mix tape sooner than later. I’ve got twelve (!!!) in varying stages of completion, but because I’m a perfectionist I can’t force myself to complete them just to say they’re finished products. I add to each playlist only when inspired by something I hear that fits a given theme. Maybe tomorrow I’ll poke around on some old hard drives and find something fun unrelated to those twelve works in progress to share. Lastly, I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the butterfly keyboard lawsuit involving certain Apple laptops, but my laptop happens to be one of those affected by — for lack of a better term — a pretty-much-useless keyboard, and I didn’t learn about the lawsuit (settled in 2023?) until a few weeks ago. Here I thought constantly hitting the “L” key or “S” key and seeing two L’s or S’s appear was my own fault. It makes typing long form pieces such as this very annoying, because I have to backspace and delete basically every other word I write so long as it contains an L, S, E, R, Y, H, M, or I. Also, it often takes two keystrokes to type a period or comma.
I’ve got a new Apple Mac Studio, monitor, and keyboard I need to set up but I haven’t owned a computer desk since I lived in Echo Park almost ten years ago. Spring cleaning will help me find the space to set one up. At that point I intend to write a lot more, have all my various hard drives set up to pull music from, and connect a USB turntable to rip random, not-available-on-streaming-services records to share. More excuses. More promises. Can I keep them? Will I break them? Time will tell.
Oh, I’ve got two more “10 Questions” interviews in various stages of completion as well! I’ll post those as soon as they’re edited.
In my last post, I came to the conclusion that I’m ready to sell off the bulk of my record collection. Since then a number of readers and followers have reached out to make inquiries and a few small purchases! I’d say it’s been going pretty well in the first 30 or so days of wheeling and dealing. I implore anyone reading this who suffers from the diseases known as “collecting” to reach out with requests or send me your wantlist. You know my tastes, I’m sure we’re closely aligned in what we listen to, the worst that will happen is I’ll say, “Sorry I’m not interested in selling my Spacemen 3 vinyl right now.” Did I clarify that in the last post? I don’t think I did. I don’t think I’ll sell any Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Nirvana, Jeff Buckley, Low, Jellyfish, or Townes Van Zandt vinyl at the moment (I might sell backup or lesser-condition copies, though). A lot of other artists whose discographies I’ve tried to complete or have completed (ie. Grouper, Chelsea Wolfe, Harvey Milk, Isis, Future, Billy Woods) will depend on individual titles.
Since February 5th I’ve listed everything from Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, John Prine, Sensation’s Fix, Jesus & Mary Chain, Butthole Surfers, Husker Du on my Discogs store. I try to post photos of most items here. I’ve privately sold (or committed to sell) a bunch of black metal and avant-garde records as well. So, yeah, reach out! My contact info isn’t hard to find.
There is some good news to share. This week/end we’ve finally had a moment to come up for air, and now we’re starting to flesh out our schedule for 2025. This includes various travels both within the states and (hopefully) abroad. We just booked a trip to Mexico for way later in the year, and we’ll probably book a European vacation at some point soon as well. Ideally — you know — the economy doesn’t completely collapse before we can grant ourselves some respite from the insanity of everyday life. Yeah, who knows if Americans even be welcome in Europe six months from now…
Speaking of external factors sucking all the joy from our lives and hampering our ability to get out there and see the world, it’s hard to believe this coming week marks 5 years since COVID “safer at home” measures started in Los Angeles! I still feel like I’m making up for lost time not being able to travel much during the first couple years of the ‘20s.
At some point I’ll write about my theory that those of us born between like, 1980-1985 should be called “The Screwed Generation” but you can probably connect the dots as to why without me explaining it to you. “The Lost Generation” is already taken, but that descriptor might be just as apt. Anyway, that’s another story for another time. I’m rambling now.
Like I said, I’ll get a mix tape posted this week. Apologies for the delay. Sounds like I should really dive into the malaise and depression with this one. Or maybe try to post a compilation of syrupy sweet, happy songs. Which will I choosse? Only timee willl telll.
Oh, right. I need to get this stupid fucking keyboard fixed. How much is that going to set me back?