Treat yourself on a Friday night
Wow, this has really become a monthly, not weekly, newsletter, huh? I’ll tell ya, I wondered a lot last year if deprioritizing Definitive Answers would give me more time for other projects, but now that it’s happened unconsciously, I can give the rare definitive answer this newsletter actually provides:
Nope! All I got was a knot in my stomach every Friday knowing I wasn’t reaching out to you all, and cutting myself off from a creative outlet in the process. So I’m back this week!
RECS
This Is Your Afterlife has been on a roll recently, with classic convos with Cat Huck of the Neo-Futurists and my Irish comedian buddies Denis Len and Roger O’Sullivan, a blast of an episode with Fuubutsushi (and overall prolific) saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, and the very possibly funniest person alive Martin Urbano this week, which I’ve been informed is an all-timer. So check those out!
Speaking of Patrick, one of his many recent albums is Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother, by his sax-and-drums duo Oort Smog. The title is great, the artwork is great, and the album is such a fun ride through proggy, noisy-but-occasionally-sparse—I was gonna say rock, then jazz, but really just… music, man. It sounds like a jam between the drums and a bunch of Patricks playing together in an adjacent room, and every once in a while, one of the Patricks wanders over to the room with the drums to play a solo. Listen:
Another album that has been a balm for me is At Scaramouche by Shabason & Krgovich. The latter is my guest on next week’s TIYA! It’s this mellow, everyday little album I find super easy to put on repeat. Like if a mild-mannered Canadian fronted Sade’s band singing lyrics written by William Carlos Williams.
There’s a new Survivor, Season 44, this week, and I’m hopeful but it seems like it’s gonna be trash? They’re hyping it up like “the most dangerous season yet! so many injuries!” and I just don’t need that. Let me watch people get hurt emotionally, not physically.
Our apartment suffered its first-ever COVID case. It was my partner Hope, not me, cooped up in the bedroom for 10 days with a towel stuffed under the door, while I did hero shit like ordering microwaveable food, microwaving the food, and doing three dishes. But most importantly—well, after Hope’s health—I didn’t get it! It’s genuinely one of my/our biggest accomplishments of the past three years. Time passed so fucking strangely, especially the first four days when this was my bed:
Oh yeah, this happened.
It’s Bandcamp Friday!
The Mission: Impossible movies are such MOVIES. I’ve been loving ‘em. Here’s my ranking of ones I’ve (re)watched this week:
Ghost Protocol
Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible (the original)
M:I 3
They’re all solid Bs at least, though. Treat yourself on a Friday night!
SWEET NOTHINGS
I love hearing from folks who get something from the newsletter.