Musicians: It's Ok If You Don't Know Why You're Successful

Few things are more confusing and confounding than success. Especially in music where "success" is defined individually yet also collectively in the form of capitalist measures (i.e., sales, followers, etc).

My latest acquaintance who's recently reaped some small financial rewards attributed his windfall to "persistence" and "just stayin in the game" and never once investigated his own data to find out what he should repeat. He ended up writing /releasing another single that sounded kinda like the one that was already selling - it didn't. Why? Nobody knows.

Success can be terrifying if you  don't know why because you also don't know what to repeat. How can you change/refine if you don't know what's working? Instead you just have this static fear that it will disappear without warning - AND IT WILL if you don't know what you're doing.

Few areas are as full  of mysticism as the professional arts - sans politics maybe - and I'll never understand WHY so many artists are content to remain ignorant of their own formulas.

Without exception the folks I see who are continuously successful are not only driven, they are disciplined, gentle, willing to change, and they trust their advisors. They are part of a TEAM and woe to those who fail to recognize the contributions of others to their own successes.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN 'INDEPENDENT' ARTIST!

On George Floyd and White Rage

Putting this thought down and hoping I'm wrong: it looked personal.

I have some firsthand experience with whiteness: I am.

It looked personal.

That white hot, righteous... rage. I've seen it and felt it. Ask me how I know: I'm white.

It felt personal.

I didn't know either of these men and I'm probably wrong about this.

(Note: I reserve the right to change my opinion when I feel like it.)

Hello Ladies: My Dating Standards Are In No Way Unreasonable

Hello ladies, thanks for checking out my profile on this site! Ask me anything! I'm looking forward to meeting you and telling you what a disappointment you are when you don't meet my In No Way Unreasonable Dating Standards. But first, more about ME:

I'm a laid back cool guy man guy that does guy stuff like FIX SHIT (usually by taking it to another man who I'll pay with your money) and you'll know I'm a MAN'S GUY by how I (don't) dress, more specifically, I'll never wear a dress! Dresses are for ladies and I'M A MAN who's here for the ladies so gay dudes, sorry but I'm not available LOL (See, I know I'm a man's type of guy and that means that any shred of non-manness in you is gonna want to get pregnant by me and unless you're also a solid bro man guy hombre like me, you're just gonna get turned on and come at me, bro!)

Anyway, this profile is for the ladies who like REAL MEN and not FAKE MEN like all those other guys who also happen to be employed but that's just because people are afraid of REAL MEN but they shouldn't be because I'm just a harmless teddy bear GUY that will take care of you and always be gentle unless someone cuts us off in traffic or disagrees with me on social media in which case THAT PERSON should look out because a REAL MAN doesn't take shit from nobody but he does show other people how easily undermined he is and that's what I'll do with you!

I spend a lot of time doing MANBROGUYDUDE things like man-biking the guy-trails of Dude's Peak in the manscaped jungles of lower Ballsackian County where my uncle grew up and also my dad. So I don't have a lot of time to waste on time wasters but I have just enough to incessantly bother you for attention and validation when my needs demand it.

Me and my friends are so cool and awesome you won't need any of yours! This is great because I only want to do things I want to do, which involves everything from casual sex to other kinds as well!

Speaking of sex, I'll demand you're constantly at the sexual ready should I require it, but I won't be able to until after we're married and I'm on your healthcare and seen a doctor! But it'll be so worth it to have kept your non-existent needs in check while we're waiting on the "ALL CLEAR!"

You'll always know where you stand with me! For instance, is there a hotter woman in the room? Then you won't be standing next to me! Otherwise, your job is to be the hottest woman in the room, which should be easy because my totally reasonable standards mean you'll already be hot just by the fact that I'm dating you! I'm so good for your self-esteem!

The way I see it, the only unreasonable thing in the world are women that won't date me! That's a joke because I'm not!

I mean a dilapidated mobile home on some abandoned feral property. Why? I love nature and ecology or something, also this total bitch of a judge said I couldn't live near a school or parks and they just seem noisy to me and REAL MEN LIKE IT QUIET!

It's the only way to obsess over my insecurities.

So, tell me more about you? And by "you" I mean specifically "me" and by "tell me more about" I mean I'd like to hear compliments now about how awesome I am. Yes, I'll wait until right after you get back from the ladies room.

.......

Facebook is horrible

Facebook - (ahem, FACEBOOK) is horrible. I'm not going to rant too much other than to say I've had the oddest feeling this "thing" is working against "us" and for someone else. We're out here trying to build a future and FACEBOOK wants to live in it's prime, which is now our past.

This is only one hint of how problematic this thing has become as an unregulated corporate institution - remember the disdain they've displayed toward public interrogation - and if it's this bad on the surface, what unimaginable evil have they been up too over there?

I've lost trust in this platform for a number of small reasons, this simple case makes for Exhibit: Infinity.

Don't Play In Traffic

Quick brain dump:

• Here's a list of things we do in our bedrooms:

• Sleep
• Fuck
• Eat
• Relax
• Cry
• Retreat
• Change clothes
• Deepthink

• Here's a list of things we do in our cars:

• Sleep
• Fuck
• Eat
• Relax
• Cry
• Retreat
• Change clothes
• Deepthink
• Drive

My point: Our vehicle interiors are emotionally/psychologically connected to our bedrooms via a perception of safety. Our car's interior is one of our safest spaces.

And like any other safe space, we're uniquely tuned to perceived threats to its safety, and by proxy, our own. In some ways, this invisible stress - the moving of our safe space through an unsafe territory (read: traffic) - is one of the deepest roots of anxiety present like static in the background of our everyday experience. "I hate driving."

So here's my non-intuitive summary: please don't stop traffic as a means of political protest, unless you've absolutely got the numbers. People can react unpredictably to perceived threats to their safety, and you NEVER know who's behind the proverbial wheel. It is simply not worth the risk (IMHO) to your life. 

(Note: this in NO way forgives the "vehicle as weapon" scenario. That is a different psychology, but tangentially connected. Separate post.)

New Rules for Democratic Candidates

We're only a couple of months into 2020 and already the proverbial ground is shifting in the political world, and having read almost 10 tweets hashtagged with #politics, I'm ready to tell Democratic candidates the best strategy (I mean, they're all the best but plural nouns confuse me when I'm short on Red Bull and simultaneously listening to a Joe Rogan podcast)

• Under no circumstances should you accept any campaign donations greater than $10. As we are well aware, this nation has a proud tradition of electing candidates that received the highest number of contributions from "everyday people." Ronald Reagan was famous for only accepting $5 bills from people on the street during his California Gubernatorial race.
•  Only hire campaign staff that are willing to work for ramen and suffering. They should be highly skilled, of course, and above reproach in every possible way.
• If participating in a "caucus", remember to take great care and consideration when selecting a high school gymnasium from which to select a representative of the nation & person who will command the the largest and most vicious military in history. Create an excel spreadsheet of all the regional mascots and accompanying wordage. Sort by proximity to a charter school. Select the one with the worst parking
• Compile a histogram timeline of words commonly used in a sexist and diminutive sense regarding women. Examples: Shrill, high pitched, whining, pathetic, bickering, easily manipulated and powerless. Now apply all of these to yourself and your party.
• Open a Twitter account and make sure your notifications are audible. That way you can know instantly when a random 17-year old fresh into the foster system needs to hurl sexually specific accusations into your DM's at 3am. He'll be a voter one day, so remember that!
• Some voting blocs may demand specific concessions, like watching you fuck a bald eagle. Bear in mind you support "big tent" politics and if it takes a few eagle-fuckers to get you into office so you can finally enact  your Great Plan For America, well, then the eagle-fuckers get a voice. Just a less than $10 per individual eagle-fucker voice... 
• DON'T BE UNELECTABLE: Here are some things that typically earn a candidate the dreaded "unelectable" scarlet letter...
• Being a woman
• Being a Democrat
• Being non-white
• Speaking languages other than "American"
• Having parents from somewhere other than "just up the road"
• Complete sentences.
• Hold no wealth. Homes and steady incomes are for the 1%. To truly represent the "real america" you must suffer more than your constituents. If you've gone to college, be sure to convey you learned nothing.
• Listen to your constituents (or their favorite podcast). The corpulent, high-school dropout truck driver who's double-wide sits in floodplain most likely possesses a nuanced grasp of the finer contours of international diplomacy. Just kidding! He likes meth.

Final note: NONE of this applies to Republicans.

Nothing To Marvel At

Cleaning out some old boxes and found a story/essay I'd written in elementary school. I was maybe nine years old at the time. The story's arc is pretty simple: space aliens are invading and only specific knowledge of American military hardware can be counted on to save the world (read: America) from whatever thing(s) the invading aliens did different.

The point of this horrific narrative was I thought it would impress my forebears, in this case not only my immediate father but his paternal power figure as well, aka my Grandfather.

So I did my best to imagine - at 7 to nine years of age - what story would appeal to both generations of parentage, the final desired outcome being the opening of the elder family's proverbial purse-strings and elevating me (and by proxy my family) from rural poverty to....well, whatever was better than that.

Which was pretty much everything.

But I digress. My larger point is this:

To me, this is what the Marvel franchise films feel like; someone tried to write a story that was meant to impress their elder family for whatever selfish reasons and what ended up on screen was a perfectly predictable outcome of that.

What does Facebook do with your nude photos?

Quick: before you let your brain trick you into the safety of "probably nothing" please take into consideration these facts:

• software that identifies nude photos has been functioning "in the wild" for over a decade, i.e., it's not new,
• software that takes said photos and automatically archives them is hilariously easy to deploy,
• why wouldn't a team of misogynists dude-bros create their own unique wank-bank of constantly-updating porn courtesy of blissfully unaware women?
• The US political system has a long history of using intimate/private communications to unseat unfavorable actors

Now I'm not saying this is happening - that's silly - I'm saying the probability of this being the case is high enough to warrant a "this is probably happening." I'll leave the implications up to you.

Facebook is a New Thing, insofar as it doesn't really have an analog in history, which means what we learn from it's eventual demise will be new, too.

I don't know what Facebook really is, and neither do you. I have this gnawing sensation that it ultimately serves - somehow - a tiny percentage of powerful people in a way that undermines the rest of our ability to enjoy a functioning society. I'm not sure even deleting Facebook is enough to get away from this thing.

Trump has won.

From Slate:

In October, a three-judge panel intervened in a different case challenging a separate set of Louisiana abortion limitations. The panel declared that abortion providers lacked standing to challenge much or all of the state’s abortion regime, a ploy that can insulate anti-abortion laws from judicial review altogether.

Republican appointees to the 5^th Circuit make little effort to conceal their disgust with abortion. Ho accused women who terminate their pregnancies of furthering eugenics in a December concurrence. (His slander of these women is not only offensive but factually inaccurate.) Ho also praised the “the millions of Americans who believe in the sanctity of life,” insisting that Roe has no “basis in constitutional text or original meaning.” He even urged courts to hold hearings on “fetal pain,” writing: “If courts grant convicted murderers the right to discovery to mitigate pain from executions, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be even more solicitous of innocent babies.”

Where justice goes to die.

It's difficult to communicate how bad this is, as most of us are completely unaware of what a circuit court is, much less the 5th circuit, etc. But none of this is relevant anymore, and short of the icy hand of Death claiming the entire bench during a freak golfing accident, these men have immense power in shaping our day-to-day lives in invisible ways and will continue using it as a blunt hammer against all things different than them.

In my view today, Donald Trump was the Right's endgame: the summary of 30+ years of long-play gaming of the political system to favor highly focused outcomes from voter suppression to court-stacking, and of course, the endless war on women and by proxy, matriarchy.

(This may explain the pseudo-feminist fantasy appeal of Ms. Maisel, a character we are led to believe grew up in New York's upscale Jewish culture but also didn't. I digress...)

I also think contemporary analysis of his "appeal to voters" has been a little too forgiving in its reptilian brain simplicity. His message can be distilled to this: "You can fuck whatever you want."

This...freedom - an unchaining if you will - of the pure ego from all the lassos so peskily adorned by civil inconveniences like morality, law, etc is such a powerful suggestion from the top of America's Mt. Olympus that its easy to miss. I, too, am guilty of overthinking this.

Trump's impeachment will most likely plod along well into the next election cycle, cementing the right's hold on critical political infrastructure. This is foregone at this point.

I am out of answers and energy.

All I have left are warnings.