January 1st, 2021

So does it feel different? Did you wake from last evenings fun and boozy bubbles and feel as if a new leaf was turned? The light a bit brighter and the heaviness a bit lighter? Yeah? No? I woke to the sound of tapping at my bedroom window. It was sleet hitting the glass at 8am. A winter storm is brewing outside and is supposed to be in full force anytime now. I had a few drinks yesterday. Nothing crazy, just some aged scotch and a couple lagers while watching Taxi Driver yesterday afternoon. Pizza and some various treats from the Chinese restaurant for dinner. Tried watching The King of Comedy as well last night but I was falling asleep by 11pm. Alcohol and fried foods do that to old coots like me. I’ll pay for that today in feeling tired and beat up. Will have to hit the gym extra hard tomorrow.

The gym. No, not a New Year’s Resolution. Just a place I continue to go to in order to stave off future medical maladies and the rigor mortis of age and flaccid middle aged laziness. I don’t do resolutions. To me they’re desperate wishes to yourself. An IOU that most of the time we never pay up on. I figure if you want to change something in your life you can do it anytime. Why wait till January 1st? Why put all that pressure on yourself on one specific day? If you want to workout, then workout. Lose weight? Stop eating garbage? Quit smoking? Quit being such an asshole? Then do it. You don’t need baby new year to grant those wishes.

I wish that everyone would have just stayed home yesterday like I did and day drank, watched movies, ate food, and spun Dr. Dog records with their spouse. Up until my eyelids got heavy and my gut felt full it was a decent way to spend New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately I’m sure plenty of folks headed out to bars or homes where shit-faced friends and acquaintances laughed and slung arms around hefty shoulders. Loudly talking about this or that, speaking way too closely to faces and ears and eyeballs in order to share whatever might be lurking in their spittle. I’m sure that cheese dip was good, though.

MF DOOM is dead. He actually died October 31st, but his wife just confirmed it yesterday. One more reason to erase 2020 from our minds. I’m not a hip hop guy, but I do like hip hop. Smart hip hop. Well-produced hip hop. MF DOOM was one of my favorite MCs, and Madvilliany is one of my favorite hip hop albums. No cause of death yet. Doesn’t matter, though. The man is gone. We still have those great records.

Speaking of records, Stefan Bachmeier’s The Strange Worlds of Stefan Bachmeier arrived yesterday in the mail. Spun that while making the Complex Distractions 2020 Playlist over on Spotify whilst sipping on a single malt scotch. Amazing record. One of my favorites this year. Stephen Buckley(Polypores) was behind that one. I need to explore Polypores more this year. That’s not a resolution, just a statement.

You want another statement? I’m tired of American politics. I’m tired of the division and the self-inflicted frontal lobotomies people are performing on themselves. Because that’s got to be the only way these folks can say the things they say regarding the election, “their” guy, and whatever other QAnon conspiracy garbage they keep vomiting up when given the chance. I’m tired of people treating voting the same way they pick a favorite NFL team, WWF wrestler, or favorite Avenger. If you don’t dig politics then fine. Vote for your favorite superhero or linebacker and let the rest of us that actually read and are engaged with the system to do the heavy lifting. Or at the very least, vote for who you’re gonna vote for and just stop talking about politics like you get it.

I got to listen to a lot of music last year, and I hope that remains the same this year. Music is a huge source of joy for me. Has been since I spun Kiss records on an old red, white, and blue Fisher Price record player in my room as a 5-year old. Music is that magical bubble where the outside world gets locked out and I’m left to just the sound, melody, and rhythm to intermingle with the synapses in my brain. Wash out the anxiety of the day and sink into an artist’s creativity. Art in any form excites me, but music was where I landed initially when it came to my own creativity.

A new avenue of creativity for me was painting in 2020, and I’m fully loaded with new canvases to continue that journey in 2021. I have no set goal starting a new piece. I just know it will be abstract, colorful, and something coming to fruition from my own psyche.

Reading, films, records, painting, playing guitar, and continuing to push myself physically. These are what I plan to fill 2021 with. And I’m hoping I’m not overwhelmed with the doom and gloom of 2020s pandemic vibes and political strife.

But we’ll see.

Here’s a playlist to fill your ears with today, tomorrow, or just whenever you feel like.

Happy New Year, now go take that nap. You deserve it.