SONG OF THE DAY: New Improved Elephants

Hard to imagine improving upon the elephant. I don't think my brain can even get that futuristic. I should microdose harder.

SONG OF THE DAY: Keep On The Sunny Side

In a better world less afraid of hillbillies (or black people or immigrants or really everything that isn't a straight line derivative of well-behaved English fuckers), this would be the state song of Virginia. I sing it in my head all the fuckin' time, so I guess it's the mental state song of dirtgod, which is more important to me than some sort of governmental proclamation anyways. Fuck the government. Even if they change it all and make it way better, I'll still be like "fuck the government".

SONG OF THE DAY: Boulevards Theme: Way of Life

I totally thought Boulevards was some old ass Carolina funk band when I first heard it. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part. This is a great fuckin’ album though, and like all sensible artists, you can get it on Bandcamp, which is where sensible supporters of artists also go.

SONG OF THE DAY: Rush

Heard a squeal on the back porch today, and I figured one of the cats had caught a field mouse, but when I went back there, the big cat had a pileated woodpecker in her mouth. I shoo'd the cats away and ushered the bird out the back door, where it just chilled on the steps. I didn't wanna leave it for the cats to get again so I scooped it up. No notable wounds anywhere, but I'm guessing maybe its wing was hurt. I took it back into the woods where there's a birch tree I kinda of look up to as the elder, and put the woodpecker there in its roots. It immediately scampered off, not flying, but it worked its way up a nearby tree and was gone from my reach completely. Just felt like the best place to take it.
I guess there's wildlife centers you can take hurt wild animals, and I also I guess some folks are like, "Don't let your cats roam outdoors" because of this exact thing. But maybe it was a mistake domesticating cats, and just having these wild beasts trapped in the house doesn't seem like a good cure. Also, I honestly didn't have the time to find out where these wildlife places are, and whether they took pileated woodpeckers, and whether I could even get the bird there or not. Sometimes in our quest for utopian reactions, we assume too much infrastructure of privilege and entitlement for it to be an actual reaction for most folks.
But going back to the birch tree back there, that felt like the right thing to do, and the woodpecker definitely pepped up when I put her down there. We, as humans, have obviously over-complicated life on Earth. But unfortunately, a lot of times, the solutions to fix these inherent issues with the existence we've created are also overly-complicated, which just compounds the problems. I'm too fuckin' simple half the time for all that.

SONG OF THE DAY: Sittin' On Top of the World

I sing this in my head about twice a day. With flair.

SONG OF THE DAY: Abrigame

I do not do streaming so I don’t even know how shit like this ends up not only being in my old iphone collection of songs, but becoming a personal favorite. I poked through my dusty digital attic to figure it out, and this actually came off a Viva El Sabado: Hits De Disco Pop Peruano 1978-1989. Latin American funk disco synthesized in the Global South. A split 45 exists of this, put out by Virrey Records in Peru, so it’s on my list to ask the dude in the Peruvian record store about next time I do a cumbia order when I’m flush with money enough to pretend the end isn’t near. (It’s always near.)

SONG OF THE DAY: A Freight Train In My Mind

A freight train in my mind is about all I got most days, wishing these damn hoppers would move, or I had time to go spend the night at my boy’s house where all the coals are, or even that I had bought a house right by a yard somewhere. Or that I had known about all the coals lined up at the plant down in Bremo back in the early 2000s, when I first lived that way. Can’t wait for time travel to be real so we can indulge our obsessive compulsions across four dimensions instead of just three.

SONG OF THE DAY: Abele Dance

Had an old roommate/friend who, whenever Manu Dibango would come on, he’d say, “Man… you da bango!” in a funny voice. He ended up getting all fucked up with me because I did a photography project with an ex of his, who he automatically assumed I was fucking because we took pictures of each other, along with another person, all of it entirely clothed lol. He had been doing this thing where he told me he was going through therapy, but there is a realm of people who find therapists that just end up sort of cosigning poor behavior, or the person just tricks the therapist to go along with things. I don’t know. I told ol’ boy to fuck off for even trying to have me have to explain some shit that didn’t even happen, and he blocked me on everything, everywhere. He still plays guitar in Richmond, and is in that Cool Older Musician era of his life where he does semi-predatory shit on the regular with women 20 years younger than himself. But it’s cool, man. Dudes don’t have to actually be better people so long as they make dramatic ass social media posts about how they’re so much better.

Also, now that I think about it, he still owes Boogie Brown money for a bike he bought back in the day. So fuck that dude twice. I hope you accidentally see this, too, you weak bitch. With your jump roping ass.

SONG OF THE DAY: Why Can't We Live Together (kudzu'd)

Look man, I can’t say his name now that he could accidentally become Number 48, but I’m still gonna have that Greater Appalachian Steel Chain Match with ol’ cryptopuppet middle manager ass boy from up in Ohio one day. I’ll take a bid in Florence ADX if I have to. Like the song says, "All we want is some peace in this world," but unfortunately, all too often, certain pieces of it get all up in the way of everybody having a chill time.

SONG OF THE DAY: Rollin' On

My grass is blue, and it’s not artificial turf. It’s also tall, and it got tall enough some nosy ass neighbor rode up on his riding mower and asked if I needed help, so now I can’t cut it even longer, out of stubbornness. You know that fucker runs a leaf blower? Use of a leaf blower at home is class treason if you consider yourself a redneck, in my opinion. Leaf blowers are the polo shirt of yard equipment, meaning the shitty collared shirt small business bossmen types and “friendly” sales dudes wear, not Polo brand shirts, which is pretty much exclusively worn by people who listened to hip hop a lot from 1985 through 1996 and have been poor at some point in their life, so like to feel like they’re fresh, even though let’s be honest, we’re probably not. I mean, my raggedy ass is out there sitting in knee-high blue grass, wearing a Polo rugby long sleeve with the skull and crossbones patch that I got for cheap off a antique store booth, in one of those blessed places where the antique store emporium is still a lot of junk and the vintage reseller vibes haven’t poisoned it with, “Well, now I can’t afford this shit no more”ness. Anyways, fuck leaf blowers, fuck vintage as a means of making dope shit impossible for ballin’ on a budget types to get. But thank god for shoplifters, and vandals, and mandolin players who are 6 years sober but still crazier than fuck, and thank god for all the goat-headed resistors to proper order and curation of all of society. If we can’t have nothing nice, then neither can y’all.

SONG OF THE DAY: Cruisin' to the Park (kudzu'd)

Driving fast is way too celebrated in our culture. It’s much more impressive to drive slow with style. There should be a race, really do it anywhere, lay out a 10 mile path through whatever city you can, passing as many parks and bus stops and chicken spots (whole pieces, not tenders), and you have 50 people who are the judges, who just sit at 50 spots along that path, on benches, in the park, picking at chicken thighs at a picnic table, and whenever a competitor drives by, each judge in their specific location rates them on a 1 to 10 scale on how loungin’ they are driving past… the look of the car, how fast they’re going, the music they’re playing, the whole aesthetic of a cruising past car. Then those 50 judges’ 1 through 10 points get added, and it’s not a race, in fact maybe you even dock points from competitors who pass all 50 judges too fast, and the highest score you could get is 500. And you call it the Lounger 500 or Slowroller 500 or whatever the fuck clever title you wanna give it wherever you organize such a thing. That’s a race I’d love to see because it’s racing towards something that makes a whole lot more sense to me than getting somewhere really fast. I’m in no hurry, at least not if I’m living right.

SONG OF THE DAY: Can't Wait To See You Again

In post-digital modern moments like this, everybody feels like they should say something important or concise about the state of things. Even people in their dinky little unseen corners, like this. Fuck it though, go sit on the porch. If you ain’t got a porch, find the closest thing to a porch in your life. The end is never as close as fearmongers tell you. There’s nothing inspiring about fear; it only speaks to the miserable. And if it’s all you’re looking at, it’ll make you miserable. Go sit on the porch. There’s still birds, still a sky, still stars at night. There’s still a tomorrow.

SONG OF THE DAY: Stop Taking Me For Granted

Puppet souldies jams are the best. Keep ‘em coming, Universe.

SONG OF THE DAY: Sex C.R.E.A.M.

Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. After you’ve read that 99 times like dhikr practice, it’s pretty easy to realize that Deck was not only speaking about the imprisoning effects of human existence aka life is suffering. But the other side of that is each of our lives is a single cell as part of the larger whole, on Earth, beyond Earth, and on and on. This is one of my favorite lyrics to sit under the elder birch tree down in the woods back behind the house and chant the lyric over and over 99 times.