- Just try to have as much fun as you can and along the entire way love the people you are surrounded by and support the rest of your community and let others be themselves and just try to do the best at all times. This seems to be the way for me now.
- Our kids are now teens, and as teens they now do teen things, and that changes life around a bit. It’s nice to spend more time with Haley, but we both do miss having them around all of the time. Change always takes some time to get used to, but while getting used to it it is still OK to have fun and enjoy those moments.
- -ISMS: we fill our world with -ISMS that we then follow. Capitalism. Socialism. I will stop there. Those -ISMS eventually degrade into corrupt, ineffective, end of life versions of themselves: late stage capitalism, communism, etc. You get it. Sometimes it feels like we’re trapped in a never-ending cycle where we go through these -ISMS and eventually some random few generations get to live through the end cycle of that -ISM and it really just isn’t that great. I feel like we’re those random few generations going through this.
- BUT THAT LAST ONE WAS A DOWNER, so here is PART II of that: we may be living through a really not great time, but in those really not great times we have the chance to step up for each other, reinvest in community, friends, and family, and reconnect with each other in a real, human, grassroots kind of way. I think crappy times make stronger humans. Instead of thinking about how miserable things can be at nearly every point, instead why not think about how to change the flow from the negative to the positive. That’s what I have been trying to think about these days. I try to reach out to people that I care about more. I try to have honest converations. I try not to dwell on what ISN’T working but instead I think about how I can be the change that may be needed in this situation. It feels great. I feel like for me, this is the path forward. This is just one idea that you can use if you’d like. But you don’t have to. We all have ideas and we have to respect that.
- WEEZER: I have a history with Weezer and here are two stories about it. Over the last 5-7 my interest in Weezer has faded. Once Rivers Cuomo opened up most of his demo catalog, I finally got to hear about 75% of what I wanted to hear from his artistic output through the years. I still hold out hope for more releases from the 1997-2000 era. More and more, I had little interest in the newer stuff. A lot of it felt increasingly artificial and really not up to the quality level I like my version of Weezer to be at. That’s OK. They can do whatever they want. I approached their recently released self-titled “Gold Album” with a very mild interest. I liked the production. I like hearing the individual identity that each member brings through their musicianship and their voice. I like how that they’re operating as a BAND and that they’re all having a say in the future of Weezer. I like the songs “Say Yes”, “Don’t Make It Weird”, and “Up In The Clouds”. That is all I’d like to say about that for now.
- MUSIC: these days I listen to more music than ever (thanks to my wonderful sugar mamma Haley who gives me the magical life that I live as I homeschool Finn and Aero through their high school years) and I just love love love this part of my life. I spend a lot of my time listening to GEESE, followed by Queens of the Stone Age, Viagra Boys, Joni Mitchell, The Strokes, Liz Phair, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Wang Chung, INXS, Tears For Fears, and I sometimes get lost in a bit of 80’s Italo Disco, Yacht Rock, and all things 80’s in general. Also, thanks to my kids and their musical interests I also listen to a lot of Toby Fox, Slipknot, Tool, Deftones, Korn, Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Weird Al, Men at Work, and the musicals Hamilton, Little Shop of Horrors, Shrek: The Musical. It feels like one thing that I have learned over the last 4 years of listening to a lot more music is that the musicians and bands and songs that stand the test of time are the ones that took risks and also had the freedom to explore their creativity. To me, those are two elements that must be present for success to be a possibility. I think about these two things every day as I try to teach Finn and Aero about the world while also giving them a bit of a launching pad for their next endeavor. The artists and musicians listed above are just a small sampling of the cool music I’ve been filling my head with over the last four years. Thank you to these artists and musicians for these works. They helped me! They make me happy! Thanks for that.
- I feel a shift happening in the air. Maybe it is for me, but then again hopefully and maybe it is for us all. We need a shift in the world. We’re the only ones that can make that shift, and the way that we do that is through positivity, kindness, and a life of never-ending hard, but very meaningful work that is focused on people and community first. That’s where my head is at these days. I don’t know where the shift may take me, if it is indeed a shift that is happening for me. We’ll see what the universe provides.
- That is everything and all for now. Thank you for reading this and thank you for being in my life. Thank you for listening to my album HOLY CRAP this year. I really loved making that one, and out of all of the albums that I have made that is the one that is the most Justin. Thank you may you have peace and love.
