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What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
October 30, 2024
No, this is not a tribute to Phil Lesh, while I could easily pen one. This site is about local music although, for some time now, it has consisted largely of re-posts of events and promotions.
There is good reason for this but I will not weary an already fatigued audience of readers by going into the details, most of which can nonetheless be easily surmised. Suffice it to say that there have been nearly ten years of decline exhibited all around me (and – well – half of you) in peculiar and unimaginable ways. Just when we were ready to shuck one horrid monkey, along comes COVID. Thinking we were going to get out of that calamity unscathed was highly mistaken. The loss was significant. My family lost both of my parents, a mere four months apart. The losses were not all accountable to death. The monkey* came back. We lost friends, family members and acquaintances, we shunned some businesses, we blocked people and not without good excuse.
But COVID is not the origins of the Great American schism, is it? Some would say it has always been struggling to rear its ugly head and I would not be one to disagree. No, this version began in 2015 on a fake golden escalator and a false prophet with a bought-and-paid-for, reality-television-style group of onlookers, determined to kickstart the apocalypse for a few bucks. And on and on and on until – insurrection and swastikas.
I make no apologies here. I have exerted much effort in print and on this site and, despite covering a wide-range of musical expressions, the ownership remains solely mine; unlike the other endeavor I’m noted for undertaking where my consternations are withheld and hold no sway.
Now, with even less certainty, and with dark energy enveloping the entire globe, I feel compelled to dig back in. Oh yes, I’ve got lots of local music to write about; it’s been piling up, making me the recipient of sideways looks from my wife and kids as I already accumulate vast amounts of books and music from other locales. My personal spaces are obstacle courses and I must clear away some of the impediments.
Let us hope it is not a temporary flushing and that perhaps, eventually, I can even get out a bit or even venture some feature stories with what time there is left.
But who knows? There are evil forces at play. Forces that will know better than to appear in this space.
*This post does not mean to insult actual monkeys
