I hope you didn't think I'd leave you empty handed during my week off the grid. Here is my wafer-thin letter. It's more to check the box of "I didn't miss a week" than anything else.
Leading into the holidays I converted some credit card points to Apple gift cards. There was a promotion making the points more valuable. What else was I going to do with them? Book a flight?
When I received the confirmation email I was understandably concerned that I may have just flushed the points down the cyber toilet:
Test
Don't fret, though. The Test links were in fact Production links. Gift cards were applied to my Apple balance.
Aren't you glad you subscribed to my newsletter?
The Consumption
I attended a concert last week. Robin Pecknold performed a concert at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. It was overpriced for the length, but also totally worth it. You can get a flavor from the Colbert broadcast, though only one song in the actual concert featured the Resistance Revival Chorus. The remainder of the show was beautifully solo acoustic.
I want to provide some lyrical excerpts of “Helpless Blues,” but I love the song so much I’d probably quote the whole thing. Let’s just go with the first verse, which I’ll leave to your interpretation:
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me
But I don't, I don't know what that will be
I'll get back to you someday soon, you will see
Really great seats
2020 Will Cease to Be
Yes, this year is done. The pain isn’t done, but the year is. And that’s something.
Since I’m half-assing this newsletter (is it an ass half empty or an ass half full?), I figured I’d take some advice and just write a few haiku.
#1:
2020 was
Quite a memorable year
I’d like to forget
#2:
Wind and snow and cold
Push quickly through the season
Where’s the other side?
#3:
Rain will come this spring
And flowers will bloom in time
Masks help allergies
I can’t help it. One more Fleet Foxes lyric. T his time from “I’m Not My Season”:
Though I liked summer light on you
If we ride a winter-long wind
Well time's not what I belong to
And you’re not the season you’re in
Happy Old Year!
Not creepy, not at all