Good morning good morning hello howdy hi how are you? Another day of writing with a bout of depression, whoopee don’t we all love this? I don’t like writing it, you don’t like reading it, I don’t want to write about being depressed because I am — against all evidence to the contrary — convinced it’s contagious and I don’t want to make other people sad because then I feel even worse. This is not a great affliction for a graphomaniacal writer. But we persevere, we persevere.

Truth be told I may be coming out of it today? Fingers crossed.

Just ate some yogurt. Everyone tells me it’s the simplest way to get some probiotics or whatever the fuck into my diet. Did some half-assed googling kagi-ing and went with this “all natural” “zero added sugars” “protein” Chobani. I could skip the protein. It was… fine. I could probably do this. You’re supposed to put like blueberries in it or something, I am told, except those give us diarrhea now and this week, unlike last week, I am scared of getting cyclospora. What can I say, I contain multitudes. Anyhoo, I probably made a mistake getting the raspberry-lemon flavor but otherwise it was fine. Maybe I am over my childhood fear of gooey foods. Shit. Maybe I like cottage cheese. Oh fuck. I’m gonna have to buy some cottage cheese.

Now I get to obsess over which brand of yogurt, and added sugars, and ingredients, and why the fuck they all come in plastic containers when obviously it would be a far more rewarding eating experience and better for the environment for them to come in little aluminum bowls. I get to obsess over how to spell yogurt yoghurt. Shit yeah something to live for.

This daylight savings time thing: is it going to happen? No, right? The senate will kill it? Do I care? I guess I prefer not to change clocks rather than to change clocks. But if I am being honest, I still, at the age of 54, have no idea which is daylight savings time and which is standard time. I don’t know which one I am on now. I don’t know which one I like better. I guess I like it when the sun is up when I wake up? But I like it when it’s not dark at, like, 5? I recall that both contain pros and cons.

Shit maybe we should just keep it as it is.

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We’re listening this morning to Clint Mansell’s soundtrack to the Black Mirror episode “San Juanipero.” I do not know the proper MLA formatting for a tv show episode title. Gonna go with quotes. I like Clint Mansell because I was transformed by a Pop Will Eat Itself show in 1992 or so. My god, that was one of the best days of my life. First I went to the Orpheum and saw the Pet Shop Boys for the firs time, on the amazing tour they had with an entire cast and sets and shit — the one captured in Performance. So freaking good. I had no idea a “rock” concert could be anything like that.

Then I went to Axis to see Pop Will Eat Itself, and Mr. Bungle was opening. So. Yeah. My god. Mr. Bungle. I was aware of them but hadn’t seen them yet or even, I think, heard of them. JESUS. What a show. Then PWEI and they were fucking amazing and Boston went hard and there was a pit for both bands the entire time and it still to this day might be the single best day of live rock music in my life.

I thought the rest of my life was going to be like that hahahahahahaaha.

Anyway, been a PWEI fan ever since, and, thus, a Clint Mansell-as-a-soundtrack-composer fan. Got to see him solo live doing his soundtracks in some big cathedral in Harlem a decade or so ago and it was great. Clint Mansell is great. I am learning right now that he did the Love Lies Bleeding soundtrack. Been meaning to watch that.

One more music-related item: There is a new… compilation album? That is not quite right. There is a new… This Mortal Coil type band? Closer. It seems to, on the face of it, be a solo album by the italian composer Stefano Guzzetti, but a) it is a ton of covers of 4AD songs, b) it features a ton of 4AD and 4AD-adjacent vocalists doing these songs (such as old friend Dominic Appleton of Breathless, Heidi Berri, Emma Anderson, Paula Frazer and Ian Masters) and c) has a cover designed by one of Vaughan Oliver’s compatriots at 23 Envelope.

So, yeah.

Alas it is only being released on CD. Am I going to buy a CD in 2026? I hear all the cool kids are doing it.

(N.B. I have already bought at least two CDs this year they are sitting right next to me).

Anyway, cool album alert. Let’s see if Buttondown has a Bandcamp embed:

Glass ModernIn A Strange Place, by Stefano Guzzetti

Alas, nope.

Oh yeah one more music-related item: Brendan Perry is bringing back Dead Can Dance without Lisa Gerrard. And people have been pissed. And Lisa posted on Facebook saying something like “it’s all cool, man. Brendan can do DCD without me, he is a great artist and I support this” and the fans are not having it.

I mean, I get it. Both sides.

On the one hand, Lisa says its cool, artists gotta make a living, and we all know that a lot of musicians have one project name that is vastly more popular than the others. I think about the Electrafiction show Craig and Jussi and I went to where at the end of the show Ian said “fuck it we’re now called Echo and the Bunnymen” and he and Will did “Do it Clean” and it fuckin ruled. Who could blame em. And alcoholism and spotty performances aside, that decision clearly kept their career alive.

But how would I handle it if modern day Richard Ashcroft resurrected the Verve without Nick?

How am I handling this incarnation of New Order with ONLY Bernard left? NOT WELL. But we are postponing our angst until we definitively ascertain his post-festival contractual obligation plans.

Anyway the newest new Dead Can Dance song sounds a lot like Dead Can Dance and not much like Brendan’s solo work, so there is also that. It is a helpful descriptor.

But also this newest song has some lady vocals that are a hit too much like Lisa for my liking. But also “Rhondope Womens Ensemble” sounds pretty cool.

I don’t know, man, I do not know.

Norway is out of the World Cup, alas. Last night we were eating at a Mexican restaurant when Spain beat France and the place erupted in joy. Lotta people cheering their colonizers but, also… France. Man what if England beats Argentina. Colonizer bowl. That would be a bummer. I guess I am for Argentina now, though I do like Spain. I enjoyed my trip to Spain more than my trip to Argentina, though I guess that’s because my trip to Argentina was for work and my trip(s) to Spain have been for pleasure also the entire World Cup is about me me me. Oh yeah and I saw Messi outside a hotel in Chicago once so, you know, deep personal attachment.

Jane got these cool new glasses that keep your eyes from going bad. They have little dots on the lenses. I took a picture for you. They are so cool. This means she doesn’t need the drops anymore: the magic drops that kids can take now to keep their eyes from getting bad my god science is so cool. Of course, if she took the drops on TOP of the glasses, it would be even more protection, but she is stubborn AF about the drops so I don’t know if that will happen. BUT someday she might actually care — when she hits adolescence and gets vain or something – and she can do both. Also apparently they have contacts now that will do this as well. My god medical science is so cool we do so much cool medical shit. Please god let us keep doing cool medical shit.

She was better this morning that was nice. We listened to Freezepop’s “Less Talk More Rokk.” She was mesmerized. And man, that took me back. Hot and sweaty basements with bands playing. Youth. It being agreed by everyone in your immediate environment that the Rock was the most important thing and no one, like, yammering on about great replacement theory or racism against white people or some shit.

She made crepes in her breakfast camp. I am so jealous. I want a crepe.

All right we got justa mix for you today. Both old and new. Don’t give me shit for the Blind Melon song, maaaan. Came on this morning in the car and… I was captivated. First off, as much as 1993 Rick would be pissed to hear this, they were pretty good. Did I scoff and huff and puff and showily try and make it clear I was too good for them the one time I saw them, opening for PiL? Yes, I did. I was wrong. Secondly, that guitar playing is insane. The entire structure of that song is insane. How does it hold together it feels like it’s going to fall apart under the weight of its complexity at all times. His vocals save it, of course. And thus we get into the sadness that comes with every rock O.D. Well, for me. I am sympathetic to rock and roll catastrophes there but for the grace of god go I. And I feel for the rest of the band, man. They are good. Career cut short. Put the Freezepop track on here because it made me feel it this morning. Two old tracks from those C’Est La Morte comps because I re-listened and found a few pop gems I didn’t even know about. This Ruby Blue band is kind of awesome. The rest is new, I think? I am impressed with the new Modest Mouse, it deserves more attention. Definitely liking the new Death Cab more. I have now learned about Laufey. She is a bit too complex and jazzy for my day-to-day tastes but damn is she good.

All right until tomorrow, friend.