Hello, my friends. This is the latest I have ever sat down to write one of these, on a Monday at least. It is 9 pm here in London. Let’s see if this entry to this big public journal I have created changes when the sun goes down. So, Elon Musk bought Twitter today for $44 billion and is making the company private. That is a lot for me to process and I have a lot of thoughts about Elon Musk, what he represents, his belief system, and his politics. I also feel a certain way about the existence of social media and the real and frankly dangerous power that it possesses over our very democracy. With that being said, I am not going to elaborate further right now because for one my brain is kind of fried right now on this Monday evening, but also because I do not want to sound alarmist and this literally just happened an hour or so ago. But, hey, remind me to tell you all about my views on free speech and what it all means to me. I can go on for quite some time. It is only fair to give you all a week to prepare yourselves, so you can come into next week's entry ready.
In other news, I am getting close to the end of the semester here, and it is honestly really bumming me out. I went into this semester not even expecting to have as amazing of a time as I have had. I feel so fortunate. I know should probably be grateful that I got this experience rather than being sad it is over, but sadness is perfectly okay sometimes too. I have changed my perspective on sadness. I used to sometimes resist being sad, or talk myself out of being sad, or talk my friends out of being sad, and generally avoid sadness like the plague. As I creep into adulthood (Jesus F’n Christ), I am realizing that a lot of things in life are sad plain, and simple. Sometimes you may even feel sad for no reason at all. That is the nature of emotions sometimes. If you embrace sadness, it will pass more quickly because there are also a lot of things in life that are happy. I am not a guru nor do I claim any superiority or wisdom or anything, but this is an all-access pass to my brain and it is something I have been working through.
I had a decent Monday though. The Mets won and won at a normal time here in London so I was able to get a good night’s sleep. I am living and dying with this team this season. Whether it lasts or not, they are playing good baseball for the most part and I am going to enjoy it. Let’s keep it going through May, and if they can just play .500 ball in June, I will take it as a win. I paid a nice little visit to Denmark Street today. I am not sure if I have mentioned Denmark Street in Breaker’s Point, but it is a street in London with exclusively guitar shops. It is actual heaven. I walked into a few shops I had not even been in because I like to spend a lot of time in Hank’s (shoutout Hanky boy) which is my favorite. They had some nice Gibson stuff, that I felt comfortable taking off the wall and playing. They have Gibson stuff in Hank’s but if you take one of those babies down off the wall to play, you are going to be met with some resistance—trust me from experience.
Grateful Eight
* Denmark Street. It is a damn utopia mis compadres.
* Better Call Saul. It is back. I watched the first episode of season six, the last season, and I will probably watch episode two a little bit later. Let me tell you, episode one was a great way to open it up. *SLIGHT SPOILERS* There was not a lot of Mike (at least on-screen) or Kim for that matter. I think Lalo needs a spin-off show. Holy s**t, that character is good. Tony Dalton is an amazing actor. What else has he been in?
* Barry. It is back. All my favorite shows are back, but I am not going to watch Barry just yet. I still need to refresh myself on what was happening in the show as now it has been two years since it last aired.
* “What is something that I am grateful for” Ben: “Me.” Ehhh I am not so sure about this one.
* We got a fire lineup tonight with Max Scherzer on the bump. LFGM baby, I will be locked in at 12:45.
* Dishwashers. We have no dishwasher here, so we hand-wash everything. But then, we also do not have paper towels to dry things. I bought a roll twice. It is someone else’s turn. It has been months though.
* Arcade Fire’s first album Funeral. I don’t play it for a while and then I will come back to it and be like “this is an absolute masterpiece; wtf.” It is their debut. It is lunacy to me. The arrangements are complex, the band has a fully-realized sound, and the songwriting sounds like they have been doing it since the 70s. Every time you close your eyes. Ahhhh ahhhh. Every time you close your eyes. Ahhhh Ahhhh. *key change* Every time you close your eyes. Ahhhh Ahhhh.
* A good bolognese sauce.
This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: Racing in the Street (Bruce Springsteen)
I am so reluctant to cover Bruce, given my feelings towards him which of course are well documented. I feel that I connect with him and his music so deeply that properly covering it feels weird to me. How do I cover a Bruce song and not fall into the trap of singing the song like he has sung it on the recordings I have listened to 3,425,679 times. Growing up, I wanted to be Bruce. I still do in some ways, but that stays between us. However, I am my own artist and although Bruce is my biggest influence, I am Josh Carus. The obsession with Bruce cannot be understated but I will leave it at that. Trust me, you really do not want me to continue. I have had to train myself onstage to not mimic Bruce or his mannerisms that I do not think people understand, ARE NOW ALSO MY MANNERISMS. I have dug myself into an impossibly deep hole. There will always be some Bruce in how I perform, but I do think I am doing a better job these days of just being me. I wear my guitar higher, stand on the side of the stage, use a boom-mic stand instead of a straight one, and do my awkward little dances that have become ever so endearing to my audience. Yikes on that last bit. That was a very John Mayer thing to say. I hate John Mayer. I don’t mind his blues stuff though. Anyway, some of you may realize that I am playing the piano in the recording. Surprise! I do that now! I am not very good at all, but I have learned to accompany myself adequately and sort of fake it. I learned by learning Bruce's songs. This one was a small level-up in terms of difficulty. Look, who cares about all the nonsense of me trying to distance myself from my Bruce influence. It is just not that deep. Racing in the Street is one of the greatest songs ever written, and I wanted to cover it okay?
