Nothing in the tank on Friday. A busy day at work demanded a high level of performance nonetheless. I was feeling particularly low, worse than the usual Walking Dead zombified emptiness that comes with a Friday, because of a Thursday-night vote on a tentative agreement that basically signals that the end is nigh. Unions are dying. We are in the cannibalization, eat-your-own phase that precedes death.
Fortunately, I had the good sense to call up from YouTube Bon Iver's first album, For Emma, Forever Ago (2007). Between taking phone calls and getting up from my desk to perform various tasks, I tapped into the honeyed vein, the opiate drip of "Flume" and "Skinny Love."
Music is a necessary narcotic. I know I complained in yesterday's Hippies vs. Punks post that we are a civilization in its death throes because we have no new men. But this is not true. We do have new men.
The problem is that the old, rancid paradigm is very powerful and dominates the center of society in a way that I don't think we have witnessed before -- due to a combination of the super-sized 1%, a digitally connected planet, militarized security forces, and no vibrant mass political parties.
The new men are to be found where they are always found, on the margins.
I read that Bon Iver's Justin Vernon was influenced by Richard Buckner and has worked with The Rosebuds. You can hear it.
