ManicRobThrill

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Terms of psychic warfare, no. 2

I usually post on January 7th as my form of self-acknowledgment on my birthday but 52 is a throwaway, it was snowing and I'd woken up with a bad head cold, so that went right out the window.

Then I was going to write on Inauguration Day last Friday but I don't think purging through this avenue would have helped the sour mood.  Last weekend was one mired in surreality, not just for me but for, it seems, an entire planet, flummoxed by the notion that someone so incapable to hold the office of President of the United States of America could, indeed, have been sworn in as the 45th Commander-In-Chief.  For the record, I've hated Donald Trump since the '80's.  As a born-and-raised New Yorker and still-resident, he's been a blight on this city.  Now he's a human stain, covering the country.  I'll never support him or his goon squad that he's assembled as his cabinet.  It's both a sham and a shame and hopefully, there will be a day of reckoning and justice for him and his underlings.

It's still January; winter - my least favorite time of year.  It only fills me with general disgust at the constant cold and early darkness and the desire to do nothing when I come home from work or from the general errands to be run on weekends.  Yet, I can't help the fact that I do feel, by and large, pretty good.  Why - I don't know.  But in a moment when things surrounding me are all negative, I will take this and run with it.

Sunday, January 01, 2017

Reboot

Usually, I would have posted on the December anniversary of this blog, but I neglected to do so.  I've had a wonderful two-plus weeks at home and was deliciously lazy for the first time - made few plans, did what I wanted, relaxed, rested and cleared pretty much the clutter in my head.  And so here we are, a full twelve years after I started this.  Blogging is already a forgotten commodity, but I don't care.  It's helpful and healthy for me and it's the one way I can re-steer myself towards focused writing - like with Popdose or Rock NYC or lyrics.  This is the outlet of cleansing, so to speak.

And we begin on a beautiful, crisp, Sunday morning - oddly, New Year's Day.  A day that always equals "starting over".  I know this much:  I've let the hangover of the election go.  There is no point to continue making myself ill over this - I'm not giving sway to the notion of "normalizing" what isn't normal, ethical or legal (it's obvious - Trump committed treason by having the Russians hack into the DNC computers and tamper with the election; it's as clear as a blue sky on a sunny day), but I have to resume a complete sense of focus and control over the things I can.  Namely, my life and my being as a whole.  So that's one New Year's hope and aspiration realized, with certain clarity.  Another is the plausibility of an actual reunion of The Punch Line.  Not as a going concern, but the fact is 2017 is the 30th anniversary of our first single being recorded and that (to me) is a reason for celebration and acknowledgment.  The plausibility is the question; I know what many others want and how they feel - and I am truly appreciative and moved by their desire and encouragement to see this happen.  But I always wind up ambivalent if not uncomfortable with it.  So I'm trying this approach - creatively visualize what it could be like and if that mental picture seems feasible and not unnerving, I will proceed in making the contacts necessary.  What's the worst that can happen?  They say no.  Okay.  At least it was given a fair, thought out chance.

The other things - the gym, recording, writing - all of it will continue.  A little less bluster ("oh, I'm going to do this, this and this...") and more of the reality that what time will allow, I will take.  And the same applies to personal relationships.  What you give is what you get, obviously, and if efforts aren't mutual, then people will simply be quietly jettisoned.  It isn't all that important.

So waking up on this quietest of New Year's Day/Sunday mornings makes me glad to be around for my 52nd trip around the sun...