Well, I must admit to some pretty vicious mood swings recently. Going from feeling like things are going to be okay over to the fear that it’s the end of the world and back again – and of course everywhere in between. I feel attacked because of course everyone that’s not straight and white and male feels potentially under threat and I get to be in the elite few that gets to walk around unworried. And I feel guilty for believing that the system will eventually even out and pendulum back.
But what a horrible swing, what a horrible bump in the road.
I maintain a couple of rob facets. There’s Rock Star rob, and he gets an airing pretty frequently and he’s loud and balanced and there’s rob on Pineapple and he’s actually not that much of a PUBLIC persona because he’s a little off the chain. There’s Fascist rob and he doesn’t get out much – he’s what I use to parse most of the world and he’s generally pretty angry. And then there’s Social Media rob who spends a lot of time patiently explaining things to people and hoping it’s not Mansplaining but pretty sure it’s just my attempt to get stupid people to grasp common sense and trying to do it in a friendly enough fashion that maybe, just maybe they’ll swallow it so that Fascist rob never actually has to be introduced to the world.
Some semblance of Fascist rob actually runs the open mics while Social Media rob runs most of the gigs and Rock Star rob PLAYS the gigs. rob on Pineapple is a fairly inexcusable anomaly that I think alarms all who encounter him.
I’m reading in the Washington Post that Trump’s backing away from a lot of things that he’s declared on the campaign trail. He avoided a question about keeping Muslims out of the country. His advisors are saying that the Wall was “pretty good for campaigning” and that they’d take border security very seriously but it wasn’t likely that Mexico would pay for it. Sounds like he’s edging back from repealing the ACA… but you know, the Washington Post thought it was inconceivable that the man would be elected – is this just there way of saying to their waning readership “it’s going to be okay”?
I’m working out thoughts for our setlist at Friday night’s New Deal Café show and I put down a little more than a dozen angry, pissed off songs that have reflected my opinion on politics till now. I threw Chalk Pit on the list because it’s growly and I get to yell “FUCK THE POLICE” a couple of times, but singing through the lyrics now I realize that it’s not the right tune. I know it’s an anti=protest song, and I’ve got a couple of those and I’m worried now that I’ve got to drop some songs because they are no longer appropriate to our political climate. “Protest Song”, “Chalk Pit” – these songs are no longer ones I want to scream – because we SHOULD be out there yelling. And re-reading the lyrics to “Elephant Joke”, it’s suddenly chillingly prescient. “For Everyone a Reckoning” may have found its time as well.
FAWM will come too late this year. Oh. And I’ve got to change the last chorus of “Spring”.
