Though every year includes its own unique stories and surprises, this
past year has been unusually filled with dramatic changes for those close
to me: new apartments, new condos, new jobs, long-term relationships
ending, new relationships forming and strengthening, making
commercials, making babies, changing career paths, getting engaged,
getting tattoos, and as has long been the case for DC, more of its
sons and daughters moving on to new cities and lives. This wave of
change has been exhilarating to experience and inspiring to witness.
To celebrate the passing of this pivotal time, I put together a mix of songs
that reflect the dynamism of the past 12 months.
You can download it here.
“I thought, on the train, how utterly we have forsaken the Earth, in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness, its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes + barrens + wilds. It still dwarfs + terrifies + crushes. The rivers still roar, the mountains still crash, the winds still shatter. Man is an affair of cities. His gardens + orchards + fields are mere scrapings. Somehow, however, he has managed to shut out the face of the giant from his windows. But the giant is there, nevertheless.”
- Wallace Stevens
No matter where I am on Labor Day, my heart and spirit is with the strong and beautiful working people of Youngstown, Ohio and the Steel Valley.
“Taconite, coke, and limestone, fed my children and made my pay.
Them smokestacks reaching like the arms of god,
into a beautiful sky of soot and clay.
Here, in Youngstown.”
- Bruce Springsteen’s Youngstown
Vintage LP stereo banners.
See for yourself.
Certain People I Know.
I have known John Riley for what feels like a solid three lifetimes, which of course is not true. I met John my freshman year at Ohio University on a hot September afternoon in 1995. We were in between classes behind Morton Hall on the East Green and we were both hanging out with a group of mutual friends. John was a reserved guy - straight edge and vegan, with clean Irish features and a sharp tongue, wearing a plaid short-sleeve button up shirt, and Vans shoes. Fifteen years later, John is still straight edge and vegan; still reserved, with clean Irish features and a sharp tongue. He also has the world’s largest collection of plaid short-sleeve button up shirts, and Vans shoes. John and I both relocated to Washington, DC after college. In addition to having a bunch of college memories in common, John and I mutually geek out over our love of dogs, coffee culture, and all things mid-century modern. He plays guitar in the hardcore band Police & Thieves.
Current project: Police & Thieves - a hardcore or harDCore band with leanings toward the earlier Dischord catalog and probably Revelation as well. We’ve got some shows in DC on the horizon. We’re also heading out for a few shows in the Pacific Northwest with friends from that area called Not Sorry. We play Bremerton WA, Vancouver, and then Seattle. It should be a lot of fun and good practice before recording when we get back. This is the farthest geographically we’ve gone in the three years that I’ve been in the band and since we’re all on the older side, anytime we can get out of town for shows is quite an accomplishment. (Editor’s Note: This tour happened already because I was too lazy to get this posted in time. I suck.)
Recent obsession: Recording and mixing our demo. We recorded all our new songs earlier in the year as a tool to tweak and critque the songs before we went to a real studio. It was a total crapshoot as to whether it would sound decent since we practice in a self storage facility. I recorded everything myself and mixed it in GarageBand (which is a free mixing program on newer Macs) since I didn’t have the deep pockets for a protools setup. I have to say it came out a lot better than I expected. In fact, we’re releasing four songs on a cassette tape for our upcoming Northwest tour. Cassettes are a cheap way to put out new music and can be done rather quickly which is why they are making a comeback. (Editor’s Note: Cassettes ARE making a comeback.)
Must do in the coming year: In terms of band, record and put out a full length record. We’ve booked time at Inner Ear in August which to me is legendary as some of my favorite records were recorded there. For me personally in the coming year, I need to finish some house projects that have been lingering, figure out how to make a rosetta on my soy lattes, and get back on my skateboard.
Terrified of: Feeling as old as I am in years, the point I don’t refer to myself as a hardcore or straight edge kid and I stop identifying with the teenagers in teen angst movies and shows. Also, losing my hair. (Editor’s note: John has really nice hair. See picture above.)
You, in a word: Dedicated.
“I idealized my dad as a kind of dawn-rising priest of labor engaged in holy ritual. Up at five every morning, my father made a religion of responsibility…He’d go into the kitchen and turn on the radio to catch the temperature. Bricklayers have an occupational need to know the weather. And because I am my father’s son, I can still recite the five day forecast at any given moment.”
- Alfred Lubrano’s Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams
