HERE WE ARE

oh we’re gonna rant today, but don’t forget to come out to one of the gigs in the events section if you can. TVB is coming back, and we’re adding a partytithe to make your social time also count for something good.

How do you say I told you so without saying it? 

I think of myself as somewhat humble up to that exact boundary. I hate being right, and an “I told you so” is an ignored plea. 

Why be right when you can be in community? None of us is without sin, without violation, and yet, it’s often the refusal to engage with the side of conflict that demands a change from the status quo that see people estranged. The conflict avoidant can be doubly harmful, both ignoring the melee altogether and often shaming the demander of change. The real crime is making them take one step out of their intended path, out of their entitlement. 

I’d rather wander lost, constantly tossed and shifted by the winds of change, and yes, sometimes at odds with them, than walk the well worn ways of privilege. 

We’re seeing our whole world upended because people didn’t want to confront their family and friends over their fascist backsliding. Now, the change they avoided, the change they were willing to cut you off to avoid, is happening anyway, and not in anyone’s favor this time, because, (shocker) a dictator doesn’t actually give a shit what you want even if you adore them. 

People have been complying with this slowly over the course of the last 10 years. It’s been scary to watch, but if it continues, that’s even scarier. You can stand up to this, one conversation at a time, and if you want to talk it through, I promise I won’t say “I told you so” 😈

LATEST WORK: 😎

I feel so much more like a “real” DJ now. While it feels intensely annoying to have yet another “career” as a creative, putting yourself in one box is stifling. When my emotions are choking me and I can’t make something with my hands, like a craft or design, I turn to the decks now, and I make something with sound. These mixes have been my love letter to the passing of time, to how we change as people, to the music that careens through airwaves into my willing neurons, literally carrying me through this life. 

city girl is that wave of work/play/think/relax/release. It’s 4:45pm on a Friday, it’s a gym paean, it’s a thesis of my favorite basslines and hooks of the past few months, with cute edits and more power than you’d expect.🥂

INFLUENCED: Buying Insights 📲

GUSH

Ok listen, since getting some of my treatments adjusted, I have actually been able to tolerate alcohol (and other people’s perfume, lol) to a much greater degree, but I still have to take it easeeeee. I’m happy with my relationship to the stuff, but she will absolutely try to hurt me anyway. That’s where Gush comes in. I had heard many times about different Korean hangover prevention products, and I’m definitely in the target market as a sensitive/moderate consumer who wants to enjoy without physical issues. 

It tastes like apple juice (win), comes in the chuggable Mylar pouch, aka is great for on the go, and very neurodivergent friendly, but probably not great for the environment(lose). If they could put this in a can, or concentrate down into a recyclable shot-like format, it would feel less wasteful, but nothing feels more wasteful than being hungover on a Saturday against your will.

Kanha Live Rosin Belts 🍒

Edibles and gummies can really seem all alike when you’re looking at the lineup in the dispensary. With all of the hemp confusion, they’re more widely available than ever. They’re also more hemp-y tasting than ever. The treats in the dispensaries that taste like a vape cart are really the worst ones IMHO. Brand after brand uses trim, added terps, and grassy-tasting, berry blasted candies are what results. 

That’s why I was impressed by Kanha’s sour belts—you can taste a strain, not essential oils. Even with the customary artificial flavoring, cherry in this case, bright notes of cannabis came through, not just hemp-ed taste to the delta 9’s. I like the dosing format of a 25mg belt vs a 5mg coin or bite, it’s more considerate of medical patients who don’t want to look at a handful of gummies at dosing time. 

7/10 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

EEEEvents

Check out these fun events in NYC and beyond!

Links to Love 💕 or Hate 🫀

Marketing & Me: Every industry revolves around the sale. My last newsletter I talked about how upsetting ‘the sale’ is during live-streamed genocide and the alt-reality being forced upon us by rapidly blooming fascism. As a creative, one of the only stable ways to make any money whatsoever is to provide your creativity as a service alongside someone’s product. Are you a DJ, photographer, graphic artist, writer, dancer, fashion worker or producer? You’re probably helping someone make money with your creativity, from idea to execution.

I’ve been hearing the fatigue high and low, especially as companies shrink and marketing budgets disappear. People are now seeing that the differences between a retail sales role and tailoring your artistic output to brand guidelines are very similar and deeply intertwined. It’s all about ‘the sale’ and certainly not about our art. Concerts, plays, and other cultural events now exist for or around the selling of food, drinks, merchandise, and more services and upgrades. The DIY, no-sell-outs spirit of the ‘90s has been buried by the funneling of our existence into capital, whether you’re a creator or the person scrolling.💋

The scariest thing I’ve ever read. Soon, dissenters will be banished from ‘public’ spaces by corporations bending over for dump. Instant and creeptastic searches of CCTV will render hiding impossible. Eugenicists, nazis, and would-be oligarchs take the concept of the technocrat to its most terrifying conclusion: wholesale enabling, funding, and driving the end of democracy as we know it. And it's all documented. ☄️

This is one of the means with which we are losing labor power and slipping deeper into a modern feudal system. AI and large language models are using existing labor output to eliminate labor’s existence. If capital was already dead, this is parasitic zombie capital to the max. As jobs disappear and aren’t replaced, prices climb, and social services are gutted, how else exactly could this go??⚡️

DJ SCHEDULE

• THURSDAYS in April 7p-late: big ++ bad (Andy + me!) at Little Ways

• SUNDAY 4/20 12p: Natural Apothecary Belleville, NJ 4/20 event

• SATURDAY 4/26: TVB with Big Andy, KidFisto and Lord Noir at Beverly’s

• More music on Mixcloud

Ciao amici 😘😘