Hey, uh... been a while, huh? 989 days, if my recent posts are to be believed. Funny how you can spend so much time in a (virtual) place for so long and then one day you look up and realize you haven't logged in in almost 3 years. I still think of you all, though, and hope you're well. What's new? Drop a line, I'd love to catch up.

After almost 5 years in Germany, I moved back home in 2022 to figure out what it's like to be an adult in the United States. Mixed results so far, but I'm happy to be where I am. Had a string of varyingly shitty jobs and have now settled in as a legal assistant for Big Tech. Trying to combat the guilt of working for The Man by doing covert union organizing on company time, which is fun and exciting.

Bought a car and got an apartment with a friend and her cat. Joined a sandlot baseball team and have been having a great time playing the other beautiful game with new friends (sometimes after pregame mushrooms--allegedly).

Started taking improv classes on a whim and almost immediately fell in love with it. I'm about to finish the Final Level at my conservatory and excited to move on to bigger, self-driven, artistically ambitious projects. Doing bits is fun but I want to take improvisational theater to places it has rarely, if ever, gone. I find it immensely disheartening that so many of the improv shows you see across the country look basically the same. This is supposed to be the art form where anything can happen! So I have some ideas, we'll see where they go.

Other than that... living life, reading a lot, trying to figure out what's next, as always. Maybe law school, maybe I'll find some literary grad program I can use as an excuse to get another German visa. If I'm really lucky maybe I can find a German spouse and then I don't have to worry about all that. We'll see where things go :)

Anyway, thanks for reading, and seriously, let me know how you've been. I've missed you all.

g

We'll see if I can stay awake that long, but if I manage it I'm in :)

Do it! It's a wonderful book. Convinced me to pick up 3 other Pynchon novels and really get into it. And if you're still not convinced, or if you want to hear more about it, check out this podcast episode, "Thomas Pynchon and the American Reconquista."

After years' absence, persecution by all the predictable authorities, several instances of thoroughly unelective plastic surgery, and a set of geographical switchbacks that would leave you physically allergic to the sight of a straight line, DEATH IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER triumphantly returns with Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, the "counterculture" as a recco map to its own streamlined reconquest, and the same old evil agencies just biding their time, returning on a scale even they wouldn't have dared dream of when they had to take their last little planned pause.

http://shoutengine.com/DeathIsJustAroundtheCorner/DeathIsJustAroundtheCorner-67-thomas-pynchon-and-the-american-reconquista-pt--53564.mp3

I'm so upset by the name Niceferatu. Mostly because I did not think of it myself.

This sounds nice though!! Makes me wanna make some music too. The one thing I might suggest is chopping up a bit of the static from the Nina interview and putting it under the instrumental between the two samples-- the transition on both ends is a bit abrupt otherwise. (Check out, for example/comparison, how Saba & Phoelix handle the same sample on this Noname track, starting around 1:35).

PS Am I hearing shades of Shigeto?