OH HELL YES! This sounds like a fucking nightmare!

Gravity can be quite "punishing" at times. Its judgments are final and impartial. Were it that nature took care our punishments for us, but no, it's often the weak, the innocent, the good-hearted and true that suffer that impartiality. In the world of film, a violent misogynist can be forced to live forever on the ceiling of his flat, his feet never resting on the floor, always below.

And where is my punishment? Self-inflicted, I'd say. Heavily. Bad dukkha Joe, I like to joke. That feeling of never quite being in on the joke, summary and lifetime rejection from the "popular crowd," in whatever venue or universe we may be discussing at the moment, macro or micro. Always just shy of "great." For three hours a week, WFMU allows me to imagine that I am great, in that I take over the airwaves, control the program, however you want to put it. My debtors have paid up, as much out of doing what's right, as for fear of my reaction. My lessons have all been taught, people have listened; they can deride, criticize, but for those three hours, still I sit in the master's chair. I like that very young men are often addressed formally as "master," for it's my "master" that will call the shots and dictate how it goes, most likely. We know best then, in a certain instinctual way, prior to social programming and poisoning.

Where was the praise this week? Hard to tell in some cases, partially b/c playlist commenters were purposely oblique. Not into the voice of modern hardcore? Well shut up, then. Maybe give a good listen first, before you mouth off. I like it better NOW than I did in the 80s, having been around for both. Could it be that there's something actually good going on, your rush to criticize aside? Bands like The Kill, The Ropes, and City Ropes go beyond mere genre ident., into just making good, pure music.

Denmark's Narcorgasm need to be found and shaken, made to realize how unique and exceptional that tape of theirs is. Sarzan and I heard it immediately. Recordings by Sombre Présage, Sleepwalkers Local, Lussuria and Kakerlak all pricked-up ears this week, very deservedly so. That's it.

Lots to come this summer on The Castle, including live visits from J. Soliday, Raspberry Bulbs, Lady Piss, Decimus, and others.

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Personal: Harry, it is for ourselves that we mourn. This world is a shit pile (not all of your making, surprisingly!) You were always too good for it.