LITOVSK, of Brittany in France, serving up more of a straight punk sound out of the late 70 or early 80s. A couple of the songs are reminiscent of The Damned, and that’s always welcome. Just enough pop accessibility and musicality to keep it moving but lots of punch. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for this morning but it’s working. I’m feeling cranky and punchy and I’ve had just about enough of peoples’ shit. It’s not that anything has been aimed at me directly but when everything you see is drenched in stupidity and selfishness it’s hard not to cop an attitude. Know what I mean? Maybe you do or maybe you don’t. Litovsk still works for me today.

The numbers from COVID-19 are starting to mess with my head some. It’s about 430,000 as of this morning and that’s a pretty staggering and sobering number at the same time. Unemployment hasn’t been higher in generations. The economy is suffering. This is some serious shit. And while I get that the high anxiety related to it all is simply not sustainable, trying one’s hardest to sustain one’s carefree lifestyle within the gravity of this situation is worse.

I’m seeing all the outdoors dining spaces filled and mostly maskless every weekend with condensation dripping down the inside of the plastic windows. Some of the shanty spaces looked kind of cozy and inviting back in November when afternoon temperatures were hovering around 45 to 50 degrees but it’s been pretty damn cold since then. They’re still packed to capacity for the most part. I have to ask, what is compelling people to sit in shanties in January eating mediocre food, all huddled around space heaters like freight train tramps around trash barrel fires? How badly do you hate your own company that you need to run out and gather with people (many of whom you could simply invite to your home provided you liked them well enough to have them in your home, so hmmm) in a plywood lean-to in the middle of winter? What exactly is going on here? I do feel bad for the business owners and would like to support them, but I’m going to stick to supporting grocery stores for the time being. They need help too. Let’s just stop pretending that there aren’t nearly a half a million people dead. This is a lot of willful ignorance. Stop it, guys. You look like fucking dumbasses.

So you might see from that rant why good ol’ punk rock suits me fine for today.