More post-punk jangle, straight from Rome, with The Edge of Water. Add in some shades of Echo & The Bunnymen. It’s hard to explain but you’ll hear it. This is really rather a lovely album, all passion and longing. It will tug at your heartstrings. We can all use some of that. We used to fall in love and have our hearts broken in that romantic, poetic way, once upon a time back before we broke our own hearts choosing sides in endless flame wars. Life used to be a lot more simple. Nothing sounds dated here with this album but it recalls a time.

I saw a headline this morning that suggested that the Omicron Variant is “in retreat.” That’s the term they used.

“In retreat.”

As if viruses run. What they were really talking about of course is that there are fewer new infections and fewer hospitalizations. My guess would be that there are fewer people testing because we’ve all settled back into our routines. Nobody is getting on planes or going to see families. The holiday tourism rush is over, to the point where all the attractions in major cities have cut to their 2-for1 deals. The abuse of statistics is real, folks. It’s very real.

These viral days will fade at some point, of course. We’ll be left with bad memories, lingering fear and all that, but mostly we will be left with the animosities that we’ve accrued at a staggeringly high interest rate over the last few years. I’m already trying to shed that. To fall back on a word that I return to again and again, this ill will is not sustainable. You get rid of it or in the absence of the original triggers, it will attach itself to something or someone new. Trust me on that. That’s the way bad energy works. It’s magnetic and sticks to you and much like a virus you will transmit it to the next closest person. That’s how it works. Let it go now.

Let it go.

The virus is still right with us though. The statistics are definitely real but learn to read them correctly, or you and everyone around you will suffer.

Troubling times still.

I read a study yesterday that says that the average viewer/consumer engages in media 54.4 hours per week. That’s more than 2 full 24 hour days to put it in context. Subtract sleep time and such and you’ve got people (myself included) spending an average of half of their waking hours immersed in media consumption. That’s a frightening statistic and must certainly be related to how poorly we’re all feeling about one another. We’re not relating on a personal level. We’re relating to each others’ avatars which are curated, often false versions of ourselves. Incomplete versions. Versions stilted in bias of one form or another. Versions clad in our virtual armor. A much simpler faster path to clashing bias.. We are fighting simulations of one another like a perverse video game.

Sobering thoughts for first thing in the morning but I’m the first person to say that I need to get off these electronic devices and go outside and relate to the world.

Ciao for now.