Walk On Podcast Episode 72 : The Airing of the Grievances (A Festivus Celebration)
taps mic
I got a lot of problems with you people!!! And now! You’re gonna hear about it!!!!
What a doozy this year has been. Jeff Bezos and that other bond villain went to space in giant flaming dick rockets, c*vid is still wreaking havoc on our lives, the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, motorized scooters are terrorizing the streets of New York City, people are still claiming Taylor Swift is good?!
I don’t fucking know.
I’ve had it. I have literally started having chest pains because the daily fucking bullshit of existing with the consequences of living under late-stage capitalism, all while watching the g*vernment and it’s pick-me’s cling ever closer to their denial that all is not well has got me on a simmer. Maybe not a rolling boil. But I’m cooking, BABY!!
Trying to become a self-actualized entrepreneur/independent artist is tough. Everything costs money. I have anxiety and also am capable of looking around me and seeing that it hasn’t been safe to move about the world freely since January of 2020, so I am let’s just say less-than-excited about leaving my house to self-promote or play shows or sell my book or busk. And everything costs money. Maintaining a website and store, keeping my book in distribution, keeping my album streaming, heck, every time I sell a shirt I have to pay for it and get reimbursed by my print-on-demand people. I have thought about quitting so many times this past year. The only reason I haven’t is because the universe breadcrumbs me by giving me a little growth as a treat just as soon as I think I can’t take anymore.
Whenever I hear what’s being played on the radio, I get this overwhelming feeling that I’m 150 years old. Why is everyone barely singing these days? And what’s with the whisper mumbling? Is this Harry Styles, JBiebs, or Nick Jonas? Why has Drake made the exact same song 250,000 times and people still pay him to make more? Have you ever read Taylor Swift’s lyrics? Like, out loud, like a poem? It’s not good, lads. It’s not fucking good. Taylor Swift writes for Instagram captions for toxic exes who like to imagine everyone they’ve ever abused is still pining away for them even though said exes have long had them muted.
I recorded this episode before Omicron started stomping around the planet like Godzilla and wowee have things gotten worse in the last couple weeks. The numbers are as bad as they’ve ever been, except, now, the government is even more hands-off than it was last time. They’re offering even less help (re: none). Things are getting canceled and closed with no financial help to speak of. Everything seems up to personal discretion, and let’s face it, kids, if we’ve seen any proof of anything these past couple years, it’s that the majority of humans aren’t that interested in making good or safe choices. Student loan collections are back on, schools are never closing again, everyone is still being forced back into the office and for what???
Money.
Profits over people, baby.
Shit is bleak.
Any solidarity or community we had at the start of the panini press has all but faded thanks to that frog-in-a-slowly-boiling-pot phenomenon. We’re just used to it. We’re being systemically abused and lead to the slaughter by “““““““““public servants”””””””” with corporate interests who see the mass death, loss, grief, illness and trauma we’ve experienced as necessary risk. That’s easy to say when you’re in a money bubble, Scrooge McDuck.
I have no solutions. I’m just airing my grievances. I can “love and light” with the best of ‘em, but the reality is, if you aren’t mad, you aren’t paying attention.
