Its the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.
I'd sung that countless times along the roads and highways of Ohio; The Beetle's cranky oil alarm whining for attention.
Friday night was Karaoke night in Akron. It wasn't far from my place. Just across the bridge in to Cuyahoga Falls. Its a strange city, but Domenic's was alright. Every friday night, SYN/HAK would come out to Karaoke. The bar was ours for the night, one day a week. Some of my deepest relationships have come out of the Karaoke scene of Akron.
Music's had deep meaning to me as an art form for as long as I remember. My first contributions to KDE were for Amarok, which led me to maintain Phonon-GStreamer and eventually work for Collabora. Karaoke was an extension of this. I'd played the Baritone in elementary school; it ended there for to financial reasons as my family couldn't justify buying or leasing the instrument.
So, Karaoke.
Friday night was Karaoke night in Concord. A much appreciated outlet.
Its been surprisingly difficult since leaving Cuyahoga Falls to find a space for Karaoke in the way Domenic's was. I'm not a fan of renting a small room with friends. Thats no way to find the community. That's no way to meet new friends.
The way to do it is at a bar that is not designed for Karaoke, but merely evolves to support it. An organic, free-range, not-for-much-profit karaoke night. A DJ who doesn't keep the books up to date because they'll find it then and there on their laptop or just buy it outright. They're hard to find here; there is promise in Concord.
This planet is killing us all. Its the end of the world as we know it. And on Friday nights, I feel fine. Its important to remember the things we're fighting for. Its important to take back our time for ourselves in an act of rebellion.
This planet is grinding us all to dust. One by one. Every inch is countless drowned souls.
My passport is laying dormant this year. I haven't traveled outside of the united states in a long while. The last was Mexico City in 2016/17. It can be difficult to travel with a federal government such as this working at a feverish rate to extinguish ourselves as a kind of sacrifice before an angry planet. If the habitable planet area continues to shrink, if our fragile ecology goes amok, if we don't contain urban sprawl, maybe it will be quite some time before we can put ourselves back on track. If at all.
Music brought me around the planet. Its why and how I visited Randa, Switzerland. Its what helped me to travel to far places and let me live among them, to learn from its people. Bourdain's death this week was poignent. A fellow traveller. Ground to dust by this planet. Its climate. Its people. Its culture and government.
Friday night, the dust settles. For a little bit. Then, we can have the things that are worth fighting for. The reasons we should all stay here. A loud moment of rebellion against the world's monopoly on our time. It invigorates the soul. Nourishing and vivid.
Too many in my life have been ground to dust, often in front of my eyes. Life is incredibly short. When the clouds are in and the futility of it all washes over, live can seem even shorter. God bless buproprion. Karaoke is such a great source of dopamine.
There's are many reasons to be here. To stay around on this planet. Each one is precious and must be fought for, won. Its okay to ask for help finding those reasons. I try to be honest with myself and acknowledge that nothing great is ever done alone, that maybe if I want to help others then others want to help me when I need it. That is the antidote to depression, and why we must jealously protect the ingredients; always be seeking it out, and learning what others do to make it.
There is no single answer to life. And I feel fine.