ArtLung: Anniv. ~ 20 Mar 2025

But know everything lost will be recovered
When you drift into the arms of the undiscovered

That’s from a Monkees song that’s so beautiful I cry every time I hear it. It’s called Me and Magdalena.

Which I thought of because Tantek mentioned a song he remembered a song by Book of Love called Magdalena.

He meant Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes), a lovely song I do remember but never put on a mix.

I added both to my 2025 mix.

In turn I remembered a lyric by the Dead Milkmen:

You’ll dance to anything by The Communards
You’ll dance to anything by Book of Love

Not their best song. Their best song. Well, my favorite today is Punk Rock Girl. It struck me a song maybe Jo would like.

if your store ain’t got Mojo Nixon then your store could use some fixin’

I think a lot about curation.

I think about how acquiring things can make them feel like they are mine. Once they exist in my possession I am more connected to them.

“The algorithm” is this crazy distant thing manipulating what we see and listen to.

I’m tired of talking of algorithms.

I don’t want a random sample of my music.

That’s also an algorithm. And when I had all my music in a bin and played it on random my family complained about THERE’S TOO MUCH ZAPPA.

Which is right.

I also don’t just want more of what I already had.

And I don’t trust machines to decide what’s next.

But I like serendipity. Mishear Modigliani and I get Magdalena and then the Monkees.

Good.

Streams I can’t hold in my hands.

When the power goes out I can’t trust a stream.

In some ways the mixtape webpage is an effort to hold my tastes in my warm living hands.

To keep it–if not secret–to keep it safe.

I can hold music in my hands in a cassette form. Here’s one from my friend Erin from 30 years ago.

Is there anything more beautiful than that? There is not.

With no reason to hide these words I feel
And no reason to talk about the books I read but still I do

from Sister I’m a Poet a song I first heard on that magnetic tape. Erin’s mixtape “Fresh Rats” is a favorite artistic curation of mine. It’s small, and personal, and made before we used computers to make mixes.

I want more of that.

More serendipity going into this new year of my life.

That’s my wish.

I spent 2 hours 20 minutes in the water today.

And I got many messages wishing me a happy birthday. It was glorious. The messages. The waves.

It was south of that pier that I first rode a wave on an inflatable mat 50 years ago or so. My father beside me, assuring I would not drown. Sharing with me his love of the sea.

Those waves have been lapping on that shore in that spot for… how long?

That makes my head hurt to try and contemplate when that wave began.

And to contemplate when it will end.

Erin is still curating. She shared some photos of me from over the years. They’re extraordinary. I am all these people and none of them. I am me now. But they were me then.