writing is what I would do if I didn't have to do anything.

like, when people ask what I do for fun, the answer includes "writing" and "finding new topics to write about/new perspectives from which to say something again."

not only do I enjoy the process of gathering and shaping my thoughts, it's as much therapy for me as I can afford. I really and truly enjoy it, fills my spirit.

I wrote my way through COVID, a whole-ass pandemic which somehow slipped into a colossal public memory hole--socially, we talk more about the 80s than 2020--and that makes me feel fucking insane so good thing I documented it.

in fact, I wrote a book in that timeframe as well. 

like, not to belabor the point--definitely a phrase I picked up in some book--but I've written more words maybe in this post than are on the entire album. I DO this, yall.

volume of words is not my problem...as I have only recently discovered in the last few years, the issue was formatting. 

..."essays" kinda ain't what people wanna hear when they talk about fun, eh?

they wanna hear stuff like "I like to travel" like the furthest distances possible aren't between your ears, or maybe something medium-interesting like "photography"...which I do enjoy in a way, I just like making the pictures pop up in other people's heads. the equipment is way less expensive.

otherwise it's "you must be fun at parties [rolleyes]"

so I started a music band for fellow young people.

mf I AM the party.

I am a writer in an age where no one reads. some stuff you either gotta find funny or strangle somebody over...this goes in the first bin.

like, true, my most comfortable format is longform--ain't enough room for nuance on any of the quip media sites--but fuck it, I'll adapt. I only have actual problems, poverty, climate change, the onset of neofascism, that kinda thing.

still, I have written--without exaggeration--100 million words of English-language prose. thought about typing "a billion" there, but I'm actually not sure it is that many since 1,000,000,000 of anything is a whole fucking bunch...for example, how tf do you earn a thousand-million dollars in a world where the vast majority of people can maybe keep 10 per hour if they are one of the luckier humans alive?

I've always asked a lot of questions.

hold on, why don't we go back real quick and finish the frame? I guess if my mommy is the biographer my first 'book' was called "The Magic Fish" and I wrote it when I was 6 years old. I don't remember much about it, because if you remember the first thing you ever wrote it probably kinda sucks.

listen if you want a mf to blow smoke up your skirt ChatGPT is right over there.

moving on, later in life I turned to writing scripts, book reports, and so very many forum posts...sometimes for Internet cool points, others for something meaningless like middle school grading. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote until I got an 800 on the English portion of my SATs (true story!) then I KEPT FN WRITING

in my adult life, I was rewarded for my dedication and statistically perfect English with an opportunity to write blurbs, jingles, and filler flair for meagre pay...at least, until AI took my real job.

anyways, point is that what amounts to rhythmic chants I can write in my sleep...this band ain't my first protest, and one thing I've noticed is that our side needs better chants. say what you want about the fash, but their stuff is catchy...Disney has a lot to teach about making the program palatable.

I've been saying the same stuff with different coats of paint for a lot of my life...this hot pink color--ahem, "Riot Rose"--people seem to dig.

hey, I obviously love it too.

let's start with one of my favorites, "ima be myself"--in Episode #3, "talkin' bout practice" (boy do I love thematic numbering)--we actually went over a little of ZiZi's part, but here I wanna turn your attention to something I say during mine:

"my complaint department's closed/just about reached my limit

I don't take their advice so why would I take their criticism?"

like, that's just something I the person say...all 3 sentences. ZiZi doesn't always love when I do deploy one of these common stock phrases in my life, but she will enjoy that they reflect an important lesson she taught me about performing...emotion is EVERYTHING, nobody's gonna buy it if you can't sell it.

trust me, I mean that shit.

just like I did when I wrote "dancin' (on the grave)"...like, people hop right on some bullshit when some skin-demon finally croaks, talking about 'oh you can't speak ill of the dead' well they started the conversation so WATCH ME SPEAK IT FLUENTLY!!!:

"it's after midnight/on this bright new day

I heard the news/oh yes it's true/you gone away

dance on the moonlight/atmosphere sublime

a better future/one step at a time

ooh

so I'm dancin'

dancin' on the grave

getting down down down

cuz you underground

dancin'

dancin' on the grave

don't give a damn who sees

finally feelin' free"

what, am I gonna cry when 45's heart pops? did mfs sit around sobbing when the goon squad rolled up in Bin Laden's crib, put hot brass in his skull and dumped his body somewhere in the Global Ocean? I don't remember that.

no it's not polite or whatever maybe but you name me one other way to effectively address those who are demonstrably detrimental to a shared society and yet insist on breathing shared air?

I say if they made this world a worse place BOX 'EM TF UP, GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE

like, really hear me: "dance on the moonlight" = "I'm so happy you got the fuck off my playground that I literally stepped up into the matter-free space above the Earth's surface and performed a choreographed dance routine."

hell, I keep my knees in good condition specifically so that I may one day frolic upon the burial sites of various enemies.

kinda wrote tf outta that song lol

one I didn't ENTIRELY write, like note-for-note, is our "doused (derogatory)."

sure, I added A LOT of lyrics--again, that is my primary function in this band and in life--but DIIV's "Doused" is about...idk some girl or something. the word "doused" isn't even in the song, and it's such a cool word!

so I just went ahead and filed all the words off the melodies and all.

our take on it has been remixed to be about...surprise, water! as the main character of Planet Earth, water really needs more songs written about it:

"true believer in your freedom so you know the tenets/I can't get with it /I'm fn finished/corporations lie they got a lot of polish in em
know it's blatant by the flow of Colorado River
privatize a lake and, bottled water station
locking life up in a bottle turn around and say you oughta
reinvest in their schematic for the water on the planet
soldiers loading on the side while they drain the water dry
watching mfs die out here from dehydration
watch a fn colonizer talk about a human right
try to hoard up all the water put a border in it
when the glow inside us grow they gonna know the limit

doused, oh oh oh, doused
!!!
you ignoring all the warning
water rising world is boiling
straight doused oh oh oh doused
!!!
ain't no lying for your pleasure
when we dying in a desert
listen"

guess I don't really need to speak much more on the themes involved there, but I did feel it was important that you see that I officially notate my exclamations for songwriting purposes. 

"apagón" is another one of my favorites. literally translating as "power outage," this song is about...well, let's say it's about Dubai:

"visit the pyramids, famous places, or right here

sharing spaces and separated by light years"

I'm sure we've all seen rich kids wipe their filthy fn feet on everything around them and felt the jubilation that it inspires...as a survivor of multiple public-facing service industries I can't say too much more about it without getting all pissed off so I turned the chorus over to our resident siren:

"aea

who run this city

aeaea

who run this town

aeaeaea

quien tiene control

aeeaah

we hold this up 

we'll shut this down

we hold this up 

we'll shut this down

we hold this up 

we'll shut this down

shut this down

shut this down

shut shut shut shut shut this down"

like I said, our people need better chants at these demonstrations.

(yes "aea"...it's, like, Eastern or something!)

while I'm all riled up let's talk "refrigeraiders." it's actually based on a true story which I ain't telling online, officer...but in any event here's the chorus:

"gimme gimme gimme gimme

you don't need that today

gimme gimme gimme gimme

you'll just throw that away

all the food you can't use

we about to feed the needy now

you been eating long enough

said stop being greedy now"

now, let's address the elephant in the room: yes, I did borrow that last part from my homie DMX, but I did cite him as an influence and besides, I think he would approve of the sentiment.

honestly, we share a lot of perspective...sure there are fewer bullets and break-ins on our album, but definitely not zero. 

we both feel it's important to ask the right questions...how is kicking down the door of someone's home and [blank]ing their kids any more violent than having ICE do it? than supporting them when they do?

is threatening your family with bodily harm any more outrageous than deciding whether a human being belongs in college or jail by 4th grade?

how is a gunpoint carjacking more of a crime than raising the retirement age in a time of plenty?

is it more of a crime to rob a bank or to own one?

so maybe fuck you and your daughter.

doesn't have to be that way, would obviously prefer it wasn't. but fn maybe. I heard you, X...but they didn't so lemme say it one more time.

honestly, "¡DAMELO!" is about the same thing. hey, if some pop acts can have 8 love songs on the same album why can't I pen a few about my marriage to the revolution?:

"undercount your hours, you appealing for a check

short 'em 20 dollars, trooper kneeling on your neck

exploitation make a killing in the stock

but loot or shoot a suit and you'll be chillin' in a box

so skip me quackin' on bout 'violent and lawless'

depending who you are, it's inherent in all this

damelo, damelo

dame dame dame dame (dame!)

si no me entiendes, I said RENDER IT UPON ME"

just because we're all colorful and bohemian doesn't mean we're here to hug everybody...it's 2025, either we're friends or enemies.

no shame in my game...fuck it, follow me for more Russian cocktail recipes.

don't wanna type out every word on the album here--where's the fun in that, you gotta wait for the liner notes--but I can't possibly end off without highlighting the verse I nailed across "Prayer in C" to form our version, "pray n see."

like I said, I ain't on that stage to mince words with mfs:

"our god who art in heaven/or not, I thought he left us

tal vez your gods are dead we got to face this shit together

implore you but ignore you/two footprints on the tide

I got today's news for you/this is our only ride

let that shit go/deep down you know you on your own inside

uprise to paradise fuck waiting for the other side

I asked a girl in Gaza/about our holy father

she told me she would rather still be with her earthly dad or

maybe chilling in his building/once they rebuild the ceiling

color-coded curfew limits/bread with broken glass up in it

Sunday school I got the feeling/this sht cannot be real cuz

in his name their houses were destroyed/don't think I could forgive you!"

once again my Rainbow Coalition, this is wtf I do.

I AM a writer...my pen is my power, and I place its sharpest points at the service of our shared future.

amen.

all power to The People.

--Flor!