The Unified Field

What's he doing in there?

The Tate brothers are free, the people of Ontario have seen fit to give Doug Ford another mandate, and the British have officially said they don't really give a shit if the United States annexes Canada by whatever means. Why do we have these inbred goblins on our money if they're not going to at least feign concern in a moment like this?

I am deleting my Audible account and have signed up for Libro.fm. Audible is owned by an American billionaire and I am trying to give them the least amount of money that I can. I don't think I'll get to zero and I have talked before about my fraught feelings about Spotify, but I can easily enough stop sending Jeffery Bezos $15 a month. Instead I'll send $20 a month to Libro.fm for basically the same service and they'll give some of that my local indie(-ish) bookstore. Plus, they'll let you download the books you buy in a simple to use, DRM-free format, which avoids having to use third party software you found on Reddit in order to download the library of audio books you've been accumulating for many years and play them in an app that is not controlled by an American billionaire.

I will tell you the Audible migration is something I've been thinking about for a while and the thing that finally did it was that Catching The Big Fish by David Lynch is missing from Audible's catalogue but is available on Libro.fm. That was enough.

I read that book in dead tree form some years ago but it didn't do anything for me other than to confirm David Lynch was probably in a cult. I remember asking online at the time, "Hey, is TM a cult?" and many responded saying, "I used to be in Scientology and yes, TM is definitely a cult." It costs $1500 last time I checked for the TM people to teach you to meditate, but I think I already know how? So really it costs $1500 to meet with a yogi who will assign you a personalized sanskrit mantra.

But maybe there is something to it, still. Maybe if you sit down and shut up for long enough or frequently enough it is possible to access something that is greater than any of us, or is the sum of all of us. The collective unconscious or the divine or the unified field. Whatever you want to name it. Much to consider.

So I have begun the audio version of Catching The Big Fish and you'll never believe it, but before he even says, "Penguin Audio presents..." it begins with an ominous whoosh. I look forward to having David Lynch hector me about meditation and creativity for an hour and forty seven minutes over the next few days.

What I'm Reading

We Don’t Actually Have to Obey in Advance by Stacy Lee Kong over on Friday Things
"Don't Obey in Advance" is a reference to On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, a slim volume I read at the end of last year. Your local library even has the graphic version. It's full of helpful hints and handy tips for living in a broken world.

What I'm Listening To

Goodspeed You! Black Emperor. They still exist! They're based in Montreal! They have good politics and you can buy their records and listen to them on a turntable if you want!
Heavyweight, which has a new home with Pushkin Industries. I have been a fan of Jonathan Goldstein since his CBC radio show Wiretap used to air on Sunday afternoons in the early 2000s. It came on right after The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean, which was a form of mental and emotional whiplash inflicted on all of us by the national broadcaster for reasons known only to them. I'd usually listen to it hungover and smoking in bed. It prompted me to finally read The Metamorphosis and make a mental note to watch Blue Velvet at the my earliest convenience. This only took 15 to 20 years to complete. The show's tribute to David Rakoff at his passing was my the first time in my life I laughed (because funny) and cried (because sad) at the same time. Hearing Jonathan's voice again this week was like a hug from an old friend you assumed had died or moved to California.
You Are Good's episode about Mullholland Drive, a movie I have not seen. It sparked the whole spiral/rabbit hole described above.

What I'm Watching

Severance, from the beginning. The internet seems very worried about Helly R and I do not have enough actual worries in my life at the moment so I have chosen to add to them.

Thanks for reading. I love you.