Journal: Nov 2025
Winter Blahs, Orson’s Pals, Chair Conspiracies, Chill Pill, Nick Hustles, Ugly Duckling, Throbbing Boys, Washing Machine Blues, AI Pontificating.
Nov 2025 | New York City
Greetings, Earthlings.
It’s cold and dark out there, but at least we have the holidays to look forward to…for now.
It’s been very cold here in NYC the past few weeks (by NYC standards, I mean — nowhere near the kind of cold one endures in parts of my home and native land.)
We’ve had freezing rain (always delightful) but no snow to speak of, unlike a handful of years ago when a blizzard turned the city into a snow globe.
It’s a great time of year for staying indoors, so brew up something warm to “get yourself outside of” and enjoy a perusal through that which caught my attention last month.
I continue to futz around with my Substack page and its sections, but I think I am getting closer to knowing what I want it to be.
I’m not in a period where I have a lot of extra free time, so my work on it, and on creating in general, are slotted in as best I can. Thanks for your patience and taking the journey with me.
👀 Watch
Orson Name-drops (YouTube)
Deceased creative genius and former accomplished boozer Orson Welles shares some incredible stories from his life, including sitting next to Hitler at a dinner party and meeting and befriending Churchill (frenemies or what?!) Welles seems like he’d have been a great person to hang out with, despite his persistent sweating.
The Chair Company (HBO)
I went into this show knowing nothing about it and highly recommend you do the same. It’s a unique, absurd comedy and a thriller, among other things.
I’m usually very good at predicting where things are going in movies and in TV programs (much to the chagrin of anyone unfortunate enough to watch them with me), but I will admit I have had zero idea where this has been going (I’m not finished watching it yet), to my delight.
Was this worth the cost of a cup of coffee or a trip on the subway?
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🎧 Listen
Supachill 4: Rise of the Supachill
I’m a compulsive Spotify playlist maker. While I still crank up the punk rock, techno, high BPM dance music, and classic rock frequently, I find I also often need the aural equivalent of a Xanax. Such are the times in which we live. Should you find yourself in need of something to calm you rather than further accelerate your weekly panic attack, this playlist, the fourth in a series, might be helpful:
“I Do Whatever the Fuck I Want,” by Nick Hustles
Using AI in any creative endeavour is highly controversial these days, with music one of the most button-pushing. There are many, many valid reasons to oppose AI-produced creative.
Still, I can’t deny my love for this song, entitled “I Do Whatever the Fuck I Want,” created by Nick Arter in the guise of the AI-created artist Nick Hustles.
“My main intention is to write self-esteem anthems while having some fun and making a few jokes in the process,” says Arter of his work.
The fictional Hustles has a selection of songs with titles like “I Lost My Fucking Vape Again", “Bitch, I Ain’t No Narcissist,” and “Quitting My Job and Starting an OnlyFans.” Needless to say, the lyrics are on the racy side, but despite their often aggressive titles, the music has the sound of classic soul (on YouTube, the songs are given fictional dates from the 60s and 70s) and are often damn catchy.
I think of this stuff as novelty songs rather than as music to be taken seriously, but they are undeniably fun.
“I Won’t Let it Die,” by Ugly Duckling
This new-to-me hip-hop track from 2009 caught my attention because of the great samples and beats, but even more so for the lyrics.
As someone who has been through nearly two years of absolutely nothing going my way, lyrics like these really resonated:
“Wake up, I’ve got a real situation
So we need to move time’s wasting
I could lose everything that I have
And I’m not sure what I should do, it looks bad
Can anybody shed some light
How do I transform death to life
Is there a way that I pay the cost
Or do I just fold and take the loss”
The song is a back-and-forth between someone in the midst of a bad moment and another voice encouraging them not to give up, with an almost call-and-response vibe. For example:
“Listen to yourself, you sound so dramatic
Bro, I think you’re coming at it all wrong
Start fresh, you don’t have to feel stressed
The trouble’s all gone, it’s a brand new dawn”
It’s a great song with a great vocal hook (“I won’t let it die eye eye eye eye…” and a message I needed to hear.
🛜 Online
Boy Throb (not gay porn, I promise)
Boy Throb are a fictional boy band based in LA.
It’s clearly satire, but the guys in the band are fully committed to the bit and play it entirely straight — and I’m here for it (as the kids like to say).
There are four members of the band, but one of them, Darshan, is currently stuck in India and can’t get a US visa. Many of the hilarious posts are about this struggle with frequent appearances by the band’s immigration lawyer.
My Stuff:
I wrote about 18 years of sobriety and navigating the extra life. You can read about it here and find out how this situation includes references to:
Major household appliances
The ’80s classic video game Galaga
Batman and Robin actor Burt Ward’s penis
Sisyphus
My full frontal nudity in a room full of strangers
George Burns
Metaphorical gardening
Sufi poets
I also wrote about the duality of our online and offline selves as AI surges and non-corporate social media posting wanes. I didn’t send this one out by email because I was (and am) worried it might be a little dull to most people in my massive subscriber list (up to 85 now, which is pretty cool). But if you are interested in internet-y type things and/or our future AI overlords, you might just be dorky enough to appreciate it.
Thanks for reading.
