#this year

Twin high maintenance machines

I acquired two articles of clothing recently that like, truly complete my style and when I do wear them together, I fully feel like it is such a ripoff that I can't like actually do the kind of magic where I can cast fireballs or stand over a cauldron to make a potion to turn someone into a frog. The articles are a pair of black leather converse with a pointed toe, and I know that you're thinking ' yeah that sounds pretty witchy,' and when I tell you that I daily wear a snake vertebrae necklace, you might think, 'yeah that's some witchy ass shit,' but that is because I have yet to tell you about my newest necklace which is a diaphonized mouse. For those not in the know, that is a process which renders the skin transparent and dyes the bones. So imagine me , at all times, with my pointed leather converse, my snake vertebrae necklace, and my little glass vial with a dead mouse inside it around my neck, and just for good measure, let's add my rattlesnake rattle earrings too. And just know that yes, I am somehow cooler even than I look.

Astounding, simply astounding how very cis man John Darnielle writes some fucking trans anthems by pure happenstance. It's defiance in the face of someone, everything actively trying to kill you; it's seeking not only to live, but to thrive. They do say the best revenge is a life well-lived. Damn, this is gonna be another song that makes me cry everytime I hear it now.

I like to think I'm pretty well traveled, I've seen a lot of the US, been through Mexico plenty, and twice I have gone to Japan. Once a Japanese woman I'd met asked me where I went to while I was there, and I listed off the cities: Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, and even Biei, and she said I'd been to more of Japan than she had and she'd lived there. I saw a great many things while I was there; I went to Hachimangu Temple and sat before ponds filled to bursting with lotuses and koi at the height of summer, I saw Kinkakuji just as the first snow began to fall in the new year, and I've been to the Blue Pond on the only days it rained that July. But the sight that most sticks with me was at one point I was taking the bullet train to Kyoto early in the morning, and I looked out the window just as some fog creeped over the mountains, looking so much like pale fingers reaching to grab an emerald blanket. I was so taken with the image that I never thought to take a photo of it until we were well past. Sometimes creatures of many kinds show themselves to us only when we can just observe, when we can just appreciate what lies before us.

–This Year: 365 Songs Annotated, by John Darnielle