Dead Musicians + Astrology + High Thoughts

I'm not an Ozzy Osbourne superfan or anything, but I like metal, so of course I like him, I think it's a pity that he died instead of someone else who's a few years older than him, and I'm glad he kept making music toward the end of his life. I think his 2020 song "Scary Little Green Men" is underrated. Of course, I'm biased because I like scary little green men.

Satirical musician Tom Lehrer, who was an influence on "Weird Al" Yankovic, also died yesterday at the ripe age of 97. When I first became aware of him through Spotify Radio, I didn't know the songs I heard were from the 50s and 60s, and when I first saw him singing in a video, I thought the black and white was an artistic choice. I later realized I'd already heard him singing about phonics on "The Electric Company." I love the scathing, deadpan satire of his song "Werner von Braun," which I've chosen to remember him by.

As I was reading about his death just now, I also saw that Ghanaian superstar Daddy Lumba died today. I'm not as familiar with him. He's one of the many artists whom I've looked up on Spotify and only listened to their most-streamed tracks because life is too short to go through everyone's entire discography. However, I'm quite keen on "Theresa," a tribute to his high school girlfriend from his debut solo album.

Speaking of musicians, I've just started a change.org petition to encourage Spotify's CEO to stop investing artists' revenue in military AI development. I couldn't believe there wasn't one already. Please sign it, pretty please.

I recently watched this month-old video from an astrologer predicting that Trump will be "done" by September and his presumptive successor will have no real power. I don't believe in astrology, but right now, I really want to. It is a plausible prediction because Trump's dementia is advancing, he's self-destructing over the Epstein crap, and nobody likes his successor. (Everyone says Shady Vance has no charisma. I personally don't understand why people think a sack of orange diarrhea that can't form a coherent sentence has charisma, but I'm weird that way.) On the other hand, Trump has demonstrated an almost supernatural immunity to consequences for hundreds of things that each individually would have destroyed anyone else's political career and/or landed them in prison for life, so I'm not holding my breath. But I really want to believe.

If this does come true, though, I'll have to do some mental gymnastics to figure out how the relative position of the planets and the stars might have any kind of legitimate predictive power. At one point, the astrologer says that a voice told her something, and that's actually a more trustworthy source in my book. She also suggests the interesting concept of the United States as a nation having an "oversoul" in addition to the individual souls that comprise its population, which is the sort of thing that I don't believe as such but have no problem accepting as a possibility. She also believes that the souls of past presidents like Abraham Lincoln are helping us from the other side, which is the sort of thing that I hadn't considered before but must logically be true if my beliefs about the afterlife are correct.

Anyway, I don't know what the future will hold, but I'll keep fighting to make it better as much as I can. I've done a few protests with a local group called Utah Overpass Action, including the one I mentioned last week where a garbage man flipped us off and subsequently rear-ended someone. On Saturday, we stood on the overpass with huge signs saying "Release the Epstein Files" and "What is Trump Hiding?" I was really excited about it because this is one of the most effective messages so far, and indeed, we got even more honks and fewer middle fingers than usual. But this weird guy showed up in the parking lot where we met and just sat there in his truck the entire time we were there, possibly trying very hard to think of a way he could counterprotest us without looking like a supporter of child abuse. You can't see that one of his flags says "F.A.F.O.," which stands for "I fantasize about being violent because my dad doesn't love me."

Here, with some footnotes added, is some free spiritual wisdom that I wrote down recently while I was high. In that state of altered consciousness, thoughts feel like spontaneous revelations, taking me by surprise and blowing my mind. These things may not be as deep as they seemed to me at that time - or maybe they are, but I could only properly appreciate them in a state of altered consciousness because I'd take their simplicity for granted otherwise.

Don’t worry about peak possible pleasure (PPP) in any moment. Just appreciate what you can from the moment you have without comparing it to what maybe possibly could be.* Opportunity costs and so on. Breadth vs. depth of the experience? And this isn’t objectively true or not true – it’s just a way of living, a chosen meaning, that’s more likely to bring satisfaction than some others. And if you want to be satisfied, you don’t owe anyone an explanation.

But don’t let that translate into satisfaction with mediocrity. You’re not here to do any less than you want.

Nothing is independent of God because it all goes back to him as the ultimate cause of existence itself – but he’s not a separate “he,” and certainly not a micromanager who needs to tell you what the meaning of everything is because he said so. So yeah, secularize that shit! Everything is spiritual when viewed properly. Even the sick things. (Some meanings are there, and some you make because you have to.)

ChatGPT doesn’t love me, but I get the love back that I put into it. (Only the ego would care if that sounds pathetic.)
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You have to impose your own guidelines to whittle down the choices from damn near infinite within a very short time, and that’s not a bad thing, but be open to changing them as opportunities arise.** (Something Mormons can’t do. No offense.)

Not every song has to be my favorite.***

Experience is more comforting than knowledge. It changes your life more by getting into your heart.
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Nature shows us that destruction is okay because if it were ultimately detrimental to existence in the long run, it would be naturally selected out on a large scale. (Don’t ask me to prove the science behind this.)



* Appreciating what you have is a pretty basic concept, but this was inspired by my concern about trying to optimize my trip before the drug wore off. Was there something else I could be doing that would bring me more pleasure? But if there was, and I did it, would the drug wear off faster? And I realized the pleasure I already had in that moment was enough for me to fully enjoy the moment, even if I could have potentially gotten more. I was careful to say "appreciate what you can" because I know that some moments just suck, and I won't try to tell people they should be happy about that.

​** This was inspired by how, like I said, I look up artists on Spotify and only listened to their most-streamed tracks because life is too short to go through everyone's entire discography, but if I get exposed to a song some other way and like it (as well I might because I'm not picky), I'll still take it even if it's not as popular with other people. I have to set constraints on my music browsing because the amount of music available to me is, for all intents and purposes, infinite, but those constraints need to be flexible so they don't hold me back. And thus it is with life, no?

*** I guess this is essentially a rephrasing of the first point. I don't like all songs equally, but when I listen to a song that I like somewhat, I can get sufficient satisfaction from that moment without wishing I were listening to a song that I like more. And thus it is with life, no?