The New Reality Is Brutal

A Reflective RANT about the New Year

Photo: Anthony McGowan

So here we are. The new year has begun, and Los Angeles is still burning, North Carolina is still struggling from the destruction unleashed by Hurricane Helene, Maui is ever so slowly trying to rebuild after their devastating fires, and many are preparing for the uncertainty of a convicted felon to take the office of the President. What a piece of work is that man, to paraphrase Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Our solar systems' seven planets—Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Mercury—are currently in a rare alignment, not a perfect straight line due to their elliptical orbits. The apex of that celestial event will happen on January 25th. Astrologists and soothsayers believe these alignments will amplify universal energy. Maybe it will usher in a new age of enlightenment, or at the very least, enhance the flow of cosmic energy, thus a grand time to meditate on spiritual practices. Yes, I will try to remain optimistic and not dread the future.

Drones? UAPs? Aliens? Plasmoids? Is this our new societal mythology? Or is this "high strangeness," as coined by Dr J. Allen Hynek in his 1972 book, The UFO Experience, and French scientist Jacques Vallée wrote about back in the aughts? I confess that I did ingest far too much of this information last year via my monthly UAP Zoom group—Unveiling the Enigma: A UAP Digest for Curious Minds—meetings devoted to staying on top of this ever-shifting subject. Just last week, acclaimed abductee and celebrated writer Whitley Strieber joined us. His proclamations were very illuminating. Is our species beyond saving? His new book, The Fourth Mind, released two days ago, has thought-provoking opinions regarding this issue, the visitors, and more. I suggest you read it.

Just this week, many UFO/UAP investigators, including Dr. Steven Greer, filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, the former head of the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (ATTIP) Luiz Elizondo, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart, and others, claim that a major whistleblower is coming forward this weekend with earth-shattering news. The allegation is that the United States has recovered non-human technology and will finally share it with the world.

I usually use this time of the year to reflect on all the music and media I've consumed the previous year. (I like waiting a few weeks after the New Year.) Believe me, I did consume plenty, but plenty of my brain thrust was used on other concerns. Moreover, there were challenges to my day-to-day reality. I lost my post-college roommate, Rob, and my pickleball partner, Brant. One was expected (cancer), but the other was sudden and without warning. Our family dog, Nikki, has had numerous health issues. I've been her constant caregiver up here in the Hudson Valley. But I'm blessed to report that my mother reached her 90th birthday in relatively good health. Her 88-year-old boyfriend moved into her home after selling his home. Both lost their automobiles—my mother crashed her vehicle in the parking lot of her fave hair salon. She was not hurt, and thankfully, the other cars were empty. He lost his license. The big challenge for the upcoming year will be their "Uber-user" chops. 

And just yesterday, we lost an artistic (painter, filmmaker, TM disciple) giant. I am honored to have known auteur David Lynch (RIP). I interviewed him a few times, convinced him to be in our Mr. Gray alien puppet series, worked for his TM Music Foundation Charity, and hung out with him in LA at his Hollywood compound several times. I invited him to submit a track for Gary Lucas's Captain Beefheart tribute in New York. His reading of "Pena" is remarkable. Another time, when I was curating/producing a post-Macworld event (the iPhone unveiling) in SanFran, we screened a live Q&A with him and an invited audience. Blessings to his family, friends, and co-workers; he will be missed. One of my favorite podcast interviews was with him. Check it out above.

As I sit here writing this post, I am listening to my favorite jazz album of the year, the pulsating, ambient, and hypnotic Endless by Ms. Nala Sinephro. I'm thinking about how endless natural and manmade disasters are and how we will never escape them. We are just temporary visitors to this living, breathing planet called Gaia. And yet, many humans believe that they hold dominion over it by trying to outmaneuver it. I suspect our Indigenous ancestors in America and other parts of the world understood that a nomadic lifestyle was far more practical for survival than building (semi) permanent structures next to, or in, water (oceans, lakes, rivers), cliffs, hillsides, and deserts.

I keep coming back to where the solutions to natural and manmade disasters are. How can we best prepare for them? Is that even feasible? Affordable? And where is AMERICA's "next new deal" to rebuild our sagging infrastructure? People in North Carolina and Tennessee are still suffering from Hurricane Helene. Ditto those in Maui. I'm not talking about land developers looking to buy the scorched earth properties cheaply. Thankfully, Gavin Newsom signed legislation banning those vultures in California. But it could be decades before LA and some of these other areas are back to normal, if normal at all.

Before I get further sidetracked by the state of Planet Earth, let me briefly share with you three favorite albums of 2024 that perfectly reflected my reflective nature as 2024 slid into 2025. That may seem unlikely for an optimist, but I suspect the nature of said albums allowed me to privately grieve and meditate on the state of the world while using this music as my soothing soundtrack. The fact that I played them on vinyl might speak to my need for gentler times as a teenager growing up in Akron, Ohio. But I needed to hear Nick Cave's Wild God on vinyl, with its religious themes and gospel-fueled background singers, to help release my heartbreak and lift my spirits. I needed that baptism, that cleansing.

Moreover, Nick was quite bullish on it, as he should be. Truth and authenticity matter. "Wild God… there's no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it."

Father John Misty released his finest album since I Love You, Honey Bear. Mahashmashana is as diverse, audacious, and grandiose as any of his previous releases, and with every spin, it continues to reveal itself with his clever lyrics and ear-catching arrangements. My top single of the year—"She Cleans Up"—was pulled from it. It's the hardest rockin' tune he's ever released. It's so good that Nick Cave might consider covering during his next tour with the Bad Seeds, as it shares some of his Grinderman/Birthday Party swagger.

And though I was way late to hear the brilliant and orchestral splendor of LA-based singer-songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Lukas Frank's Storefront Church, I'm now a massive fan. His second album, Ink & Oil, was released in June, but I first heard it in early December. In my humble opinion, no other record sounded quite like it. Shades of Scott Walker meets Harry Nilsson meets Philip Glass. His song "Coal"…it is… it is fucking brilliant and mesmerizing on so many levels. It challenges you. And it will continue to challenge you. So will the whole album. What is going on here? Where can we possibly go from here? What can possibly go wrong? (Maybe it was the most prescient song ever about impending disasters to strike Los Angeles.) Watching it today sent chills down my spine.

The new Dylan film, A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, is a must-see. I know plenty about Zimmerman's history to understand that some of the timeline and narrative are inaccurate, but this does not negate the story's impact. Dylan was at the apex of his creativity—music was bursting from him. And those around him were simply in awe of his prowess. Brilliant performances by Timothy Chaletmet as Dylan and Ed Norton as his early folk mentor and singer-songwriter Pete Seeger. If you don't know Dylan's backstory, watch the exceptional Martin Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home. Also, the short behind-the-scenes doc on "Making of A Complete Unknown" is quite illuminating. Both will provide insight into Mangold's "fable" (his word, not mine) and give you a more thorough understanding of Dylan's legacy and mythology. Cute side story: My kids and wife "didn't know Alice Cooper" was in his band. No, he wasn't. It was Al Kooper (The Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears)!

But I digress; let's get back to reality. Common sense tells me that if our elected officials want to leave a true legacy behind, they will focus on making America "better than before" by moving into the future and not knuckle-dragging around in the past.

I have a very close friend who invests in new energy systems. He will tell you that they exist and can be very profitable, but some fossil fuel oligarchs are cockblocking new energy systems that could provide clean energy for nearly free.

The actual Tesla, i.e., Nikola, believed that Earth could generate endless free energy. That we could shake off the utility companies' monopoly on energy. "His grand vision was to free humankind from the burdens of extracting, pumping, transporting, and burning fossil fuels—which he viewed as 'sinful waste.'" (TheFifthEstate.com) Some have claimed that his inventions (papers, theories, noted work) were burned and/or seized by certain "state" officials.

Do selfish consumers still believe it is cheaper, easier, and better to continue pumping oil and natural gas? These resources are finite! Is carbon capture working? The NY Times reported that a recent study found that carbon capture systems only reduce a plant's net emissions by 10 to 11 percent, not the estimated 80 to 90 percent cited by proponents. Why don't the big oil companies invest in even more dynamic renewable energy systems that benefit all of us? True, investments in green tech are climbing, but we may be beyond the tipping point. And who knows what will happen with this new administration? 

"Clean energy investment by oil and gas companies reached $30 billion in 2023, accounting for only 4% of the industry's overall capital spending, according to the report. Meanwhile, coal investment continues to rise, with more than 50 gigawatts of unabated coal-fired power approved in 2023, the highest since 2015." IEG.org

Imagine a "new deal" that rebuilt our aging electric, water, and waste infrastructures. The LA fires are a perfect example of the old grid's inability to support over-development, overpopulated areas that divert natural resources to benefit the wealthy. Read about the Resnick family here and their well-documented stranglehold on the water for their fruit and pistachio groves in central CA. It's eye-opening, to say the least. Watch the film Chinatown. Its plot revolves around the "water wars" of SoCal. Though fiction, it was spot on in predicting some of LA's current issues.

We need COMMON-SENSE LEADERSHIP NOW! Leadership that understands the stakes and wants to build a better life for the next four generations, not just the next four years. Let's see who will make a real difference. Let's see who the genuinely enlightened leaders are moving forward. Let's see if they can resist the temptation of the corporate oligarchs' and tech bros' twisted pleas to reduce their taxes so their stockholders make more money while the rest of us suffer at the hands of their greed.

"Mother Earth is crying for her human children… she has lived for billions of years and'll live for more. It's a question of whether or not we human beings are going to live," says "Kuuyux" Merculieff, Alaskan Unangan leader. (Indigenous wisdom can heal the planet, The Hill, by Xiye Bastida and Julia Jackson | May. 14, 2020)

I’ll end this post with this brilliant folk song written by songwriter and saxophonist Jim Pepper. He adapted the song "Witchi Tai To" from an ancient peyote chant that he learned from his Native American grandfather. It's a song that celebrates the healing power of the water spirits. Some of you may remember this cover version: