Chapter 37

Last night, after posting my diary entry, I kept sitting on the couch reading and going down the Top 500 list. There was a weird 1970s nihilistic synth-based record and a compilation of ridiculously catchy South African tunes, and then at number 496 it was Shakira’s second album, in Spanish, before she became an international superstar. I’ve always liked Shakira more than a lot of the shitty pop bimbos from 15 years ago, her voice was better, her beats were better, the positive energy was better, the Latin and even Middle Eastern vibes added something interesting. And well, though I don’t really give a shit normally when judging the value of a musical artist, it’s pop music we’re talking about here, in which it’s probably the number one criteria, and the teenage me thought she was hotter than her counterparts. I had never heard her old Spanish stuff though, or anything other than the big singles, and it was really great. My favorite album of that Top 500 thus far, one I’ll relisten to, and I’ll check out her other early catalog.

Next up was the RnB of Boyz II Men, I enjoyed the first half of the album but it started to get on my nerves eventually. Then it was a 1964 album by The Ronettes, it was kinda cool but also sounds extremely dated, obviously, so I couldn’t really get into it.

I started the day with black tea and yoga. An old pal from way back in the day when I was in the Army has a YouTube channel with yoga instructionals, I’ve been feeling a bit stiff and have told myself for a while I should introduce yoga in my daily/weekly routine. I started with just a 15-minute morning sequence, and I’ll ramp it up. When school starts, I’ll begin the day by getting up a tad earlier and doing either yoga or tai chi.

I took the dog for a walk, going all the way to the school to see if my package has arrived. I ordered a bunch of CDs from a metal label in Quebec, it said it would be here by February 1^st but no luck so far. I hope it’s just delays due to Covid and perhaps the Chinese New Year holiday, and that it’s not just lost in the mail or worse, confiscated by some fucknugget at the customs office.

There was a curious sight at the entrance of the apartment building, a Tibetan man was selling deer antlers, tree bark, weird desiccated mushrooms and plants, and jarred pickled roots. No idea what any of that is for, probably for alternative medicine purposes, of the dick-enlarging kind.  

I got home, made more tea and heated a plate of R n’ S. I watched a few YouTube videos about self-improvement and positivity by a black metal and folk musician named Paul Waggener, it was quite interesting. I googled him to know more, apparently he’s the founder of some kind of neo-pagan organization and put on some kind of “hate list” by the Ministry Of Truth or whatever its real-life incarnation is. I don’t really give a fuck, nothing in the few videos I watched was remotely about hating black people or anything retarded like that, it was mostly about independence, rugged individualism and masculinity. Nowadays it seems there are more people who get called a nazi than people who don’t, after so much crying wolf (and hiding/distorting the truth, and promoting things that are just plain false), the powers-that-be shouldn’t really be surprised that a lot of people don’t buy their shit.

While doing yoga, I saw up close how dusty the floor was, though I swept and mopped it only a few days ago. So I cleaned the whole apartment again, including my home gym, which is covered by thick mats that have been accumulating insane amounts of dust and dirt. I removed all the mats, rinsed them in the bathtub, put them outside to dry, then cleaned the bathtub.

I finished Homo Deus, started a new book about the Norman conquest of England, and listened to Marvin Gaye’s soul and Bonnie Raitt’s country, at numbers 493 and 492. I also saw that Terrordome just released an album, so I gave it a listen. Terrordome is a new-school thrash metal band from Poland, I saw them live a few years ago in Chongqing, China, and they were pretty cool. I even had beers with the band members afterwards as I was the only foreigner in the crowd and they obviously couldn’t speak Chinese, really nice guys. The new album rips, a bundle of tightly-wound and catchy riffs played at 200 km/h, with a bit of an 80s crossover vibe that is very pleasing. I wonder if that Rolling Stone Top 500 has a lot of metal on it, perusing the list real quick I saw Metallica’s Master Of Puppets in there, but I doubt any of those squares recognize more extreme genres.

I also listened to an album by deathgrind outfit Handsome Prick, which was absolutely excellent, and makes me wonder how come they’re not as well-known as some other bigger bands of that niche. And I rounded it up with an album by Thermohaline, a “quarantine band” with members from four different countries, who made a superb and utterly varied album of post-black metal with elements of tons of genres, from d-beat to harsh electronic and with a constant unsettling vibe which they refer to as “oceanic”. All three will be entering my rotation for sure.

At night I rode my longboard to the bar, with the dog in tow. Beers were drunk, funny and serious conversations were had, card games and foosball games were played. Good times were had. It was a friend’s birthday so I gave him a homebrewed IPA.