RAW THOUGHTS 6.25.25

-25 25, that’s crazy. 25, 25'. Air. The air is humid. Some people love the heat. But Love is Destructive. I’ll stop. Kinda wanking over here. Now I’ll stop. Eyyyyyyy!

-I'm reading a bunch of stuff about Japanese seasons. They operate differently than they do here. They have 24 periods of time that can be defined as seasons, called sekki, then those are divided into periods of five days called kō. These micro seasons are named after occurrences specific to that time of year like, “Rotten grass becomes fireflies” or “Crickets chirp around the door”. I really like the idea of specific micro seasons, especially as a New Yorker who has to deal with the dumbest weather imaginable. Our summer is at least two or three miniature rainy seasons that pop up at random. I don’t even know how to gauge New York winters anymore. We didn’t have snow for years and then all of a sudden we had a polar vortex. And then there was a day or two in the 70s. We need nano seasons. I don’t know what to do about the names though there’s only so many times you can call something “The 6 Train smells crazy right now.”

-Really happy Mamdani won. Like I’m really hopeful right now. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on right now in my life, some bad, some aggravating, some just befuddling(on a few levels), but this actually gives me hope for the future. I’m Fiorello Laguardia’s strongest soldier and I see a lot of that in Zohran. Also Mississippi Masala was a good movie.

-Eating a bowl from Naya, one of the many bowl chains that have popped up in the past five years. It’s not bad I guess, pretty decent actually. I like shawarma, hummus, baba ganoush, all that Middle Eastern stuff. They’re Lebanese so it’s not one of those situations where they call it “Mediterranean” as a general catch-all term for Middle Eastern-adjacent food to hide the fact that the owners are Israeli, which is actually quite common. I’m trying not to break BDS, what can I say?

I’m not even really sure how I feel about the whole bowl thing. On the one hand a lot of these places are built around efficiency and getting x amount of each thing in a serving. You have this much protein you have a starch as a base, you have veggies. I can see how it’s considered sloppified but that’s just how most cultures eat? You have three basic categories and you either put them in a wrap or put them in a bowl. I suppose the assembly line aspect of it makes it “slop”? I don’t know. People use the term “slop” for anything nowadays. Ironically the overuse is symptomatic of slop.

-The heat just kind of compounds the malaise. It’s too muggy to really move. Usually if I’m feeling down I’ll go on a walk or something. On a good day I’ll usually end up at 5 or 6 miles. I can’t really do that now that outside feels like being inside a bathroom that’s had the shower running for twenty minutes. I don’t want to die out here!

-Aesop Rock’s newest album, Black Hole Superette, is pretty good. I’ll be honest he’s moved up pretty considerably on my hypothetical top __. I don’t do any of that shit but if I did my top 5 as of now would be

1. Hov
2. Kendrick(the records from the beef raised him considerably despite white people ruining it. But they ruin everything that’s why I’m speaking English right now)
3. Nas
4. Jadakiss
5. Aesop Rock

He’s one of the few people really consistently dropping quality music, especially at his age. The thing I love the most about him is how conversational his flow is. One of the things his detractors always say is that he’s too dense or too abstract which I don’t really see. If you listen to anything he’s done past… 2006 it sounds like he’s telling an anecdote or having a conversation with you. It’s actually really amazing that he’s possible to pull that off so consistently. While doing his own beats! I haven’t put enough respect on his name and I really should.

-I might have to put billy woods in my Top 10 just off the last decade. If I were the type of person to really suss out a Top 10.

That’s about it I guess. I’ll probably look at one of the three or four running drafts I have going and add some stuff. Or maybe not who the fuck knows.