Thankful N' Thoughtful
Reflecting on a rough year with serious gratitude
My tremendously talented pal Rachel Lichtman — treat yerself to a taste of her wonderfully warped worldview over at the Programme 4 website — surprised me yesterday with this “magazine cover” for Jagged Time Lapse. And it completely blew my mind; because while I don’t think of JTL as a magazine, per se, this is indeed what it would look like if you could actually find JTL on your local newsstand.
Of course, local newsstands are few and far between these days — and, not coincidentally, so are the kind of publications I once relied upon to make a steady living as a freelance writer. Which is one of the reasons I’ve been trying to make a go of it here on Substack, and why I’m so grateful to those of you who have generously supported it with your paid monthly and annual subscriptions.
Rachel’s artwork totally nailed what Jagged Time Lapse is all about — and if you’re into one or more of the artists she included on above, you definitely belong here. You’ll find pieces on all of them (and over a hundred other music-related subjects) in the JTL archives, and I’ve got a lot more good stuff coming down the pike that you won’t wanna miss. And if you subscribe to Jagged Time Lapse, you won’t miss anything — every new “newsletter” I post here will head straight to your inbox like a cannonball, thereby circumventing the need to get your JTL updates from the algorithmically unreliable social media.
And if you go the paid subscription route (for the low, low cost of $5/mo or $50/year), you’ll have full access to the archives, as well as the exclusive “paid-only” stuff I write and post here several times a month, and the new video and audio elements I’ll be launching here in December. I think that’s a pretty solid deal, and I hope you will too!
2023 was a rough year for me, even aside from all the other awfulness happening in this country and on this planet. I lost a beloved stepmom and a beloved feline companion; with regards to the latter, HUGE thanks to everyone who signed up for a paid JTL subscription this week, thereby helping me cover Otis’s final vet costs.
I had to adjust to living solo for the first time in over a decade (and in a little town I’d never even heard of until shortly before I moved here); I had a lengthy cancer scare (which thankfully turned out to be just a scare); and I’ve struggled mightily to make a living in a media landscape where fewer and fewer outlets are willing to pay experienced and reliable writers decent fees (or fees at all) for quality content. It’s brutal out there for us creative types right now, and getting all the more so.
So, then… why do I still wake up nearly every morning with a smile on my face? Well, since today is Thanksgiving, let me count some of my many, many blessings:
I am not only healthy, but for the first time in years I feel fantastic — I’ve managed to lose 20 pounds since July, due in part to the fact that I live in an absolutely beautiful part of the Hudson Valley that’s filled with enticing and inspiring hiking trails. I never thought I would be able to drop this much weight, and it feels so good to be able to fit into some of my favorite clothes again. (My aching knees are likewise thankful to no longer have to lug 20 extra pounds of flab around Lake Minnewaska.)
I have made some wonderful pals in this neck of the woods, including an unbelievably awesome girlfriend whom I met completely by chance in this tiny hamlet, Lifetime movie-style. I was even less optimistic about ever finding romance again than I was about dropping the aforementioned poundage, so 2023 is already coming out ahead for those things alone.
I now live 35 minutes away from my mom, and 2 hours away from my dad, which means I get to see them both a helluva lot more often than the once-or-twice a year visits we typically enjoyed over most of the last three decades. Living in close-ish proximity to my folks has made me appreciate all the more my fantastic luck in being their son.
I don’t know how I would have it through my first few days without Otis if it hadn’t been for the incredible outpouring of love and support I received this week from so many kind-hearted folks here, on social media and in every other corner of my life. So thanks again for that, all of you. I miss Otis terribly, and always will, but at least I still have his younger brother Angus (a.k.a Tiny) — who, despite his obvious confusion at Otis’s sudden absence, has been providing me with constant love, amusement and cuteness. I mean, just look at this nutball:
Music — vintage and modern — still inspires me, heals me and makes life worth living on a daily basis. And that includes the making of it, which (after a severe writer’s block of many moons) I got back into this summer. I played two solo acoustic gigs in 2023, something I hadn’t done in decades, and I started writing and recording music again for my solo project The Corinthian Columns. Here’s “Autumn Curves,” the latest thing I’ve finished:
I’ve been having a total blast working on the upcoming book Now You’re One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross, The World’s Coolest Band, which will be out next fall via Omnibus Press. Jeff and Steven McDonald are two of the funniest people — and greatest storytellers — I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering, and I can guarantee that this will be one incredibly amusing read, even if you’re not a Redd Kross fan. (Although you really should be!)
There are still a handful of editors at a handful of still-standing publications who continue to offer me really cool (and decently paying!) assignments. You know who you are… and I appreciate the hell out of you. An additional outlet along those lines has opened up this year, in the form of the EarthQuaker Devices Blog, where I’ve writing rundowns of some of the Akron, Ohio company’s amazing guitar effects, like this one on the Astral Destiny octave reverb pedal, which will definitely be finding its way into some Corinthian Columns music in the not too distant future.
There are so many wonderful writers here on Substack, and I love opening up my email every day and seeing what these folks have in store. Among the newsletters that have enlightened me, entertained me, or made me see things from a new perspective on a wide variety of topics this year are those by
, , , , ,, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . Check ‘em out, if you haven’t already.And last but not least, it has been so satisfying and rewarding to find a dedicated and appreciative audience here on Substack. Much Thanksgiving love to every single one of you who has subscribed to Jagged Time Lapse, left a comment, shared an article or otherwise engaged with me over the stuff I post here. I write because I want to and need to, but there have been so many times over the course of my career I’ve felt like I was just “throwing words down a hole”. Because of you, dear JTL readers, I don’t feel at all like that here, and I’m so thankful for that.
I wish you all a very happy, safe and life-affirming Thanksgiving weekend. and hoping that you can find some blessings to count, too. This will probably be the last you hear from me ‘til next week, since I’ve got a whole mess of things to do over the next few days, some of which don’t even involve cooking or eating. But just to tide you over ‘til then, here’s a seasonally-appropriate “paid only” post from this time last year that I’ve now made available for all to read. I won’t be offended if you save it ‘til tomorrow…
Take us out, Sly. I’m thankful that you’re still here, too.
Thank you, Dan, for including me on your list of writers and my best wishes for a blessed Thanksgiving. It's a beautiful community we have here.
Happy Thanksgiving! Love your writing. Can’t wait for the Redd Kross book.