Driven to Drink

Damien Rice is an exceptional singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Ireland.  His studio albums are wonderful, and his live performances are powerful exhibits of the human condition translated through music.

Rice's compositions, arrangements, and lyrics align exceptionally well with my current existential paradigm.  I am traveling through a chapter in this thing we call life that is illuminating my strength, courage, and a path forward that is more honest, humane, emotionally regulated, and interconnected and interdependent than I've ever been.

On November 24th, 2020, my friend and a true beacon of healing, Lenée, drew The Tower as my present card during a tarot reading.  That was also the last day I ever saw my Mom alive.  She lived another 3 weeks, if living is what you want to call it.  On December 14th, at 6:36 p.m., Josie Ferguson drew her final breath with me nearby...about 10 feet with a sealed door between us.  Covid took her.  And that?  Was the moment that tore my entire being open and shattered my ego like a piece of crystal tapped firmly with a hammer.

I am still within this protracted period of The Tower.  Of existential illumination, insight, awakening, and re-emergence.  The phoenix is as appropriate and ubiquitous a metaphor as any.

I sincerely appreciate you being here, and I hope you'll spend some time with me and Damien Rice and the words of MJ Cullinane, whose tarot deck my wife, quite separately from MY experience, purchased and drew The Tower for HER present card.

The thumbnail here is a photo of The Tower from Cullinane's "Guardian of the Night" Tarot deck.

-G

It is the sixth anniversary of the Driven 2 Drink Podcast.  I have come a long, long, long way in 6 years.  I feel so absolutely loved and fortunate to have grown through these years and not plummeted into a cycle of cynical misanthropy, nihlistic despair, and sympathetic rage.

Today, I read a piece I wrote, "Traumatizing as Praxis," and we spend time with Marvine Gaye.  Music is medicine for me, and I suspect it is for you as well.  If you're here.  Regardless, I love and appreciate yinz and hope you find some respite in the time you spend with me.

-G

Okay.

Fact is, without knowing what I was attending at the time I was attending, I attended a concert held at the very venue where Bob Marley and the Wailers and the I Three held their final concert ever.  The concert was explicitly scheduled to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the original.  The Marley family (...minus Ziggy...) plus the surviving I Threes (Sister Marcia and Sister Rita) recreated the set list from September 23rd, 1980 on September 23rd, 2010.  And I was there. Because of my spouse, who always keeps her eyes open for great things that might really bring me and us joy.  Always.

Anyways, here is a listening experience with me reading a wonderful article written by  Patrick Varine on September 23rd, 2020, interspersed with the full concert from 1980 and some Marley audio surprises.

Open your eyes.  And look within.

-G

You may have read the letter Twittler wrote to his entertainment labor union, SAG AFTRA.  I certainly did, and offered a joke that I should dive into the deep end of under the influences and perform it.  Well, here is that.

Additionally, I offer you a mini lesson in the creation of keto-friendly/sugar-free cocktails on a limited budget.

And? Plenty of music because this always has to be a listening party.

This is a fun ride, folks.

Love that yinz're here with me.

-G

New from Driven 2 Drink, "Th1rt3en Listening Experience."

January 30th, 2021.

Donald John Trump is no longer President.

The Democratic party controls the entire congress.

And yet, Cori Bush, a freshman representative from Missouri and a Black woman who has dared to speak truth to white supremacist power, has moved her office away from freshman representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Q anon adherent, Cult 45 follower, vehement anti-masker, and cheerleader, if not accomplice, in the recent white supremacist terrorist attack on the capitol.  Bush dared confront Greene for not wearing a mandated mask, and Q forbid a Black woman step out of her place.  So now Bush is moving her office and Greene is lavishing in conservative donations and proudly spreading death, disease, and dangerous rhetoric.

And this is America.

Many of us, we cisgender, heteronormative, abled, white, privileged in intersectionally resonating power dynamics, feel comfortable again…back in the nurturing arms of STILL white supremacist and caste-like capitalism that cares not for humans, and less still for humans existing at intersections of powerlessness.

Anger is appropriate. Action is necessary.

The world can be a better place for everyone.  But it requires sacrifice, discomfort, suffering, and a resolve to address and dismantle the very racism and colonialist genocide that is the foundation of the land we, non Native people, call the United States of America.  On stolen, bloodied, desecrated land.

P.S. There is a point where I say, "baklava" instead of "balaclava," and what a delicious error it is.

We've lost so much.  So many.

Some of us experienced it close to home. In home.

This is my offering, a requiem for Josie, for the Covid dead, and the unspoken words of we survivors.

It's also a listening party. A gathering of remembrance and perhaps a bit of revelry.  Not quite a wake.  We're not nearly there yet.  Some some room to breathe.  Perhaps. Together.

-G

My Mom is Josie.

Josie is fighting like all heaven and hell, at this very moment, against Covid-19.

And not just her, but a team of kind, compassionate, overwhelmed, and underappreciated (...and I mean REAL appreciation, like in the form of actually doing some simple-ass, uncomfortable, and inconvenient shit to stop this goddam virus...) professionals.  Also, family, friends, and scads of amazing humans.

Count yourself among them.

I love and appreciate you.

My Mom is the reason I love music.  My Mom is the reason I'm the person I am right now.  Point blank.  You dig Greg?  Thank Josie.  Have ever done some kindness for you? Brought you a smile?  Thank Josie.

And don't just thank her, think about her for a moment.

Maybe listen to this podcast, huh?

Herein are the albums and artists that my Mom, Josie, gave to me.  Herein are the artists who, had Josie not given them to me, would not have penetrated and brought me peace and joy and some semblance of homeostasis.

James Taylor, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and Earth, Wind, & Fire.

Come hang out for a while.  With me.  And Josie.

And send her good thoughts.

Love Yinz,

-G

This is the Michael McDonald Listening Party, but with the sound better balanced and polished.  And without missing parts.  I'm so very sorry about that, if you happened to listen and feel disappointed.  As I did.  I've added an additional intro and some traveling music before the intro and transition music to the actual thing.  Yay.  I hope.

Love yinz.  Hang out.

-G

In my life, I keep forgetting that Michael McDonald is more than a pretty voice.  He reminded me when he recently performed a Tiny Desk in his home, all alone with just a couple of keyboards and a microphone.  I consistently forget how amazing a musician, incredible a song-writer, and intensely fluid an improviser he is.  Again, he reminded me.  And I'd like to share my time with that performance, plus another of one of the most perfect pop compositions of all time.  Won't you?  I hope you do.  You're certainly welcome.

-G

Another week of a self-care offering.

Over an hour recorded beachside in Corolla, North Carolina.

Wind. Waves. Birds. And you with your breath.

Meditation is such a balm for anxiety, self-discovery, decompression, re-energizing, regulation, homeostasis, peace, and joy.  I find the sounds of the Atlantic Ocean deeply resonating.  I find myself easily settling into a meditative state.  And I hope you will too.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

I love yinz.

-G