9.5.25 - THE 88 OUT-OF-TUNE KEYS OF GRIEF

FRIDAY

9.5.25

KCMO

Dear earlobe pullers, chin scratchers, and knuckle-poppers,

Today is Bandcamp Friday, the day Bandcamp waives their fees, and artists and labels get 100% of all purchases. Some labels do sales today, too, such as Munster Records taking 15% off their Bandcamp digital catalog.

We walked at Mill Creek Park last night and then over to the Plaza for a couple things. I got the new James Lee Burke novel, Don’t Forget Me Little Bessie, which has been out for a few months. I wasn’t up to buying it because I shared an appreciation of JLB with my brother, and I miss that. At my sister-in-law’s invitation, I grabbed Neal’s JLB collection after he passed, and shelved it with mine. Also his Faulkner, Jim Harrison, Tony Hillerman, and Henning Mankell.

Grief defies the words you try to hang on it—it’s a muddle. The 7 Stages of Grief is an annoying framework to assemble around feelings. I know there’s good intent and helpful ideas there, but there are more than 7 stages, and any order implied by the word “stage” is misleading. There are 12 notes in the western scale and if you play them all at once with a warped 2x4 on an out of tune piano, there you have the stages of grief. Eventually some notes and maybe a chord emerge, and a melody, once you let go of the 2x4.

All that to say, I’m ready to read the new James Lee Burke now.

I listened to the St. Vitus record Die Healing on Spotify—that’s a good title! I always dig the guitar tones, the tempos—instantly recognizable.