JULY 3, 2025 // WATCHING MCNULTY WITH RAMONA

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

THE ARTIFACTS OF LAST NIGHT’S EFFORT TO LEARN TO SAMPLE A RECORD ONTO THE EP-133, KO II PHOTOGRAPHED.

Lately I’ve been making music for about two hours every night after dinner. I recently got that sampler from Teenage Engineering which is called a KO II. The record I was sampling is of a nun who plays organs and pianos in Africa really nicely. We made some progress last night, and just struggling to learn the machine felt peaceful and focused. Ramona would prefer to have company immediately after dinner so I make it up to her after the music is over and share a bowl of strawberries or raspberries with her on the couch while we watch a program. Right now we are rewatching McNulty’s antics in the Wire, Season One. The villain on the Wire is the attorney whose name I think is Maurice Levy. Some of the good characters are Weebay and Avon Barksdale.

McNulty is neither good, nor bad. He is who you hang out with to tour through the Baltimore streets and get to know the corrupt police department and local politicians. I went through a period in life where watching self destructive behavior and a chaotic lifestyle was a familiar experience. I’m grateful that currently it feels like I can use it to contextualize the past.

Last night I had terrible nightmares. Today was nice though. I swam in the ocean for the third day in a row. After our afternoon run Ramona always runs to the truck and asks to jump in because, I presume she wants me to go swimming in the ocean.

I’m just trying to make a habit of doing this writing and documentation. My neck hurts now though. The baseball game is playing on the radio. Robby Ray is pitching and the Giants are winning. Soon I will make music and tomorrow I will fix my client’s cabinet door and do some work on her garden. I need to make four times as much money as I do now but I finally feel like I’m living with integrity and balance. The world is engineered on accident by society against balance but that doesn’t mean it’s sensible to cooperate with that. I don’t work as hard as Avon Barksdale but maybe one day I will. Or maybe I will go where there is less concrete and people, and the outside will be wind, birds, flowers, and the sea.

I tend to think people are mad at me for wanting nice things like that. But that’s probably because I’m so mean and judgmental toward people who buy cakes and bring them to the beach or go to furniture stores. You know…if you can learn to emanate love, and focus on it, as opposed to Fauci or Maurice Levy, then you will go to a better reality. You won’t have to worry about people wanting to destroy you.

God helps those who learn how to create material or immaterial works. One who is focused on these pursuits and learning them, is in the image of the creator, and a better member of society. Ok. Ok. I will work on it. I will!