good morning -

(click the link / Canadian sunset to listen)

My Big Breakaugust farm glut

today’s track started with chops I made of an acoustic guitar I bought at the farmer’s market

I feel bad - been very neglectful of this newsletter lately, or perhaps its kinder to myself to say that I have been pulled away from this project for good reason a bunch of times in a row, but I am stating my intention now: I want to be in touch with you more regularly

this is cookie puss btw

on a whim and for no particular reason I drove one Saturday morning to the humongous dam and aqueduct that took the place of what was once the town of Gilboa
somewhere under the water there once was a church
a movie theater
in their funny little museum I looked at fossils of the oldest living creatures ever found - trees
they also had some kind of artifact labeled "Ghost Shrimp Tunnels"
ultimately decided not to buy a coffee cup
(I regret not buying the coffee cup)
took the long way home
stopped through Windham, seeking - what exactly?
always very doggedly firm in my belief
that something magical is always near at hand
(and that I - in my natural tendency toward delight - am uniquely suited in reaching out and grabbing it)
truthfully, logically, statistically even
I understand that most of the world must necessarily be kinda mediocre
plus some of it is bad
but still I get a coffee and a breakfast sandwich from the cafe in the town I've never been to
lotto scratch off believing that I'll strike gold
hey, maybe it's amazing
maybe it's a place I'll want to come back to again and again
maybe I'll take my Dad here when he visits
I am more daring than the rest!
clearly, I'm already getting out of my car!
and you already know that the sandwich sucked
coffee bad, too, didn't even finish it
(which is very damning coming from me)
cheated feeling on the one hand
yet oddly proud to swing and miss on the other
one day I will go see the magic show that is offered in that town

and then on the way out,
I decide to pop into the only Carvel ice cream store in like a 100 mile radius
located inside a building that is also a Subway,
a movie theater
a mini golf course
plus they offer lobster boils
we have a thing with some friends about Cookie Puss
Carvel's weird ice cream cake alien thing
thought it would be funny to send a pic
(and it was, I think, their lopsided cookie puss
looked like a pervert peeper on the other side of the fridge glass
could almost see his breath fogging up the door)
but then not that long after, I go to joint birthday party thing
and who do you think is there?
Cookie Puss himself
they had to drive to Windham to get it
maybe that's the magic I was seeking
we ate him up while he melted standing in the kitchen
(all good parties involve mostly standing in the kitchen)
and I got sent home with an overflowing quart of cherry tomatoes
august farm glut

all summer long Gracelee shows me plants
and texts me pictures of cucumbers and flowers blossoming
enough to make a movie out of if they were to be stitched together
her four fingers always delicately lifting the fruit or the bloom to the light
I send her pics of hogs and frogs
(ground and tree)
when I see them

I feel like I overuse the phrase
"greatest day of my life"
if you were going to try and impersonate me
that would be a good hook to hang it on
but really, how else could I describe biking all the way around Peaks Island?
the sun setting to our left as the sea spray air whipped over our dewey, sunburned forearms
earning an ink black sleep
(the air conditioner curiously set into the wall,
god's circular breathing pointed right down at us)

the next day possibly even greater
more bikes and dollar oysters, fancy cheese, perfect coffee
and a three hour boat sunset boat cruise
at one point thought to myself
if each day keeps being greater than the last
at what point do you perish?
how many days in a row of heaven-sent joy can a body really take?
(the answer is probably, like, twelve max)

eight hours chugging northward leftover corn on the cob
unsheathed from its tin foil and crunched in my backwards seat
as the sun set over Montérégie
rode the train for the first time ever underneath
the Christo-esque Central Warehouse
a very specific regional thrill
comme c'est dangereux!
unexpected lunch date with Ted
an even more unexpected thundering rainstorm breaking
with cracks way louder than anything I heard in the clubs
we stood in the doorway of the vintage store waiting for a break
had to sprint through the rain back to the restaurant to get my backpack I had left hung up by the bathrooms
we flipped through twelve inches at the record store and were nearly rockegnized
hotel room essentially inside of a shopping mall
ate a bowl of basement food court poke
criss cross applesauce on the bed
a Quebecois soap opera on the wall-mounted TV
powerpoints and performances
some good, some very good, walking among the mediocre
want to live in a world again where I trust music to be as good and as possibly magical
as some random fucking down in the Catskills
but the techno is never loud enough when its government approved and corporately underwritten

sparks covers at my friends' wedding
the most beautiful painted backdrop I've ever played in front of
and an uncharacteristic six tequila sodas
I first told Gracelee I loved her at a wedding
and we have been to seven hundred thousand weddings since
the next day I was insistent that we go to the county fair
we held hands and looked at the turkeys
we split a lemonade as the barely held together rides churned on the horizon
in a quiet corner of the grounds
we watched the draft horses compete
so eager to pull!
their big-handed handlers
had to work so hard
to get them hooked up
to the mass of concrete blocks

by themselves, they are impossibly strong
but harnessed together
and stepping in rhythm
they are ever more powerful
watch the sled slide in the sand

But what about you? What glut have ye? Have you been to any great parties recently? And did you stand in the kitchen?