Saying goodbye to someone I didn't know
Losing someone we admire from a distance is a weird thing.
Maybe it’s practice for when we lose those who are closer to us. Perhaps it’s a chance to be reminded of the dust and ash that connects us all. At any rate, death is a reminder that having life as we know it snatched away from us sucks and there’s a finality that few of us are well-equipped to handle…at least not in the western, U.S. framework of things. I worked for a short period of time in the healthcare industry a few years back and I’ll never forget my boss talking about what a poor job we do, collectively as a society, in prepping people for death, for end-of-life issues, for saying goodbye.
About two weeks ago, David B. Livingstone passed away. I didn’t know David, other than a couple of emails we exchanged about a chapter in my dissertation focused on his band, God Bullies. That’s David playing guitar in the music video above. He was an integral part of their sound, wearing a multitude of hats: guitars, synths, sampler, and on the production side, editing and sound engineering on top of that. God Bullies wasn’t his only music project either. He was part of the GB spin-off, Th3yN3v3rSl33p, and collaborated frequently with Kevin Rutmanis of Cows, via Teenage Larvae and most recently in Lords and Lady Kevin (along with Gina Skwoz). His sound collages and sonic explorations immediately resonated with me when I first encountered them, and in those weird passages, I heard a kindred spirit, or at least someone who seemed to be hearing similar wavelengths. This was freakout music and I absolutely loved/love it.
I don’t want to act like David and I were best buds. He was kind and cordial in our emails, but I have friends who actually knew him and I don’t want to do a disservice to his life by presenting something that wasn’t there, or trying to ride their flesh-and-blood memories of him. Instead, I share these reflections as an attempt to celebrate his life and his art. If you’ve never listened to his music, make a point of doing that this week. Share it with your friends. I had hoped to send the God Bullies chapter to him, but I ran out of time. If you want a fuller picture of why I think their art is so vital, take a look for yourself. Celebrate David. Celebrate those you love while you have them.
CHANNEL SURFING
quick bites from across the interwebs
jouquin fox - The Love Garden Zendo
hell on hearth - eighty nine
Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway - Haven’t watched this yet, but it looks amazing in every way.
Old Saw - Country Tropics
That’s it for now y’all. Thanks for listening in. Until next time…