November 9th, 2016. I was living in Philadelphia. I rode my bike to work in the rain, which kept up all day. I was working at a juice bar in Ritten House Square, Philadelphia. (Making less per hour than the cost of one smoothie I was making for people!) That day really did feel different. Every person I sold a juice or smoothie to just seemed…off. My eloquent 26-year-old self posted the following on Instagram that day(hilarious, also I’ll do a David Bazan post at some point):
There is nothing I could say about Donald Trump that someone smarter than me hasn’t already said. I hate that mother fucker. I have people in my life who adore him and they seem to share one common thing. They spend their time living in fear of things that have and likely will never happen to them. They feed off his fear-mongering. They have great lives that are joyless. They are angry about things that have not and will not ever happen to or have an impact on their lives.
I want my daughter to have the best future she possibly can, and keeping that prick out of office is our best. bet.
*More nuanced words about my vote and politics and the election down below.*
Here are 5 songs from my Top 100 Songs Of 2016 playlist from Spotify:
Andy Shauf - Begin Again
One of my favorite artists of all time. This record is perfect front-to-back and a top five Andy Shauf song for me. I remember seeing him on this tour in a 100 cap room and was just absolutely blown away. I’ll do an entire Andy Shauf post someday.
Mitski - Happy
I don’t remember loving this record as much as Spotify tells me I did but I do love this track. Absolutely love the outro.
Whitney - Polly
Oh man. I wore this record OUT. It still holds up. One of the best debut records I’ve ever heard.
Alex G - Kicker
We did a tour in 2016 that Alex G opened. Honestly it was a very challenging tour for me personally, but getting to see him play every day was such a treat. Arguably one of the best and most unique songwriters of my generation. Another great outro here.
Charles Bradley - Changes
RIP. Incredible soul version of a Black Sabbath song.
Look, I am not necessarily ~stoked~ about being a Democrat. Obviously, our two party system is broken and dogshit, like so many other things about our country. Anyone who is not fucking livid about the US’s involvement in the genocide happening in Gazo is a monster. I thought Bernie did a great job explaining that situation and this election earlier this week. I don’t think Kamala is perfect, but as a father to a beautiful daughter who I want to grow up feeling empowered and confident and really, to just have the best life she can, I had to cast my vote with her in my heart.