Some of you may remember me from my past blogs, websites, podcasts, Twitch streams, and whatever other projects I started and then immediately dropped. Most of you will have never heard of me, so let me introduce myself: My name is Finley. Well, that's not my actual name, but it'll have to do.
Anyway, I want to use this blog to accomplish two main things:
1. Publish mildly interesting to wildly ridiculous takes accompanied by music recommendations.
2. Keep publishing regularly and not have this become yet another abandoned project.
To achieve these lofty goals, all I really need to do is take a few hours to write and dig up some amazing music each week or so. Shouldn't be that demanding, and since I don't work a lot - read: barely any - hours right now, I might as well put my time into something productive for a change.
With our parameters and road map as clearly defined as they're going to get, let's dive right in and start with a fantastic piece of music I just discovered today: Spin, the 1976 record released by the band Spin, who, according to Wikipedia, was an offshoot of Dutch progressive and classical rock band Ekseption.
Interestingly enough, I couldn't really find much in the way of anything about Spin. They released a second album in 1977, and that seems to be about it. They formed in 1974 because some members of Ekseption took issue with the musical direction in which the band was headed. Accordingly, the sound of Spin is a lot more jazzy, bordering on very soft Fusion, sprinkled with a few Funk elements. It is overall very mellow and pleasant and I highly recommend checking them out; I'm listening to the aforementioned album while writing this and it is amazing.
Here's a very high-quality version of the whole thing on YouTube:
With the mood set and the music recommended, I should probably introduce some of my views and opinions so you'll know what to expect going forward. I'm a leftist, most closely aligned with Trotskyism to be exact, and my opinions on social and civil rights issues are usually to the left even of so-called progressives. I do however see a big issue with dogmatic thought in many leftist spheres, and since I have an inclination for the spiritual and debaucherous, I do think I can offer a unique and perhaps interesting perspective on many issues.
I am also a huge proponent of drug legalization and the use of psychedelics in therapy. My sincere belief, supported by the facts, is that the global "War On Drugs" started by that ghastly ghoul Richard Nixon has perpetuated racism and prison labor - read: modern slavery - and thereby deepened the social and economic divide. This senseless, racist policy has led to more deaths and the criminalization of the youth, it strips humans of their agency, and, to top it off, doesn't even fulfill its stated purpose of decreasing drug use. We are demonizing and incarcerating people who have either done nothing wrong or at worst stolen to feed their addiction; these are the people who need our help and compassion, not our scorn and derision. Naturally, I am aware that drug legalization is not the most pressing of matters in a time when the first devastating effects of climate change can be seen developing in real-time, and fascists are once again roaming our streets and parliaments. However, a lot of things are tied up in the push for legalization, especially when looking at Black Americans; segregation, generational wealth, criminalization, prison abolition, reparations, and the continued legacy of slavery in the very amendment that was supposed to abolish it. These are all topics that in one way or another intersect with the legalization of drugs. This is not to say that that should be the main focus of any activist campaign that deals with these issues, but it is important to integrate the topic of drug legalization into such campaigns because otherwise it will get co-opted by white liberals or right-libertarians who then open dispensaries that look and operate like Apple stores while former drug offenders are still rotting in jail cells with no compensation. A liberatory approach to drug legalization is thus indispensable.
Finally, to keep this fairly brief, I want to talk about some parts of my personal journey that has led me to where I am today. I grew up in Europe and moved to China with my parents when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. My childhood there was amazing, and even though it left me with some mental scars I wouldn't trade it for anything else. After I graduated from high school, I bounced around Europe and Asia for a few years, starting several college courses but never finishing them. It was during that time that I made some questionable decisions for cash and ended up in a heap of trouble, repercussions of which I'm dealing with to this day. Since then, I have returned to the relatively small city in which I was born, and I am now going through the motions at whatever job I can manage to keep whilst still desperately trying and failing to motivate myself to graduate from college. Other than that, I suffer from some form of depression and anxiety, but who doesn't these days. This self-portrait makes my life sound a lot more gloomy and depressing than it really is though; I have a great group of friends, I make music, I regularly go out, and so I can't really complain about my social life. My aspirations have always far surpassed my motivation, that is true, but I'm starting to settle into a nice, quiet routine, which is something I can kind of use for now. I still haven't found a fulfilling career opportunity and don't really know what I actually want to do with my life, but since I'm still under thirty I hope that I still have some time to figure that out. So far I'm content with writing again, and maybe the rest will just fall into place.
I hope you all enjoyed this brief look into my mind, and I especially hope the music recommendation touches or inspires you in some way. I have not thought of a posting schedule or the exact nature of future posts just yet, but you can expect more obscure music recommendations accompanied by my neurotic ramblings, that much is certain. Thank you for reading, and have a great day.
