ONYX, DRONE METAL AND BLACK DIAMONDS

12/04/23

HELLO because there are a lot of new subscribers and also because it’s been a little bit. I’m officially off of tour now that the Darker Waves festival is over with, meaning that the only things I have to do is show up to a couple festivals next year and go to Australia in March. So for now I’m back in Hollywood and trying to act like an adjusted human instead of a manic highway pirate vagabond slinging my shit from town to town. This is both good and bad. Good because it’s healthy to not run yourself in to the ground and bad because you get so used to doing so, just beyond the threshold of your top speed, that everything else can feel like an anchor harboring you to assimilation.

My son Rainer had been pretty relentless about wanting a puppy for a while now and I saw a friend from New Orleans post about one that needed a home. He was a miniature pinscher, the smallest of a small litter that had already found homes, and his dad had been killed by another dog. Amy had a min pin that lived to be 18 who passed shortly before Rainer was born and long story short - the morning after Rainer’s 8th birthday I flew to New Orleans and picked up the puppy. We crashed in a hotel near the airport and flew back the next morning at 6:30am. By the grace of dog, Delta upgraded me to a first class seat on the way home and the puppy slept on my lap the entire time like a boss. He is 13 weeks old, weighs almost 3 pounds, will maybe get to 7 lbs total, and currently in my lap, burrowed in my Rick bathrobe, his to destroy as he sees fit. Feels like velvet. Part alligator, hyena, ferret and bunny. His name is Onyx and we love him.

Here’s the video of the surprise:

*Before I forget to say so - I want to extend my gratitude and thank you all for your support in 2023 as we were made aware that once again that www.theheartworm.com is in the top 10% of all stores on the Shopify platform. There is something like 4 million Shopify stores… this is only because of YOU and your trust in our curated care of what we believe in. Amy and I hustle relentlessly and have a couple other caring people, Kay who built the site and Ann who has fulfilled thousands of orders, and it’s a super small operation that’s managed to stretch inspiration, influence and most importantly, poems and music around the world. THANK YOU.

Speaking of: What do you want to see more of? New books? New records? New apparel? Please let me know below.

What else? I’m drinking coffee and looking for a routine. I told myself not to try writing music until 2024. This isn’t a year-end wrap up letter yet so here is my free flow:

1. I went to see Earth perform Earth 2, the 1993 drone metal masterpiece on Friday night at the Alex Theatre in Glendale with David Lanegan (

   Jawbone
   ), Shelley, Ryan and Amy. Had never been to the theatre before, not sure they’ve had many shows like this there. I hold Dylan Carlson in high regard and was great to see him perform in that environment. Wonder if he’ll do Phase 3 performances.

2. The night before that Amy stopped by The Daily Planet to check on some things and while working heard a commotion outside from the building across the street, The Villa Carlotta, where we lived for years. A dog had just fallen from the fourth floor to the ground below. People tried to tend to it as it dragged itself down the sidewalk before passing shortly after. Horrible and heartbreaking. I guess the owner was not home and perhaps the dog had managed to open the French doors. When we decided to move out, having three balconies of French doors and a child was a major part of our decision. Wrenching.

3. Then I was thinking about a morning in 2020 or ‘21 when I was often opening the store and working the mornings because of how weird the world was, and while unlocking the gate around 6:30am, heard a commotion from the next corner of the block. Someone had just jumped off the fourth floor of the apartment building directly across from Gelson’s. A few minutes later there was a blue tent pitched over them and a couple of hours after that, before the world was awake, the scene was cleared. In those disparate years there was so much confusion and sadness and fear and death that it went largely unnoticed. Imagine a world, where someone felt compelled to end it in such a manner, and no one really noticed.

4. On a lighter note - Saturday I ordered an early dinner from our favorite restaurant, Masa of Echo Park, who earlier in the week had to deal with a stolen vehicle crashing through the front of their building, in time to watch the final KISS concert from Madison Square Garden on pay per view, which was wonderful and I’m happy to witness Rainer’s complete awe and satisfaction with something. He cried a little for the finality of it all. I contemplated flying to New York for the show but watching it live from the comfort of home and vegan deep dish with a few friends was totally satisfying.

5. It’s December which means I’ll be unapologetically listening to Mark Lanegan’s O Holy Night often… probably followed by Fairytale Of New York… definitely followed by an emptiness I feel for the greats, in my heart, vanishing by the mile, only to be replaced with the digital facsimile of authenticity, the newly paved interstate billing you by mail, raised by rules, sick for synchs, deflated and broken down, drowned in a half-inch puddle of crocodile tears, rapture, ravine, rave on…

6. Went to Rainer’s friends’ birthday party hosted at Charo’s house.

7. Yesterday we walked around our neighborhood and then went to the Grove where I met three different couples with kind words. Thank you.

   More soon…