This is beautiful, Wes. More than beautiful, it’s logical. The outcrop of the rage we feel and the powerlessness it can lead us to. These deaths are yet another reminder of the sickness of our society and our misguided reliance on individual solutions to societal problems. Test strips aren’t the answer, though of course they save lives, they are a drop in the bucket. It’s the broken childhood heart that causes a society to become cold and calloused, inured on the surface to the pain we create while being connected to and impacted by it. It’s the world in which we are hard on people and soft on systems instead of the reverse. It’s the blood that has been shed on the land we live.
Seeing Cold Cave and The Soft Moon playing back to back at a festival was my dream. Now it will stay a dream forever. Another dream was that maybe one day there will be a collaboration between you two. It will also stay a dream forever, together with many others. I still can't believe Luis is gone. I wish I had let him know how important he and his music is to me more often.
"I feel guilty being alive when so many beautiful people have died"
Before I lost my sister last summer, she was in the hospital for a fent overdose. It was disguised as counterfeit oxy. I hate (a word I never use lightly) everyone that exploits pain for profit.
Reading this brought so many emotions and thoughts to my brain that want to escape out through my fingers into words but I find myself unable to transcribe them. So instead, I'll just say thank you for saying what needs to be said.
My brother! My friend! You have kissed me on the face and given my lungs and my bones new life. I’ve been listening to Cold Cave since I’m a young boy, intimidated by your vision. Crushed, washed back and forth by my own jealousy that you can be so beautiful and create things that I hold so dear, things that formed new pathways in my grey matter, things that helped me see the marriage between joy and sorrow.
I subscribed to this newsletter when I bought a T-shirt from you, with something small in the back of my head whispering: ‘someday’
I haven’t read many of them, but perhaps soon I will go back. Your prose, it’s marvelous. I love to watch the gears turn inside somebody’s head, and still I have no answer for the question:
“Why does the cavernous trench of sorrow breathe fresh air into art?”
I’m not quite certain that I’ll ever have an answer.
However, I wish you to know that I’ve learned to fight because of you. Not only because of you, but in the host of my angels, you reside.
I cannot thank you enough.
We drop our swords 1000 times, and we pick them back up. We don’t wish to strike for blood, the pain of ours gives new eyesight, and to inflict it, man, no.
But it is as you said, we are at war. I’ll keep thinking of you, and you will continue to inspire me without even realizing it. I’m gonna listen to some of Cold Caves music and try to relax.
Man…. I’ve been here and there. I’ve been to hell and back. And back. Yet, I can’t think of any response or answer to this Fentanyl shit. Personally, never liked it. Thankfully, kicked heroin… when heroin was still available. Now it’s all this fent shit. Coke or “heroin”… you get it unexpected.
I get the escapist attitude. Wanting to feel something else. But even I know when to put those “things” and “toys” away. It’s not a sustainable life. Really shocked that Juan fucked around. Love his work. Especially, the early Tropic of Cancer. Top works!
And still heartbreaking: same shit killed Phil Western.
Fuck the dealers..:: and the others that keep shit in demand. It’s nothing new! Why is it so “popular”?
When I want coffee… I have coffee. Not tea. Or some other shrub filtered water. Coffee!!!
Same goes for heroin. I guess that line of thought isn’t shared.
Thanks for remembering them in your thoughts and kind words, Wes. Yes, it's totally unjust. The child's slow gun to the head needs to stop. We are so much more than this.
We lossed another real one this week to cancer. I'm not sure if you ever crossed paths but his name was Nate Glover. He'd beat cancer a while ago after a long battle but at 41 it came back and only took a matter of weeks before he passed in his sleep 😔
It doesn't get any easier. I don't think it should, to be honest. I don't think I would feel human if it didn't break my heart each time.
2024 is shaping up to be so upsetting tithe point I've been on autopilot since the year begun.
This is beautiful, Wes. More than beautiful, it’s logical. The outcrop of the rage we feel and the powerlessness it can lead us to. These deaths are yet another reminder of the sickness of our society and our misguided reliance on individual solutions to societal problems. Test strips aren’t the answer, though of course they save lives, they are a drop in the bucket. It’s the broken childhood heart that causes a society to become cold and calloused, inured on the surface to the pain we create while being connected to and impacted by it. It’s the world in which we are hard on people and soft on systems instead of the reverse. It’s the blood that has been shed on the land we live.
Stay resolved. Stay soft.
Thank you so much for these words.
Thank you so much for this post.
Seeing Cold Cave and The Soft Moon playing back to back at a festival was my dream. Now it will stay a dream forever. Another dream was that maybe one day there will be a collaboration between you two. It will also stay a dream forever, together with many others. I still can't believe Luis is gone. I wish I had let him know how important he and his music is to me more often.
"I feel guilty being alive when so many beautiful people have died"
Compassion is something that is missing in the larger discussion about substance abuse. thank you for bringing it back. Thank you for your big heart.
Before I lost my sister last summer, she was in the hospital for a fent overdose. It was disguised as counterfeit oxy. I hate (a word I never use lightly) everyone that exploits pain for profit.
Reading this brought so many emotions and thoughts to my brain that want to escape out through my fingers into words but I find myself unable to transcribe them. So instead, I'll just say thank you for saying what needs to be said.
My brother! My friend! You have kissed me on the face and given my lungs and my bones new life. I’ve been listening to Cold Cave since I’m a young boy, intimidated by your vision. Crushed, washed back and forth by my own jealousy that you can be so beautiful and create things that I hold so dear, things that formed new pathways in my grey matter, things that helped me see the marriage between joy and sorrow.
I subscribed to this newsletter when I bought a T-shirt from you, with something small in the back of my head whispering: ‘someday’
I haven’t read many of them, but perhaps soon I will go back. Your prose, it’s marvelous. I love to watch the gears turn inside somebody’s head, and still I have no answer for the question:
“Why does the cavernous trench of sorrow breathe fresh air into art?”
I’m not quite certain that I’ll ever have an answer.
However, I wish you to know that I’ve learned to fight because of you. Not only because of you, but in the host of my angels, you reside.
I cannot thank you enough.
We drop our swords 1000 times, and we pick them back up. We don’t wish to strike for blood, the pain of ours gives new eyesight, and to inflict it, man, no.
But it is as you said, we are at war. I’ll keep thinking of you, and you will continue to inspire me without even realizing it. I’m gonna listen to some of Cold Caves music and try to relax.
Gros bisous
max
We lost our godson at 20 to this. I’m so sorry for all the people who have suffered.
At the same time it feels both very complicated and very basic. Thank you.
Man…. I’ve been here and there. I’ve been to hell and back. And back. Yet, I can’t think of any response or answer to this Fentanyl shit. Personally, never liked it. Thankfully, kicked heroin… when heroin was still available. Now it’s all this fent shit. Coke or “heroin”… you get it unexpected.
I get the escapist attitude. Wanting to feel something else. But even I know when to put those “things” and “toys” away. It’s not a sustainable life. Really shocked that Juan fucked around. Love his work. Especially, the early Tropic of Cancer. Top works!
And still heartbreaking: same shit killed Phil Western.
Fuck the dealers..:: and the others that keep shit in demand. It’s nothing new! Why is it so “popular”?
When I want coffee… I have coffee. Not tea. Or some other shrub filtered water. Coffee!!!
Same goes for heroin. I guess that line of thought isn’t shared.
Thanks for remembering them in your thoughts and kind words, Wes. Yes, it's totally unjust. The child's slow gun to the head needs to stop. We are so much more than this.
I'm so sorry for your loss 💔
We lossed another real one this week to cancer. I'm not sure if you ever crossed paths but his name was Nate Glover. He'd beat cancer a while ago after a long battle but at 41 it came back and only took a matter of weeks before he passed in his sleep 😔
It doesn't get any easier. I don't think it should, to be honest. I don't think I would feel human if it didn't break my heart each time.
2024 is shaping up to be so upsetting tithe point I've been on autopilot since the year begun.
Eloquently stated, thank you for this Wes