On-Again, Off-Again

Not all relationships need be steady.

These days people focus far too much on their “brand.” They find something to be about and it becomes ALL they’re about. If there’s one thing on social media that irks me, it’s when I see a creator make a great TikTok or reel, something so smart and/or funny that it garners a follow from me. Only to watch them proceed to do 15,000 versions of the same joke. Either because they’re trying to capitalize on the success of the first one or because that one good idea was a fluke and they don’t have any other brilliance in them, or both.

As a comedian, I’ve been told hundreds of times by managers/agents/powers that be to “find your brand.” But to me, it’s just not interesting. I don’t want to be “mustache zaddy” or “no kids guy” forever just because millions of people connected with those things. First of all, I also grow a pretty solid beard (like the one I’m sporting lately) & I’ve always wanted kids (I just smartly haven’t forced it with the wrong person)…but more importantly, it’s just boring to do the same thing over & over.

I’ve always been a man of Miscellaneous interests and while certain things are never out of the rotation (New York sports, HST, Zevon, Miller Lite, etc.), oftentimes I enjoy other things in spurts. I get hyper-fixated on something, dive-in for a bit ‘til it wears out it’s welcome and then put it down for awhile before revisiting.

Alas, this is all just a very long introduction for what I think could be a new recurring (but probably not) bit here called On-Again, Off-Again, where I list off a few of the things I’ve picked up again lately and others that I’ve put down…

On-Again: PEARL JAM
I’m a massive Pearl Jam fan. I have been since I first heard Ten almost 33 years ago (🤯). I’ve been to dozens of their live shows, I own hundreds of authorized & unauthorized bootleg CDs¹ and I’ve spent thousands of dollars on their merch. But the last few years they’ve been out of my musical rotation. Now, I would never skip a PJ song that came up on shuffle² but it’s been awhile since I got in the car and was like “You know what I’m in the mood for? A little Pearl Jam.”

There’s two big reasons for this…the first being that I probably went a little too hard for a little too long and subconsciously knew that I needed a break. But also, their last few studio albums haven’t really moved me. Don’t get me wrong, Gigaton and Lightning Bolt were both fine, and far superior to most of the trash albums labeled as “rock”, that have been released in the last decade. But you’ve gotta backspace³ nearly 15 years to their 2009 album to find a PJ record that I played start-to-finish on repeat for any extended period of time.

A few weeks ago though they released Dark Matter and while it does a have a lot of tracks that have the heavy/over production that made me largely ignore the last few albums, it also has a few stripped down tracks that are imho when PJ is at it’s finest. My favorite of which, at least so far, is Wreckage.

Combine an enjoyable new album with the fact that I haven’t seen them live in a few years/they come to LA in a couple of weeks and that’s all I needed to be back in. Like all the way back in. Like haven’t listened to anything else in a week back in.

Off-Again: RAP BEEFS
Drake vs. Kendrick is ALL the talk on social media right now and the consensus seems to be that Kendrick is dominating. As a longtime Drake hater, you’d think that alone would be enough to pique my interest but it doesn’t. This might be my most “boomer” opinion…but I need my rap beefs to include at least a little threat of violence.

I know it reeks of the same “back in my day” sentiment that I famously hate from NBA critics. But as a young rap fan in the 90s, the trading of diss tracks was exciting because when one MC went especially hard at another, I as a listener would sit there thinking “Oh man, I wonder if that line right there is gonna get him shot?”

Death Row vs. Bad Boy was a literal war, while Kendrick vs. Drake is more like a women’s UFC fight…sure, they’re gonna trade some blows, but no one is hitting hard enough that someone might die. (UPDATE: One of Drake’s security guards has been shot. In the words of Tom Brady “Let’s fucking goooo!!!”)

On-Again: GOLF