Hot Wings

Isn’t this shirt cool? It was given to me by my good friends Mary and Todd Newman in 1994ish in Topeka while playing drums in Todd’s band. Not the best of times for me, but these two made me laugh and gave me work- shitty times move along smoother when you have a sense of purpose and support, even if it IS in Topeka.

It’s years past fitting me so I’m giving it away to a person I used to work with at a bakery who, like me in 1994, is going through a transition from one stage to another. It’s pretty inspiring to watch, as his hurdles are pretty daunting, more challenging than mine, to be sure. But this dude has so much intelligence, raw talent and heart that the world is gonna be pretty accessible for him. I feel this.

A cursory search of the meaning of the thunderbird in Native American lore produces many interpretations. Most all of them assign a protective nature to the image. This is what I want for my pal, I can’t be there for him like some fiery shrieking titanium-winged gay grandma to deflect the shit that life’s gonna throw his way, but maybe this shirt will help.

Oh- subscribers! I have a few, and high quality ones at that! Thanks so much!

Since the internet, I’ve become, like many of us, a ‘hot takes’ person. On the major (meta) platforms, at my worst, I unleashed  furious verbal napalm at people for not breaking a 50 dollar bill or being ‘rude’. Fuck all that- and I’m sorry if you were ever in my line of fire. When I saw this Substack platform offered a way for me to try longer writing forms I was sold.

Thanks for bearing with me as this thing takes shape. I’ll try to keep the writing pretty varied as there are lots of things I wanna try, like reviews, interviews and maybe some community reporting. I’ll also share some music, since I’m a music guy. Oh - the writing. Haven’t had to put so many sentences together in a long while, so that’s bound to improve.

That’s all, thanks again - much love, Bill.