To Auld Acquaintances I Forgot Before

ISSUE #37

We're back! As official harbinger and architect of 2019, I'd like to welcome you all to this ambitious year that lies ahead of us. While some things invariably have stayed the same—"Auld Lang Syne" is still the greatest song ever bestowed upon us by the muses, be they alien or otherwise—a lot of things will have to change if we're going to shape the utopia we've all loftily agreed to achieve by the end of December. Here's what's on the agenda:

• We hereby agree to say hello to more trees, bestowers of the breath of life and inspiration for so much of the scenery in movies and video games.

• We will no longer take for granted the humanities, and let no antichrist pretend theirs is the truth when they say that art is not important in our world.

• We will go to more films as far as our wallets will allow, if only to remember our history for when Netflix mandates their VR injections and the strap-in experience.

• We will find more books that stretch our perspectives, forgive each other for the boring ones we didn't finish, and refrain from shame as long as we have one by our bedside.

• We will see more live music to offset the damage the streaming paradigm has caused our struggling musicians, and we (I) will research ethical alternatives to Spotify.

• We will search for that bigger picture and clear a wall in our brains to hang it on.

• We will not be afraid of the grandiose and ornate, our dreams will be filled not will greed but with altruism, which cannot exist without our focused attention.

• We will think hard about labor, we will be the happy losers who sidestep the system, and we will cancel our Amazon Prime accounts.

• We will try every day to stave off the urge to dedicate an issue solely to The Smiths, because I used to be one of those guys who was like "What the fuck is the big deal about The Smiths?" but then one summer day it clicked while I stumbled in to listening to The Queen is Dead at work, and I think every year I surprise myself but how much more I get it, I'm just getting so old and I need to figure out why, I just don't want to be that guy who wrote a newsletter about The Smiths, I know how that looks, I know (500) Days of Summer was ten years ago.

Those are our resolutions, and as a subscriber you're locked in, I don't make the rules.

Here are a dozen songs about the new year. The Counting Crows song is a litmus test. Is it bad or is it a masterpiece? Has Jeff changed, or dug further into the person he's always been? We'll discuss next week.