Entry date: 10-10-2024 – Cemetery Plots & Plotting – Letters to My Friends

Dear Friends,

Today we will go and look at a cemetery plot. We might get one for ourselves, too. This is a weird idea to me.

Personally, I have wanted to be burned on a funeral pyre since learning about the tradition that the Hindu people do in India. I like the idea of the people who love me coming together and celebrating my life by burning my body. I won’t be using it anymore and why shouldn’t it make a nice big fire.

If I remember correctly they build a pretty big funeral pyre and add a bunch of things that smell nice when you burn them to mask the smell of the body. I’m cool with that. Since I don’t have a sense of smell, I’m guessing my body will not smell terrible when it burns, but I am probably wrong on that.

Funeral pyres are frowned upon here in America, so I’m probably just going to be cremated. There was as time when I wanted to have my ashes scattered over Dodger Stadium. That’s funny to me now. I really want to be planted with a tree so I can be part of the tree as it grows or even fused into the tree in some way.

If you’ve been following along, I have a pretty decent amount of a novel started about this idea…but I digress.

If I have learned anything about this process of taking care of Doug’s legacy is that I need to make sure my stuff is buttoned up strong. Rhondi and I are putting all these wheels in motion. It feels very responsible, and I like that.

Here’s to hoping we find Doug a nice spot where there will be a beautiful sunset. He loved those. Seems like a fitting thing, if you ask me.

***** 

Yesterday was a pretty mellow day. I went to the dump and while I was there I found some golf clubs in the “Rangeley Walmart.” Picked up a 1-3-5 wood for the second set I’ve been piecing together up here, so I have two sets of clubs if anyone wants to golf. Liam and I were planning on going but it is way too cold. Yesterday it didn’t get above 49 degrees.

Today is supposed to be even colder.

Needless to say, I stayed in most of the day after going to the dump. I watched some Northern Exposure and took a nap. Then Ellen and Gertie came by for a visit and it was wonderful to see her. After she left, Erik and Jamie came over for dinner and that was really nice, too. It’s been awesome to spend so much time with them this week.

We are thinking of going on a hike today, too, but we shall see. As mentioned, it’s going to be cold.

***** 

D.I.’s Ancient Artifacts is an album I have enjoyed for much of the last almost forty years. In another ten months or so, I could honestly say it has been 40 years. I got this when it was brand new, based on seeing D.I. in the movie, Suburbia.

I think I saw D.I. for the first time at The Metro, but it could have been Prisms, I suppose, too. I really liked them a lot. Religious Skid was even supposed to play with D.I.at Rockers in west Phoenix, but it didn’t happen. Hillbilly Devilspeak did end up playing with D.I.at the Mason Jar in the 90s, but that didn’t turn out too well either.

I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about DI at the time because there was a lot of stuff going on about Casey Royer hitting women and I was working in the field of sexual violence prevention, so I wasn’t down with that nonsense at all. I made a few comments and some looks were exchanged, but that was that. It doesn’t matter anymore.

I do love this record, though. Separating the art from the artist, I suppose, and I’ve met some of the other guys over the years and they are super good dudes. Plus, my brother, Steve, is very close with Casey and those guys, so I can only assume that the rumors weren’t as bad as they sounded.

Ancient Artifacts is very solid from top to bottom. I have enjoyed it a lot over the years. Couple of my favorites from it are “Eringzo” and “Falling Out.” Rikk Agnew’s guitar work on “Falling Out” is killer. I think that is the biggest reason I love this record, actually Rikk and Alfie Agnew laid down some seriously great sounding guitar work across the board.

Royer is one of the better punk vocalists, too, to come from Orange County. His style has been copied a lot over the years and his way of delivering the vocals has always been one of my favorites. Writing this has me very conflicted because I am certainly a fan of the guy’s work. I wish I could be more a fan of ‘the guy” like I was a fifteen-year-old.

I also have to hand it to the rhythm section, John Bosco (bass) and John Knight (drums), on this one. While there isn’t a lot of flash in their performance on this one, there are moments where their work makes the songs into something they would not have been with lesser players.

“Hang Ten in East Berlin” is one, for example, where the drums make the song great. I’m curious if Royer played the drums on these songs, actually. I’m guessing Steve would know the truth. I’ll just leave it as credited on the record.

I always wondered if there was a little bit of desire for the band to go much heavier and darker. I know they did it on later records. My buddy, Will, and I were just talking about this, actually. I need to listen more to their other records, I guess. I always got stuck on this one.

 “Wounds From Within” is a great example of this darker heavier thing. The song is kind of slow and plodding with Rikk Agnew making some pretty choice noise on it. “They’ll get you (repeated over and over)” is so good. “Don’t turn your back/Don’t look for that shadow/constant attack/they’ll never stop/they’ll always want more.” Good stuff.

“Spiritual Law” could easily have been a Christian Death song. I wonder if it originated with them in some way. It certainly sounds like a Rikk Agnew song. I like it a lot.

This is a goddamn punk rock record in the best ways. It’s also a band figuring things out as they went, too. I like how the feel of the songs evolves over the course of the nine songs. D.I. was a force to be reckoned with in the mid-80s and Ancient Artifacts is certainly a testament to that.

***** 

See you tomorrow.

AI does not know D.I.