In 2008 I was working for Sony Masterworks during the release of the box set “Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far” and was honored to have the opportunity to co-produce (with Vella Interactive, Dana Saltzman Siegel and David Foil) a lengthy podcast series around the entirety of his career. It’s not available online anywhere that I can find so I thought I’d post it here.

It Features:

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The place where they know me and know my order. I walk in and whoever is at the register will just say “Jeremy’s here” and ask if i want hot or iced today.

The owner of the building raised the rent, and did not accept an offer from the woman who owns the shop to buy him out.

This has been happening a lot here.

I have several friends whose rents have randomly almost doubled. I expect the intent is to have all the tenants leave so the landlords can sell the buildings at inflated prices before the market crashes.

We are sending kids back to school knowing they will probably get COVID because its not yet okay to vaccinate them but the machine needs to keep on turning.

The Amazon is on fire, while Amazon pays no taxes and works its contract workers literally to death.

Millennials and younger generally have no hope that anything good will happen ever again, while older generations blame them for their own hopelessness.

And a place I could walk to with my dog and my laptop and have people be happy to see me (and vice versa) is closing this week.

I wrote a post in 2010 about Third Places and why social media is no substitute for in-the-flesh connection.

In it, i wrote:

I’m honestly worried that we (us younger folks especially) may be duped by the rhetoric around technology into thinking IMs, Texts and Twittering are meaningful as a ‘˜real connection’, and that we will settle for a life with wider swaths of shallower connections and not know what we’re missing.

I guess we are making our choices.

Anyway, I’m sitting here at my regular table writing this post and holding back tears. Because it’s a place that feels like home. And next week it’ll be gone.

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• Still don’t have much to write about in essay form.
• Kate and I are still in Atlanta, in a cute cottage in Grant Park. We recently celebrated ten years together.
• Have started teaching myself Ableton and Music Production. You can here some of my (not very good at at this point) music on SoundCloud. Feel free not to share it.
• Managing my depression pharmaceutically and behaviorally.
• Donating resources to a collection of non-profits dedicated to fighting white supremacy and creating a more equitable society.
• Generally avoiding social media other than Instagram (and a few topic-specific sites). I dip in and out of the others.
• Do not have a full-time job but will occasionally freelance projects in a variety of categories.
• Still listen to a ton of music.
• Is my life where I want it or where I thought it would be? No. But I am very blessed in many areas and am grateful to be here.

The post General Life Update 2020 appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

• List
• Spotify

Cover	Information
	Andy Cooper – The Layered Effect (Rocafort) The DJ/Producer of Ugly Duckling. Clever rhymes, funky production, silly verses. Mostly about how “old rap used to be better but theres still some good stuff out there”.
	Ben Frost – All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Mute) A supplemental EP to 2017’s dark political album “The Centre Cannot Hold”, this is dark melancholy cinematic crusty electronica.
	Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic) Is she still okay? I can’t keep track. Have listened to this more than almost any other album this year tho.
	CHVRCHES – Love is Dead (Virgin/Glassnote) Shiny 80sy Femme Vocal Synth Goodness (there’s a reason i’m not a music writer) Meant for big speakers.
	Editors – Violence (PIAS) Editors are basically targeted specifically at me at this point.  Baritone vocals over dark guitar synthpop and big choruses.  Yes please.
	Findlay Brown – Not Everything Beautiful Is Good (Nettwerk) This years’s heartbreaking guy-with-acoustic guitar selection.  His voice makes me sad
	HAERTS – New Compassion (Arts & Crafts) In the way that their first album was super Synth-forward, this one integrates real percussion and guitar to make for a more balanced indie dance experience.
	Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer (Bad Boy) Not sure I can add anything to the discourse about this other than to say that its relistenable as hell.
	Logistics – Hologram (Hospital Records) Neurofunk Drum & Bass (slightly jazzy and shiny rather than gruff) from a vet.
	Ocean Wisdom – Wizville (High Focus Records) Twista-style vocal gymnastic hip-hop with boom bap beats from Camden, featuring guest spots from Dizzee Rascal, Meth, Roots Manuva and others.
	Penya – Super Liminal (On The Corner Records) Afro-Cuban (And therefore percussion groove-heavy) deliciousness plus just a little bit of electronics.
	The Summer Kills – Last Night We Became Swans (Self-released) Hammock + Matthew Ryan. So like… post-rock but also anthem-y.
	V/A – 1+1=X (Erased Tapes) A collection of exclusive music from each of the artists on the Erased Tapes, created around a single recording session with the same instruments. the Kiasmos track is a standout
	Solar Fields – Ourdom (Sidereal) Spacey New Age but intense and atmospheric. (also if you haven’t heard his Mirror’s Edge soundtracks, get on that)
	Marcin Wasilewski Trio – Live (ECM) One of my favorite current pianists in great form with part of the Tomasz Stanko (RIP) band. Includes a cover of “message in a bottle” and herbie’s “Actual Proof”

The post Jeremy’s Top Albums of 2018 appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

shows the scars of invisibility

stores retaliations too dangerous to speak

attempts to numb instead of feel

to translate dismissal into love

when feeling was too dangerous

and I was in the way

This unruly body

elicits strong feelings

a thing to be contended with

the disgust with the pity mask

the discomfort with the worry mask

the problem and the problem

too much seen-ness

to be less is to be better

doctor’s orders

This unruly body

strength and resilience

shield, sword and hearth

my home and my shelter

a reminder of what I survive

contains all of this

This unruly body

warm and engulfing

strong, sturdy, solid, sexy

source of comfort and pleasure

a smile, a squeeze, a moan

loved and seen

and seen and seen and seen

(Inspired by Roxanne Gay’s project Unruly Bodies)

The post This Unruly Body appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

They own the media shaping people’s minds and opinions on both sides, they own (and sometimes are) the politicians. They are defining “normal” and “acceptable” and it’s all nonsense, and that nonsense kills people.

I am well aware that my presentation to most of the world (a fair-skinned male-bodied bearded bespectacled lefty-leaning person with a long-term exclusive opposite-sex partner, amongst other “normal” signifiers) affords me some cultural advantages that my fellow non-straight and otherwise atypical folks do not enjoy.

I do my best to use those traits to raise the voices of those who do not have that visibility rather than to bloviate about issues that may otherwise affect me.

I do this not for any sense of credit or ego, but because lived experience will always be more relevant and important than even the most compassionate speech by those not in as many positions of marginalization.

I’m pretty open about my identity in how I present to the world. I am a Queer person (which to me, defines a worldview as much as anything else). I am not a straight person. Ever more relevantly, I’m Jewish.  My relationship is not traditional in many ways, though it is absolutely committed.

What I do know is that ‘Normal’ feels super oppressive to me, rather than something I identify with. The prevailing culture is so toxic to intentionality, compassion, generosity, inclusion and wholeness and actively suppresses those things with violence and manipulation of narrative. It hurts women (cis and otherwise) especially, men in different ways and affords very little room for others along the spectrum.

Whenever possible, I strive to reject this ‘normalcy,’ and avoid it.  I am very much aware that I have the privilege to do so.

So what are some small things can we do in addition to the political acts of resistance we must take as people with privilege?  What can we do as compassionate individuals desiring of a more whole human experience for all that is not afforded us by how things are right now? How can we move the needle?

Here are a few basic things.  Fuck with the system. Make people uncomfortable. Make out in public. Hold hands with two people (don’t block the sidewalk).  If you’re male-bodied / identified, hug your male friends without slapping them on the back.  Be kind and uncompromising to individuals and merciless to systems and groups. Shut up and listen.

It’s even more radical, these days.

The post On “The System” appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

• List
• Spotify

Cover	Information
	Airlands – So Much To Keep (Self-released)
	ASC – Trans-Neptunian Objects (Auxiliary) ASC keeps putting out wonderful dark spacey ambient and I keep adding it to my top lists. He’s very prolific, so this was basically just the first one I listened to.
	Ben Lukas Boysen & Sebastien Plano – Everything (Soundtrack) (Erased Tapes) A soundtrack to a game about literally everything. Somber and overwhelmingly lovely.
	Bicep – Bicep (Ninja Tune) Artificial Intelligence-style club music.
	Casey Dienel – Imitation of a Woman To Love (Paddle Your Own Canoe Society) Singer of White Hinterland’s solo debut, not so different from the WH stuff.
	Feed Me – Feed Me’s Existential Crisis (Mau5trap Recordings) Just a bunch of electro-house bangers
	David Fray – Chopin: Piano Works (Erato/Warner Classics) Gorgeously produced impeccably played versions of some of my favorite piano music.
	Goldfrapp – Silver Eye (Mute) You know, just another album of dark synthpop to poke my inner goth.
	GQ – E 14th (Jamla) Literate slightly political boom bap hip-hop produced by 9th Wonder.
	Grails – Chalice Hymnal (Temporary Residence) Wall of sound post-rock, very melodic and soundtrack-y.
	Jeremy Enigk – Ghosts (Lewis Hollow Records) Finally some Fire Theft-type output from the SDRE frontman
	Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights (Matador) Julien bleeds her heart out onto an album and offers it up to you, teary-eyed and hopeless.  Plus strings.  Jeff Buckley vibes.
	Matthäus – Effigy (Ears And Eyes) Pretty electronic-tinged chamber pop is basically my cryptonite.
	Partner – In Search Of Lost Time (You’ve Changed Records) The best wryly funny Canadian queer indie rock album of 1994 except, you know, came out this year.
	Peter Bradley Adams – A Face Like Mine (Self-Released) One of like three guy-with-guitar artists that pretty much shortcut to my feels.
	Rainer Maria – Rainer Maria (Polyvinyl) The best indie grungey shoegaze album of 1992, except, you know… came out this year.  A welcome return.
	Starsailor – All This Life (Cooking Vinyl) Another welcome return
	Stumbleine – Static Bloom (Self-Released) Slightly Burial-y atmospheric house.
	SW. – The Album (Sued / Apollo)
	Úlfur Eldjárn – The Aristokrasia Project (One of the members of the Apparat Organ Quartet which is exactly as weird as it sounds)
	Waaktaar & Zoe – World of Trouble (Drabant Music) – The main dude from a-ha and the daughter of Jimmy Gnecco from Ours make lovely pop together)

Singles, EPs and such
	Sasha – Scene Delete Remixes 3 (Late Night Tales) Plaid remixes can do no wrong in my book, even if I’ve always found Sasha to be boring.
	SubtractiveLAD – Ritual (n5MD)
	SUMS – SUMS (Berlin Atonal) Side project of Barry from Mogwai and Kangding Ray
	Lamb – Illumina (Self-Released) Always look forward to more from this duo.
	Nine Inch Nails – Add Violence EP (Nothing)

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_i._

i am just
small enough
to fit
out of the way
no matter
how small
the way is
just as
he required
the him world
to be
but he is
dead so what
the hell
am i doing?

_ii._

this is
the last poem
his world shall inspire
this is my world now
and everyone gets room to breathe.

The post inhale / exhale appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

The post Jeremy’s Top Albums of 2016 appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

I am scared. My friends and loved ones are scared. My fellow LGBTQ people are scared. My fellow Jews are scared. My fellow non-traditional-relationship people are scared. My fellow socialists are scared. My fellow feminists are scared. My fellow self employed people are scared. My fellow social justice advocates are scared, and fired the fuck up.

I have no platitudes, other than this: We are not alone. We are strong. And as DeRay Mckesson says: “We will win.”

The post On the upcoming fights and self care. appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

AirLands – AirLands (Self-released):  Dude formerly of Stars of Track and Field does Greys Anatomy pop, collaborating with Ben Weikel (Helio Sequence).
Young Wonder – Birth (Feel Good Lost): Irish electronic pop. Distinctly mid 2010s EDM sounds but more reverie and 6/8 than BROWWWWWWWWWWMMM-y
Matthew Perryman Jones – Cold Answer (Self-Released): My list always has a dude-with-guitar-Americana record and MPJ has been on the list several times.  This one has banjo!
BT/Gregory Tripi – Dark Places (Original Score) (Milan Records): Dark, atmospheric, brooding, reverby. Featuring Belong and David Kristian
Vessels – Dilate (Bias): Dancey post-rock, reissued in 2016 with some new great remixes. RIYL Oneohtrix point never, Holly Herndon
Calexico – Edge of the Sun (Anti): Calexico goes synthy?  With new collaborators including Sam Beam, Ben from Band of Horses and Neko Case, it works.
VV Brown – Glitch (self-released): Former Janelle-alike (in a good way) takes her craft in more Emika-meets-Robyn-like direction.
Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (Domino): Avant-garde weird music auteur goes ever-so-slightly pop, spotlights her gift for lush and melody, Polly Jean fandom.
ASC – Imagine The Future (Samurai Music Group): Music with which to explore a barren unfamiliar-yet-somehow-super-mechanical underground city on a newly discovered planet while wearing a comfortable yet slightly restrictive space suit.
Bluebirds Of Paradise – In A Night (Project 4): Ari Hest and Caitlin Canty craft a light-as-cotton-candy confection straight out of a 70s French rom-com, flute solos and all.
Editors – In Dream (PIAS): Icy, in a Nick Cave and Depeche Mode (and side project Recoil)-esque way
Arovane & Hior Chronic – In-Between (A Strangely Isolated Place): Music for the end of Brazil, or if Blade Runner were a more contemplative meditation.
The Unthanks – Mount the Air (RabbleRouser Music): Steeped in melancholy in a profoundly British/Celtic way.
Conforce – Presentism (Delsin Records): Like a lesser Polygon Window album
Marriages – Salome (Sargent House): Like a lost Catherine Wheel album or a soundtrack from 1993. Featuring former members of Red Sparowes and Isis.
Findlay Brown – Slow Light (Dead People’s Choice): One of those albums with vocals drenched in echo and choir and close-mic acoustic guitar.

Single/EP honorable mention
Idjut Boys – One For Kenny (Smalltown Supersound): Hypnotizing multi-phasic slow nu-disco remix from Bjorn Torske of this 106bpm classic tribute to Kenny Hawkes, plus a Prins Thomas banger on the flip side.
16 Bit Lolitas – Not The Only One EP (Anjunadeep): When 16bL hit on a solid melody rather than random noodling, they are the kinds of deep proggy tech-house.

Mix honorable Mention:
Jon Hopkins – LateNightTales/

The post Jeremy’s Top Albums Of 2015 appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

• Resistance is not a reason not to do things.  It may be an invitation to explore further.  It’s also not a reason to shut down and “power through” without feeling.
• Having a structure to my day is one of the only ways I can stave off feeling like a useless burden on society.  Writing just three things that I’d like to accomplish the night before and being able to cross them off is helpful (a framework I learned from Gina Trapani).  When I don’t do this, it starts a spiral of self-judgment and shame around concepts like “wasting my life” and “not living up to my potential” that actually get me further mired, rather than leading to action.
• My voice is not essential in conversations about politics, and the best way to use my privilege is to amplify the voices of those being primarily affected by oppression.
• I am sad a lot.  I have a habit of self-medicating/numbing out to avoid sadness.  I’m trying to sit with it more.  If I can sit with my emotional state for 30 seconds longer than I did yesterday and then numb out if I want to, then that is an accomplishment that I can feel proud of.
• I have real challenges with internally-generated motivation. Motivating myself and feeling ‘positive’ (i.e. motivating) emotions like excitement and anger get quickly redirected into shame (as well-documented in The Change Triangle).  This motivation -> shame cycle is often misdiagnosed as depression (though I have also historically struggled with depression, I’ve thankfully . I am addressing this. This shall be addressed.

The post What I’ve Learned, 2015 Edition appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

I surrender.

I surrender self-improvement.

I surrender “fixing my life”

I surrender making small changes that add up.

I surrender figuring it out.

I surrender doing better and hoping it works.

Fine.

Fine. I’m “so smart” and “things just naturally fall into place for me” and i’m “so lucky” and I’m a “sensitive person” and whatever else takes it all away from me.

Fine, I’ll stay out of your way.

I surrender.

I surrender so that you can make art.

I surrender so that you can figure yourself out.

I surrender so you can keep your image of me intact.

I surrender so let’s talk about you.

I surrender, so I’ll stay out of your way. Out of everyone’s way.

Fine.

I will feel childish about feeling angry. I will feel embarrassed about being hurt. I will throw a tantrum, apparently.

I will find comfort in shame and victimhood and powerlessness and surrender and not in excitement and self-directedness and positive reinforcement.

I will be contemptuous of my flavor of brokenness.

I will accept my flavor of brokenness.

I will find it boring.

It will not solve things.

But maybe they’re beyond solution.

I surrender.

Fine.

It’s fine.

I’m fine.

The post I Surrender appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

Residents were protesting the ‘invasion’ of crackheads and crack dealers into their once safe neighborhood. They ‘didnt feel safe’ and ‘these people should be locked up’ They demanded a larger police presence and the arrest of addicts and dealers alike.

Knowing what we know about the racial sources of the crack epidemic, I find this to be a severely depressing glimpse into the many ways that the powers that be manage to pit us against each other and ignore systemic oppression, as well as the state of race relations in NYC in the 1980s.

NoHo is now one of the most chic, sought after and expensive blocks in the whole city. I should know, I grew up there (and you can see me in some of the news footage as a kid on a bike). I remember very distinctly feeling quite ambivalent about the protest, as even back then I felt that addiction should be treated as a medical issue.

I hope this video is enlightening.

The post The troubling history of the crack epidemic in Lower Manhattan: A video appeared first on Jeremy Meyers dot com.

As always, you can view/listen to/stalk my Top 10s from every year since 1999 right here on my blog.

Here’s my full spotify playlist including the ones that i enjoyed but didn’t make the cut for this list Jeremy’s Top Albums of 2014

In no particular order (and i no make no claim to super high quality descriptors):

Low Roar – 0 (Tonequake) – Just crazy gorgeous beautiful. Formerly Oakland-based Ryan Karazija of Audrye Sessions moves to Iceland and writes lovely haunting music about his new unfamiliar surroundings
Luluc – Passerby (Sub Pop) – Girl with a sultry voice, guy with a guitar. Sublime on vinyl.
Locust – After The Rain (Editions Mego)
Loscil – Sea Island (Kranky)
Phantogram – Voices (Universal/Republic) – Dark electro synthpoppy goodness in the Ladytron/Royksopp/School of Seven Bells (RIP) realm.
Alcest – Shelter (Prophecy Productions) – French black metal turned poppy shoegaze/post-rock band featuring Neil Halstead and Amiina from Sigur Ros
Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Bring us Together (Hot Bus Records) – Big Beat is back? RIYL the last Daft Punk album, I guess.
Ben Howard – I Forget Where We Were (Island) – Melancholy british white dude music.
Elizabeth and the Catapult – Like it Never Happened (Scratchback Records / Self-released)
Emerson Hart – Beauty in Disrepair (BMG) – Hooky mainstream pop/rock which kind of reminds me of the late great Will Owsley.  Yes, the lead dude from Tonic.
White Sea – In Cold Blood (Vocalist from M83’s album is better than his latest)
Otto Totland – Pino (Sonic Pieces) – Anyone who enjoys Nils Frahm and the Erased Tapes crew will find this piano solo stuff divine.  Also probably fans of ECM will like it, too.
S. Carey – Range of Light (Jagjaguwar) – Cinematic and gorgeous indietronica/jazz/americana inspired by the southwest

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