Restricted Frequency #146
Ganzeer, Inc's response to COVID-19
1.
If a vaccine cannot be developed in less than 18 months, then we must envision how life under Coronavirus can be sustained for at least 18 months (if not more). We then must also envision the ripple effects those 18 months will have on the culture at large beyond those 18 months, likely for the entire decade that is the 2020s.
2.
Not sure anyone needs a new t-shirt now that we aren’t leaving our houses, but let’s just say I was uh, “inspired”?
That sounds like an awfully distasteful way to put it, but you know what I mean.
3.
It was back in February, before the beginning of the End Times, that I finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, and I really hated it. It starts off good enough until you realize that the entirety of the thing is more or less the same as the first 10 pages. And if ever you wanted a blueprint for anticlimactic endings, well then no need to look any further.
And also, the subtext in this thing? Atrocious. All it wants to do is hammer in the notion that people who work in groups as a community are vicious cannibals, and the only way to possibly survive is to persevere on your own. What a load of poorly disguised Randian egoist trash.
No wonder gun sales went up in America as soon as COVID-19 reached its shores.
I tried Kurt Vonnegut’s CAT’S CRADLE for a second time. I’d made it halfway through sometime last year. Upon second attempt though I decided it just wasn’t for me, and tossed it in the giveaway box next to THE ROAD.
Earlier in the month I started reading the beautiful FUTURES series from Radix Media, which is really good! But, a couple shorts in and I realized what I really need right now is to get engrossed in a long-form novel. Will have to scour my shelves for just the right thing (BECAUSE I CANNOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE BUY ANY NEW BOOKS RIGHT NOW, DON’T YOU DARE SEND ME SUGGESTIONS, DON’T YOU DARE).
4.
In this time of enforced solitude and extensive uncertainty, many of us are finding comfort in the books we read, the music and podcasts we listen to, the artists we follow, and the films/shows we watch. Cultural output and the presence of the practitioners who create it all is proving to be of utmost psychological importance in these tumultuous times, isn’t it? At least it has for me. I realize that as much as I get that kind of comfort, entertainment, and thoughtfulness from the creators I enjoy, there exists a [small] number of people who get that sort of thing from me. That’s what I’m here for. I hope I can continue to be that kind of source for you all even with all the uncertainty that I myself am facing.
The strategy right now is to keep producing the things I produce for as long as I can produce them. We’ll see how it goes.
I hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Let’s all try to be smart and thoughtful and the best versions of ourselves we can possibly be.
Always yours,
Ganzeer
March 27, 2020
Houston, TX