looking at Youtube videos, sometimes you can’t stop. You go down an increasingly narrow rabbit hole until you find yourself watching a Neil Young performance from three days ago. How I got there was through Willie Nelson, who was introduced by Neil Young at Willie’s latest show somewhere. Willie’s lungs appear to be fucked, and he has trouble breathing, although he did get through an hour long show somehow. His family all sing so Willie can take breaks now and again. Neil Young, on the other hand, can still sing fairly robustly, despite having put on what looks like 300 lbs. Neil is a mess but he’s always been one, in some way shape or form. These days he’s just out of shape. Nevertheless, the boy is still rockin’ in the unfree communist world like the trouper that he is. Youtube is full to the brim with superannunated rock stars from the 60’s and 70’s. A couple of dudes from the hippie era, who go by the name of Hot Tuna are doing a final swing around the country at the moment. I gather they were a part of the San Francisco scene back in the day. One of them at least, can still sing and play the guitar very well. The other cat plays the bass and I didn’t hear him sing, so the jury is out on that one.
I am the Walrus now
Come to think of it, I didn’t actually hear the other guy sing either, so I don’t know. Youtube is like Madam Tussauds these days, only the historical figures in it are still alive. It’s scary. I’ll tell you what else is scary. My fucking latest Youtube video which I was working on yesterday. For some reason when I mix the audio that goes with the track, it sounds fine, but as soon as I post it to Youtube it sounds like shit. I had to pull the first one that I uploaded yesterday it sounded so bad. The repost sounded fine when it left my computer, but when it got to Youtube, the fucking drums were too loud. I’m not going to bother redoing it. I’ve spent about two days working on it already. It’s not too bad, but it’s annoying. I’ve also been driving my ancient BMW around the place all week, with no problems at all. This is the car that some lunatic said was gonna cost $4 grand to fix. I guess I’ve saved some cash then.
It’s an Oasis of single mothers who share one car between them.
I could take that $4 grand and go out and party. I could buy something on Craigslist. I don’t actually have the $4 grand in hand though. That’s just what I theorectically saved. If I had $40 grand I could buy a new electric car that AAA keeps telling me is the thing that I must have. Indeed AAA is hammering this insane electric car bullshit all day long. Five days ago they sent out an email with the headline, “Charge Forward” “The Future of Charging Stations”. “The EV charging stations of tomorrow may not be too dissimilar to today’s gas stations and rest stops. But engineers and architects are also reimagining them with appealing futuristic designs, activities and much more.“
Really? They may as well be talking about flying cars at this point. The article that followed this was a completely idiotic fantasy about how charging stations in this progressive green, no carbon utopia were going to like mini Disneylands with every amenity and creature comfort a person could desire while they were waiting for their battery cars to charge up. Of course nobody in a hurry is going to want any of that, but this is the brave new world of carbon neutral fuckery, where nobody gets a choice about what they want to drive. You’ll be lucky to own a car, and you’ll have to be rich. Better get used to riding the electric bus.
Two hours later…nothing
Yesterday there was a follow up email, “In Case You Missed It”, which was more EV propaganda. There was a link to a website called “EV Resources” that offered to find a charging station anywhere in the country. Just for fun I chose a place where I go sometimes, which is 200 miles away from here. I typed in my route and waited for the app to show me the multitude of handy charging stations that would allow me to make this trip without too much “range anxiety”. Two hours later I came back and the little charging icon on the page was still “charging”. It hadn’t found one fucking charging station in the entire country at all. The future is looking great for pushbike owners.
I stole the “Nixons coming” line from old Neil’s Ohio. I hope he doesn’t mind.