inri031 is going to require some careful thought, specifically with the string orchestra version. if i update it, it will probably be to replace it.

the weather here was really nice all week, but went to shit last night. the drop in temperature gives me an opportunity to get some compost out tomorrow morning. but i've otherwise committed to zero packs of cigarettes over june - and am absolutely serious about enforcing it. i was almost cold turkey in february, but the weather helped. june is going to be a bit tougher, but i'm not cracking. this should hopefully overlap with the web site push, once i get through this clean-up and push through to completed material up to mid 2004, putting aside incomplete material over late 2003 and 2004 for a few weeks.

i have a final appointment on the 16th and will be mailing my odsp on the 16th or 17th, for analysis some time around the beginning of july. i will either be granted a few more years or have three months to get a reaction. i've already decided to appeal, which will probably give me a few more months. but if i have to do that, i will have to drop the website idea and get back to production, because i will be in a race against time at that point. i've already decided that i don't have a future post-odsp. i haven't decided on an exact path, which will probably depend on the nature of the denial, if it happens.

i'm thinking about hitting three shows this month for sure and a few more are maybes, but a lot of it is going to depend on how focused i am on what i'm doing. i could very well not want to go to any at all, depending on factors like the weather, my disposition and whether i think i can get through it without buying smokes. i've previously prioritized the show and said "i'll quit the next day". i'm reversing that priority. if i'm convinced i'm going to crack, i'm going to stay in.

so, this is an important few months for me coming up. by the end of june, i should get through a lot of loose ends and have an entire period of my music career behind me, and i should have a better understanding of how likely it is that i'm going to be able to plan around disability.

finalizing to me, myself and the time i thought this was a good idea (inri049)

inri030 has been permanently finalized without being updated.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/me-myself-and-the-time-i-thought-this-was-a-good-idea

no society is really clear on their separation of church and state. i'd argue the state should deal with certain things that the reaganites dumped into the realm of the church. but, all western countries would agree that war is the exclusive domain of the state. the church cannot declare war.

but, in the past the church did declare war. these wars were called crusades.

i'm not sure that the collapse of the iraqi army is possible for westerners to understand without making a number of mental cultural adjustments. it seems to me that islamic cultures tend to lean towards the idea of war being an issue to be dealt with by religious authorities, rather than state authorities. saddam may have pushed a different perspective, but he was some kind of weird totalitarian marxist - his system was alien to arab culture.

so, when you see the iraq army collapse like this, i think a big part of what you're seeing is the cultural rejection of the state's perceived usurpation over fundamentally religious concerns. this is an issue for fatwas, not for parliaments. and, the fatwa is more legitimate than the parliament is on this issue. the state is seen as overstepping it's bounds.

that may be a large part of the reason these militias were targeted for disassembly. but the failure of this policy may necessitate the realization that imperially constructing an iraq that follows western standards of parliamentary centralization is, in truth, a cultural impossibility.

there's a level of irony. militia movements are integral to the framework erected in the united states constitution.

it's easy to come up with conspiracy theories, especially when you're pretty sure that almost everybody is lying to you, but the reality remains that only one group ever took responsibility for the kidnapping of the israeli teens, and it was neither hamas nor netanyahu. it was isis.

sometimes things are as plain as the facts in front of us suggest.

finalizing to spin inside dull aberrations (inri048)

inri029 has been permanently finalized without being updated.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations