I really like The Midnight Club. It has such a nice tone and spins its tales pretty darn well. However, it throws me out of it when the people in the show use anachronisms like “epic cringe.” No one said that in the mid-90s when the show is set. The phrase just did not exist.

“Epic cringe” or “epic” anything didn’t become common until the mid-2000s, and then became pervasive post-2010.

I sent a woman friend of mine a normal, fully-clothed, waist-up photo after she asked me for a more recent pic. Nothing unusual. She said something later about me “flexing in your photo.”

I said, confused, “Oh, did I send you the wrong photo?” I really didn’t know what she was talking about. “One of my workout ones or something?” I thought maybe I’d sent a different photo than the one I’d intended by accident — I’ve taken a few where I am flexing in workout clothes and the like.

She said, “No, it just looks like you’re flexing in it.” I assured her I wasn’t flexing and that’s just how I look now. Then she jokingly asked me if I was taking steroids as my muscles looked so defined and nice. I told her I definitely wasn’t. That’s just how I look, I said, and that I work out a great deal so am still getting stronger.

Then she asked for my secret of looking so — as she put it — “tasty.” But there is no secret, and I told her that. It’s mainly just work out a whole damn lot and don’t eat like an asshole.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

Man, it sure is weird when I think about how much of the pandemic involved weirdos proclaiming shit like, “No one needs social connection” and “Zoom is just as good as in person.” Most often they were just implying those viewpoints without quite outright saying them, but sometimes literally stating it in those words. Did they not realize how crazy that sounded and still sounds now?

Humans are a social species — nearly as much as ants or bees, just with bigger brains. Human society and civilization is now built on and probably will always be constructed atop in-person social connections.

If only wanting to believe something made it true. If only.

Happy Halloween: Here’s a Bunch of Spooky Music That Isn’t “The Monster Mash.”

Wow, this is a bad list. Why do they get people to write about music who don’t know much about it, and who only know songs 900 years old? Here’s a list that’s much better and has much newer (mostly) songs. Not all are directly about Halloween, but all have the Halloween spirit. It’s why I picked ’em:

Ghost of Mine – Kailee Morgue
Halloweenie IV Innards – Ashnikko
Daemon – Amnesia Scanner
Bury a Friend – Billie Eilish
Are You Scared – Oiki
Pet Sematary – Starcrawler (The Ramones cover)
fear o the dark – katie dey
Petit Fantôme – Cécile Corbel
Faithful Servant Friend Of Christ – Lingua Ignota
Disco Zombi Italia – Carpenter Brut
We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow – SoKo
100 Black Coffins – Rick Ross
Scary Mask – Poppy ft. FEVER 333
doll maker – olivia louvel
Funeral For My Future Children – Anna von Hausswolff
Heart of Courage – Two Steps From Hell
Good Death – Gazelle Twin
Season of the Witch – Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity
Corpse for Halloween – Inner Sanctum
The Girl with All the Gifts Theme – Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Die In The Disco – Night Club
A Little Wicked – Valerie Boussard
Clone – Night Terror
Oh! Hark! – Lisa Mitchell
Halloween Theme (Perturbator Rework) – John Carpenter
The Faerie Court (Under Moon) – Clann
Burn Them – BEARD HAUS
Halloween – Megan Washington
Animal – PVRIS
Dead Body – Little Simz
Witching Hours – Clann
Hell On Earth – KAS:ST
DEATHWISH – poutyface
Devil Inside – London Grammar (INXS Cover)
Bottom of the River – Delta Rae
Unflesh – Gazelle Twin
Sacrificial – Rezz ft. PVRIS
My Name Is Dark – Grimes
Vampire Smile – Kyla La Grange
End of World Party – HÆLOS
The Funeral – YUNGBLUD
Bad Moon Rising – Satin Puppets & Nxghtshade (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)

simply immoral and horrifying that movies are just making up people who seem real like that https://t.co/IAiPMARHfW

— Faine Greenwood (@faineg) October 28, 2022

WHAT? Characters in movies aren’t real? When did that start?

I thought every single film was a documentary of real-life events. This is just astounding that Freddy Krueger and Thomasin are not actual people. I can’t believe it. Next you’re going to tell me that they didn’t have movie cameras in the 1600s. Since I’ve seen movies set in the 1600s, I know that’s a lie. Duh.

How two strangers met in an elevator in Greece and fell in love.

Hey, remember Elevatorgate? I was told during that time that no one ever should talk to anyone in an elevator — especially if it’s a man talking to a woman. And according to libs, this relationship is automatically based on harassment and furthermore is abuse because of the age gap.

But here in the real world, sounds like that is all crap and that they make a pretty good couple. The world is far more complex and more contingent than either liberals or conservatives like to admit. When you’re bound by hard and fast rules — trying to live like the modern version of a 12th Century monk — you are truly bound, constrained by your own frailty.

Be kind, be fair, be generous — but do what you want to do and don’t let the fussypants Mrs. Grundys of the world hem you in to make themselves feel better and more exalted. It’ll get you nowhere you want to be. Talk to that woman in the elevator, or that guy. It might change your life.

Too Like the Lightning really has the perfect opening to either draw you in or scare you away pic.twitter.com/YqozrlM4sz

— Misha – Visiting the bay area Nov 19 – Jan 3 (@drethelin) October 28, 2022

Indeed. If you like reading Jonathan Swift, David Hume or Voltaire, you’ll like Too Like the Lightning. I do, and I did.

I did three sets of 19 dips on the dip bars earlier.

If anyone has told you that you can’t get absurdly strong in your 40s…they are wrong. Been there, done that, got the muscles to show for it. And it’s good.