"Keep Calm. Carry On."

"Keep Calm, Carry On" - "Commonly featured on posters, clothing, novelty items, and internet memes, keep calm and carry on is a popular slogan calling for persistence in the face of challenge. It was first used on a British propaganda poster during World War II but now enjoys general currency as an expression of resilience."

Right. You know, that "stiff upper lip" idea might come in handy right about now.

Latest word is this coronavirus is gonna alter our lives for a long time. Social Distancing. Isolation. Quarantine. Lockdown. For many of us, our lives are going to get very small and circumscribed.

The Federal Reserve is printing up money. Word is they will be flooding the economic system with "Trillions of Dollars." A reminder that money is a fungible, abstract thing that we all live and die by. It's not "real," or only as real as we imagine it to be. The Fed can just conjure up money. Add a bunch of 0's to a sum. Pretty much creating something out of thin air. Something from nothing?! Who ever said it couldn't be done?

Personally, I think the hardest cut is no live shows for our band for the foreseeable future. It is something that we lived for, a driving imperative. Every day. Where do we play next, when is the next show, what songs will we do, I wonder who will show up?

All that has vanished. Sometimes the show just won't go on. You find out pretty quickly what is essential, and what is not essential. The essential list is pretty compact: survive, stay well, eat, sleep, dream, keep yourself occupied.

What's important? Breathe.

The a.m. soundtrack - Dead Can Dance's "Aion" (1990). Medieval. The album cover is a detail from a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. Sets the tone.  Music from the 14th, 16th & 17th century.  Lisa Gerrard's voice is an incredibly beautiful, expressive instrument. The music is otherworldly, sacred. It's not r&r. Instruments include the hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, an array of percussion instruments, strings, keyboards. Some of these songs sound absolutely sacred to my ears. You think of plague, and dark times, and voices, naked, human voices reaching up to the heavens, beseeching, praying, wondering. Life, it is a mystery.