21

THANK YOU BASED GOD

Thesis

If you're gonna skip out on blogging for a week, it better be for a good reason. Well, as some of you may have noticed, I turned 21 on Thursday.

Birthday Blitz

Let's be honest: I'm at the end of a five-day bender. Often fun, sometimes sloppy, rarely irresponsible, this week has been a set of important lessons about self and identity. It's also been ridiculous fun. Thanks to everyone who ran the town with me (Zech and Kate for housing, Bron for crawling, 4tet 4evr, Lynn for driving, Ken for the card, Bubbz for the platypus and cookies, Barton for the convos, Dall for <3, Jimmy for dancing, Jay for Bebop, and to everyone else my sleep-deprived mind is forgetting).

It's been somewhat difficult to reconcile drinking with my (for the most part) straightedge performance these past two decades. It's a decidedly different way to understand and present myself, and one that probably makes other people redefine "Patrick." That's fine, though I may be overestimating how important my refusal to drink was to people's expectations and assumptions of me as a human being.

I think the emergence of a partying Patrick is refreshing, if not that unexpected. I've been party mentality since I learned how fun dancing is. Now that actual alcohol supplements this sort of fun, I'm not too upset with myself or recent decision making. It really does open one up to the mutability of perspective and experience. I just need to remember that this isn't very Important, and that most everyone has been doing this without me for a while now.

This doesn't need to be a reimagination of self on the same scale that my embrace of radical feminism was, but it does require self-discipline and -criticism. And maybe a little less self-seriousness than this blog post would suggest.

Party on, fam.

This Is A Music Blog

I hate to do this (jk luv music blogging), but there has been so much great music released/leaked in the past few weeks. Here's a quick rundown of what's blowing me up this summer:

> 4 by Beyonce
> Emergent Layer by Golden Retriever
> We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves by John Maus
> "Next To You" by Chris Brown (Feat. Justin Bieber)
> Player Piano by Memory Tapes
> Go Tell Fire To The Mountain by WU LYFE

> Bon Iver, Bon Iver by Bon Iver [9.5 lol]

This year's music is hypercrazy. Special shoutout to Colin Stetson's New History Warfare, Vol 2, which came out earlier in the year and was totally slept on by yours truly. It's like the most inventive album ever and omg I love it so much that I bought it.

Also, here's an important reminder that I'm having the best July ever:

> 08 / Liturgy at leBish

> 13 / AnC0 with mi padre in Pitt

> 14 / 6@|\|6 6@|\|6 at leBish

> 15 / KertVile & Woodz at USSRrecords
> 16 / P4k party in Chi

Get jealous, fam. Or come along!

Conclusions

Living positive, we can change the world. Up ahead is a busy work week, but one that also includes The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King Extended Edition in theatres, 4th of July celebrations, Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon in IMAX 3D (Thank You Based God), and all sorts of other reading and creating. My original comic masterpiece is underway, as is a novel, and plenty of reading of Judith Butler and Cormac McCarthy.

Sounds like a great summer!

Here's a #RARE picture of Lil B's Based Cat "Keke"