quarantine journal

I, like many other Americans, am staying at home all day for the unforseeable future. It’s quite boring, but it’s for the best of our society.

What have I done since January?

• Downloaded MediaMonkey to handle my 250gb+ music library of MP3s, as an iTunes replacement. It’s surprisingly great and I’d recommend it! It works well with last.fm scrobbling and allows me to sync and update my iPod nano.
• Went to a Mavi concert, Billy Woods concert, a Baby Rose concert, a Lucki concert. I saw Ja Morant’s Grizzlies vs. the Brooklyn Nets.
• I turned 24.
• Ordered AirPod Pros 🥴
• Walked through some of Chelsea’s art galleries, saw Ja’Tovia Gary’s flesh that needs to be loved (still thinking about the interviews she conducted), David Datuna’s Hungry Artist (whatever), Noah Davis paintings (brilliant and gone far too young) and Doug Wheeler’s “infinity environment” (pretty, calming).
• almost finished Raymond Carver’s collection of short stories, Where I’m Calling From (would recommend, but makes you feel like a tired drunk after a while)
• Learned how to play poker and have made a good amount of money through casual poker games
• Tried to learn chess but it’s so difficult
• I finished The Wire. I also finished My So-Called Life. I liked them both! I can’t believe Angela Chase never ends up f*cking in My So-Called Life but whatever, it was the 90s and she deserved to retain her agency.

There’s been so much music this year already, but also so much music exploration I’ve done. Mostly early 2000s rap… here’s some highlights:

• Gucci Mane’s verse on “She Geeked” (great title), he bodied that
• Reconnected with Gunplay.. Gunplay and Mozzy released a joint tape last year and it’s not bad. Gunplay was like, the realest and most talented rapper (probably) from Rick Ross’s whole entourage. And he’s so South Florida. I recommend his tapes 601 & Snort and Bogota Rich. He also has the best verse, by and far, on this posse cut. (“Power Circle,” in case the link breaks in the future)
• “Miss Me, Kiss Me” by Cold Flamez which is like, a banger heavily influenced by the AutoTune years. Also the video feels super antiquated and the kids are so goth
• Honestly I’ve been re-obsessed with Gucci Mane’s entire catalog from when he was fat, I partially blame this 2012 Complex article where Chief Keef lists Gucci’s entire catalog as one of his top 25 favorite songs. Gucci Mane featuring Shawty Lo (starts with “you wanna rock gucci then that means you wanna die”), “I’m Up” featuring 2 Chainz, the scariest bass I’ve ever heard on “Swing My Door”, the perfect “Spanish Plug”. I love Gucci Mane.
• Also Future, but only Future when he throws his voice in all sorts of directions. So I’ve been listening to Astronaut Status, Pluto 3D and 56 Nights. Astronaut Status is great and underrated. He makes those bird noises on “Birds Take a Bath,” “Futureback” is one of his hardest flows to date, I wanna lie with a lover in some villa off the coast Spain and “Deeper Than the Ocean” is playing in the background (“taking 3 drugs at 1 time”). Future’s “My” is one of those crazy examples of how he loves the sound of his own voice, he sounds like a creaky door.
• I bought all the Meek Mill tapes remixed by knxwledge. Great investment.
• Old school Miami hip-hop, like Uncle Al and 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny”. An eternal bop
• There’s a Jay Electronica album and there’s a song that uses Rihanna’s “Higher” as a sample and man, we as a society did not give ANTI enough love. “Higher” should’ve been on all “best songs of the 2010s” lists.
• We also did not appreciate Kilo Kish’s HomeSchool EP enough last decade.
• Roc Marciano whole catalog

ok that’s enough music to list, but that’s not even like, all of the music I’ve been listening to. I’ve been playing the 2019 HitBoy SOB x RBE album a lot (Slimmy B starts a song with “a broke bitch really ain’t my type!” and it’s perfect). I haven’t stopped listening to Detroit rappers like Baby Smoove (this song is great) and Dame Dot (this song is great, too). I think I love songs, like that Baby Smoove one and this FMB DZ one, where the beat comes in after the rapping begins.

Sports has stopped, which is for the better of society, but man. The 2019-20 Florida State Seminoles Men’s basketball team had something loud to say and we’ll never get to hear it. I wish Vassell and Williams and Forrest the best of luck in the NBA, and I can’t wait ‘til next season.

Also man, I was so excited to watch the Miami Marlins this year. I was also pretty excited to watch the Atlanta Braves, with Acuña Jr, Albies and Ozuna in the lineup. So it goes.