Annus? Horribilus!
2024 can go fuck itself.
NOTE: Apologies for yet another “crossover episode” but the following is from my OTHER newsletter See You Next Tue! (SYNT!) and its final edition of 2024. I’d love for it to be an in-depth “Year In Review” but the less said about this Annus Horribilus the better. Instead, I’m focusing on the past 12 months of SYNT!.
JANUARY
I revive SYNT after killing it off six months earlier. It had to die to be reborn in a different form: less “Here’s my previous week in excruciating detail!” more “Do you believe this shit?!” editorializing.
FEBRUARY
The first of the year’s too-close-for-comfort deaths: my former SiriusXM colleague and True American Original Wild Man Who Cannot Be Tamed, Mojo Nixon dies Feb. 7 onboard the Outlaw Country Cruise after an amazing set the night before. Born Neil Kirby McMillan Jr., he packed twice as much living into his 66 years, plowing through several careers as musician, actor, DJ and talk show host. I’ll forever treasure the time we spent on air together. A few short weeks later, Sweet T. and I head to one of Mojo’s frequent stomping grounds, Austin, TX for what will turn out to be the final Ameripolitan Awards.
MARCH
Two years and a month after I send in a resume, cover letter and MP3 of me on the air, someone from WDST in Woodstock contacts me about becoming a fill-in DJ. Fuck me. When I applied I still had my store in Saugerties and Sweet T. and I were considering moving there permanently. That all went to shit and now I’m being offered an on-air gig approx. 110 miles north of where I live. I ask if it’s possible to do it remote: nope.
APRIL
We journey to Mental Hell, umm Health. I list every DVD I own. And See You Next Tue! makes it to issue number 500 and I take a few victory laps.
MAY
My friend Jim Brown and I go to see Neil Young & Crazy Horse at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. While there, I text my good friend and former SiriusXM boss Jeremy Tepper. Of course he’s at the show, in some VIP room near the stage. He finds us in the cheap seats and we spend 15 minutes getting caught up. It’ll turn out to be the last time I see him.
JUNE
I write about the false choice offered by a GRIND OR STARVE T-shirt spotted at the Meadowlands Flea. We attempt yet another garage sale with the same desultory results. There’s a remembrance of Jeremy Tepper, whose New York City memorial service Sweet T. and I attend. And the final SYNT of the month covers our Jersey Shore vacation, a truly magical sojourn.
JULY
There’s a crossover installment featuring an old Nihilistics interview originally posted on my nihilisticbook.com Substack. I also write about my Picks & Shovels theory of late-stage podcasting. And I memorialize another devastating loss, my podiatrist Dr. Thomas Azzolini, who transformed my life by doing three operations on my feet. He’d passed back on April 15 after a short bout with cancer but I didn’t find out until months later. There’s more loss: my good friend and ersatz Mom Doris Nicastro, another life-transforming figure, passes away July 27 at the age of 85. Retrospectively, one of my best spontaneous decisions ever was to surprise her on her 80th birthday by flying out to Seattle to join her family in celebration.
AUGUST
There’s a review of every vehicle I’ve owned to date. I work another estate sale for my friend Sharon and am forced to throw someone out (it’s the same sale where my iPad Mini 5 grows legs). I’m interviewed for an upcoming book about WFMU. And there’s yet more loss: my father-in-law Frank dies Sunday, August 25 at the age of 89.
SEPTEMBER
For my 62nd birthday I interview myself. A week later I do some phone-banking for Kamala. Sweet T. and I attend a great event at the Elks Lodge and it begins my journey toward becoming an Elk. The month ends with some agonizing about the stalled Nihilistics book and my inability to be a self-starter.
OCTOBER
There’s another in my series of “I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!” complaints, a report on my freelance career, a discussion of the town I grew up in and its politics, a descent into Sell Hell and a repudiation of all things Trump.
NOVEMBER
Did I really write “Go Democracy, Defeat Fascism!”?! Post-election, I compare the reelection of Donald Trump to me buying back my old Jeep Wrangler. There’s more about how the election broke my brain. The month ends with an overview of SYNT Thanksgiving editions.
DECEMBER
Jim Brown and I attend the first night of Jesse Malin’s return to performing and I opine on PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). Attending another show, I finally catch up with the amazing Mr. Jimmy in Montclair at the Wellmont Theater. I set stoic terms for 2025. For Christmas Eve there’s a rewrite of an SYNT chestnut.
That brings us up to date, no? Into 2025 I hope to return to doing more original NIHILISTIC posts and less grave-robbing from See You Next Tue! Thanks for sticking with me.