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also, this hit me hard:

I remember the bile in my stomach before a show worrying no one will come and the sort of disappointment I felt when I realized people were actually going to show up because then I had to try hard.

i have never heard anyone articulate that but i felt it at every show i ever did. "shit, people showed up. this is going to be hard."

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this is such a powerful article. when my students ask me what they can do to support musicians, i tell them "go out with five of your friends ten times a month to a local venue to hear bands you have never heard of." where the hell are they even going to do that in town? man, the type of scene you describe here is so, so important and it is disappearing like the wolverines in michigan. "my grandfather saw one when he was a teenager in the thirties". sending this to friends all over the country, even if they have never been here. they will know exactly what you are mourning.

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For his work transforming Great Scott from a boring jam band bro hut to a valuable site of cultural production, Carl Lavin should be praised and feted and showered with goods and services. Put his face on Mt Rushmore and make America great for once.

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"it’s like spending a gorgeous day in the ocean many years ago that you generally remember fondly and trying to call to mind right now one specific single wave that buoyed you and a second wave that knocked you over. after a while all the waves become impossible to differentiate from one another and it all flattens out into sensory noise." this pandemic is poison to everything it seems but your writing, which is as good as its ever been. another banger. not to be a fuckin simp or anything lol but you've really become one of my very favorite writers. thank you for doing what you do

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