From the Surfside

  A suburban man exited his house on September 15, 2020 after a languid six-month work-from-home spell as he heard the diesel engine of school buses barreling down the road and the loud chatter of kids walking to school. Sounds he’d not heard since earlier this year, around the second week of March.  Carrying a mug of coffee, brewed right there at home — a morning custom he’d become very good at over the past six months along with other liberating exercises such as peeing with the bathroom door open, forcibly farting out loud just because he could, and eating peanut butter out of the jar with his finger — he nonchalantly picks his wedge, steps out from his front door and curiously surveys the neighborhood scene. The voices of kids he’d heard were those of his own. “Oh yeah,” he recalls, “I guess they were starting that back up again today.” “That” being school, of course, and it made him wonder, was he too supposed to go somewhere on this particular sunny day. Should I be goin...

  "Eject" Part 12 of 12 Track #9 - “Land of Confusion” This could have actually been a great title for this mixtape with it’s somewhat inconsistent tracklist of songs with a purpose throughout most but then topped off by an inexplicable rash of questionable Top 40 songs of the day. Some of which barely balance on the fine line between a Top 40 hit and pop song obscurity. Track #10 - “Let’s Wait Awhile” This Janet Jackson number wasn’t released as a single until January of 1987, putting the timeline of these B-side leftovers and the inception of “Olive Juice ‘87” incredibly close. The amount of time it takes for a single to break into heavy play and gain traction among the listener base can be weeks, sometimes months. You need that window of airplay before a song is ingrained to the point that a teenager in 1987 wants to tape it off the radio. Granted this was the 5th single from Janet’s “Control” album so it may have hit heavy airplay right off the bat, but still. We’re cutti...