My friend Phillip Longman turned 65 last month. Longtime readers of Phil’s astute political journalism will find some irony in this, because Phil first achieved recognition in the 1980s predicting that the generational divide would soon become America’s most salient political battleground. At the time he was representing the younger generation; now he’s a card-carrying member of the older one (a circumstance he of course anticipated) In his influential 1985 Atlantic piece, “Justice Between Generations” (later expanded into a book, Born to Pay), Phil put it this way:

BTS leader RM often describes the seven-member megagroup using the metaphor of a boat: “The seven of us are on a boat, looking in different directions but going the same way,” he explained in the Break the Silence docuseries. He has returned to this analogy when emphasising the different tastes and ambitions of each of the members.  While they were focused primarily on group activities, this notion felt somewhat intangible — the seven members, after all, were presenting a united front with group releases that worked towards what seemed to be their collective goals.

In the 1960’s, a meteorologist by the name of Edward Lorenz posited that tiny “butterfly-size” changes to the starting point of his models could result in anything from sunny skies to violent storms. This was problematic because if true, it meant it was nearly impossible to make long-term weather forecasts.  This phenomenon, commonly referred to as the “butterfly effect”, implies that a seemingly innocuous event (such as a butterfly flapping its wings) has the potential to completely upend a complex system.

 “If you want to lay down on it, you can lay down,” the caretaker at the Woodstock cemetery is saying. “Some people come up and lay down, some people bring lunch. You have any questions, ask me. There’s no such thing as a silly question. Everyone deals with death differently.” The caretaker, who is also the gravedigger and the groundskeeper, is Shea Cocks. He is 44 and has a tattoo of a skull and a pickaxe and shovel.

Oh boy, February had been A MONTH. With so many things going on in the world affecting my mental health significantly, work ramping up in preparation for events in California, and unexpected hurdles we’re jumping through, coming back to Substack felt like a sigh of relief. Anyway, I’m back from Los Angeles and it’s been a blast. For some reason, I’m feeling extremely exhausted working this show compared to other events, but it was also a lot of fun.