15/06/2025
I didn’t/don’t have a close relationship with my Dad. My spite, disappointment, anger, or whatever you want to call it has dissipated as I’ve gotten older. Mostly because I know that people die and I don’t want to regret my bitterness when one of us does. So if that means texting about sports is the basis of all communication, then so be it. It’s better than being mad now and sad later about being mad while it mattered.
Anyway, the height of my resentment was around the time I was doing vocals for Pleasant Living. I don’t have a lot of fond memories about being in that band. It’s the only one I ever did and we played some rather unreal shows. We all had the connections so we used them. We recorded two records with Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations when it was on Charles Street. The first was released as a seven inch on A389 Records, thanks to the kindness of Dom Romeo. It was also put out on cassette by a guy in Texas who would go on to become GOST the slasherwave artist who is quite popular these days. The second record was canned and we broke up.
I got sidetracked, but the relevance of choosing today to post this is because of the song, my favorite of ours, “Father’s Day.” It’s the most straightforward hardcore song we did. I named it “Father’s Day” because that’s when I wrote it. Now, it’s totally embarrassing and immature, but I always say I didn’t become an adult until I had a kid, and this was before that!
I worked nights at the time, and I remember the next morning a friend of mine texted me “Man, your dad can’t catch a break.” Then told me about a shooting in the bar my dad owned. Strange to say but the shooting didn’t alarm me. It’s the same bar that several altercations had already happened in. Including a man being stabbed to death. Interestingly, it’s now a cute little coffee shop. People don’t know they’re sipping lattes on a chalk outline. Still, no one should be there in the morning and I was worried my dad got shot. I called him. He didn’t. Two other people did. Thankfully, I didn’t write this f**k you song about my dad on the day he was murdered.
Today, I’m going to text him about Tyrese Haliburton. Happy Father’s Day!