Rust by Tyson Motsenbocker, February 11, 2021

 

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot--the legendary folk singers of North America have interesting stories to tell, but only if you listen closely. Tooth & Nail Records signed Tyson Motsenbocker as a solo artist back in 2016 beginning a new direction for the label. I first checked out Motsenbocker after hearing his story on The BadChristian Podcast  where he talked about how his foot journey between San Diego and San Francisco informed the lyrics to his first LP, Letters to Lost Loves. Motsenbocker followed up his full length with two EPs the next year.  The song I chose for today comes from the EP Almira, which is a perfect winter's day record. 

I SAW THE SUN COMING UP. I promised a break-up song at the beginning of the month. And although technically "This Love" could count, we're still calling it a love song. This song is dedicated to 2020. Today is the first of a three-day holiday in South Korea and other countries in the Sinosphere (East Asian countries that get a large part of their culture or influence from China) celebrating the lunar new year, aka Chinese New Year. Every lunar year has a zodiac symbol. There are 12 symbols total, and just like western astrology there are special meanings for each symbol. The difference to the western zodiac is that every year rather than month has the same characteristics. This is partially why age and the idea of chingu (친구) is so important in Korea. I wrote about Korean age in my January 3rd post "Age" by From the Airport. Many Koreans celebrate both solar (January 1st) and lunar (Seollar/Chinese New Year) New Year's Day by staying up all night, climbing a mountain or driving to the coast and watching the sunrise, eating rice-cake soup (떡국), meeting family and bowing to elders and ancestors, thanking them for their prosperity.

ALL METAL RUSTS. Tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Day, so today is kind of like a Lunar New Year's Eve. Celebrations are going to be kept to a minimum here in South Korea as gathers are restricted to only four people outside of your immediate family. Last year we welcomed the Year of the Rat. However, by last Lunar New Year's Day, January 25, 2020, South Korea and the United States had already had their first cases of the plague. The year of the rat brought an infestation of destruction we've never seen in our lifetimes. So many things changed suddenly. The safety precautions kept changing. Many people lost everything. So much change left us hardened, rusted even to the new normal. Tomorrow, begins the Year of the Ox. The cow will crush the rat and we can hope for better...but let's not forget that cows introduced tuberculosis to humans.