Recurring Themes, Bunkers,

and Campbell's soups for days

I find “bunker” to be a humorous word, both in meaning and sound. Indeed it has turned up in several of my songs. Most recently,

and earlier, in

and there’s one other, I think.

I do not have a bunker. I do not want a bunker. Though I do enjoy the occasional Campbell’s soup.

What was it that Andy Warhol found so fascinating about the soups? Well everything, I think. They are so normal that they defy normalcy. Also, to their credit, Campbell’s has not changed the design, nor the products, much. They didn’t pull a New Coke, to my knowledge, nor anything like the less famous and so unfortunate Anchor Steam beer redesign debacle.

I adore the idea of Howard Hughes hiding out and eating Campbell’s chicken soup and ice cream alone and mad. If I were the richest man on earth, I hope I would isolate myself from humanity and eat only Campbell’s chicken soup and ice cream in a hypochondriac state of extreme paranoia. What better way to enjoy one’s wealth?

Ah, I remembered the third! This screed

also makes good use of “bunker.”

Matte Martin, upon hearing that, suggested I use Motel California as an album title, and I love that idea. Perhaps I shall, but this leads to another quandary. What is an album? In the digital world, such collections seem increasingly arbitrary. I remember the two sides of vinyl spinning by at a leisurely 33 1/3 revolutions per minute, and then the CD with the whole programme on one disc. Whole albums were appreciated as a single work and not merely a collection of single songs. I think, honestly, I have never made an album like that, on my own or with a band. Maybe I will someday, but I don’t feel it’s necessary. I enjoy making singles, and occasionally compiling them into something named an “album.” Motel California indeed! I’ll check in.

I have made coffee and fed the cats. It’s Caturday and I’m thrilled to be alive.

This morning I came across a video of Heather Cox Richardson on the Pod Save America podcast. I have followed HCR’s posts since she started Letters From An American, and I read her posts often. Hearing her talk there about her process and ideas, I find so refreshing and encouraging.

I have a line in a recent song -
“After every self-respecting dark age there’s a renaissance,
Or so I would like to think and so think it I will..”

And I like that idea, of willful optimism. I believe in it. And I can’t always maintain it perfectly. It’s a process, a challenge, a daily evolution. I lost a certain amount of my natural optimism on the morning of November 6, 2024. I was frankly astonished, that so many Americans could vote for their own demise. Or fail to vote against it, which is the same thing, really. “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice,” to quote my favorite line from Neil Peart and RUSH.

“Savor the absurdity, or else it drives one mad,” I testified, in Delete And Report Junk.

So, we all have our ways, right? We each have a role. Many roles, really. I try to show up for mine.

HCR, Amy Goodman, Joyce Vance, are some of my ongoing heroes through all of this. There are so many others, too, some famous and some not so famous, all of them important, all of them influential. I am grateful for their voices.

Speaking of absurdities, I can’t not mention again, how fully I oppose so-called AI-generated “content.” My goodness, it’s absurdity on crack. A bad trip. A failure, a mistake. That theme has popped up in more of my songs than I’ll try to list. It’s funny, though, as horrible as it is, it is freaking hilarious. I don’t understand how it is missed by anyone. Write in your own voice. Sing in your own voice. Paint, draw, sculpt, all the things, with your own hands. Because that is what being alive is.

I watch with fascination, and wonder what comes next. We were not born in boring times.

Perhaps now a swim.

Fond Caturday regards,

Eric Din
BCR Bunker Custodian In Chief (BCIC)