As a phoenix, Terror Management once again rises from its shitty ashes!
Welcome to the re- re- re-launch of this newsletter/blog. There's a bit to say behind this whole new façade, but despite my giant, unknowable ego, I can also understand if you don't particularly care about all that. So I've put that in the lower part of this post/email. First, let me entice you, dear reader, with some tasty media morsels:
Poison the Well has graced us with a new album called Peace In Place. If you don't know PtW but you have listened to any modern metalcore album since, say, 2005, chances are that it was inspired in some part by this band. The new album reminds of the Tear From the Red-era, which is peak PtW as far as I'm concerned.
This isn't news at all, but speaking of bands that have inspired other bands that now make tons more money than said inspiration: Converge put out a new album just last month called Love Is Not Enough and it goes haaaaard. Seriously.
Saw La Dispute earlier this month while they were on tour on their latest album, No One Was Driving the Car. Check out some photos I took here.
Nothing is quite as magical as spontaneous music, and it's that magic that AriAtHome brings to the streets of (mostly) NYC. My guy has over a million subscribers on YouTube alone, so chances are you've seen him around, but let me link to one of my favoruite videos of his, because yes, I too tire of that trap shit.
There's a new season of Jury Duty. That's it, that's the message. If you like your reality shows wholesome and funny on purpose, this is it.
Currently wrapping up the last part in the Mussolini-pentalogy by Antonio Scurati. The original title of the book is M. La fine e il principio (M. The end and the beginning), but not sure if there's an English translation. There's a Dutch one that I'm reading. It's stunning. Scurati knows how to paint a picture in words of a world falling apart around what was once one of the mightiest men of the 20th century and make this story gripping despite everyone knowing how it ends already.
Let's move on to the meat and potatoes of this re-launch of Terror Management.
Let’s keep this short and sweet:
If you are reading this in your favorite e-mail app, please hop over to the new site I just launched. Still at terrormanagementzine.com. I'll wait...
Yes, this is a completely new site design, thank you for noticing. After leaving Substack (lest we forget: they still enable nazis and are a-okay taking that kind of money), I migrated to Ghost. This was a fine solution, but in the back of my head I always felt a little restrained by the whims of platform holders and my own limited knowledge to break through that even if they did allow it. But, with recent advances in website creation, I’ve been able to make a fully custom site, also containing my photography work. That’s it, that’s this part of the update.
Then, on to…
(Oh fuck this numbered list. Back to normal writing.)
So.
Terror Management started as little more than a structured excuse to allow me to write a bit more, merely because of the sheer joy in writing. The premise was simple: a given frame – death is a propellant for creative behaviour, let’s use that as an excuse to discuss loud music – and a sort-of-monthly cadence.
The problem is: there’s really only so much to talk about within this frame.
Whoops.
So then, parched for subject matter in a desert of content, monthly turned to semi-monthly turned to… whenever I felt like it. Well, that simply won’t do, will it? Kind of overshot the mark there, what with the structured business and what not.
So then, let’s have another go at it. AGAIN.
(This is getting navel-gaze-y. Let’s blow through the rest quick-like.)
From now on, this is just an old-school blog. See the upper part of this issue for an example; I write about some stuff that I think is fun to muse about. Music, movies, books, other forms of interesting art. General concepts! I’ll link to interesting stuff, be it the aforementioned art or just articles, videos or posts. It’s all a bit looser.
It’s scary putting this into the void of the universe, but currently the plan is to do this weekly. Hopefully the looser frame will inspire me to jot something down and send it your way more often.
Having said that, if you’re getting this, you’re still subscribed and you’re staring down the barrel of a new weekly e-mail. If you that seems like a lot of Rolf, well, 1. it is and 2. whatever your reaction is to this news is, is completely valid and I love you. But just so you know: there’s an unsubscribe button below.
That’s it. That’s the whole update. Next week, more interesting stuff.