Repeats

Hello!

I’ve barely come up for air these past three weeks but I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for such kind and encouraging words about the birth of our son. Thank you so much - we all really appreciate it.

We’re deep within the baby bubble and it’s all hitting me at exactly the right time. In a lot of ways, the baby bubble isn’t that much different from a post-tour bubble and the confluence of the two is incredibly peaceful. Everyday feels like such a gift — a time in my life I can already feel myself longing to get back to somewhere in the future.

Katie and I have been taking shifts with the baby. I take the first shift while she sleeps from 8 PM to 1 AM, then I hand him over until the morning.

I cherish these late hours with him. He lies on my chest, skin to skin, while I rewatch the Sopranos, play Mario 3 or read.

From midnight to one, though, we come down from these other activities and use that last hour as our runway to settle down. Here we’ve been listening to music while I stare into his face, which sometimes looks incredibly new and young and sometimes looks exactly like an old man, his eyes kaleidoscoping around the room.

I saw a meme recently that said maybe babies look old when they’re first born to give their parents, who won’t be able to see them in their old age, a preview of what they will look like one day. He is so beautiful it drives me crazy.

Anyways - we’ve been listening to two albums almost exclusively during these midnight hours and those albums are; Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, which I mentioned in my last post, and the Velvet Underground and Nico.

The Velvet Underground is my favorite band and I’d argue that they have three perfect albums, but it’s been a minute since I’ve really sat with any of them. Listening to & Nico is a reminder of how perfect an album can be and my mind is being blow all over again while listening to it — as if i was listening to it for the first time.

I am also realizing how child-friendly a lot the Velvets music is. The vibraphones, lyrics, droning instrumentation, etc. All of this juxtaposed to just how harsh and dangerous they can suddenly choose to be is what I believe to be their secret sauce and why they are the best band of all time. Like all the greats - they contain multitudes.

Anyways, I’ve been realizing that the things I’m spending most of my time doing within this baby bubble are all things I’ve done before, but am now doing again for the first time as a father.

What I’m trying to say is that even though I’ve seen the Sopranos, saved the Princess, read Nina Simones Gum and The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe, and logged many hours in the past two decades with both Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill and The Velvet Underground and Nico, these things are bringing me great joy in this time (if you haven’t looked a newborn in the eyes while listening to I’ll Be Your Mirror, I highly suggest it).

But perhaps these are the first experiences as a father of seeing my old world through my sons brand new eyes. Whatever the case may be - I am really enjoying all the things mentioned above that are keeping us entertained and I’m really enjoying being a dad.

xox