(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 82: The Future By Way of the Past

It’s single digits upstate. I’m here with my son in the freezing cold so he can visit his girlfriend for the day. I have coffee, I have an old tattered hoodie and enough battery power to see if I can get through one book, one movie, and one music review today while they gallivant and find pockets of solitude to do their thing. Happy 2026, let’s hope it’s better than last year. This playlist is what I’m thinking about queuing up as I sit here in my room while the kids have the run of the house. It’s largely older music, a palate cleanser from the month of new music.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 82: Ho, Ho, Ho…

Happy Holidays if you celebrate. if not, I hope the closing of the year finds you in a place of peace and comfort. Me? I’m celebrating with friends, in a house filled with too much noise, dog hair everywhere…and I love it. My soul needed it, and so I’m making this quick so I can get back to games and naps and too many cookies and laugh. This playlist is a quick compilation of the rock and roll holiday songs that soundtracked our travels to family and back again. We run the gamut from classic rock to punk to metal to…Cheech and Chong. Enjoy.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 81: Sanity Check

I’m burning myself out. I think the stress of work, my only child being away in college and the attendant stress with that, along with the self-imposed commitment to get a 2025 review in every day was just too much this time, and I found myself not enjoying the process like I did last year. These next few days the plan is just to relax and let the music just be music, not a box to check off or a pile in my office to shrink. So I’m going to move a little slower, a little more deliberately. I don’t want to one of those people who want to write but all they ever write about is the fact that they’re not writing; I’m doing this for myself, and I find the best way through is just to keep writing. Which hey: I just did.

This week is a very random suite of stuff that’s ben keeping my head and heart afloat this week.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 80: The Luxury of Time

…is something I can’t see to find. Funeral this morning, birthday this afternoon, four-hour drive upstate to pick up my son from college tonight. So we’re using conditional logic this week: I went to my music library and filtered all the songs with the word “time” in them. Then based on that created this week’s playlist.

Which is below.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 79: Listin’…

Hello. I’m knee deep in building out lists for end year and have – at age 52 – a pajama party I have to go to tonight. So lots to prepare (my wife is insisting the dirty sweats and John Coltrane hoodie I slept in will NOT suffice for a social event) which means this is another quick playlist while I get stuff ready, build more lists, and figure out next week’s queue of 2025 releases to get in here. It’s not necessarily end of year contenders, although they MIGHT be included (I won’t say); they’re also not necessarily new stuff that’s come in the door recently (although there most certainly will be those as well), and I think that’s a large enough word count for an introduction, so let’s do this.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 78: The Thankful Aftermath

I’m exhausted, tuckered out from lack of sleep, work stress, having my son home, and getting through the Thanksgiving family madness. I’m also back to writing regularly, and ready to go once again for the daily new release catch-up that I started last December. So think of today’s playlist as a laid back, “get ‘er done” one, though I will always stand behind the music selected. I got a fresh pot of coffee and a (for now) empty/asleep house, so let’s get to it.

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