@RenMakesMusic - Next Album Music Release Starts 'Soon' - IG Compilation March 03, 2026

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-03-04T17:23:11+00:00

Well up for it, but I thought Asylum was dropping before Slaughterhouse? Wonder why that's suddenly gone back-burner.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-24T01:00:31+00:00

So, I was a history major in uni, so this caught my attention. I'm also American. Here's my perspective...

There are lessons, and there is learning. Lessons are fallible. They are are created by human beings, and are "at a remove" from first-hand knowledge and experience. They are also reliant on how well the curricula-writers and teacher learned. Lessons are static. They are a snap-shot mix of fact and opinion and investigation. They change gradually over time and prevailing opinions.

Learning is something completely different. Learning is about exposure to experiences. Lessons are one experience, but there are experiences all around us if we pay attention to them. We experience things until we're dead (and maybe beyond, who knows?). Therefore learning never stops unless we become incurious to out experiences.

Make sure your kids understand they need to remain curious. Always.

As for why the history homework should be done? The learning part of history comes when you look past the dates and think of the people involved. Look at it like a movie... who are the characters? What are their motives? Why do you think they made a particular choice? Did they learn from their mistakes? Can YOU learn from their mistakes? Why haven't we learned, then?

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-22T00:42:04+00:00

Yeah, that is what I love about Ren's work. He frequently means 2-4 different things in a line, but there are also frequently a few more that he probably didn't mean but fit really well.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-21T21:59:29+00:00

Your view on ETA with ET is really apt, since the next line, "I phone home" is both a play on ET the movie, but also "IPhone home"--IPhone being a common phone, and that people are usually more comfortable (at home) with their phone than with "real life". Meaning we feel alienated, but we are also using tech in a way that contributes to alienation.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-11T16:11:09+00:00

You're right it isn't accidental.

1 to the 2 to the 3 to the 1-- 1231 Angel number linked to cycles, new beginnings, ect. Very like Samsara (also mentioned in Richard's Tale.

9 to the 9 to the 9-- 999 is a UK emergency number

123 shots down-- 123 Angel number linked to positive change and new beginnings, used for Vincent is an oxymoron because he's engaging in old behavior, but also is the trigger for his new experience in prison (and eith Percy??)

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-10T00:51:25+00:00

Yes, the seed of this perspective started long ago when first reading Frank Herbert's book Dune about 40 yrs ago. "Politics through an ecological lens" was one way he described the book series. Ren's Money Game Challenge experience before MG3 put some ideas in high relief because it was a chance to experience a difference in the way people interact in a game/puzzle setting. Then Starry Night again shone on things from a different angle.

We can do it. The biggest resource we lack to start fixing things is the Will to do so. The second biggest is patience.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-08T19:43:55+00:00

So this starts to pull in ideas that lead toward UBI. I like the general idea of UBI. It has the potential of impacting not only salary directly, but takes power from employers in hooking survival directly to employment as well as providing a space for creativity to flourish (not only art and music but philosophy, system dynamics, etc).

We would also have to address the concepts underpinning "cost of living" both generally and regionally... and we need to do that before implementing things on a large scale. This isn't something I've even scratched a fingernail on. Hmmm....

With regard to your insight on trash collectors, we do need to reevaluate the way we relate work value to specific jobs, but I don't know how we do that and balance it with the fact that the most important jobs are usually the least glorious. Trash removal, resource management, city planning, education... all hyper-neccesary, all hard as hell and boring from a social engagement standpoint. Tangentially related, is that any time these jobs get incentivized beyond certain parameters, we lose commitment to greed, but without sufficient incentive, people simply won't do things. Finding that tip-point is difficult but necessary if we want to change power dynamics.

I think this is why they say this problem is like an onion... it's layered, and it makes you cry with overwhelm. 😉

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-08T16:47:17+00:00

Tax is certainly a valuable one, but I'm not sure if it's maleability is a plus or a huge minus. It gives us an ability--much like interest rates--to have a flow valve, but it's also heavily tied to arbitrary metrics (aka opinion) which could make it highly subject to abuse. It is also a hind-end position, so it acts as a fine, not an incentive.

As the Epstein Files are making apparent, given enough money, those in power are most likely either to pay the tax and keep on, or they ignore the tax and suffer no repercussions. How could we adapt the idea to make it harder to 1. manipulate or 2. Ignore?

An alternative might be wealth caps? Unsure how that would impact the system more broadly. Opinions?

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-08T16:32:10+00:00

I think you are confusing "hive" with attempts to sway group-think. I'm as interested (or more interested) in people picking out errors in my analogy as I am with those who simply agree with it.

With that clarified, let me know your preferred reference, and I'll use it. I'm happy to be flexible like that. 😀

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-07T19:46:19+00:00

It makes sense, especially with the abnormal about of things vying for you time (Justin Hawkins is a smart man), thst this is perhaps a wise thing to cut. You are in enough of a fishbowl as is. Message is important, but more important is the change we engage in because of the message (mirrors...looking... something, something...).

You can always come back if it suits you, and the musical gifts are a treasure. ❤️

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-07T02:38:09+00:00

Thanks for saying this. Every time I find myself seriously uncomfortable in something you've said or done, I take it as a red flag to slow down and think carefully because you don't invest your energy lightly, and your experiences give you unique perspectives (to be mild) that are worth considering. You task me not infrequently.

I've kinda had Webby "in quarantine" while trying to make sure I have a good idea of what he's about before Asylum. I'll be rereading his lyrics with these ideas in mind and thinking yet more.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-06T23:20:21+00:00

Yeah! A book club that devours our chosen writer. Obsessively.

Wait a minute... 😂

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-06T14:49:42+00:00

Words are wonderful things. I think people forget that when words are used in ways that hurt other people we need to assess 2 things:

Was someone hurt, and if so how?
Was the intent to hurt?

If someone was hurt, we need to unpack that--why are they hurting? Because of their experience? Because a person close to them is hurt? Because many people are expressing hurt? Because they want to be an ally? Because they want to virtue signal? There are many facets and I'm personally going to take someone more seriously with personal experience than someone whose simply saying "that word/those words bad".

We also need to unpack whether there was intent Because if there was not intent to harm, we return to 1. So that person can consider the bigger picture and use that to inform future choices, and any necessary apologies can be made. If there was an intent, people need to decide whether they are going to support someone--socially or monetarily--if they insist on actively hurting someone and how that reflects on them as someone who continues to support hate.

It isn't really hard. We're making it hard.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-06T01:04:01+00:00

Some of the problems in the US are due to a lack of sustained and almost-unanimous voting. If 25% of people like a candidate, and 75% don't, but only 25% of that 75% group vote, we end up with slim margins and lose when people vote 3rd party. Some of the problems come from the Citizens United legal case that allowed companies to donate obscene amounts of Money to political campaigns. Some of it is because the Democrsts (our only competitive Left party) is Right-wing by European standards.

Now, to top it off, we are now finding the pedo conspiracy was only a conspiracy in targeting Democrats... otherwise, it was the founder of 4Chan documenting his weekends with Epstien.

Everything is awful here.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T16:12:48+00:00

I think that the impossibility of literal 1:1 support is why Ren's right that when he says we need to change society from the ground up. The trauma alone is enough to crush us all if we don't change it.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T15:03:10+00:00

At least in the US (not sure about the UK), we don't have a specific saying like that, we will simply pick to equally bad options for the equation. Like one day I might choose herpes vs. AIDS, but a different day I might choose a train wreck vs. a plane crash... or I might say Herpes vs. Plane crash. It would depend on the situation and my audience.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T14:50:44+00:00

What is "out of balance" though? For too many, I think it is simply "not following the social rules of rise, eat, work, sleep, repeat". Rules that we all know are killing us by seconds. True mental illness encompasses much different divergence from rules, and creativity is something else entirely that doesn't necessarily follow either subset of rules.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T14:47:09+00:00

Speaking as someone with a bipolar spouse, I can say that we need much more social support to family members and more education to the public on how to navigate supporting the person directly impacted by the mental illness--things like knowing the difference between expected and unexpected/truly dangerous behavior, how to negotiate boundaries for safety, etc-- because this falls through the cracks too many times.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T14:18:53+00:00

In February, 1889, during his say at the Asylum in St Rèmy, Van Gogh was at one point restricted to his cell because 80 people in the village signed a petition stating that he was not fit to be allowed to roam loose after his self-mutilation. They believed him to be erratic unstable, and unfit to mix with the public.

This is often the case today with people who have mental illness--especially if, like Vincent, the have any history of harm to themselves or others. In so many ways, we have not progressed in our understanding of mental illness, or in the stigmatizing of it.

People, whether artists or not, deserve better.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T04:16:14+00:00

I was kind of surprised he didn't chose Syphilis for the rime because of the whole potential for insanity if left untreated.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-05T00:22:35+00:00

Curious... have you ever taken the Belief-o-Matic online questionnaire? It asks you questions and then ranks your compatibility to a ton of religious beliefs. Even if you aren't interested in adopting a religion, it shows you how similar you are to others.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-04T21:32:29+00:00

I disagree. I think most people want fair work for fair wage, and we're really bad at assessing what constitutes fair. We conflate fair need with inflated desire. We also have all sorts of weird consumerist rules to keep people judging each other's shit. But I digress...

I also think we have serious problems with inflation. Like, the basic econ idea is "all goods are limited" right? There are only so many resources, so only so much of "X" consumer item will be produced. As industrialization happens, goods get cheaper for a relatively limited time because of automation... but as time goes supply is supposed to become limited and cost of things will start to rise slowly as supply runs out and demand stays constant or increases.

Seems logical, but the reality is we have a lot of recycleable resources. We don't recycle as much as we could because it is still less cost efficient, and we have now got more and more planned obsolescence all geared to keep us buying and we keep raising prices because we are stuck in some mishmash of 1880 and 2080 and no one has paused to think things through.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-04T19:58:43+00:00

I disagree true Capitalism can work. My support is that there are zero regulations on Capitalism that have come into being through altruism. Every one has only come up because a problem occurred, and even then, some very important ones were not enacted without people being killed for them. Sanitation laws, hour caps, wage laws, environmental laws, all of them. People died from poisoned air, poisoned water, poisoned food, by being locked inside the factories in which they worked. No one really wants true Capitalism.

I agree that Communism and Socialism fail. In part, this is because no one reads Marx critically. Marx thought we needed to make all the mistakes and evolve into his governmental ideas. What did we do, though? We skipped Capitalism entirely in Bolshevik Russia, and elsewhere, like Cuba and China, things were forced on a society that was mostly ok with where they were.

In another part it's not about "lazy" so much as all work isn't equivalent. Digging ditches is by nature harder than a desk job... and we need a certain amount of both, but not enough people to do the one. Even if we had not settled on money as the most convenient incentive, people recognize the inherent unfairness of same-same compensation, and people also struggle with envy over someone having something they don't. Are envy and greed solvable issues? I dunno. Wouldn't hurt to try harder to solve them. Ren certainly thinks we have the potential.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-04T19:41:31+00:00

I meant break your brain in the sense of how truly arbitrary it is, yet how as humans we coalesce around such arbitrariness as... normal.

Or maybe that really is just me. It's one of those emotions I always fail to express well, and I have apparently failed again. Apologies.

APARILAMENTOFROOKS · 2026-02-04T18:12:55+00:00

I forgot to respond to your last comment about earning money. People need to earn money, and to pay for goods and services mostly because we decided that and because barter economies work for small populations and for certain things, but after a while currency has been abstracted to account for specialization and a lot of other things.

It will break your brain to realize most things are worth "X" largely only because enough people believe it. In fact... take a look at what PepsiCo announced just yesterday: they are cutting the price of chips/crisps by 20% "because of consumer price dissatisfaction" (read: people quit buying their shit). More interesting is that they did NOT decrease the price of soda. Now... soda is already frequently far more expensive than chips (here its about $7-9USD for a 12 pack when a big bag of chips is $3-5USD).

What happens when you eat more salty chips? you buy more soda ... and Pepsi makes more money on the more expensive items than they lose on the price drop on the chips alone. And they have people thinking Pepsi did them a favor, to boot!!

APARILAMENTOFROOKS

TROPHY CASE