STREAM & DOWNLOAD: https://go.meaningwave.com/IFTHISISNTNICE
MERCH: https://www.meaningwave.com/pages/search-results-page?q=if%20this%20isnt%20nice
Kurt Vonnegut is not new to the Meaningave Universe - one of the earliest Meaningwave releases was a musical version of an audio book of his deeply prescient dystopian warning on the horrors of enforced equality, Harrison Bergeron (https://fanlink.to/harrisonbergeron). I have long been an enjoyer of his works, and consider Cat’s Cradle one of my favourite books to this day.
I first read of his “If This Isn’t Nice I Don’t Know What Is” philosophy in a collection of short stories, the name of which currently escapes me, that currently resides with most of the things I collected in my first three decades on earth, back in a storage facility in north Wales somewhere, which I look forward to getting back someday. A simple and radically powerful philosophy, gifted to Kurt by his uncle Alex - when you notice something nice, you make a point of pointing it out: “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is!”
I’ve carried that with me ever since, and it has served me better than I can tell you. I have been looking forward to turning it into a song since long before Meaningwave was crystalized as an artform and a psychotechnology, and now, here at long last suddenly, it exists, and if that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.
That’s the Mexican street cat my son Hercules adopted on the cover there. He got to take that blessed neck adornment off this week for the first time all year, and is the living embodiment of the song’s message, awash with appreciation as he is for all of life’s simple pleasures, like being able to run up and down stairs and to lick his own belly if he wishes.
Thank you for being here, brothers and sisters. I hope you enjoy this record, and find it useful in your life which is not, as Alan Watts says, a journey, but rather a musical thing. And if that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.
MEANWHILE…
Speaking of nice! Our JANUARY SALE is now on at www.meaningwave.com! Get 20% off everything with the code JAN at checkout! Enjoy!
LOVE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
AKIRA THE DON, Playa Del Carmen, January 2023
ELSEWHERE IN THE MEANINGWAVE UNIVERSE…
STREAM: MARCUS AURELIUS VINYL TEST PRESSES LISTENING SESSION!
(https://linktw.in/Djq0bU)
MUSIC VIDEO: UNACCEPTABLE ft. David Goggins
(https://linktw.in/pIkufw)
Timelapse of me drawing my new avatar
Tools: Procreate on iPad with Apple Pencil
Own the NFT at https://opensea.io/akirathedon !
BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGER FROM BERTON AND THE DON!
TELL THEM NOW!
With lyrics adapted from Berton Braley's poem of 100 years hence!
STREAM https://go.meaningwave.com/TELLTHEMNOW
Art by me!
Own the NFT! https://opensea.io/akirathedon
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to the quarter century mark. That sure went by fast. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas - THAt sure went by fast! And now here we are in the new calendar year.
My distributor informed me a few days before Christmas that they were shutting shop for a few weeks, so I’d not be able to get any new releases out until January 18th, which put a lil crimp in our NEW MUSIC EVERY FRIDAY schedule…And it occurred to me whilst under the barbell in the gym on New Years Eve, which is where all my best ideas occur to me, to make you a special mix for the New Year. So I did. And that mix is now live for you to enjoy.
GO!
(https://go.meaningwave.com/GOMIX)
Patrons and supporters on Patreon, Youtube, and now X can download the mix for free here.
(https://go.meaningwave.com/GOMIX)
MEANWHILE! I am taking the extra time I’ve been allotted to make what would have been this week's single extra beautiful. So it’s getting a gospel choir, which I always thought it deserved. And you’re gonna...
“I want you
To understand what it means
To lose your freedom…”
Ross Ulbricht (https://freeross.org/case-overview/) is currently serving two life sentences in a maximum security jail, where he’s been since 2013, for creating the world’s first online digital marketplace based around Bitcoin.
This is his story. Told in his own words, via phone-call from prison, transmuted into music.
Understand what it means - to lose your freedom.
Stream and download the album now on your platform of choice.
(https://go.meaningwave.com/FREEDOM)
Join us live for the visual premiere on Youtube here from 2ET
(https://linktw.in/bMjfSr)
I met Ross’ mother, Lyn, late last year, when I was in Miami to perform my Ayn Rand EP (https://go.meaningwave.com/ANTHEM) at the Atlas Society gala. The World renowned “Pimp On A Blimp” Alex Stein very sweetly invited me to a party being hosted by Tim Pool, where I had a lovely time and met a number of fascinating people, and late in the night I was introduced to Lyn. ...
“You can't pursue happiness
You could pursue a wild animal
You could pursue a ball
That's rolling downhill
You could pursue a car
You could pursue a dog
Because those are all real
But happiness you can't pursue
You could end up happy
But you can't pursue happiness
There are two things
You can pursue
That'll get you there…”
Make some noise for the grand return of Scott Adams () to the Meaningwave Universe! And with a song that couldn’t be more perfectly Meaningwave if it was synthesized in a lab by a team of 100 genius-level Meaningwave scholars 2000 years from now...
CHASING MEANING
(https://go.meaningwave.com/CHASINGMEANING)
…is out now!
I sent it to Scott last week, and he replied straight away, “I love it! But I am biased.” Which is fair. I love it too, and I hope you do too. Hey look! Here’s the music video!
(https://linktw.in/USRVHE)
Wonder where it’s gonna show up in next month’s MEANINGWAVE TOP 50, huh? SPEAKING OF THE TOP 50!
The MEANINGWAVE TOP 50 ...