Curious what notable personalities in the scene think was great this year? So is TGEFM! So we reached out to some of our favorite luminaries ranging from musicians, label personnel, and more for their “Best of 2024” lists. Now, listen: TGEFM is not a taskmistress. Contributors can write these out however they want. So if it doesn’t actually look or read like a list… and sometimes it really is just a list with no other observations! Who cares?
In 2020, Paul Lask (The Ghost, Tight Phantomz) sent demos to Neil Hennessy (Lawrence Arms, Joyce Manor) and Brian Moss (Great Apes, Hanalei, The Ghost) which became a Kinsella-esque delight Strategies. Lask has joined TGEFM to share his “Best of 2024” appreciation for Henry Shukman’s series on the Waking Up app called Original Nature.
Meditation teacher Henry Shukman released a series on the Waking Up app this year called Original Nature. Poet, author, and spiritual director emeritus of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Shukman blends traditional Buddhist principles with accessible modern interpretations and metaphors, delivered in a soothing English accent.
Each of the seven sessions is about thirty minutes long. This was a nice timeframe for getting my morning started, and I often replayed the sessions over the year with and without coffee.
As I first sat on my cushion I would follow his instructions to arrive—”sometimes it can be a bit like, if you can imagine a nervous shy horse being gently guided into its stable. Actually a nice place for it to be, but it may not terribly like the transition from the open air, the outdoors, into the stable, even though it’s got comfortable clean straw, and a manger of fresh hay.”
In the same way, he says, it can take a little coaxing for us to come and inhabit the moment.
Similar metaphors helped deliver me to a stillness that I could return to throughout the day. Allowing awareness to “seep in,” as if the sense of self was “like a piece of old wood” that’s afloat in the ocean, becoming more waterlogged, I found myself connecting to a larger realm wherein creativity and kindness felt more accessible.
This year Shukman helped nourish my heart by pointing out ways to irrigate it. I recommend this series, as well as The Koan Way and Original Love, also found on Waking Up.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
