Today on the DBfBVH I talk a bit more about some recent news headlines, American gun reform, the importance of creative outlets (like this one!) and feature my cover of Death Cab for Cutie’s Your Heart is an Empty Room and The Postal Service’s Brand New Colony.

Listen now on Anchor or read on for the official transcript below.

Official transcript:

Aaaand we’re back with another episode of the Death Bus for Blondie hour – I’m your host, Death Bus, still sort of working through that story I started a couple weeks ago. 

Well I guess it’s not so much of a story as it has been some talking points, but nonetheless. 

If mainstream media is to believed some of the issues I’ve highlighted over the past couple episodes are only getting worse. In just the last week I’ve come across a few stories that are at minimum alarming and deeply disturbing. 

There was the woman who went to use a public woman’s restroom and was mistakenly identified as transgender, had the police called on her for simply waiting to use a stall, and then escorted aggressively out of that bathroom by multiple police officers with apparently nothing more important to do with their time that day. Wild to think we’ll all have to drop our pants before using bathrooms now. 

And there was the case of police officers in Italy literally beating the shit out of a transgender woman in broad daylight for reasons that are still unclear but were in no way necessary. 

And we’re still apparently dealing with people outraged over rainbows on t-shirts in a small section at Target. 

Honestly I could comb the internet for more examples but it’s not even worthwhile to do that because before long there will be more situations just like this one. 

We have a global problem on our hands here and while I cannot pretend to have any real answers here, I do know that the answer is not to remain silent about these issues. 

I brought up recently on my own social media accounts that I’ve personally, and a few times at that, used men’s washrooms when the line for the women’s was simply too long. When the alternative is to wet yourself or make like a man and go in the street, it is completely acceptable to just go use the available restroom. 

Unisex washrooms would and do already solve this – I’ve seen it in action myself! At one of Toronto’s newer music venues, History, all the bathrooms are unisex. You just walk in and there’s a ton of stalls and they don’t inspect your genitals before you open a door to one. And then when you’re done there’s a bunch of sinks and they’re not based on age or height or what your salary is. It’s incredible. I saw hoards of men and women go into these bathrooms and use them and nobody got into a fight or molested or shot. 

But that’s Canda for you, I guess. 

It’s really important to stress that the reason I actually care so much about the bigger news stories that make the rounds in the United States in particular is because of my own proximity to it as a Canadian. The types of rhetoric that are actively displayed in the United States have a funny way of climbing into Canada and it creates a lot of problems because the people attracted to these stories seem to be a little off kilter. Hope that doesn’t offend anyone. 

We have an ongoing problem for example of people parading over to libraries, community centers and schools to protest drag-storytime and they make outlandish claims like people who dress in drag do so to groom their children and take advantage of them sexually. It’s an incredible stretch of the imagination and the more troubling reality is that people so outspoken about this nonexistent threat are often convicted of crimes like pedophilia, so it’s cause for  alarm when hoards of these people are meeting together openly in groups to discuss the way they believe children should be raised or taught and the answer is absolutely not to just ignore them – it’s to allow them to protest, take down their photos and put those photos in a neat little file for safe keeping for when shit really hits the fan. I imagine that’s why so many of these idiots have to wear masks when they protest – they’re probably already on a list. 

If you have to hide your identity when you’re out in public, you just might be some sort of criminal. The exception here obviiously being people who wear certain garments as part of their religious freedom. 

Last I checked, bandanas on white dudes protesting drag are not bound to their religion in doing this. 

I want to appeal to you right now that if and when you see this type of behavior, and I know particularly in the United States it’s difficult because your absolutely out of control gun laws or lack thereof make the potential for you being shot for simply speaking up much greater than mine – you do have to speak up, or react, or do… something. 

Silence makes you complicit to the acts committed, regardless of what those acts are. 

I understand right now that American schools for the most part have let out for summer and so we’re not going to hear so much about people fighting for gun reform in the next couple months because there will be a decrease in school shootings, but I feel like if you as an American citizen with the ability to vote, march, protest, use a phone, write an e-mail, send a tweet are not spending a portion of every single day asking of your congress to put into action a real change in legislation to remove the ability for people to purchase guns – you are doing yourself and everyone around you the greatest disservice. 

When the twin towers fell on September 11th, so much about the American way of life immediately changed. The way you still have to board flights in and out of America is still impacted by this one event that killed something around 3000 people. 

Sorry, it was less than 3000 people. 2996. 

Comparatively, nearly 4000 children and teens are shot and killed and 15,000 more are shot and injured, with 3 million children exposed to shootings every year. Stats courtesy of Everytown. 

When the next major war breaks out, I am of the belief that it will happen by Americans to Americans on American soil because of how callously this issue is still being treated. What’s the deal with executive orders from the Presidency and why hasn’t that Biden guy signed one on this yet? It’s absolutely insane. 

Americans need to understand how unbelievably abnormal it is to allow yourselves to live in fear this way and to set your children up so miserably for one of the cruelest and coldest ways of death. 

I’m going to let that thought sit because it’s a lot and switch gears and make my way over to today’s new cover song selections. 

When I realized at some point that I wanted to do a series of Death Cab for Cutie covers, I had an EP title in mind for it that borrows from today’s release. I was going to do just about 10 songs or so and call the compilation When Your Heart is an Empty Room. 

A big driving factor for me beginning to put together these covers was a mix of feelings; mild boredom, a longing to feel connected to something or someone and unbearable loneliness that would drift in and out of most days I was walking through at the time and a desire to celebrate something that brought me comfort.

Diving into recreating a song by one of my favorite artists is one of the only times I can get out of my own head and focus on something that isn’t as terrible as the issues I’ve been making a point to highlight on this show. 

It’s different from writing your own original music because a lot of the heavy lifting is already done for you – I don’t have to think as deeply about my own feelings because I can use the band’s instead, so it becomes simply a fun exploration of what I might’ve done differently if I had written the song myself. 

With so many things going on in the world today that are putting more strain on our mental health and so much of it that feels at times hopeless to change, it’s really more important now than ever that everyone finds a safe and healthy way to cope with these challenges. 

Alcohol’s not the answer as fun as it is to park yourself on a patio after a long day at work. Neither are drugs, even the tame ones. And certainly not a day at the gun range or your backyard I guess if you’re in Texas. 

I really really want to promote the idea of finding creative hobbies that inspire you to create something every day even if you’re not sure where to start or are brand new to a craft – there are tons of different things you can try to expel some of that anxious energy that is slowly eroding inside of you. It’s vitally important that people of all ages have an outlet to express themselves and their ideas, their fears, their hopes, wants and needs. Allowing yourself the time to learn these things about yourself are what I believe are the foundation that will turn into real change in society. 

I feel like many of our hearts are living right now in empty rooms. We’re mindlessly watching bad TV shows because we can’t bear the news anymore. We’re mindlessly eating shitty food, drinking shitty Bud Light (or adjacent), and smoking shitty weed because it sure beats having to think about anything, doesn’t it? But those reliefs are fleeting and they don’t have the added benefit of making you feel productive or build your confidence or level of skill in any given avenue.

When my own heart became an empty room and I no longer allowed myself the crutches of alcohol or weed or felt I had the right support in my friends or family, I filled that room with Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service and my other favorite bands. 

I continue to fill that room in this way. In doing this project which is honestly pretty random and I choose covers based entirely on how I’m feeling that week and what moves me to create something, I’ve become a better musician, I’ve gotten better at mixing, and my original music in a lot of ways has improved, too, inspired by new ideas that slowly filter through as I’m not-thinking and re-recording We Will Become Silhouettes which apparently is actually by The Shins and I absolutely just learned that recently despite having listened to The Shins many times before. 

As I’ve said before I don’t pretend to have any answers for any of these things that need to be addressed and combatted, but I really believe it’s important to start by looking at ourselves and what we can do and offer the world with our independent thoughts and I believe the best way to find those thoughts is through creative outlets like the arts. 

You don’t need a lot to start. A used acoustic guitar or pots and pans if you want to write music, a blank piece of paper and a pencil if you want to write lyrics or a story, a single stick of chalk if you want to create a mural or a stick figure based comic book strip. 

Find what moves you and then fill that room. 

Today’s cover songs of course are Your Heart is an Empty Room off the Plans album and for our Postal Service feature, it’s Brand New Colony.