Table of Contents
Resolutions………………….Another Day
Sunday Songs…………………Tay-K, Kanye verses, Feels So Good #1
Sunday Poll……………………...Who won the verzuz?
Sunday Carrier………………….Headlines! Get your headlines!
Studio Jali …………………………Studio Updates
P.S ……………………………………….First, put your two fists together, fingers touching. This is the size of your brain. It weighs about 3 pounds.
One day, we’re going to run out of days. The goals we set, how hard we worked for them, and how badly we want them, are at the end going to be held in the light and we won’t be able to lie to ourselves about whether we worked as hard as we did, or if we wanted it as bad as we thought, the only proof will be in the action.
The proof is always in the action.
It’s the last Sunday of January 2024. 10 pm LA time, with a full two hours until midnight, Monday, the 29th. And if it were 2023 me, I’d probably turn this into a “Pen Monday” a sorry make-up for not releasing the edition on time. But this isn’t 2023.
I made 13 goals this year. One of those 13,
“Don’t miss a single edition of Pen Sunday.”
I woke up at 10:30 am with a miserable headache and nauseous. I showered, got dressed, and chugged as much water as I could. Then, I uber’d to meet a friend to go ring thrifting. She gave me two Aleve and I bought a $9 banana-strawberry smoothie to recover. And 30 minutes later, I felt at a strong 80%, rising from the 50% I felt when I peeled myself out of bed. I left with two rings. One silver with a skull design, the other gold, glitzier, and designed with a spider atop it.
I spent the next 9 hours out and about in LA. Got lunch, had a picnic at a park. Spent the afternoon there and made fun of all the ugly dogs. After, walked to a bar in my old neighborhood, and was 1 rum cocktail short of feeling tipsy. I would’ve loved to keep going and felt up for it, but I needed to write this edition.
That’s what I learned about myself today. I’m only disciplined if I feel like I need to do something. If I only want to do something, then it’s too easy to make excuses, procrastinate, and never do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it.
But you only get so many days. And you especially only get so many Sundays. Having something written, even if it’s short, and admittedly a little rushed, it’s still better than having not written a word and missing deadline.
Sunday Songs
Word in advance, it’s a lot of rap this week.
This is the most recent rap song that made me rewind the opening acoustic verse 5x before I could press play and listen to the rest of the song. I like this song a lot. I hear heavy Kendrick and Smino influence. There’s a lot going on, and he’s really going for it. And I like all of that too.
On the other end, I’d love this song at 22. The lyrics mean almost nothing, but it’s the feeling I get from songs like this has me making a playlist of this sound. Truly, what genre has done more for people’s confidence than rap? I hear this and feel like I’m him.
This song, I found out about this week for the first time. I’d never heard of this 7th Day EP and have no idea if it’s “official” in the sense Kanye recorded this verse in studio when it came out, or the DJ/Producer plugged in after the fact, or from another song/album. Either way, it came out in 2017, back before you had to defend Kanye and before it made you sad to be a fan of his. And his verse is really good. Plus I have a soft spot for soulful beats. To close, 2 or 3 of my favorite Kanye verses are his feature verses on songs that aren’t his.
Selfish, one of my favorite Kanye verses. [Starts at 1:20]
To close, as this week has only been rap, here’s a blues (?) song that makes me want to be a country boy for a day, drinking beer and driving a truck through muddy fields while wearing a cutoff white Coca-Cola shirt.
Sunday Poll
Last week, Pen Sunday voters made their voices heard and said yes, Max does have a better movie selection than Netflix. As you know if you read last week’s edition, this is a hill I almost didn’t die on, because I tried to argue for Netflix.
Oh well. C’est la vie. Lesson learned. This week’s poll is more ambiguous, but answer as honestly as you can.
Voting is free and anonymous. All it takes is a subscription. (That’s free too).
You only have one week to vote. Results will be reviewed and discussed in next week’s edition.
Sunday Carrier
Israel-Palestine Human Rights Watch
Former L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar sentenced to 13 years in prison
Florida House passes a bill to ban social media accounts for children under 16
A prosecutor investigating a TV studio attack in Ecuador has been shot dead
Gig Mess: Europe Battles Over Uber
The Minnesota Timberwolves are 32-14
Weekly Report:
Casting for Rob Rabbit has concluded
Uncredited S2 debut episode scheduled to record this week
PS
It’s the end of Pen Sunday, edition #65. If you reached the end, thank you for reading. It means a lot.
Pen Sunday is a newsletter about a writer, a dream, and a studio. With headlines from around the world, music, and maybe a poem. Every Sunday and Sunday only. Subscribe for free below.
Until Sunday,
Solomon Lovejoy
P.S.S. — it’s 11:50 PM. :)