Sunday Music: Personal Journalist / Sage Francis

It didn’t age well. And that’s ok. It’s still got merits. 

I have a series of Sage Francis quotes and references I repeat to myself regularly 20 years on. I’m not a college kid in a pre-social media era crafting AIM away messages anymore. All those bizarre curiosities have moved through and beyond subreddits by now. Thank the gods. And still. 

I love the term “personal journalist.” The privacy of the craft. The formality of it being a craft in the first place.  

The poetry of “get out my weathered face with all that sunshine.” The 90s informed wordplay of “avant garde-ian angel dust mite” (that’s 5 words, indirectly 6 words, and 4 word pairings, each with layered meanings, separately and combined). I’m still impressed with Sage. I’m still a word nerd. Can’t help it.

You don’t have to listen to it, but I’m happy to place it here. 

Ps. “Sea Lion” is the song I still get stuck in my head randomly and regularly (and I even put it on this old playlist, A Healthy Distrust has some real moments). “Crack Pipes” is there some of the time but the word play appreciation gets overshadowed by “Personal Journalist.” “Makeshift Patriot” still hits too close to home, even if my personal politics have evolved (“makeshift patriot the flag shop was out of stock I hang myself at half-mast”). Clever, yes, but so in and of a post 9/11 moment.