Howdy there Folks, Tex of the Black Pants Legion here. I have driven many, many, many miles this week. More than five hundred in fact, if that song pleases you for background track, by all means. Tomorrow I'll drive another fuckload of miles, and, hopefully that should be the end of it. At least for now. I am tired, but I am almost completely moved. Where precisely? Well, allow me to keep that to myself for my own privacy, but the ->why<- of the move is something I will indeed discuss. In short: The jobs I had been holding in the place in which I was working were slowly working a number on my health. No matter how tough you are, eventually, the world will find new ways to crush you. And, ten years of hard work in a place, if it brings you no long-term joy, success, fortune or opportunity, is a bad place. Duh, you might say. Tex, you dumb sometimes, you might say. Sure, I won't disagree with you. But there is a fuller answer. The Longer Form answer is as such:The realization of me working and being in the wrong place took entirely too much time as I am, indeed, very stubborn, but. it did dawn on me and entirely too late that endless years of uncompensated, mandatory overtime in a high stress environment probably weren't good for me in the slightest and yet I continually toiled under such a system because like most Americans, I'm used to the abuse as an acceptable societal norm. And, as a workaholic, I naturally gravitated toward places that, at least on paper, rewarded such work ethic. That too, seems to have sadly changed. I, like many of you have seen the rough times over the past few years, where profits soared and wages didn't. Where inflation took away any gain you might make, and interest rates and market speculation made buying that dream home impossible. For a long time I learned to live with less. I am not a proud man who believes that he needs a castle, or fancy cars, or long vacations; just the occasional neat gun purchase, fine book for my collection, or beautiful recording trapped on vinyl. What I feel most robbed of, however, is time. The job, and all that surrounded it, and the chaos of survival between working hours have robbed me of time I should have been putting into writing, directing, and art. But it is up to me to make that change.So, it's time for a new chapter of my life. Firstly, I must begin this process here: And apologize to those who have watched me suffer working inhuman hours in a pretty lousy place. It's how I made my mark on the world, but, it's also likely something I should never have done for work in the first place. Chalk it up to ego if you wish, but, feeling/being useful in this world is a rare thing, and I held onto it for far too long. For a man who's had to live in his car before, feeling useful is a powerful draw. Yes, I'd probably say that's an ego problem of mine. Working on it. That and, I'll admit, the last few years have been absolute hell. Perhaps since covid? That's a fair enough marker in my life. Longcovid wiped me out financially, and I can say this for certain, no matter how many times I went to the doctors and went to specialists and forked out a hefty premium for it, maxxing out my coverage, I never got any better. I just got poorer, and sicker, for years. Health insurance in the United States has earned a global reputation for many, good, provable reasons. However, I can't blame my poor state of affairs merely on the trust I poorly placed in the hands of ethically bankrupt persons. Working in an unhealthy, high stress environment has likely done far worse. So, I'm having to make those changes, or risk becoming a casualty for the sake of doing so. And there are as well creative challenges. Youtube began as a beautiful experiment. You, the user, were able to program essentially your own television station with content YOU found compelling. It allowed for an unrestricted expression of the self, for YOU to create and be seen and share whatever you made, however niche or compelling or weird. It allowed you to be whatever you wanted to be, as a creator online. It was a majestic age. And then it ended. Because, step by step, the enshittification began. Many of us can no doubt recall how the content became increasingly monetized, increasingly profit centered, and increasingly about deceptive practices in marketing. That which is popular on this platform follows a formula that is identifiable to children, as, it was very likely engineered to be so. Those who obey the algorithm, profit by it, until it replaces them. Those who fight against it and create things that don't fit in, are slowly erased. I've seen youtubers become mockeries of their own best selves, ignoring their own good wisdom, just to "make it" in this hustle driven economy. And in between, people like me exist only because of word of mouth. Your words. Your recommendations. Your hard work to get this seen. I have no words sufficient to express my gratitude at that. You've allowed me to maintain what modest dignity I have as a creator of stuff, by not having to pander, beg, scrape, and bow. You have reminded me of my purpose, and rewarded my teams hard efforts with gratitude. Were not in this to be famous. Just, to be able to make things. And you guys understand that. For that, I thank you, deeply. You are proving something I have believed for a long time: Do the best you can for people who care, ignore the wider world, and share whatever success you have. Hence the charity. Hence the BPL being a place that routinely gives artists of all walks of life a shot, hence why we're devoted to being worthy of your time, trust, and attention. The world may be grim but, we're gonna be who we are regardless. Thank you, again, for that opportunity. So, to the point we are exploring here: me moving isn't just an opportunistic move that gets me more money. It won't. If anything, my pay has been flat for half a decade, and less-than adjusting for inflation. This is instead an opportunity to re-set my life, to find a better work/life balance, and to try to make it through middle age with more time spent on what -I- want to spend it on. Which is writing, film, art, and creating stuff. I have no want whatsoever to be rich, or wealthy or powerful. I've seen what that does to people. They end up worrying more about losing what they have, than creating anything new. They end up trapped by their wealth such as it is. As such, please know : Fame makes me itch. Spotlights are blinding, and pillars give me vertigo. What I want most is to throw down as hard as I can to make as much art and cool shit as I can with the time I got left on this marble of ours. So, this move, this drive is a lot longer than just miles. It's been years in the making, and serves as a chapter turn: I am tired of surviving. I wish to attempt something rarer: I wish to live. Or, hilariously, to die trying. If it suits you all, I hope to be up and operational with the ability to record a voice response within 1 week, next Saturday ideally. Then I will answer all the questions below, and the questions from last week. It will be a very long recording, I know. Worry not. You will see some majestic shit this year. And next. Stay safe. Keep your feet on the ground. I'll see you on the next horizon.--TEX--Post Scriptum: Bring back fucking giant ass land boat sedans. They make moving easier and I wish I had one. We used to be a proper civilization. # Bring back the 9C1 Caprice (If anyone has one for sale, hit me up please).