Monday, July 6, 2026

UPDATE: I AM NOT DEAD



Given some of the things I've posted on here over the past couple of years, I feel obligated to pop in and assure you that I did not kill myself, OD, or walk off into the woods to live out the rest of my days in a hole on the side of a hill.

I've been going to a lot of shows, working on new music, pumping iron, staying clean, reconnecting with old friends. Probably the biggest factors in my not posting here are 1) not a lot of free time, and 2) I'm much less inclined to go searching for every record in existence that is at all relevant to my tastes, and more inclined to just listen to albums that I do like on repeat.

Posting may or may not resume soon.

Love and gratitude now and forever,

Tim/DEAR_SPIRIT

69 comments:

  1. Modular oblongataJuly 6, 2026 at 9:50 AM

    Dear Spirit, I am so happy to read that you are alive and kicking! Indeed I was worried because there were no more posts for an unusual amount of time and the latest posts were drenched in sadness...
    Good to know that you just modified your direction of travel and that this is the reason why less of your Spirit reaches mine...
    Keep on rocking and thank you for all the niche tunes that I was able to discover through you - especially Arleta and Mikami Kan!!!
    Cheers,

    Modular oblongata

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  2. Excellent to see you are doing well, especially after all the kickass records you’ve put us onto!!

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  3. Grateful to you for all the years of great music and if the blog comes to an end so be it.

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  4. Love and gratitude now and forever to you my friend

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  5. You be you.
    Thanks for the update.

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  6. I appreciate all the great music you've turned me on to. Your blog was the first one I started visiting regularly at the start of COVID when I started to collect music again and served as a jumping off point for me. You rock and I wish you well!

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  7. I am somewhat disappointed that you did not walk off into the woods to live out the rest of my days in a hole on the side of a hill because that's the most metal thing ever but you not being dead is good too.

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    1. Living in a hole on the side of a hill is vastly underrated, just ask anyone who is short with hairy feet.

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  8. So happy to hear you are well!! Thanks for everything you have shared (music and life stories) so far. Look forward to your return one day. Much love and gratitude.

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  9. I'm Chusky from Roma, Italia, an old and silent follower. Keep on doing what's best for you, it's enough to know that you are doing as well as you can.

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  10. Thanks for the update. Glad you're well.

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  11. Just want to take a moment to thank you for all the music you have turned me on to. That's priceless, and I am forever in your debt.

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  12. Thanks for all your great posts. I'm happy you're doing well.

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  13. We are here for our entertainment.THANK YOU for all GREAT music and years together.We remember everything, and waiting for more! ❤️ 🙋‍♂️

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  14. Hands down, you have one of the best blogs on the whole internet. It's good to know that you're living your life and having fun with it, that's the whole point after all.

    Cheers mate, keep doing well.

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  15. Thank you for telling us. Can't help worrying about people these days. But I hope you are feeling better. Keep on struggling.

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  16. Keep on keepin' on!

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  17. Thanks for all of the music and the update.

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  18. cheers, mate, enjoy yourself as much as possible and thank you for some great discoveries and funny and witty texts...we all will celebrate a comeback for sure!

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  19. Good to know you are alive and well. The list of things you are up to sounds pretty great to me. I do most of the same except for the staying clean part. Keep on rockin!

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  20. Nice to hear. We getting new rotting sky?

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  21. Thanks for dropping us a line. Stay groovy!

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  22. I could not be more grateful at the work you did to make this blog an incredible place for so many types of music. I mean how many music spots are gonna have "Billy Cobham" and "Black Priest of Satan" within inches of each other.

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  23. Thank you, we've all been hoping you are ok!

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  24. Thank you for your service, Sir. You've truly gotten me through some shit.

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  25. Thanks for the update and all of the great posts. Keep on keeping on with whatever works for you.

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  26. Good to things are going well for you. I'll be greedy and hope that you do resume posting but even if you don't its been a blast. Take care.

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  27. Hey Buddy...I've never commented before...but I thought I would for the first time just to say I'm glad you're doing well & keeping busy. Take care of yourself &enjoy life.

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  28. Thanks for everything you’ve posted so far. It helped me discover things that are part of the albums I listen to on repeat. Best regards.

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  29. So glad you are well and feisty! We are in your debt for years of excellent free music, but especially for sharing for so long with us your taste and thoughts and general consciousness, which have enriched our lives. Take care, and cheers!

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  30. Good to know bro, this is the best blog I’ve ever visited

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  31. Espero que te siga yendo bien cuídate mucho.
    Desde méxico con amor

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  32. thx for the update glad to hear ur doing well <3

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  33. Glad to hear things have been going good for you dude, hope you enjoy the music ur working on. this blog has helped put me onto so much good shit (and taken a giant chunk of my mp3 player) i cant thank you enough

    love and gratitude now and forever❤️

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  34. thanks for the update! Hope all is well.

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  35. I still click on this URL weekly to check if there is anything new (no pressure ;). A great update, which makes every sense. Keep looking after yourself.

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  36. You are the dark light that shines brightly in a much, much darker world. Thank you for EVERYTHING you do.

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  37. Just came across this blog today and I wanted to share my appreciation, it's a slow work day and I'm on a music digging mission, found some really great stuff already. Thank you! Glad to hear you're doing alright! Love from Philly - ek

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  38. Happy to hear some news. Great to known you're ok. Be safe. Hug from Brazil.

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  39. This site is always a pleasure , cheers for your Oeuvre .

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  40. Happy that you are doing fine!

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  41. This is wonderful news. Your blog has been an extraordinary resource. I wish you well.

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  42. I'm glad to hear that things are looking up. Stay happy.

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  43. gracias totales, es bueno saber que estás vivo!!! jajajaja!!!! te esperamos con nueva musica cuando tu decidas!!! abrazo desde Argentina

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  44. just dipped in because I haven't been here for a little while and reading that update is, in the grand scheme of everything and anything, really good news and nice to see. keep on keeping on and, in the meantime, thank you for this blog - absolutely superb and has been a great & genuinely valued resource for me for a long time. much respect & very best regards, P.

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  45. I love it here. Thanks for building such a great blog! Glad you're well x

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  46. Big love from Finland. Thank you for all your work. I've discovered countless gems through this site. You've made the world a better place.

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  47. "when this blog speaks, it communicates things that matter.
    when it is silent, it communicates things that matter" - Laozi

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  48. Glad your are alive and well. I can relate to just listening to some of the older albums you used to love and revisiting them again all over again. I'm been in much the same mood. Here's a few I've gone back to: Moody Blues-On The Threshold of A Dream, Pat Martino/ Consciousness, Blood, Sweat, & Tears/ Greatest Hits, Procol Harum--Shine On Brightly, Townes Van Zandt--First Album: For the Sake of a Song, Tibetan Bells III: the Empty Mirror--Henry Wolfe & Nancy Hennings, Carlos Santana: Divine Light: Reonstruction & Mix Translation; Bill Laswell, on & on, repeat.

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  49. The Last Surviving Music Blog fades into glory. For your own time left, I hope you stay off the internet. For my own selfish desires, I wish you'd stay.

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  50. i am glad you are not dead

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  51. Excelente Blog, muy impresiónate la selección de álbum , estoy tripeando toda la música , espero algún día vuelva a postear. gracias por tu esfuerzo y tiempo. @jjbufferi

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  52. Your blog has had a marked impact on the quality of my life. Thank you for everything.

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  53. Cheers and happy living IRL

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  54. good to hear. be well. and thank you.
    pretty sure this whole internet thing is going to be over soon anyways

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  55. a presto! grazie per le preziose chicche

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  56. So glad to hear that you are well and to see a new post from you. Yours is one of the very few music blogs that has been indispensable to me --- I can't remember what I was searching for back then, but I found it here, and when I saw the particular film still you had chosen to head your page, along with the name of the blog itself, I got that rare feeling one used to get from particularly personal blogs. I wasn't looking for a 'library' that 'stocked' a huge number of random titles, but what the best blogs give: a personal, curated, enthusiastic atmosphere, a real person eagerly guiding me to the discoveries they had made and treasured. I particularly love the turn your collection took when black metal and ECM classics shared equal space. The number of artists and records and genres that you introduced me (and so many others) to is a gift that is of incalcuable value. I hope that you are feeling better and see brighter days ahead. Depression and illness are things that I also know, and the fight is hard. Be strong and thank you for your generosity and love of music.

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  57. hi. long time follower of this blog. do you have a playlist in spotify?

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  58. good work not being dead. I'm all for it. Have you heard this kid yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ElVdiWzuM his name is bleood, pronounced as if there is no e in the name. 21 yo i think? I am obsessed

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  59. thanks for the great music over the years brother. stay strong

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  60. Mantente sobrio..coronarás ...la vida es un asombroso viaje..hay tiempo para todo..pero no hay que desperdiciarlo, lucidez ..gran tesoro

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  61. great to know you are doing well and keeping busy with things that fuel you well! this blog has opened me up to so much wonderful music! a couple years ago cleared and set up an old iphone as an ipod and filled it with only music that i have learned about here. i am still working through it.
    if you never posted again, so be it! if you do post again, so be it! i'm just happy to have found it.
    thank for all your work here and everything you have shared: the music, the memories, and the thoughts. this place is a work of art.

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  62. right on!! you do you! always rooting for you and wishing you the best.

    your work here has enriched my life in many ways, and looking at all the comments that are expressing the same brings a smile to my face and a glow to my heart. imagine how many others are not commenting but feeling the same. you have made a big positive difference in this wild wild world. incredible.

    if you do decide to stop posting for good, could you keep this blog online anyway? maybe set up a donate button to cover the cost to keep it afloat? i would surely contribute if it means that i can visit here again and again, even if it is for reading only.

    (there was only one other blog that i enjoyed reading as much as this one, and it just up and disappeared one day over a decade ago. it was called "Waking the Midnight Sun" and it was a journal/memoir style but cloaked in mystery. it was impossible to tell who was behind it. age, gender, location- no idea. it probably had some ritual magick themes, as that is what i was mainly looking for on the internet back then. but i can't recall much else. i just remember the feeling it gave me. i wish i could revisit it, and i wish i would have thought to save it somehow. it lives on in the ether of my memory.)

    thinking about it now, this blog is also magick, music is its ritual, and you are a Magician. i mean that in the least possible corny sense of those words.

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  63. almost slipped by, glad I didn't. I've always loved your page. Now and then i've wondered how people do pages like this, you've done well for us, thank you.

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