Now I’m remedying being behind on commentary posts too…

Why a double feature aside from playing catch-up? The donut story was too short to charge a buck for, and linked enough to the locksmith’s tale it felt like a good representation of how the DC tales share a universe. I likened it to a cartoon shown before a film sometimes.

In the full novel version of Duty Calls I’ve always envisioned Doug’s flashback near the start and Justin’s closer to the end, making for decent truncated bookends here.

Holes (Donut Tidbits)

• I’d called this story “Doug’N Donuts” for years, but feedback it spoiled the reveal of the donut shop name plus not liking the idea of Donuts: Doug’N Donuts as the section title made me swap it.
• “Doug Zhang Seizes Opportunity” is admittedly a little lame, but pairs well with the other title we’ll address down below.¹
• Doug’s son Bobby Zhang is Shawn Smith’s road-trip companion in “Fester” and the apprentice to HJ the handyman in “Copper on Parchment”
• Nut’n Healthy as a donut name still amuses me now as much as it did when I wrote the line 15 years ago.
• Authors & actors hanging out at Doug’N includes screenwriter Allan Smithee who does just that in “Debaser”
• There’s a dentist in the Duty Calls jury pool; her story is unreleased / unnamed as I write this commentary post but she is the reason dentists come up twice.
• “Hole tone mechanism collapse” must’ve meant something when I wrote it but I can’t recall what. Maybe just vaguely time travel-y?²
• “Another round from Uncle Doug!” paraphrases an anecdote from one of my college professors. We were learning how to loop ambient background audio when editing to mask cuts and he told a cautionary tale of not noticing someone yelling “another round for uncle _____” in their room tone until after they finalized their documentary. Nate Pepper & I still randomly quote that line to each other.
• Doug’s assistant describing a break-in starts the segue to the next story, though maybe not in the way you think.
• I’m mildly obsessed with mixing cold brew coffee & lemonade—aka a Swedish version of an Arnold Palmer (Kaffelemonad) or an Algerian Mazagran.
• Doug gets his jury duty summons here, pushing him into the broader story. Early on all the Duty Calls flashbacks had this (like how many season 1 LOST flashbacks were about how everyone got to Australia), though I eventually abandoned this in favor of more variety.
• Donution — lol
• Doug imagining a waaaa-woooo siren sound segues us directly into the Deadbolt b-side…

Keys (Deadbolt tidbits)

• “Sent Packin’” also starts with onomatopoeia, as does the second act of “Copper on Parchment.” “Fester” opens with a ringing phone, and Doug’s story could have an unheard alarm clock kicking things off.
• The waiter (and the restaurant) will appear in another DC story. ROME isn’t his name, but is part of his name.
• The finale of a certain tv show debuted shortly before I published this twofer, making “…but Justin had seen stranger things” a hilarious accidental reference since the program didn’t exist at all when the line was written.
• “Deadbolted door” was shoehorned into the story at the last minute when I liked “Donuts & Deadbolts” better than “Donuts & Locks” as an overarching title.
• The locksmith story has been “on deck” as the next Duty Calls release for years, but something about it never felt quite right or ready. Finally figured out it related to Justin’s unnamed partner. Flipping their gender to show Justin’s indecision impacting his personal life was the missing link.³
• The short story “Bored to Death” from an old issue of McSweeney’s influenced Justin’s character and the general storyline here. I liked the idea of a writer in over his head as a detective, which made me explore a locksmith in over his head as an inadvertent part of a heist gone wrong. This predated that story becoming a tv series, so I guess I know how to pick ’em?
• The first draft predated smartphones, so I decided to keep Justin’s old flip phone partly out of nostalgia and party because I thought modernizing it would be boring.
• Originally I used lock and key emojis as the section breaks, but since Kindle didn’t support them subbed in the special character as a proxy for a lock picking tool.
• Calling the locksmith company SMITHLOCK⁴ of course amuses me to no end. Referring to it as containing “both of their names” was a new twist since Justin’s last name isn’t mentioned in the story. Who is Smith and who is Lock?⁵
• The narrow stone-lined alley was inspired by a very similar one behind Hungry Charley’s bar in Syracuse, NY.

FOOTNOTES

1. Another title in consideration: “DZ, This Could Be Donu-mite!” ︎
2. I’m pretty sure it’s a 3 or 4 year ago addition to this decade plus year old story. ︎
3. I guess you could call it the key… ︎
4. In a half finished novella titled The Commuter there’s a character with a tendency to invert compound words. That started as a Duty Calls story before spinning off, thus having a bit of DNA rub off here. ︎
5. Minor spoiler: The Cyclo Wiki tells us Justin is Smith, making his partner Lock. ︎

ALBUMS

1. Stick— Jim Bob
Easily my favorite solo album by the former Carter USM frontman since 2007’s A Humpty Dumpty Thing (and his most fun record since In A Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night), Stick harkens back to the turn of the millennium when Jim would release a completely unique but still very him sounding solo record nearly every year. I’ve enjoyed his musical comeback after a seven year hiatus as novelist JB Morrison, but Stick is the first time I’ve had that giddy old “oooh…what’s this?” reaction in quite awhile.¹

2. Thank The Lord… It’s the Pink Stones — The Pink Stones
The latest from my current favorite band (I think) takes the cosmic country aspects to the next level while still being its own unique thing. A record so good it inspired some flash fiction in the spaces between the songs. A lot of real sad groovies here. Bring on LP4!

3. Sea Pipes — Sea Pipes
Best debut record by a teenage band² since I Should Coco, and just as infectiously catchy. Can’t believe this was recorded by high school kids; can believe it was embraced by the legendary DJ Nic Harcourt.

4. Last Missouri Exit — Case Oats
Maybe my most anticipated album of the year, and it didn’t disappoint even though I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. By the time I saw them play SXSW before the release date I knew this would be a treat. (Funny side story: One song had been stuck in my head since the pandemic era Tweedy Show performance circa 2020. When the album tracklist dropped I was disappointed “Diane, Diane” didn’t make the cut since I didn’t remember/realize it was called “Bitter Root Lake.”)

5. The Little Ones — James Felice
A lightly paraphrased one-sided conversation with my wife. “James Felice has a solo album coming out on Valentines Day.” <a few days later> “And it’s really good.” <a few days later> “And he’s playing Antone’s next week opening for Shovels & Rope.” <after the show> “Should we go see him again tomorrow?” To reappropriate the time Ian Felice paraphrased my wife live on stage: “Hear that James? They’re all hits.”

6. Magnifier — Mason Jennings
My favorite Mason album since Wild Dark Metal, which is oddly the polar opposite of this sparse, short, acoustic beauty of a record. Normally I complain about feeling shortchanged by 8 song / < 30 minute releases, but this became the perfect soundtrack to put on right before bed while still being awake for the whole thing before fading off.

7. Big Stage — Jon Lindsay
Smart, sharp songwriting carries this pop-infused album that feels straight out of the late 70s/early 80s in a love-letter sort of way. Sonically a little all over the place yet still has a solid through line if that makes sense.

8. Love Chant — The Lemonheads
I went into this with very low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. It splits the difference between the early punky songs and the 90s pop perfection. And of course I dig the fun song titles like “58 Second Song” (clocking in at 3 minutes and change) or “Wild Thing” (not a cover, but winkingly not not not³ a cover)

9. Arther Buck 2 — Arthur Buck
Sounds like what I wanted the first Arthur Buck record to sound like, which is basically Monster era R.E.M. crossed with Lonely Astronaut era Joseph Arthur.

10. Songs For Other People’s Weddings— Jens Lekman
This concept album released as a companion to David Levithan’s novel of the same name⁴ features Jens’s classic formula of heartfelt goofy sincerity amped up to almost orchestral musical proportions. (And of course I was intrigued by the concept of a book based on an album featuring characters with single letter names…)

11. is — My Morning Jacket
My favorite MMJ record since Circuital. (For some reason I keep wanting to call this if vs. is.)

12. Automatic — Jim Bob
Released on the same day as my #1 record of the year Stick, I consider this one the fourth album in the comeback record trilogy⁵ that started with 2020’s 7th ranked Pop Up Jim Bob. Still, I realize these subjective ranking exercises are silly and any new Jim Bob record is something to celebrate. Without the juxtaposition of two choices who knows where this would independently rank⁶. “Our Forever Home” might be my favorite Jim Bob ballad since “This Phoney War.”

SONGS

1. “Basic Being Basic” — Djo

2. “Snugglebunny” — Benji Hughes

3. “Bitter Root Lake” — Case Oats

4. “My Other Car” — Jon Lindsay

5. “Space” — Hunter James

6. “I Wrote A Song Called Take The Skinheads Bowling” — David Lowry

7. “Betrayed” — Jeff Tweedy

8. “Didn’t ask what’s on my mind.” — Telemarket

SHOWS

1. Danny Malone (4 shows: 1/17 + 5/10 at Radio East, 7/26 at Wyldewood, 8/1 at Radio South)
Discovery of the year that kept on giving. He opened for Possessed by Paul James at the January show. We knew nothing about him—but the rest of the room joyfully sang every word and screamed “We love you Danny!” after nearly every song. Started seeking him out after this; by the third show we were practically leading the sing-a-longs.

2. Benji Hughes & Jon Lindsay (3 shows⁷in 3 cities!: 3/14⁸at Merdian in Buda, 3/15 at Zilker Brewing during SXSW, 5/16 at The Pour House in Raleigh, NC⁹)
Last year’s jaunt to NC proved unnecessary¹⁰ when my favorite musician came to me in 2025. Later in the year I managed to parlay a work trip into one last side quest for the final show of the duo tour taking it full circle at Jon Lindsay’s record release gig. Got to hear a few unexpected deep cuts (“Longshot”, “Magic Summertime”, “Spirit Guide”), helped¹¹ inflate and/or deflate beach balls & floats for the stage show, and brought a whole parade of Texas people on tour from all sides of my triple life to the Buda gig to join in on the fun.¹²

3. Shurman at the Saxon Pub — 7/24/25
I used to see this band all the time 20+ years ago in LA. This random reunion showed they still got it.

4. Vapors of Morphine at the Continental Club — 9/19/25
Hat tip to Jon Mack for telling me to check this out. Wasn’t sure how Mophine would be with a different singer/bass player, but hearing these songs live was amazing. (The saxophone is arguably more important to the overall Morphine sound than my younger self realized.) Bonus: Encore opened with “Thursday” — my favorite Morphine jam.

5. Wilco AM Tribute at Radio East — 9/20/25
A fun set of Austin all-stars covering Wilco’s under-appreciated debut.¹³

6. Pink Stones at the White Horse (1.5 times) — 3/13 outside & 3/15 inside
The biggest concert going news of the year is I missed more Pink Stones gigs than I attended!
My epic run of consecutive Austin shows in a 3 year span ended with number 16 before the two Benji sets and Nate Pepper’s out of town birthday generated four separate conflicts¹⁴. Bright side was the 3/15 Benji/Pink Stones conflicts were a 2 minute walk apart (thank the lord for SXSW), so I did squeeze in the back half of the unexpectedly extended Pink Stones set¹⁵.

7. LA Exes at Stubb’s — 11/8/25¹⁶
Have wanted to see this band since their debut album ranked second on my 2021 list, and the opening slot for OK GO was a perfect way to do so. Bonus: We got upgraded to VIP/ADA seats and watched from the balcony above the stage.

8. Regina Spektor at The Moody Theater — 8/5/25
Oh, Regina. Hadn’t seen you live for 16 years before this gem. How we’ve missed you.

9. Hayes Carll Grateful For Christmas at the Paramount Theater — 12/11/25
This annual event is fast becoming a December tradition. Oddly light on actual holiday songs this year, though special guest appearances by Ben Kweller and Lyle Lovett (on a duet of “LA Freeway” by Guy Clark!) made up for it.

10. Supergrass at House of Blues Boston — 9/12/25
In which they played all of I Should Coco, not quite in order on the final night of the tour.

11. Pavement at Levitation Fest — 9/28/25
A Pavement reunion will never get old. I sorta wish the setlist had more “hits,” but can’t complain about rare appearances by “We Dance” & “Debris Slide” & “Texas Never Whispers” here.¹⁷

12. Jens Lekman at Mohawk — 11/25/25
Theme of this show was “dress as a song title.” I went as “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen wearing a classic Coverville podcast Coca-Cola parody shirt. My wife and her oxygen machine were “The Air That I Breathe” by Albert Hammond. Jens was Jens, as delightful as always.

13. Fingerpistol at ABGB — 7/20/25
See last year’s 11th ranked show for the full “why I dig this band” recap, but “Two Dollar Words” never gets old.

14. Beat Root Revival at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar — 12/21/25
Hadn’t seen Beat Root in a few years. Had a neat trick where they redid some of their originals with holiday lyrics so they wouldn’t have to completely learn all-new holiday tunes.

XX. Alabama Shakes at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway — 9/14/25
Honorable mention for this the one that got away since I didn’t get to see the show but should have. Went to the Red Sox game and saw Alabama Shakes were playing next door. When the game ended I sprinted out of the ballpark and over to the club. Bought a StubHub ticket for $20 at 9:55pm…and then got an alert my order was cancelled because the event already ended. I WAS STANDING OUTSIDE AND NOBODY WAS LEAVING! A colleague who attended told me they started at 9:15 and played until almost 11pm, so I could’ve been there for a solid 10+ songs.

PICTURES TO PROVE IT¹⁸

FOOTNOTES

1. My rankings for the full Jim Bob solo catalog: 1. A Humpty Dumpty Thing (2007), 2. J.R. (2001), 3. Stick (2025), 4. Goodnight Jim Bob (2003), 5. Pop Up Jim Bob (2020), 6. Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night (2002), 7. School (2006), 8. Thanks For Reaching Out (2023), 9. Angelstrike! (2004), 10. Who Do We Hate Today (2021), 11. Jim’s Super Stereoworld (2001), 12. What I Think About When I Think About You (2013), 13. Automatic (2025), 14. Goffam (2008) ︎
2. Full disclosure: My former boss’s son is the drummer. He sent me their first single and I was surprised it was legit good. Then the algorithm alerted me to the album drop and I had it on repeat with no nepotic nudging. ︎
3. I used a triple negative in an effort to be as charmingly opaque as the song that is and isn’t on this record, plus I liked it was footnote number 3. ︎
4. I haven’t read the book yet, but plan to next year once the paperback is released. (I read in bed, and hardcovers are dangerous if you nod off and drop one on your face.) ︎
5. So long, and thanks for all the fish. ︎
6. “Please enjoy all Jim Bob solo records equally.” — Something my Innie would be told in a Wellness Session. ︎
7. Almost 4 shows this year, but Benji cancelled his appearance at November’s Been There 4 benefit festival due to a conflict. ︎
8. March 14th gets a special SXSW footnote since I managed to see Case Oats at Hotel San Jose, John Doe Folk Trio at C-Boys, Deslondes at Colton House Hotel, Benji at Meridian and almost had a chance to make it back in time to see The Pink Stones close out the night at Continental Club (but Buda proved too far away logistically). Still, what a day! ︎
9. Lily Mars opened the Raleigh show and played a great cover of “Jane Says.” ︎
10. Though of course I’m still glad I went. ︎
11. Poorly, though in my defense you didn’t have to squeeze to inflate when I was a kid! ︎
12. Quote from Nate Pepper: “After seeing Benji live I understand L Extreme a lot more.” ︎
13. I was sort of triple booked this night, deciding between this show / Vapors of Morphine night 2 / Flat Fest 2. I’m happy with my selection. ︎
14. Especially disappointing was I missed shows at Continental Club & Saxon Pub, two of my favorite venues. ︎
15. I thought I’d negotiated my favorite song “Time’s Standing Still” as both the opener and the closer with bass player Adam Wayton so I’d be present for the second instance, but as Hunter Pinkston put it afterwards “Adam’s not in charge of anything” ︎
16. This would have been the day of the 4th Benji gig of the year at Been There 4. Didn’t have to sweat it since he didn’t play, but still went to the fest in the daytime, left for LA Exes, then came back for headliner Ben Kweller. ︎
17. Since this is as good a place as any: I loved Pavements the movie. Best line: “Like being in a hair metal band in 1992, you can’t ruin something that’s already ruined.” ︎
18. I’ve got a whole stack of proof ︎

Check out my Twitter song-by song review of the album first, then read on for a completely different take on Thank The Lord… it’s the Pink Stones.

Thank The Lord…

a musical short story by JL Civi, inspired by the album

Oh, my my. I didn’t expect to find a place like this here, but I’m glad I did.

Question: What do you religious types call getting hit with sounds, visions, and complete clarity in one inspirational burst?

Epiphany?

Yeah. I had one of those, on my knees, thank the lord…

Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

Technically others sinned against me first, but I atone for my retaliation.

Never wanted to relive those days, but since this is confession and if you aren’t too busy…

Technically it wasn’t a one night stand since it lasted two nights. Though I suppose if you don’t sleep it’s still the first night, right?

Numbers aside, it was magical. From the bar to the bedroom to work the next day is all a blur. Not wanting things to end, I told my boss a relative died and proposed a spontaneous trip on a big jet plane.

This is starting to sound like a real sad movie…

I still get riled up over her friends laughing at my car when I picked her up for that mid-week getaway. Who’s laughing now? Are they still laughing? Probably, but that’s not my point.

Or maybe it is. Sometimes I feel like an outlier. A stranger in a strange land who’d be better off starting over in another country.

Going overseas was something we talked about at the airport bar, but couldn’t quite figure out how the seasons worked below the equator and whether it’d be warm or cold when leaving…

You never intend to commit adultery, but sometimes you spot someone from afar while already in a relationship. A nod, a wink, averted eyes that aren’t looking until they are. It sorta snowballs from there. Will the snow melt, or solidify into rock hard ice?

Whether something or nothing happened is and isn’t important. What’s wrong with remembering both versions? It’s like the universe split in two, and either way is lose/lose if I can’t win…

It became an addiction. White cushions splattered with red stains. Black/red sharp/blunt objects moving between my hands and the coffee table, numbers counting down the sins I’ve committed.

Is a broken heart a sin? For the breaker, it might be lust or wrath. For the broken, pride or greed or envy. Both people may fall into gluttony and sloth as they work their way out of the bottomless pit of pain.

It was the first time I’d been alone in my life, so I knew it was best to be movin’ on. Fresh start in another place. Maybe take that international trip on my own.

We never did figure out when the seasons down under were summer love or winter pain…

Traveling abroad is like being in another dimension or traveling in time. Simultaneously two opposite seasons. A chilly wind after sunset transforms a lovely day into something more sinister. The same, but different. The whole thing gave me a sense of uneasiness that’s hard to kill…

I wasn’t the only one to take this overseas trip on my own. Funny how something we were supposed to do together became something we still did separately but at the same time. Or it’d be funny if it weren’t such a drag.

D-R-A-G. Those letters describe my life. I might win a spelling bee, but what good does that do me if the acronym is a loser?

Devious. Resentful. Apathetic. Gluttonous. Four out of seven ain’t bad, eh? Was I supposed to acknowledge her? Ignore her? Use nicotine and alcohol and other substances to counteract the pain? I think the right answer is to let it go, but her presence across the room across the sea was such a sight…

I really thought we’d get married. Yes, we only had that one night stand that lasted a few continuous day/nights, but a feeling is a feeling. Should she be another in the parade of ones or twos that got away, or could one or both of us have the sense to stay? No need to revisit the your place or mine game. Pick a neutral site to try again where it’s safe and warm like a hometown hotel…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Bar was closing. Take our time? Too busy for that. We had a third and or fourth night to stand up to. Maybe I fudged the counting, but I remembered your number—all seven digits.

Once I mustered up the guts to dial is where it got interesting. It wasn’t my first time, but most folks know when you answer the phone you start with your name…

She said she’d call me back, but the phone never rang. I could’ve called again, but that’s not how this works. Anyways, it doesn’t matter since my phone doesn’t work on the sailboat. At least not for telephonics. Her eyes look so much clearer in the photo on my phone, buried in a pile of memories…

And that, Father, concludes my confession. Seven sins and psalm 127 led me to take penance here in your island chapel as a way of introducing my new life on the great blue sea, courtesy of you know who.

I’ve gotta get back to my boat. Thank the lord for sitting down with me.

Oh, and tell Jesus that Jimmy said hi.

Traditional (but still accurate) opening aside, this ending was extra tough since it isn’t necessarily the end end. Local Boy Done Gone was supposed to be half of a two volume, read in any order sequel¹. The other half is called Nelsonification and follows Local Boy’s son, Nelson, the old man, and the redhead on adjacent adventures inside the same timeline(s). The simultaneous release got scrapped when life got in the way, but the goal here was to still wrap up one standalone story while setting up another AND playing it in such a way I’d know it was the midpoint for some readers and the end for others. TL;DR: Tall order for a last but not last chapter!

The chapter itself is a redux of chapter 32 with an older/wiser Local Boy taking the reins and pushing the previous daughter saving resolution further to give 27 musicians a happier ending. How? Via “Won One” — the most important song in all timelines.² By “putting won and one” together (get it?³) a good timeline is had by all.

Tidbits:

• The lyrics to the little Schödinger ditty are slightly different / arguably better than they were previously, showing Local Boy’s growth as a songwriter.
• Telling his younger self he shouldn’t know too much about his own future shows Local Boy is starting to become the old man—though we still haven’t definitively determined if the old man is his older self or his son’s older self…
• “Becoming someone else is…“
• The lists of hair/skin/eyes represent the 27 club members from the redhead’s list. (The eyes were the most fun / referential.)

• I ended up with a bit of a BTTF II Jennifer problem where I didn’t want two Local Boys in the back of the van at the end for Nelsonification purposes. Thankfully I’d introduced a leaping-type concept earlier, allowing me to casually pull the Timely Persuasion narrator into the van like it’s no big deal⁴.
• “Jukebotic communication devices” is a tiny nod to Benji Hughes and LILILIL.
• The actual most covered song of all time is “Yesterday” by The Beatles. Having “Won One” take over that title—and be announced on the Coverville podcast by the world’s foremost authority on cover songs Brian Ibbott—was a fun little easter egg setting up a bigger role for a certain archivist in Nelsonification.
• I couldn’t end the book without saying dangerous folk rock appeal one last time.⁵
• Timely Persuasion starts at a bowling alley. The narrator sees a tan van drive away shortly after he gains the ability to time travel. The redhead asks if anyone wants to go bowling before settling into the driver’s seat. Wonder where⁶ she’s taking everyone…
• The final line of Timely Persuasion is “And maybe somebody was.” Finding a way to land on a similar (and rhyming!) line here really excited me.
• It wasn’t until a few months after the book was release I realized how much the ending parallels L Extreme with the (spoiler alert) “play a bunch of songs to save the day” resolution. In LX it’s all the songs on A Love Extreme; here it’s 27 renditions of “Won One,” all done as if they were the original.

Check out Local Boy Done Gone

FOOTNOTES:

1. Sequel isn’t exactly the right word, but isn’t wrong either. It’s simultaneously a prequel/sequel/sidequel. Isn’t time travel fun? I should call it a timequel… ︎
2. Thanks, Bill & Ted! ︎
3. Maybe this one truly is my favorite chapter title. ︎
4. It’s kind of a big deal. ︎
5. Nor this series of commentary blog posts, brimming with dangerous folk rock appeal. ︎
6. The appropriate question is when the hell are they. ︎

The other payoff here is when the light bulb goes off and Local Boy finally understands what the redhead means about how time travel ties to manipulating memories—but he also takes a chance and is able to prove he does still have free will. The stunt to illustrate this is ensuring events play out like they did in the other book / in previous chapters of this book¹ as far as any POV character believes, while still letting things expand or change just outside of those pages.²

With time running out on these commentaries and not much more to talk about, here seems as good a place as any for final thoughts on how I maybe could’ve got this down to 27 chapters. This is another case where I chose a cliffhanger over a contained scene, though realistically 33 & 34 could be 1 chapter. Continuing that line of thought chronologically:

6 & 7 (Open Mic at the Coffee Shop)
15 & 16 (Old Man & Redhead separately appear to Local Boy back to back)
18 & 19 (“That’s not your wife!” and immediate aftermath)
24 & 25 (Local Boy becomes his older self in the 1990s)
29 & 30 (Another Open Mic at the Coffee Shop)
31 & 32 (Taking the van to the storage unit)
33 & 34 (The End)

Upside to that consolidation is accomplishing the cheap trick of landing on exactly 27 chapters for a book about the 27 club. Downside was some longer chapters & some pacing issues. It would also move the 6-6-7-7-8 cadence of the part based structure to 6-5-5-5-6, which putting it down in writing I might’ve liked better. Dang it!³

Tidbits:

• Opening with “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…” is a callback to an opening of a chapter of L Extreme that calls back to the opening of a chapter from Timely Persuasion while also doing its own callback to a different chapter .⁴
• “A prequel to my sequel which somehow became an epilogue” is a pretty good meta summary of the relationship between Done Gone and Timely Persuasion.
• Writing Timely Persuasion back in 2003, the tan van kept turning up with my future self whispering “trust me, this will be important later.” Here it’s important now. You might think it’s a retcon from the other book’s reveal of the van’s ties to the creepy hospital, but you’d be wrong.
• “Volunteering for extra credit” calls back to all the times Local Boy reminded us school weren’t for him. He’s ready to put in the studious work, turning a page and teeing us up to revisit yet another scene in the grand finale.

Check out Local Boy Done Gone

FOOTNOTES:

1. A time traveling version of the boy we now know to be named Carter Timmons witnesses himself getting taken home by his father after objecting at his sister’s wedding. The pair almost getting hit by a tan van en route to their own car, but dad doesn’t blame the van. ︎
2. A lot of inspiration came from Back To The Future Part II when Marty & Doc return to 1955 and are running around the edges of the first film in ways that make you wonder if they were there all along. ︎
3. I’m mostly kidding. I’m happy with the final structure, at least for now. ︎
4. It’s all connectal. ︎

Want proof? I named this chapter after a song by the Supersuckers yet to be released at both the time of publication and the timestamp of this blog post.¹

Anachronism or not, it’s a pretty succinct summary of what’s about to happen / where this story was inevitably heading. If the inspiration for Local Boy Done Gone was imagining “Won One” as the most important song of all time I had to deliver on that promise. The epigraph playfully calls it a traditional folk song of unknown origins (actually written by my college roommate Chris Evjy in the mid-1990s) though it’s followed Local Boy across two books. Here those two timelines of fact and fiction merge.

Traditional Folk Tidbits (Author Unknown):

• Erwin Schrödinger didn’t die at 27, but he did coin the term “quantum entanglement.”
• “When we get to where we’re going I need you to play it.”
• The contraption Local Boy hasn’t ever seen before in the back of the van is the prototype time machine found at the creepy hospital in Timely Persuasion. A tan van was also connected to that hospital.
• “She draped a pea-green cardigan sweater over my white dress shirt…”
• I still giggle at the “speaking of minor hits” segue.
• My friend Neil invests in real estate, specifically self storage. His gig indirectly inspired the setting of this climactic chapter.²
• “This might’ve been the most beautiful version of ‘Won One’ I’d ever played” references a Jens Lekman performance at the Masonic Lodge in Hollywood on 9/28/11. He performed what I thought was the most beautiful version of “Black Cab” I’d ever heard, and no sooner had I thought it than he said the same thing aloud.³
• Hazy as my actual memory may be these days, the scene here is more or less a play by play of the first time I heard “Won One” in real life including my pitch on what to title it. (The working title was “Turn Up The Rain” — later changed to “Turnip” at my dumb suggestion before eventually landing on far better wordplay in my final suggestion.)⁴
• When I finally tracked down an old recording of “Won One” years later, I couldn’t make out if the lyric was head/hand/hair. I think the ambiguity is a big part of the charm.
• Speaking of ambiguity: While Timely Persuasion is sometimes described as being overly explainy, Local Boy Done Gone skews towards intentionally unexplainy. The redhead continues to hand wave when confronted, but consistently sticks to her story of “updating memories” even as the rest of our understanding evolves. Here the Schrodinger’s cat metaphors help her have it both ways, updating two distinct memories simultaneously without creating a paradox.
• Sistine gets crossed off the list by being present for the writing of “Won One” at an appropriate age to be inspired by it. In contrast, Local Boy’s ticket off the list involves him not being somewhere.⁵

FOOTNOTES

1. Confession: I saw them play it live on 12/15/23 (and 2 days earlier for that matter) and started writing this chapter on 1/7/24 with it still fresh in my head. ︎
2. This is neither financial nor investment advice. ︎
3. It was also the final day of the 2011 baseball regular season. On the way to the concert an epic comeback by the Rays over the Yankees gave me hope the Red Sox had a chance, but an epic collapse vs Baltimore a few hours later made for an emotional rollercoaster of a music + sports fandom day. ︎
4. It also may have briefly been called “No One Won” — which definitely would have triggered my aversion to noone as a too common misspelling. ︎
5. Technically not being somewhen: 1977. ︎

Check out Local Boy Done Gone

We open with a Carter lyric, follow with a callback to chapter 29’s opening line on a time travel fake-out, find ourselves back in the van—and most importantly get another look at THE LIST. Things have changed since we last encountered it, and not fully for the better.

Having Local Boy’s daughter Sistine appear on the list was the reason for the whole time-travel swapped in the womb machinations set into motion back in chapter 19. Took a few drafts to figure out how and when to best reveal this. When she was there from the jump it sucked some of the drama out, but having her added later felt like a bit of a cheat. Eventually I justified replacements being allowed only after failures by the redhead’s own seemingly² arbitrary rule.

The book doesn’t fully spell it out, but the gist is Dave Alexander got removed from the list because the Redhead failed to save him and his slot goes to Sistine. Alexander was kicked out of the Stooges after an incident at the Goose Lake festival. You can imply she got him kicked out of the band but it didn’t change his fate—and from there you can assume the same explains the mysterious absence of Brian Jones.³

Tidbits:

• In chapter 23 the redhead suggested she’d save the five remaining women on the list next. You know she saved Billie Holiday since in our timeline Bille isn’t in the 27 Club. Britney Spears is crossed out. ⁴ Janis is still dead by the same logic as why Billie is alive; Mia Zapata & Amy Winehouse are still listed PLUS Sistine is added. Two steps forward, one step back.
• Nelson & the redhead’s plan is revealed as intentionally getting Sistine on the list so they can get her off the list. It may or may not have been set into motion when the TP narrator saw the pair on a date at the end of Timely Persuasion.
• “That’s a different Jim Morrison we saved.” More specifically, the one who sang “Fasten up your seatbelts for a bumpy ride.”
• Having done way too much research on seatbelts, the existence of this Wikipedia page delights me.
• Once there was a list of Canadian musicians following the “no rush to visit our northern neighbor” bit, but it was forced and distracting and pushed the limits of disbelief suspension for Local Boy to hold Northern greats in equal esteem.
• The “Years from now and years ago” shift into third person narration intentionally mirrors chapter 21 of Timely Persuasion while once again recapping a chunk of the TP storyline.
• A rough timeline behind the timeline changes in the convoluted explanation⁵ of the plan behind the plan: a) Sistine Timmons dies at 25. b) Her brother & her husband separately cook up time travel plots to prevent her death.⁶ c) They spend 2 (or 3…) books stepping on each others toes.⁷ d) The moral of the story is the whole thing won’t work unless they team up.
• An older draft had Daphne slamming on the brakes in a previous chapter lead directly into the near hit and run here. When I rearranged some scenes I decided to make brake slamming a habit of hers.

• Local Boy astutely asks how he can see his older self in 2000 if the list still says he dies at 27. The redhead’s response “because your son remembers you being here” is the factual answer. “And because my plan is going to work” is just her being overboard and self assured.⁸ Later, her dodging the question on how the members on the list can actually be changed whereas in other cases only memories change is me taking the old “slightly explainy style” feedback to heart by intentionally elucidating⁹ less.

FOOTNOTES

1. I briefly tried using double lines to cross out names on the list in this chapter as another play on the title, but it looked dumb. Part of me wishes I had the list names properly illustrated vs. done with handwriting font. One looks too much like a misplaced underline sometimes. ︎
2. Emphasis on seemingly. Everything has a reason in the redhead’s world. ︎
3. The same tactic was successful in saving Guigsy, however. ︎
4. Although this happened in 2016, I wouldn’t rule out the redhead’s involvement both then and in 2008 when BS was actually 27. ︎
5. Someone recently (and accurately) called TP’s time travel “pretty complicated.” I said this book was less so. Maybe I was wrong… ︎
6. Chicken vs. egg doesn’t really matter here with time travel involved. ︎
7. “Throw a bunch of lines out ’til you get it right…” ︎
8. Oh no, I know: AWAB. ︎
9. See image below. (This hadn’t happened when I wrote the book, but did when I wrote this commentary post.) ︎

It also illustrates the internal fight between hitting 27 chapters exactly and having shorter chapters for dramatic yet snappy pacing. There’s no real reason this isn’t part of the previous chapter aside from the artificial cliffhanger of the redhead’s return as it’s just the second part of the final open mic show.

Tidbits:

• I haven’t exactly kept track, but I swear “Thank you so much!” might be the single most common piece of musician between song stage banter.
• One of my earliest brainstorm notes was for Local 3 to be called Local Band Done Gone, but to stylize the logos as L3DG. Their first album would be called Edly and/or aL3DG3dly.
• Here Come the Girls
• “Have you always been the au pair?” ties back to “Nanny. I’ll have to remember that” during the living room memory conversation.
• “Jimmy started singing a song about stockpiling guns and losing imaginary friends. He threw in a little AWAB reference before pretending to answer a phone with nobody on the other end.”

• Nelson taking over his younger body came naturally as this scene evolved, allowing him to re-enter the plot for the conclusion while also making you wonder what he’s been up to over the last few years we haven’t seen him. You could almost write a whole ‘nother novel about those times…
• Speaking of using those gifts I gave myself—VAN!²

FOOTNOTES:

1. Yes, I know how to spell (allegedly) ︎
2. I’ve got a plan. Hand it to the man in the tan van. ︎
3. Really! ︎

We now resume our regularly scheduled commentary, already in progress.

This chapter fully embraces the “use the gifts you gave yourself” method of writing in general and especially sequel-ing. Almost every trope in the TP universe gets up on a familiar stage for a final curtain call. Local Boy playing a coffee shop open mic night, Jimmy’s sharkskin jacket, the whole Nelson family, songs stolen from the future, Harry Chapin, the Redhead, and of course “Won One” for good measure. Plus it all happens on a very important date.

I Took Off To Find the Tidbits:

• “It was a little bit funny” is a nod to a recurring line in the new Quantum Leap.
• Ricky Nelson playing drums really did inspire Cousin Jimmy the Drummer (CJTD?).
• “A Fifth of Beethoven” was released as a single on May 29, 1976 and reached #1 after nineteen weeks, which would be around October 9th—a month before this chapter.
• “Dueling Banjos” was popularized a few years earlier via the film Deliverance. Local Boy was remiss in not acknowledging the great Arthur Smith as the writer.¹
• “Footlights were a few originals that could use better lyrics” is a very JLCivian callback to “Taxi” two paragraphs prior.
• Local Boy’s revelation that “This song belongs to everyone now” regarding “Won One” sets up the ending we’re barreling towards. He doesn’t understand what it means and says it just “popped into his head”—not unlike how some words popped into his head way back in the first chapter.
• “It’s like she read my mind, since red was on my mind” should’ve been a lyric. But was she on his mind, or in his mind?
• Bonus: Neither Local Boy nor I could come up with LBJ themed parody lyrics to “Johnny B. Goode,” so I asked ChatGPT to give it a whirl for fun:

SHE TOOK OFF TO FIND THE FOOTNOTES

1. I just learned while writing this commentary post the song was originally had a “Feudin’ Banjos” title. Would’ve been perfect in the previous section. I also found this great quote from Smith: “A good copyright is really worth something,” he told the Charlotte News and Observer in 1998. “I’ve always said I’d rather have 10 good copyrights than the Empire State Building. I get a nice check every 90 days.” ︎

It also worked well since it is all about Local Boy & Cousin Jimmy forming a band and learning covers from the 27 Club members they have awareness of circa 1976. Thirteen songs¹, skipping Paul McCartney since Local Boy considered it a sacrilege. (Respect the greats!)

Here’s the full LBJ playlist of covers Local Boy & Cousin Jimmy learned, cheekily referencing time travel if you squint enough:

Tidbits:

• Formatting the intro as one line and some bullets intentionally mirrors chapter 22 of Timely Persuasion, which is also right around the home stretch towards resolution.
• “…bought with the green I raised lowering lawns.” is one of my favorite lines.
• Naming the band LBJ happened by accident, but living in Texas for the past decade certainly contributed. Mainly I didn’t want to overdo the four-letter LBXX pattern, and when you’re starting with LBCJ your brain just goes there.²
• “Old Lyndon didn’t play, but he had a few protest songs written about him.”

• I always knew I wanted cover art featuring a folk guitarist being controlled by marionette strings. Planned on seeing if TP cover artist Jose Robertó would do something but couldn’t get a hold of him. Later I stumbled onto a work called Puppet Master by Elmer Borlongan when Googling for marionette musicians. Tried to secure the rights to use it but also couldn’t get in touch. Eventually my old friend Russell Foltz-Smith came through with his take on the poor ol’ puppet pandering ploy. The line about honoring “the wishes of everyone who had me by the strings at the intersection of the past, present and future” evokes that cover art.
• After briefly considering Name That Tune or the Johnny Bravo episode of The Brady Bunch, of course it comes back to Scooby-Doo. If you do the math, we’ve skipped ahead from 9/25/76 to 11/6/76 between chapters based on episode airdates.³ Might be the longest time jump unaided by time travel in any of my books!
• Would you believe me when I tell you it was intentional to have Local Boy count years on his fingers to get the math right—but still get it wrong?

• Jimmy can see the redhead as herself when she’s possessing other people because she once became him during the “memory” of the Barnstormer soundcheck. Rules-wise, once you’ve had that type of time travel merging you can always see a fellow traveler for who they really are. That’s a big reveal in and of itself, which leads to a lesser reveal that the redhead has been around Local Boy more than we realize.
• With that, we’re taking one more trip to open mic night at the unnamed Coffee Shop…or is it?

FOOTNOTES

1. Actually fourteen since “Won One” isn’t on Spotify (yet). ︎
2. I don’t think I consciously remembered this when writing the book, but there is a bit in TP where the narrator guesses LBDG might stand for “The Lyndon B. Disease…” something. Local Boy counters with “Lyndon B’s Democratic Great Society.” ︎
3. And yes, Micky Dolenz really did voice a musician named Alex Super on Scooby-Doo! ︎

That morning’s Scooby-Doo mystery featured a band fronted by an animated Micky Dolenz from The Monkees. Or Micky did the voice of a cartoon musician named Alex Super. It wasn’t supposed to actually be Micky Dolenz from The Monkees. They’d moved past the stunt casting and celebrity plotlines of the second incarnation.

After you watch Scooby-Doo, check out Local Boy Done Gone