Four years ago tomorrow, I got that note from Matt Taibbi in my inbox. That same afternoon, I subscribed to his Substack, and then launched my own:
It was two weeks into the lockdown, and I was already pretty sure that I needed some daily discipline to keep me both on the streets (I was working as a bicycle tour guide at the time) and writing. Militantly unmasked, I was also already getting into scuffles on the subway and sidewalk with my masked and frightened fellow New Yorkers.
“Masquerade” was an easy call as a blog title. It was the title of a book that I had written in 2015 – Masquerade: Barack Obama and American Destiny – a title that proved prophetic not just for that now ex–president’s continued hoodwinking of the American citizenry, but for the cruel criminality that was Corona Time.
Somehow I put together a list of 150 friends to invite to the Masquerade. Some of you were among my readers back then, and perhaps took at least some small comfort in my vagabond reports from Brooklyn and Manhattan that gently aimed to contradict all the doom porn being purveyed by the media about my beloved Gotham.
I never intended to keep Masquerade running once Corona Time was over, but each time I’d go to put it to sleep, there had come in a few new subscribers, and I hated to fold my tent just after they had entered under the canvas. It didn’t seem neighborly.
Now that I am writing again at Public Domain Review, I considered saying goodnight to this Substack. . .
But friends, do we not meet the dark mask of Evil now in a thousand more places? Does our yearning to be set free from these masked ones not grow fiercer and more urgent every day?
When I was younger, I always told my friends that I just wanted to be in the house band for the Apocalypse. My wish has pretty much come true, so I ain’t quitting the band and this Masquerade Ball if you don’t either. Thanks for that.
Hey Kevin… I didn’t know you were a musician too! God has blessed you with many talents, and I am happy to see you are using them for your joy and the betterment of humankind. Keep up the good work! And keep the faith!