I’m suppose to speak upcoming, about this PhD, about what my research will be about, but I don’t know what it will be about. How could I know in advance anyway? Thought I’d first learn about the professors and the courses they teach and then maybe, make decisions about what to double down about. When you apply for a grant to make a new record, the granting agencies ask questions that position the applicant to explain what they will be creating. Everybody lies because you can’t get the grant unless you can bullshit about what it’s about even though you have not yet created it. Some say that comes with capitalism. I played three shows in Poland in 1993 and, in Krakow stayed with a couple who had run an art school for two decades. Now, as the communist system was crumbling, their school was trying to adjust to the new conditions. I asked one of them what it was like previously under Soviet influence, expecting to hear him affirm how much better it is to be more free. He said previously every fall, the state would supply him with all the paper and pens and pencils he needs and now he doesn’t know month to month if he will survive.