Mike O'Cull

@LS_Keyes Yep. He found a way to win and they ended him.

@MikeOCull Guy was just playing the game. It's only beating them at their own game that gets you arrested.

I think the guy who bilked Spotify for eight million dollars is a hero. We should be looking at him like Robin Hood.

@jillianspiridon More great stuff!

@jillianspiridon is quickly becoming my favorite writer here on X. Her stories articulate the tensions of modern life perfectly and give readers a glimpse at what a possible near future could resemble. Read this story!

I’m Still Me (For Those Who Kept Going) There are days when I don’t feel so great. There are other days when I feel downright rotten. There’s nothing wrong with me. No diagnosis. No condition to point to. I’m just old. And age brings challenges no one fully explains when you are young and in the full flower of youth. Or perhaps they tried, and I simply wasn’t listening. That seems at least as likely. I was speaking with a friend recently. A capable man. Always has been. The kind of man who built a life on what he could do—his instincts, his experience, his skillset. And he said something that has stayed with me: “I’m still me…but I can’t do a fraction of what I used to.” There was no self-pity in it. Just frustration. The kind that comes from a disconnect you can’t quite reconcile. Because he’s right. He is still him. And that’s the tension. There is a particular frustration in aging that has less to do with pain than with recognition. You still recognize yourself. The same thoughts. The same instincts. The same sense of how things should be done. But the body that once answered so quickly has begun to hesitate. The energy that once showed up without being asked now requires negotiation. The margin you once lived in has narrowed without your permission. You are still you. But the terms have changed. And if that weren’t enough, there is another realization that arrives, usually uninvited. I have been a talented fellow my entire life. Music came easily to me. Creation came easily to me. Rightly or wrongly, “Genius” is a word that has been used more than once to describe my work. And somewhere along the way, I made a quiet agreement with myself: No matter what happens, I’ll always have my talent. It felt like a constant. A kind of personal equity that would always hold its value. Yes…well. What talent gains you in one generation does not necessarily produce the same dividends in the next. And that realization is its own kind of reckoning. Because now it’s not just that you do less. It’s that what you do may not carry the same weight it once did. The room has changed. The audience has changed. The currency has changed. And you find yourself holding something that is still real…still yours…but no longer valued in quite the same way. That is a strange place to stand. It forces a question most of us spend our younger years avoiding: Is what I do who I am? Or does who I am exist independently of what I can still produce? We don’t have to answer that question when things are working. Success answers it for us. But time has a way of removing the easy answers. And in that quiet stripping away, something else begins to surface, if we are willing to see it. Perhaps we were never meant to anchor our identity in what we could do. Perhaps doing was always meant to be an expression of something deeper, not the definition of it. Because if identity rests entirely on capacity, then every limitation becomes a diminishment of self. And yet, something in us resists that. We know, instinctively, that a person is more than their output. Even when we struggle to believe it about ourselves. So maybe this is one of the final disciplines of life: To remain who you are even as what you can do begins to change. To accept the frustration without letting it redefine you. To acknowledge the loss without mistaking it for disappearance. To understand that value is not erased simply because it is no longer measured the same way. Because there are things that do not peak in youth. Perspective. Restraint. Clarity. The ability to recognize what matters without needing to prove it. There comes a moment—quiet, unannounced— when a person realizes they are no longer being asked to prove themselves. And if you are honest, that can feel like loss. But it may also be something else. Eventually, life extends an invitation to each of us: to stand without performance…and still know who we are.

People have this ridiculous idea that if art offends them that's bad thing. Not only that, they think the offending art should be banned or not made at all. Their brains have been fried by Disney movies and kiddie crap, they don't know what art is

These kids didn’t just play ‘Holy Diver’. They played like the legend was watching from the side of the stage.

Read!

@jillianspiridon I love everything about this. Fine work!

@wakeupamerica97 I’m ok, just living life the best I can. Hope all is good with you.

@MikeOCull Hey how you doing brother good to see you.

It’s Strat day…so post your Strat pics.

@BriansElectro I’m with you 100% on KK. He was my hero as a teen. I played Flying Vs exclusively in high school because of him.

I was really put off by KK not being in Judas Priest anymore. JP was always my metal band. I grew up from their beginning in the 70s. There are only a few fundamental bands that made me pick up the guitar and stick with it my entire 61 yrs. And Judas Priest is one of them. I remember my first time after my dad bought me Sad Wings at tower records on Watt ave in Sacramento around 1976. I was just an 11 yr old punk kid and it blew me away. I already was fully into Jimi, Sabbath, Montrose, Zep etc.. All of them! My old man said chk this out. I was fuckin blown away literally. So needless to say. For me, Priest is just not Priest without KK. It just isn't. Not for me. I grew up with KK. He's part of my spirit. One of my teachers and why I play. 🤘 #RocknRoll

@BriansElectro You don’t have to be old to be wise. 🤘

I've had enough of being programmed And told what I ought to do Let's get one thing straight I'll choose my fate It's got nothing to do with you #RocknRoll🤘

@Sound_Alive_Rec Original electronic rock! Thanks for listening! mikeocull.bandcamp.com

🔥TIME TO BRING BACK REAL MUSIC🔥 We're hunting for the most weathered, insanely talented, 100% authentic artists out there. No sales pitch. No hype. Just drop your BEST work + stay humble. Show us the heart & the skill. We're extremely selective — so bring your A-GAME only. DM us your strongest tracks RIGHT NOW! Warm regards, Sound Alive Records Team

FACT

@ThatEricAlper Musician/stoner.

In high school, which clique were you part of?

@jillianspiridon You’re most welcome!

@MikeOCull Oh, thank you, Mike! Much appreciated!

Show some love to my friend @jillianspiridon and her new stories! You know you should be reading more, so start here.

We just released Music Marketplace in ElevenCreative. To celebrate, we’re giving away 5,000 free credits so you can create and publish your first track. For the next 6 hours: retweet + follow @ElevenCreative and we’ll DM you the credits (must follow).

@jillianspiridon I feel like that, too. I’m fighting it, though. I don’t want to give in to the sadness.

@MikeOCull Yeah, same. I have nothing to offer the world at this point myself. Sad but true!

I would help so many people.