Celebrating Thanksgiving - In a Very Funny Way!
Oct 21, 2025
Hey,
I hope you’re doing well.
Last Monday, October 13th, was the Canadian Thanksgiving Day, and a very funny story came out that day at the HQ! As we were planning the week ahead that very same morning, Alex started to talk about the fact that we were on Easter weekend, and how cool it would be to prepare a special Easter dinner and invite some friends over...!
We obviously all got the joke except for one person in The Long Shadows… Sef!!! The best part of it all was that he raised his hand hyper quickly saying he’d cook something and that we should leave it to him! No need to tell you how hard it’s been for everyone else not to crack laughing as we all got amazed by the fact that he really thought it was Easter rather than Thanksgiving! Sef being Sef once again!!!
Sef brought that dinner to a great level where not only did he cook a meal all day that couldn't be more classic and Easter-driven than what he did, but on top of that, he forgot to buy chocolate, so Alex told him he should go back to the store, right before dinner, and bring back some chocolate since Easter can’t be celebrated without this dark brown wonder…!
As Sef was running into the alleys of the grocery store looking for the biggest Easter bunny in town, he finally realized that Easter was months ahead, as always, normally in March or April, and that his bunny wasn’t ready to hit the stores yet...! Poor Sef...! Sometimes, you learn things the hard way but still, since it was Thanksgiving, we nicely reminded him of how grateful he should be for having the greatest friends in the world!!!!
At least, I’m very grateful when Sef is… Sef! :)
🎧 What I’m listening to
Alex Henry Foster - In The Valley of the Sun
This is the song we exclusively offered you for free and immortalized it on a very unique lathe-cut vinyl for every Old School member! It was a huge celebration of life last week when this song was made available for everyone dressing up the table for the actual musical journey we’ve been working on and embodying for the past few months!
As Alex shared in his latest newsletter:
My dear brothers, sisters, friends and loved ones,
It’s been loud, noisy, and truly intentional in my studio recently, which is particularly galvanizing for me since I’m working on a surprising new creative project… Surprising because it wasn’t actually planned at first, and I saw its inspirational essence spark in my heart in such a way that it took precedence over everything I was foreseeing to immerse myself in at that point…
But as you know me by now, it’s all about instinct when it comes to expressive creation… And, in many ways, it follows the logical irrationality of the arc of my music journey, that’s for sure!
📖 Reading highlight I’m pondering
David Whyte - Consolations
Alex received a countless amount of boxes from different Prêt à Porter brands at the HQ, which turned out to be a band fashion show for a few hours! He really likes to find beautiful pieces of clothes and to offer them as gifts to the one it suits best! This is another of Alex’s greatest passions!
It was last Tuesday, right before dinner, that Alex invited us all to the HQ’s living room. The process goes like this:
1. Close your eyes
2. Bring your hands forward
3. Wait for Alex to tell you to open your eyes
4. Open and show to everyone
5. Time to try
6. Make sure everyone is paying attention as you walk back in the living room
7. If it suits you, keep it; if not, someone else will take it!
8. Repeat!
I received the most amazing and unexpected gift of all: the David Whyte book titled Consolations! I’m a massive fan of this meaningful and soulful Irish poet and couldn't wait but dive right into it, honestly becoming a little careless about the fashion show party happening in the living room! Alex had to tell me a few times, “Brother, stay with us! I should’ve given you this book at the very end of the party!”
Here’s what David wrote about Gratitude:
Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given; gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us.
To sit among friends and strangers, hearing many voices, strange opinions; to intuit inner lives beneath surface lives, to inhabit many worlds at once in this world, to be a someone amongst all other someones, and therefore to make a conversation without saying a word, is to deepen our sense of presence and therefore our natural sense of thankfulness that everything happens both with us and without us, that we are participants and witnesses all at once.
Thanksgiving happens when our sense of presence meets all other presences. Being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.
🎧 Podcast That Caught Me Off Guard
Following what had been such an intense afternoon working on new noises and melodies inspired by a completely new artistic direction we’re taking with this project, I decided to get some fresh air, as the sun was going down, bringing every yellow leaf to shine even more than usual under such a colorful sky. I decided to reach my 10,000 daily steps while enjoying this poetic scenery, and while listening to this podcast I’ve been patiently waiting to give a spin to since late September!
Following the very stressful and scary moment where Alex underwent his heart surgery, we often had conversations about his experience, since he literally died while he was on the table, and was kept alive by a machine for what was supposed to be 3 hours but ended up being close to 8.
I’ve been attracted to read and watch more documentaries about people who went through those experiences and what I liked about this podcast was not the transcendental elements to it but how we should value even more human experiences and gratefulness. When I came back from this incredible walk and thoughtful moment, I obviously had a great conversation with Alex about this matter!
Here’s what came out of it:
Sometimes gratitude hits in the quietest moments when we stop trying to measure life and simply let it unfold. We live in a world obsessed with optimization, with algorithms that tell us what to want, where to go, and who to be. But none of that can replace the rawness of a real experience: the trembling before a sunrise, the warmth of someone’s voice, the silence after loss.
I’ve come to believe that the most sublime part of being human isn’t our ability to calculate or predict, but to feel, to stand in wonder before the mystery of existing at all. Gratitude, then, isn’t found in the metrics of success or progress; it’s found in those rare moments when we remember that life is not a problem to solve but a presence to live through. And I strongly believe this is what our music is all about especially when shared live during a concert where human and spiritual experiences collide!
So, let’s try to value experiences more than outcomes, connection more than control, and awareness more than certainty. Because when everything else fades, and it always does, what remains is the simple astonishing fact that we were here to witness it.
📸 My Picture Of The Week
Here’s something I’m forever grateful for!
💬 Shared in the Long Shadows Chat this week
Since Alex really hates reading what any sort of media has to say about his music or any reviews around his art whatsoever, I take real pleasure in sharing some of it in our band’s chat, hoping this can encourage him a little...! It’s always quite funny since Alex, of course, never comments on those chats, but every Long Shadows does, and of course we even talk about it in the studio afterwards! Sorry but not sorry! Ha!
Here’s a short excerpt taken from German Eclipse Magazine about our latest passage in Aschaffenburg on August 28th! Gratefulness!!!!
Foster's style is a completely unique mix of gothic-style post-rock and cinematic prog plus shoegaze neo-psychedelia, played with great depth. Maximum impact on the audience, who are submerged in this maelstrom.
On "I'm Afraid," Foster's vocals take on the character of a proclamation, a spoken message. His Moog console with reading stand unfavorably obscures Foster as the frontman, but as a preacher, you need your pulpit. Foster tells us that we are all one, no "Us and Them."
Sometimes he exaggerates his missionary zeal, but for the man who, after a near-heart attack, is infinitely grateful for the second life he has been given, it's more than genuine. And in these times, there is indeed little more important than sending powerful signals of reconciliation and unity against sorrow.
Let’s be great to one another!
Your friend and Chief Operator,
Jeff
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