630660 burning through my darkest night
how I can watch a whole season of Th Wire in one day but fail to finish Tarkovsky's Th Mirror (1975) in five days is a mystery to me, but I prefer never to blame th artist. Unlike advertising, education, and politics, all art is a gift; it begins when we accept it and ends when we say, "No, thank you." If I'm trapped in Th Mirror's first half-hour for five days, it's because I keep saying yes @ 2 in th a.m. when my body's not ready to give its full attention to ... whatever it is that Th Mirror is all about -- family, God, wizardry? A boy on a black and white television program gets cured of his stuttering problem by a hypnotist. A blonde lady sitting on a log fence smokes a cigarette. A powerful gust of wind flattens tall grasses for a moment as a middle-aged doctor crosses a field carrying a satchel. Barn's on fire. It looks like magick is about to happen when I fall asleep on th couch w/ th cat. Ah, well. Tomorrow we'll try again.
My cat has a little ant problem. They've formed a line from a crack in th wall to his food bowl. Lately they have been queuing up whether there is food in there or not. What I have mostly done in life up to this point is say yes to stories I don't understand. Yes to accidents and other people's bright ideas. No to planning for th future. They never used to do this. I wash th bowl after cat's done eating, and still they come. I wet a paper towel w/ hot water and wipe out a couple meters' worth of black soldiers. They call in reinforcements -- extra protein for cat, right?
What I love about Wong Kar-wai's last movie is that there is no Internet in it. "Some things are better on paper," says Norah Jones' character, who scribbles musings about blueberry pie on postcards to Jude Law. There's no way he can write her back -- no kommentary, no liking. She has to trust not only that her correspondence is reaching him but that he gets what she's saying. So much of growing up is learning not to trust anybody to help you or understand you and especially not to trust accidents, which are for poor people. "I did that on purpose" is our childhood's second lie, right after "I didn't do that." Too bad babies don't come out of th womb already speaking.
Meanwhile, th Internet favours improbable stories to such an extent that now any story can appear probable and therefore normal. A mouse riding a cat riding a dog? Everybody I know now thinks that that is normal, thank God. Let that be normal in America. Let everything I like be normal. Let my favourite song have 23 million hits on Youtube. She says, "I never really had a doubt," but I can't tell from how she sings it if Beyoncé is secretly surprised that an angel showed up on th scene, or if she truly thinks that this is just something that happens.
Th comix shop guy was having a conversation w/ a customer about Xbox 360 and how different being 12 now is from being 12 back in th Stone Age.
"Man, when I was 12 I was playing D&D with my mom's 30-year-old friend who let me smoke weed for the first time."
"Yeah, these days if you was hanging out with a 12-year-old that wasn't yours, people would have some questions about you."
"God, or they would put me on TV or something. It wasn't a big deal back then. You ever play D&D high?"
"High on Skittles, maybe."
"It was pretty intense. I was like, 'This is it. I am really on Middle Earth.'"
That's where people go when Regular Earth is too much for them, right? I both feel and don't feel those people. My novel takes place primarily on Regular Earth, but sometimes I strongly feel that th story needs something extra -- more travel, money, spider strength, enemies -- and my allegiance to Regular Earth won't allow me to fabricate these things. I have to leave my basement and my cat and get out there
and make plot happen and allow other plot to happen and stop being so in love w/ th cartoon piano and simultaneously terrified into paralysis by th regular piano. I mean, somebody had to put th velcro on th cat's paws and th dog's back, and little kids don't just spontaneously burst into Coldplay. I didn't plan on liking Coldplay, but I reckon now I do.
+ + +
TH COUNTDOWN:
33. AISLERS SET "Mary's Song" (7.3 MB)
32. YOU AM I "Heavy Heart" (4.4 MB)
31. RADIOACTIVE SAGO PROJECT "Astro" (5.3 MB) (Will take a stab @ translation if anybody's interested.)
My cat has a little ant problem. They've formed a line from a crack in th wall to his food bowl. Lately they have been queuing up whether there is food in there or not. What I have mostly done in life up to this point is say yes to stories I don't understand. Yes to accidents and other people's bright ideas. No to planning for th future. They never used to do this. I wash th bowl after cat's done eating, and still they come. I wet a paper towel w/ hot water and wipe out a couple meters' worth of black soldiers. They call in reinforcements -- extra protein for cat, right?
What I love about Wong Kar-wai's last movie is that there is no Internet in it. "Some things are better on paper," says Norah Jones' character, who scribbles musings about blueberry pie on postcards to Jude Law. There's no way he can write her back -- no kommentary, no liking. She has to trust not only that her correspondence is reaching him but that he gets what she's saying. So much of growing up is learning not to trust anybody to help you or understand you and especially not to trust accidents, which are for poor people. "I did that on purpose" is our childhood's second lie, right after "I didn't do that." Too bad babies don't come out of th womb already speaking.
Meanwhile, th Internet favours improbable stories to such an extent that now any story can appear probable and therefore normal. A mouse riding a cat riding a dog? Everybody I know now thinks that that is normal, thank God. Let that be normal in America. Let everything I like be normal. Let my favourite song have 23 million hits on Youtube. She says, "I never really had a doubt," but I can't tell from how she sings it if Beyoncé is secretly surprised that an angel showed up on th scene, or if she truly thinks that this is just something that happens.
Click to viewTh comix shop guy was having a conversation w/ a customer about Xbox 360 and how different being 12 now is from being 12 back in th Stone Age.
"Man, when I was 12 I was playing D&D with my mom's 30-year-old friend who let me smoke weed for the first time."
"Yeah, these days if you was hanging out with a 12-year-old that wasn't yours, people would have some questions about you."
"God, or they would put me on TV or something. It wasn't a big deal back then. You ever play D&D high?"
"High on Skittles, maybe."
"It was pretty intense. I was like, 'This is it. I am really on Middle Earth.'"
That's where people go when Regular Earth is too much for them, right? I both feel and don't feel those people. My novel takes place primarily on Regular Earth, but sometimes I strongly feel that th story needs something extra -- more travel, money, spider strength, enemies -- and my allegiance to Regular Earth won't allow me to fabricate these things. I have to leave my basement and my cat and get out there
and make plot happen and allow other plot to happen and stop being so in love w/ th cartoon piano and simultaneously terrified into paralysis by th regular piano. I mean, somebody had to put th velcro on th cat's paws and th dog's back, and little kids don't just spontaneously burst into Coldplay. I didn't plan on liking Coldplay, but I reckon now I do.
+ + +
TH COUNTDOWN:
33. AISLERS SET "Mary's Song" (7.3 MB)
32. YOU AM I "Heavy Heart" (4.4 MB)
31. RADIOACTIVE SAGO PROJECT "Astro" (5.3 MB) (Will take a stab @ translation if anybody's interested.)