Problems with vibration, et al.
One of the reasons to have a job like mine is to avoid stress at pretty much any cost. Sure, sure, things get busy and people get antsy, but that's always temporary. But for whatever reason the stress levels -- caused by work and several other items -- are peaking. Something must break.
The movie watching has tapered off a bit in the last several days, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. However, it continues:
- more Mythbusters
- Lifeboat (hadn't watched it in a long time -- stands up)
- The Grand (bad mockumentary about poker -- still not sure why I watched it)
- Vantage Point (interesting idea, even if Rashomon did it eons ago)
- Traitor (disappointing for something involving Don Cheadle)
- Lethal Weapon 3 (yep)
- National Treasure: Book of Secrets (wow, not good compared to the first one)
Going through the netflix thing though, I'm reminded of how much I enjoyed The Counterfeiters. That was definitely worth watching.
How much work have I been putting into my set that is now going on in twelve days? Not nearly enough. Oh boy.
In other good news, I've been able to hear out of my right ear off and on for the past 36 hours or so. That's a welcome event.
Consider the birds.
Well what do you know, I still remember the password for this here weblog!
So I've discovered that when you don't have internet access at home, let alone a computer that could put up with the crushing amount of stuff that decorates the sides of every website everywhere anymore, you really don't spend any time writing in a weblog. The only reason why I'm doing it right now is because I'm housesitting and sitting at a desk with three computer monitors in front of me, and it only makes sense to do it. Right?
So, as part of this housesitting, I've been taking advantage of Netflix's deal where you can watch movies streaming if you have a membership. Now I don't have one, but Eric does, so I can. In the past three days I have watched:
- Bottle Rocket (I seemed to think that Vince Vaughn was in this movie. He's not)
- Primer (so confusing!)
- several episodes of MythBusters
- several episodes of The Office (US)
- several episodes of The Daily Show
- Ghostbusters (there is only Zuul)
- This is Not a Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story
- Man on Wire (gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous)
And there's still another six days or so. And I don't work tomorrow. If I don't spend the time that I REALLY SHOULD BE SPENDING on putting together my set for the 13th, this list will get much much larger.
Speaking of that, I REALLY SHOULD GET TO WORK ON THAT.
Are you listening, me? Am I?
You see, I am playing a solo set as part of what I believe is called the Not Much More than Awesome Fest, which is a thirteen-act show. The nice part is I'll be playing music in public for the first time in a long while. The not-nice part is that I don't have anything with which to put a set together. I have a bass, a bass cabinet (but no bass head), ideas for building an instrument, and hopes that about six different people will loan me specific pieces of equipment for a week or three. So all could fall apart.
Job one: build the damn instrument.
In other news, I've now been on Facebook for a grand total of a month or so, and on a nearly daily basis I get contact from people I've not seen nor heard from in years. In some cases many many years. And that continues to freak me out.
More later. And for the next week, at least.
Stuff I've been reading.
So I went to Marisa's wedding a little over a week ago -- more on that at a later time, but in short, I had a lot of fun.
For now, I just wanted to jot down (can one jot on a computer?) some of the books I've been reading of late, at least before I forget them all.
In Progress:
Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire -- John Pilger
A Long Way Down -- Nick Hornby
Finished lately:
Overthrow: America's History of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq -- Stephen Kinzer
The Gum Thief -- Douglas Coupland
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World -- Haruki Murakami
The Wild Sheep Chase -- Haruki Murakami
Crooked Little Vein -- Warren Ellis
Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century -- Mike Dash
In Queue:
Nirvana: The Biography -- Everett True
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot -- Naomi Wolf
JPod -- Douglas Coupland
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil -- Philip Zimbardo (father of the Stanford Prison Experiment)
A little more fiction than usual for me. Guess I'm escaping something.
Banksy.
If you have a statue in the city centre you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right. But as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture.
—Banksy, in
The Independent
Interruption.
More of the tragedies at another time.
I figured I should point out where exactly I stand at this point, as that will probably provide a little bit of understanding. Things are pretty much okay -- job is underpaid, but worth sticking around for. Sociality has returned with a vengeance, and if it weren't for the fact that I don't have the internet at home right now, I probably would have snuck back to my shell a while ago. People are making me stabby, to be frank -- there remain a select few that I can rely on, but for the most part I'm growing tired of how most people act. Transparently, if you will. Regardless, combine that with the renewed sociality, and you have a recipe for future beatings (in which way remains unknown).
Band is defunct for now, which is unfortunate. May resuscitate with the guitarist at some point, but for now I'm looking forward to being the bassist for someone who knows what he's doing, working on the solo material that has started floating around my head of late, and a new project with the aforementioned knows-what-he's-doing guy. We'll see, especially if I ever get that new amp.
Wedding guest-ness approaching, which along with music tour is making for an interesting next seven weeks or so. Good luck to Jason and the gang on their own endeavor, and we'll see if anything starts making sense any time soon.
God don't care for your benevolence.
So I found the actual section I spoke of in the last post:
On the way back from the post office, I stop at a bank of America ATM and withdraw from my rapidly disappearing savings. I then convert my withdraw into a wad of low-denomination bills. I feel like a crack dealer. I have an idea.
...
I am writing a list of tragic character flaws on my dollar bills with a felt pen. I am thinking of the people in my universe and distilling for each of these people the one flaw in their character that will led to their downfall -- the flaw that will be their undoing.
jasmine, Anna-Louise, Daisy, Mark, Dan, Stephanie, Monique, Kiwi, Harmony, Skye, Gaia, Mei-Lin, Davidson, Pony, Grandma and Grandpa, Eddie Woodman, Jim and Lorraine Jarvis -- everybody's here. Even me. And more.
What I write are not sins; I write tragedies. And I am writing these tragedies in a manner that the recipients can easily absorb. And I won't say whose flaw is whose.
So that's that. Now we begin.
YOU BELIEVE THAT BEING A GOOD PERSON NOW WILL MAKE EVERYONE FORGET HOW HORRIBLE YOU WERE.YOUR CONSCIOUS EMPTINESS PREVENTS PEOPLE FROM CARING ABOUT YOU.
YOU REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE VERY GOOD HAND YOU WERE DEALT.
YOUR FEAR OF FAILING CAUSES YOU TO FAIL.
YOUR HIGH HORSE ISN'T AS HIGH AS YOU THINK IT IS.
And despite making a point not to look at the original text, there is one from there that I have to include. I'm tempted to say that it pertains to me:
YOU PRETEND TO BE MORE ECCENTRIC THAN YOU ACTUALLY ARE BECAUSE YOU WORRY YOU ARE AN INTERCHANGEABLE COG
More to come.
A little bit of clarity.
So for those of you who have never read
Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland, there's always been this part in it that I remember, even when I haven't read the book in about five years (like, say, now).
At the moment in the book, the main character and his girlfriend (I believe?) sit around and write on dollar bills. On each of them, they write a fault they believe someone they know has. Something like:
You believe you have more memories than energy to process those memories.
(or something like that -- as I said, it's been a while since I've read the book). Anyway, the point is that at some point here, I'm going to do that exact same thing with everyone I know (within reason). Call it therapy if you must, but I'm getting a little tired of carrying around people's faults with me. And it's about time that I got them out before I end up moving to a shack in the woods.
The nice part about all of this is that no one reads this thing, and even if you do, you won't know if I'm actually writing about you. We shall see.
