Tuesday, January 29, 2008

lemon-scented lint

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.
And recks not his own rede.
  • Ophelia, scene iii
I think, and I mean this for all the women that somehow relate to Ophelia in one way or another, that Ophelia really needs a hug in Scene 3.

And, I wish that I could also know which scenes I might receive hugs so that I could write in a few more.

Fresh.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

pommes frites carnivale

O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. - Albert Camus

It's perhaps the perfect middle winter quote. And it's been thrown around quite a bit, but most often without the first few lines. It's worth some meditation while looking out the window at the shelves of ice floating in Lake Michigan - cracked angular pasty smiling winter.

story: off i went to find the depaul choir, which i joined last night. i wrapped myself tightly in warm clothes and mounted my bicycle, still froze my feet on the way there, and eventually wound up in lincoln park, at a kinkos - the directions didn't work. the kinkos guy told me to go somewhere that was wrong. i ended up at a dominicks, and i was so shy i didn't want to ask anyone where it was. so i walked into the fruit section, where fruit was being misted ever so gently, and i pretended to shop for fruit while i tried to build up courage to ask someone where the depaul music building was. there were too many people to ask. this was one problem - lots of young people that must have been depaul students... i was stuck. and i didn't want to be awkward. i didn't want to select someone and have them wonder why i selected them. "is he trying to pick me up? why did this random disheveled biking guy choose me? what is he doing in dominicks?" finally, i saw a woman with a viola case on her back and i thought this must be the person. so, i finally found the courage and asked her and she told me that was where she was going next. so, she finished buying fruit, i bought nothing and we strolled together to the music building.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

under-nourished rock formations

Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful. - Albert Camus

Noise. hachacha. bing! floppo. wawawawingman

all fun words to say. i suggest you whisper them to yourself now. it's a tiny medicine. formulated by your tongue and lips. free of charge.

by the way, bing!, as it turns out, and only when you say it in the excited way, as if simulating the noise of a bell, happens to be the chinese word for "ice." another brilliant decision by the chinese.

how can we possibly compete in such a demanding global market?

Sunday, January 6, 2008

arctic sandwich yuppies


quote:
"how you feeling brother?" - the hulk

snow disappears while the sun embraces chicago. and leaves fog. fog the color of teeth. teeth hovering just above the landscape. enough to cause a couple hundred cancellations at o'hare.

breaking record high temperatures by decent margins doesn't exactly excite me anymore... it's kind of another worried thing. the weather guy today tried to make it really exciting that it was so warm and as he smiled his big weather man fog teeth smiled, i sunk further into the couch, held my sandwich a bit tighter before i ate it.

living here is living in the land of stress. i've noticed that everyone around me is more stressed by a longshot than all the other places i lived in the last year. and americans take out their stress on others, quite often. when we are rude to each other, short-tempered, passive aggressive, angry drivers, impatient foot tappers... we all have this stronger veil of "you have to do this NOW" hanging over us, and unfortunately we haven't turned around to look at the veil lately and tell it to bugger off.

take the elections for example. we have the longest run for a leader of our country than any other country by a decent margin. and you can see how hard it is if you watch the debates. the candidates, when not speaking, are propping their heads on their fists. when we ever do end up with a new president, they'll have to sleep the first year of his / her presidency.

may you get some sleep.
fresh