Thursday, September 28, 2006

"Make merry," he said, "Make merry bleed, brutha."

I’m feeling sick, and it’s the kind of sick feeling that’s lingering in the near background so it’s not really serious but it’s certainly annoying and tedious. I’m not sick enough to be able to sleep or relax through it, but it’s seeped into my joints and sinuses and won’t really let me concentrate on anything. TV’s too bright, music’s too loud, and oh, can you imagine, work is just too much.

So. Solemn me, I’m here writing and trying to focus my thoughts into whatever passes for narrative meaning this week. Like the fact that I’m feeling dusty; a surface covered in dust and every movement releasing a cloud of allergen and particles that evoke eruptions of sneezes. Is it possible to feel this dusty? As if clapping a hand on my shoulder will shake off an avalanche of debris. That’s how I feel. It’s not feeling old, or useless; its feeling weighed down with minutiae and the sub-atomic strands that tie together daily operations like getting coffee or spending two minutes to rub the cat’s poor, neglected head. The space between her ears where even the dog’s vicious, yet playful, teeth don’t bite. The dog goes for the soft jugular, inciting an inter-species war that lasts for as long as the cat is willing to put up with the tussle. Then the inevitable. She pushes back, a weak resistance that’s still enough to scare the dog, and then leaps a foot above her and watches like a disgusted socialite. This is something that never ends, it just repeats, it’s pointless but it’s real.

If everything is interconnected then even just waking up in the morning is making a difference. This is some stale sort of philosophy that will surely get your mind into gear and wondering if even brushing your teeth is a good idea given the state of the world. Are you in part responsible for all the awful things that are happening just by going through such a staid routine? Can complacency in the mundane lead to genocide? People want to feel so in touch with the good things that happen they forget how tied to the grinding, pulverizing horrors they actually are. This isn’t meant to prevent you from having eggs at breakfast, but stop and think before you add that extra spoon of sugar to your black cup of coffee. You might well end it all.

People have a tendency to lie out of a fear of being seen as weak. The weakness is somehow the admission of not knowing what you feel expected to know, or not having done that which maybe you should have done but can’t quite understand how soon it all caught up with you. This is pale and weak. Only lie about things that are irrelevant and shouldn’t possibly be lied about. Be honest about how weak and predictable and lazy you are. But lie like a politician about everything else. Lie about the movies you like, the music you love, the shows you watch. For every opinion you agree with, espouse exactly the opposite. Never let anyone know what you think or feel or know about the things you love and care for and obsess over. It’s not that it will make any difference, and it’s not like anyone will ever guess, and that’s sort of the point. It’s a kind of small and ingenious deception that could possibly remain undetected until well after you’re dead. Isn’t that a sad kind of legacy? Nothing to be proud about, but at least it will last. Thoughts and feelings will linger well after you’ve rotted into the ground. Not me, though. I’ll be around forever so what do I care?

So, this leaves me feeling a little empty now, which was exactly the point. I spilled forth on this page like an inkwell finding its perfect blotter. I used the white space to dump a little black poison into the world. Like a knife finding itself slipping through a nice fatty tissue, stabbing right into the artery and letting a steady, rhythmic beat pump the blood right out of your neck and into the air and onto the wall and drip down to the floor and pool into a puddle and lapped up by the cat who’s rubbed by my sweaty hand. A perfect circle, baby.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Not the note that refreshes.

I was going to post updates re: my conference in Orlando, but it just didn’t seem worth it. I mean, there were some choice moments of hilarity, a good night out at the best gay/drag/piano/dance/pool bar I’ve been to in a long time, and a night of drunken floating in lagoon pool with waterfall backdrops and a stranger from Chicago…but, again, I just didn’t feel like synthesizing a story out of it all. So all you get is this capsulated review and the option to make up any other details you see fit.

Anyway, all fronts moving forward and all that. Lots of good things that were in the pipeline months ago are just on this side of bursting out of their bubbles. And this is all for the best, at least nothing that seemed promising has fallen back on itself. Some things take time, and it seems that in this period of my life, the best things are wearing my patience thin, but they are still wearing, so that’s the outlook I’m keeping front most in my mind. How polished and adult I’ve become, even as I continue to fit and frolic as I see…fit.

I think the fall will be fun, the weather has really cooled down (the air conditioner hasn’t been on in weeks). This means that I will be more open to outdoor activities, and I feel as though last fall was overly warm and kept me too in mind of the summer, so I stayed inside as usual. I’m hardly the type to champion a New England autumn, but if I can layer my clothing, maybe that’s something I can get behind and support. Somehow the decay of leaves awakens my energy. Like a Decepticon chasing an illicit supply of Energon Cubes, I’m somehow ready to take on and do battle with a dodgy looking car or tractor trailer. You know what I mean?

A four day weekend was a welcome rest from the normal non-thinking states I engage in. I walked around a particularly large cemetery, attended a tented Irish folk festival in the rain, watched Nicholas Cage face-punching some warrior woman in ‘The Wicker Man,’ and had a very relaxing evening dying laughing with the ‘Kims of Comedy.’ Now I only have a 2.5 day work week this week, and a three day week next. Just trying to run out the clock on my vacation days before they’re sucked up.

Saturday I spent alone trying to gather some needed strength for the outdoor festival, and my allergies were at a peak so I stayed in and did the unthinkable. I watched (back to back) Doom and The Fantastic Four. Both were understated pieces of cinematic bleh. I did enjoy them, however. Doom in particular had some really funny moments. And the Rock pulled off a performance I wasn’t expecting: no smart talking, one-liners; just a straight forward approach to a straight forward character. You don’t get that in these kinds of sci-fi action movies. He never questions his orders, his mission, or the loyalty of his men. He just goes in and gets the job done. Kind of refreshing.