The Travails of the Astounding!

Started working a new job thats closer to a career builder than bill payer. It requires getting up and leaving the house while it still feels like night outside, I'm conflicted about that. However the office has a great view (see below) and a cute dog. I get to play with photos all day long, I've got my own desk and I'm part of a team that values my creative input. If this isn't nice, what is?

Another party but thankfully not another hangover. Which is really lucky considering all the awful chemicals I ingested that night. A quick tally shall we... 5 cases of Pabst Beer (we opted for Blue Ribbon grade being the classy bunch of hooligans we are), 162 Lime & Tequila Jello shots (of which I had 2 dozen, whoops!), very alcoholic margaritas (don't ask me to make a drink if you don't want to get drunk), a handle of rum, and oh yeah a shit load of Jack. Plump grapes, three types of Pringles, a whole lot of candy (including the long forgotten but ever popular Smarties), homemade chili and salsa (by Mike) and other eat-worthy snacks. Not to mention the six types of meat we grilled which probably came in somewhere just shy of 20 lbs. Chicken, salmon, burgers, sausages, hotdogs, 5 types of vegeterian burgers and angus steak. And we weren't even charging a cover!! Yes folks, 2613 can mix up a merry meeting when we put our minds to it.



What a day that was!

I had a dream during a power-nap that I was parched and couldn't get quenched. Pitchers vanished. Water would disappear from the cup to my lips. I couldn't get no satisfaction. And I tried! And I tried! And I tried tr-tr-tr-tr tried! SO since then I've been thinking non stop about the cool, clear, cure all that is water. Like, all the time man! And so of course Ive been drinking it nonstop. I'll probably go through this Brita filter in the next 12 hours, and spend a quarter of that time in the loo. Screwy goddamn dreams.

The 'best' thing about snow in this city is that it turns every street, lane and road into an Insta-Icy FUNZONE. See kids, here in Pittsburgh we don't really believe in plowing or shoveling or any of that East Coast jive. It's more like a mid-west 'I'll get to it when I get to it' approach to salting a city. A sprawling city filled with hills, curves, and sudden drops all for your mortal peril/amusement. The salt demons comes to all the little boys and girls who are patient and kind and have 2 inch spikes glued to the bottom of their Keds for traction and offensive maneuvers.
However
One thing that's nice is that people in general seem to stay inside house and hut when the snow gets thick, which makes for quiet muffled streets. Which makes for empty scenes and happy SNAPPIN.

First Avenue rush hour traffic during the last day of the MTA strike.



On a side note, I've been fielding a lot of questions about my whereabouts. (Spell check just told me that's an acceptable word, whoa). ANYway, No, I'm not in New York, it's just taken a while for the film rolls from last month to develop and for me to scan and clean them up.

One Evening at the house....
Me: Say Jane, that suit gives me an idea, stand over here and put your arm up.
Jane: uhhh Why?
Me: I got something hilarious in mind, trust me on this. Put your arm up and out. Like so..
Jane: hahaha like this? What's this supposed to b-
SNAP!


Musical Accompaniment: Pledge Or Alleigance by The Watts Prophets



Hey, check out this cool XBOX ad that was axed.

Not that I totally love the idea of finding the biggest tree possible and killing it to put on display for a measly month or two... but since it's already there and got lights on it you might as well enjoy it if you can. And I do.

Once I learned not to fear their reactions, I found the city to be jam packed with willing subjects. This can be applied to nearly any social situation, I think.

New York was an inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps, and no matter how far he walked, no matter how well he came to know its neighborhoods and streets, it always left him with the feeling of being lost. Lost, not only in the city, but within himself as well. Each time he took a walk, he felt as though he were leaving himself behind, and by giving himself up to the movement of the streets, by reducing himself to a seeing eye, he was able to escape the obligation to think, and this, more than anything else, brought him a measure of peace, a salutary emptiness within. -From City of Glass by Paul Auster

"Outside, the weather was gloomy; a raw and sullen kind of day, all mist and hopelessness. I could feel myself gradually running out of ideas. A strange weakness had crept into my bones, and it was all I could do to keep from stumbling." - from Moon Palace by Paul Auster

A) Learn to control your temper. B) Feel okay losing it when it's time to. C) Never really lose it.

I think I'll get my drivers license this year. Seems like the right time for it.

Don't worry. As long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88mph the instant the lightning strikes the tower... everything will be fine.
-Dr. Emmett Brown Played by Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future (1985)

It's two nights before this passed Christmas and I'm wandering around my mothers neighborhood as the sun sets in Queens. I turn into a street where in the center of the block, there stands three young teenagers on the sidewalk looking up into the sky. "A fool looks at the finger that points to the sky", I know this, and so after scanning the immediate area I glance up and down first outlining the building, then the quickly examining shadows behind the windows, and see nothing. What're these kids playing at? A game? I used to play a game where I would stare up at the sky and wait for someone to approach me (usually at school) and as they got near I'd fall into a crouch throwing my arms up as a shield, against nothing. Leaving the unsuspecting rube twitching or often crouching in bewilderment, amusing ways to pass the time. Anyway, my eyes are back on the kids and one in particular because he's looking directly at me. I figure him for the talker of the three so I alter my trajectory to just pass him. As I do he grunts out: "fight the power". Surprised but ready I reply with, 'always see everything'. Then I nodded as I lifted off my heels and thanked the universe for special moments.

I can have that now, and why? Cause Google has released a Mac version of their Google Earth software at the MacWorld Expo! YIPPIE! I've got something in mind that Ive been thinking about ever since I first saw this app, and now that it's coming to my Mac (as I type) I CAN! More on this later. Or never, I may never show you. Or I might. Y'know, with so many avenues of time wasting at our finger tips, it's no wonder most people don't have hobbies or crafts anymore. Well not you plucky go-getters.

Sometimes, I have dreams that involve Victor. Unlike many characters and people who make their way into my sleeping consciousness, he never turns into anyone or anything else. It's always him, and he's usually smiling. My father was a light-hearted man. And so lately when I see him I'm able to recognize him as 'my dead father', which in turn fills me with a light and happy feeling. Second chances are so rare. However, this elation must be kept under control, because I have a fail-safe switch built into my lucid dreams apparently. When the emotional content of a dream becomes so thick that I can think of nothing else, and I'm no longer fully aware of the moment, I wake. And so if my longing for his continued presence dominates my mind, I wake longing. Sometimes I can use this to my advantage, like this morning, I decided that I wanted to wake up in mid-flight, so I stood next to a bridge before a river, I touched both hands to my temple, and floated quickly and silently above the water, and faded into consciousness.





Musical Accompaniment: Memory from the Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack by The Seatbelts

I don't know.

Musical Accompaniment: Tetris Score Version C as re-imagined by yours truly.

With more to come as film develops!

There is something seriously Kubrikian about Roosevelt Island, if youve ever been on the F line going to the city from Queens you've seen the station and may know what I mean. And although these shots might have that flavor to them they don't show the whole picture. Next time I'm in the city I need to spend a day exploring and snapping this Bizzaro world.

Percentage of marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body who could have survived if they had had better body armor, according to a secret Pentagon study.

I saw Gummo (Directed by Harmony Korine, who also did KIDS) today @ Kathy and Josh's. It's a film that creeps you out by appealing to your sense of what you know is believable, even banal about the southern United States. And for the same reasons Gummo is undeniably enchanting. It aimlessly follows around the young and wild population of a small Ohio town. These kids (most of whom are first time actors) will smoke, hunt cats, love, break innumerable laws, fuck, get high, smash, and kill by the time the end credits roll. While it might be tempting to demand that we see more growth or maturation in some of the main characters, the film does a convincing job of showing you 'how it is' and not how we would like it to be. Interestingly, it does this while simultaneously never insulting our intelligence, or it's own. And although you might not have been treated to Oscar winning performances, that does not diminish the impact of the reality represented here. 4/5 Stars