July 17, 2022
Brat brat bagel bagel bent bent brusk brusk blimp blimp bright bright barge barge blink blink bengal bengal bump bump bank bank bleary bleary bonk bonk.
Jizzel mcnizzle snizzle mchizzle.
Ok. Glib vid artichoke hearts.
I said:
OK
Mchizzle! Machazzle!
Chard block pencil-leaded or unleaded. It makes a difference. You can move a car with unleaded gas. You can’t write with unleaded pencils.
Language is pointless without communication. Language on its own is moot. These words, without a reader, make no difference. They hit my own eyeballs and then rebound into oblivion, never to be seen. So, what IS the point? Is it entertaining to type on an expensive laptop and look at these words as they emerge into electronic reality, knowing that they are exceedingly fleeting, have no permanence whatsoever? Anytime anyone wants to delete the file, they just do it. Delete the file. Erase the words. More than erase. Render unmade. That is the digital reality of our times. Easily written. Easily “published” and just as easily purged from existence. Our rulers would have us believe that our thoughts are forever, that the records exist for all time, that everything we do is in continual observance. The truth is more that everything we do is continually destroyed, rendered useless, rendered unseen. Only the chosen can be heard. Words from others are less than invisible. They are not even vapor. They have no form, no substance, no content.
Nonsense is just as meaningful as words written by those not chosen. Blaggle mcfaggle. Jarzon narzon barzon plarzon.
We are given the impression that our words, our documented lives, our very existence is somehow preserved, a part of “history”. That a recording of us exists. That we see ourselves in the future as being seen in the future. That there is an appreciation of the past on an unknown horizon. The rulers are watching, we are told. They are recording. They are keeping our words. We will be known in the future – for good or bad!
This gives us the impression that we must mind our Ps and Qs, that we must be careful with our words – do not offend or hint at perversion. We will be judged!
Also, this gives us the impression that we must work to chronicle our lives, provide posts and updates and newsfeeds and profiles and documented proof of our experiences.
Posterity will be waiting to read our history, our thread, our feed.
The reality is harsh. No one cares. No one is watching. No one is wanting to see. The truth is everyone has their own lives and their own experiences that they are living. The idea that anyone has time to spare is absurd. No one is bored, looking for something to do. No one is seeking a picture into someone else’s life. If anything, people are seeking validation of their own. Their interest is limited to seeing how they match up, how they are competing against others or how they are keeping up with the thoughts in the ether. What’s in fashion? Am I part of the “in” crowd?
Zing! Pow! Pop! Smash! Crumbs.
You cannot learn proper diction with all the dictionaries in the world. Our language is purposefully preposterous. It is built upon contradiction, illogical construction, and the evolution of utilitarian codes into indulgent claptrap.
Old man, stop typing.
Naw – I got more in me.
So I turned 53. And this is the part of the entry that is coherent. E was sick the whole time with a terrible cough. “The whole time” being time (7/13 – 7/15) we took off from work to celebrate my B-day. Each day for the last two weeks, she insists she’s getting better, feeling better. Each day she coughs and coughs. Today she’s even better than the last. This scale is from 0 to 100 apparently. On a scale from etc… how do you feel?
She went to Patient First after home-testing negative. They failed to test. They used what they knew how to use – their X-ray machine. The famous machine using Röntgen rays to see the hazy world within us. This was new tech is 1896. They found nothing with this contraption. They also did a blood test and found that she had a viral infection. Then proceeded to ask her if she wanted antibiotics. She refused. I always tell them “yes” – I need to clear up the throat gonorrhea, I say, with a straight face.
I have been plying her with cough drops. And we have been using a technique where I pound on her back to loosen the phlegm. Plus there is generic Musinex (i.e. Guaifenesin). She ended up seeing her PCP through a Telehealth visit. Her doctor was shocked PF didn’t test. She thinks she had COVID.
Anyway, she is preaching today at the Rainbow Church of Fossils or something like that. Its actual name is Trinity Presbyterian. It is mainly a Religious Reenactment Theatrical Congregation, which means people come there to go through a “religious” observance or ceremony in a play-acting sense, with no actual correspondence to actions taken outside the church building. She has limited interest in this but they are paying her for her services (pun intended). In three weeks, they are closing for good.
After assisting the elderly with their religious shenanigans, she is having lunch with her friend Meghan. Dr. Meghan Shockley is a former Clemson history professor, and expert on feminism. She is now working as a real estate agent.
I slept most of the day on my birthday after eating lunch at River City Diner with my father. I didn’t realize this until Dad told me, but this has become a tradition. Just him and me at the diner. It’s cool. We discussed the many adventures we have had with repair people of late. He gave me a iHOP Gift Card (ironically, considering we were dining at a competitor), a birthday card of that clever yet endearing variety, and a Ravens T-shirt (NFL) that alludes to the team’s Super Bowl wins (2 for 2 – the only team to be undefeated in the Big Game!)
Time warp…. and a warning: the rest of this is unedited and unproofed, so watch and don’t scrape your eyeballs on the bad stuff.
Tuesday evening after work I got a Zoster vaccine / Shingrix (of “shingles doesn’t care” commercials which E and I are so fond of). And then, Wednesday afternoon I got my 2nd Pfizer COVID booster. Today is Sunday and my arm is pretty much totally recovered from the soreness involved with the injection itself. I have had no other ill effects, other than the massive fatigue on Thursday, my birthday. Woo-Hoo! Nap party!
People have done worse things on their birthdays I’m sure. Friday, we did get to go to VMFA and see a couple of new exhibits – something about Americans in Paris, with Whistler and Cassatt and then the hidden one – ‘Spirits’ – works by Tsherin Sherpa. The Sherpa works were fascinating – combining pop art and a traditional Tibetan spirit figure who resembles Mahakala. The Americans in Paris were uninteresting examples of why photography was invented so that painters could do better things with their time. Especially dumb were the jurored paintings that had to conform to the value system of the time, which evidently was heavily soaked in religious/ethical blather.
No doubt these people were talented and certainly the paintings are worthy of being shown. The enormous painting of the square where the Bastille once stood was impressive. Otherwise, it was underwhelming compared to many of the exhibits we’ve seen.
Anyway, yesterday I went to Stony Point Fashion Park (fashion!) in the light rain to see what I could find in the used CD section of Crossroads Records. I went to see if I could find some higher-end Maui Jim sunglasses (the best lenses on the planet) but discovered that the ones I really do like are actually too heavy for my face. I have two pairs – one recently bought and then one with a repaired frame.
So, the CDs I found, all for 3.99, in great condition:
- Luscious Jackson – Fever In Fever Out
Produced by U2s classic collaborator, Daniel Lanois, this features the group’s main “hit” Naked Eye.
- Special FX – Double Feature
Jazz/Progressive/New Age group with world music overtones. I discovered this group while on break from college in the late 80s/early 90s on a Washington D.C. station called WBMW. Yes, cheesy name. But, I fell in love with New Age and Contemporary Jazz, typified by the Windham Hill label (which is now a subsidiary of Sony). This is one I have not heard yet, but it features Omar Hakim, one of the greats.
- Spyro Gyra (featuring Jay Beckenstein) – Fast Forward
Released at exactly the time I would have been listening to this type of music (1990), I don’t know if I have heard anything off this album. But look forward to discovering it, since I don’t think I own anything by Spyro Gyra except for…
- Spyro Gyra – Love and Other Obsessions
This is a find that is somewhat coincidental. It features Deniece Williams, who sang “Let’s Here It For The Boy” on the Footloose Soundtrack, which has come up in conversation lately. I vaguely remember seeing that movie.
- Pigface – A New High In Low
Pigface is an evolution of the band Ministry, but with more industrial aims. Ministry, to me at least, was always more heavy industrial-influenced rock and a stone’s throw from Rob Zombie fare. Pigface once featured Trent Reznor of The Nine Inch Nails. This particular album is a late 90s double CD and features Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle fame as well as Psychic TV, which invented Acid House.
Variety is the spice of life. Right now, I am listening to:
- The sound of clothes being turned around in a machine, drying. In the machine are some fabric softening balls, which can be heard occasionally thumping lightly.
- A Roomba.
- (Barely audible from where I am sitting in the den) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – Disc 1 of their anniversary collection, which features the original Detroit single version of ‘Shop Around’.
Swatting At Flies 