Fighting the Universal Spider Too

It’s cold (still) – the bus did not come – the young girl’s father had her in the car, keeping warm, motor running, lights on, condensation pouring from the tailpipe – sitting at the end of the road when I took the dog for its walk – when I returned carrying it after it began to hop on two feet and cry – when I returned to start my truck. He drove up behind me and rolled down his window – the rear right tire was one of those undersized spares – “What time you got?” I had to take off my gloves and fish out my mobile phone, “7:49”, I replied. “The bus was due at 7:25”, he said. “Is it running late?” “I don’t know”, I said and I didn’t, but he was waiting for something from me to tell him whether he should continue waiting or return home. I returned to my truck. He rolled up the window and drove off. Later at the coffeeshop one of the woman was saying about her little girl that she had asked this morning if they were going back to school today. Yes, I noticed now that there were school age kids about – another snow day no doubt. What do working mothers do but take the day off too. Now, I would have had an answer form him – “No, its another snow day, just like yesterday. You can go back home now. There will be no bus coming this morning.” And he would say, “Thanks” and roll up the window and drive back home and I would have then driven here to the coffee shop. And I probably wouldn’t have written this.

For the individual the core value of any ideology is a function of how well it defines the institutions under which he must live and the type of person those institutions constrain him to be – William L Barney - The Road to Secession, 1977 p198

Factoid: The US could reduce its green-house gas emissions by 183,000 tons by reducing it’s obesity rate by 3%

The killer is serene
Death is supreme
The murder is sublime
The demise is extreme

Regionalism is a term of opprobrium, condescension or contempt. The term ‘regionalist’ doesn’t really say anything about a writer except that the writer prefers writing about a specific place.- Donald Harrington (The Arkansas-Democrate-Gazette, 2000)

I go to the Modern Times Bookstore out in the Mission – A book tour talk on “The Modern Woman Revisited” - Paris between the wars with its editors Whitney Chadwich and Tirza True Latineer - The discussion evolved around the image of dandies, - their class and gender - how dandies had originally took on effeminate concerns of image (ignoring ruffles). I ask “so you are saying that cross dressing in Paris in the twenties was a reterritorialization?” “ No, a deterritorialization” Triza replies. “But if you are saying that that men by assuming an effeminate concern of pride in appearance, then women imitating that would be pushing the same territory that those dandies had occupied in the nineteenth century. I would call that a re-territorialization.”

Just as primitive people adopt the western mode of denationalized clothing and parliamentarism out of a vague feeling that these magic rites and vestments will at once put them abreast of modern culture and techniques, so the economist have developed the habit of dressing up their rather impressive ideas in the language of infinitesimal calculus – Norbert Weiner – God and Golem, Inc, 1964 p89

I stop off at New College to see if they have posted any new performance announcements, Dwayne and Erica appear - “Have you come for our five o’clock student show?” “No, but tell me more. I just dropped by to see if there were any upcoming shows. But I will. I will be back. Then I go to the Phoenix pub and have an Anchor Steam while I wait. I return just before five. “This is just your type of thing”, Erica tells me. She is probably right. We do show up at the same venues frequently. “OK” I tell her and find a seat. The work is rough but worth but I like work in progress.

A bleach blond David Bowie trannie sets next to me. He/She taps me on the shoulder, “Do you think anyone will get upset because I am eating?” “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I will not throw you out”, I tell her/him. And I wouldn’t either – trannies are hyperfemine, although they can be very annoying.

It’s no use making up contrary possibilities, since things are the way they are: reality stays the same – Alain Robbe-Grillet – Jealousy, 1977 p75

I had tried explaining performance art to Aska last night. I did not do a very good job. She was proclaiming that I was a pervert.

Ideas, like waves, have fetches. They arrive with us having traveled vast distances, and their pasts are often invisible, or barely imaginable – Robert Macfarlane – The Wild Places, 2009 p29

Factoid: The carbon footprint of a German Shephard is three times higher than an SUV (by weight, I wonder or by volume – surly not per unit)

All the background noise in America – motivational speakers, positive prayer, the new Journal of Happiness Studies – these are not the markers of a happy, well-adjusted psyche uncorrupted by irony – Hannah Rosin – New York Times Book Review (Nov 8, 2009) p7

Factoid: There are two drug-company lobbyists in Washington DC for ever member of congress

Publish. / The Book, where the satisfied spirit dwells, in case of misunderstanding, is obligated, by some struggle to shake off the bulk of the moment. Not personalized, the volume, from which one is separated as the author, does not demand that any reader approach it – Stephane Mallarme – Selective Poetry and Prose, 1982 p80

There was a 680 highway shooting. It was not believed to be related to the 580 shooting. 8AM and sunny. A red Durango driven by a man named Salazar who was shot in the face through the right window. The police worked the 580 case over the weekend looking for a thirty something white man. It’s 9:30Am and I’m at the Baghdad Café at Fifteenth & Market having a California Omelet (bacon, jack cheese, green chilies & sour cream) and coffee. The fashion is camouflage shorts and Abraham Lincoln chin beards - sometimes just a lower lip beard, a triangle for growth above the chin – a just another Leigh Bowery wig transferred to another orifice. Some baseball beards are about – the ubiquitous equilateral triangle chin beard with connecting mustache. After an An afternoon nap, its back to the coffee shop. Osama asks “where you in this morning?” “Yes, and where was I this morning?”, I ask.

White collar criminals are principally white. That’s might white, I opine.

People are always more alert to dangers imposed on them by others - either by force or by manipulation - than to dangers emerging from self determined behavior –Williard Gaylin – The Perversion of Autonomy: coercion and constraints in a liberal society, 2003

I pass the same person as I did this morning on the way here. We acknowledge each other for the second time today. He said something which I was unable to decipher, some like “we meet again”. I mumble something back that would have acknowledged what it was that I had through he had said if I had understood him and if he had been able to understand my response, which neither of us did – but we had both played our roles – what more was there to understand? We each patronize the Royal Ground. He is a doctor at the office just up the street and beyond the ally. The office is in the old Victorian which had been relandscaped about a year ago after some foundation work had been done. I have been watching the rose bushes that are trellised along the black iron fence.

The individual is a creation of mankind - Irving Howe