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Mark-Elliott Lugo says San Diego Transit worse every year
You should add more line breaks, why, and then title this poem "So now I just cruise..." ;)— October 2, 2009 10:51 a.m.
What a day!
"I want an edition of every book Baudrillard ever read. For my money, he's pretty much the most (if not the only) relevant theorist you can find. Lacan and Zizek still get it done, but JB just keeps getting more and more spooky accurate." I went through a phase where I believed these three to be some kind of triad--long ago. If I had to pick one today, I'd still go with Freud, Derrida, and _____ (whoever I'm excited about at the moment). Let's say, Robert Smithson, 70s earthworks artist and sneaky essayist, since I'm supposed to be dissertating about him. Btw, Smithson and pals loved ads, and put phony ones in mags, incl. full spread phony articles. See "Homes of America" photo and text essay by Dan Graham--he snuck that beauty into Arts Mag, or Artforum as legit. Which it was, but in a different way they thought. Smithson and Mel Bochner snuck an essay called "Domain of the Great Bear" by the owner of a planetarium and publisher of a popular mag, among others--including Harper's Bazaar. As for Baudrillard, I totally agree about Nostrodomus-like appearance. Simulacrum of a simulacrum of a...Have you seen Paris/Texas, film by Wim Wenders? Pretty good reading of Baudrillardian tenets about cities, freeways, and people. Speaking of unseemly textual excitement. "Hmmm, I guess that just leaves multiple orgasms..." The facility of this particular phenom might not statistically 'hold water,' to stay with our theme. Just sayin...nothing whatsoever to do with anything to do with moi-meme, or anyone I know or might possibly know in future. :)— October 2, 2009 10:48 a.m.
Three shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three!
Snarfhund! Did yer son give you permission to 'out' his past diaper abuse? :)— October 2, 2009 10:31 a.m.
Rats and the Reindeer Sox Saga
Is that MY bed of spinach they are dancing before? Dem rats! I'm going to go with the designer halters next time :) No chihuahua for me! I gots me a giant Maine Coon cat that would eat him up for brekkie, eh!— October 2, 2009 10:29 a.m.
Memorial Life
Yeah, the 'Montaigne' in you shows. Fishsticks, fishcakes, fishcuddles, fishikins. There, consider yourself gently mocked! :)— October 2, 2009 9:21 a.m.
Everybody always wants to throw glass in stone houses and, sooner or later, someone's going to lose an eye!
You are correct sir, unless we are adjectivally referring to the most popular 80s era band. It should be clear that I was... (not). Forgive, as it is late--er, early--or else get me on "adjectivally" :)— October 2, 2009 5:32 a.m.
A Few Musings Before My Birthday...
These are good pre-birthday musings, and though it does seem that you have been dealt more than your fair share, you still recognize and celebrate the most important things about yourself. Happy birthday and many to come, LPR!— October 2, 2009 4:58 a.m.
Memorial Life
"First of all, there’s my inadequacies as a writer to tell the stories, and the larger story, I want to tell. Before I started writing this blog, I thought to myself that what I really wanted to do seemed insanely beyond what I was capable of, and the subject was too important to mess up." Fish, I completely relate to this feeling, which in part explains my reticence about writing too much. As for your writing, let me put it this way: If you wrote nothing but blogs about the difficulty of writing, I'd read them. You have a way of connecting with your reader that is immediate, and very effective. I doubt that you would ever do your neighborhood a disservice, and that isn't the point anyway. Your perspective is just that--your perspective--your voice, your angle, deserving to be heard. Turn off that internal editor for a little bit, and let loose :) Direct example: "Like most people, I tend to do easy and pleasant things and put off hard work. So added to my doubts, sort of helping them along, were laziness and self-indulgence." Go, Fish! You are a comfy, cozy essayist a la Michel de Montaigne, taking us by the hand and confiding what we all know and feel, and most always feels better to share. "but most of you may not feel much, or even any, responsibility that way; your community isn’t burdened with the labels and perceptions and stereotypes mine is." Don't be so sure. Neighborhoods are complex entities, a bit like the people who construct and inhabit them. Mine is a mix of homeless drunks careening up the hill, frantic professionals with only 30 minutes to wolf a workday sandwich, modest relics of early-centuried humanity living out some last days on the edge of the hill, tweakers peaking behind vacant Victorians and squatting or standing to pee around the corner, and arrogant dogwalkers coming up from Balboa park. There are also occasionally earsplitting bass threads issuing from lowslung lowriders with dark tinted windows, and the inaudible but spoken volumes of protest-imonial script of gang- and wannabe gangbangers, on walls and sidewalks. The low-flying planes intent on reaching the tarmac cover all of us with a grind of metal and static whine, and slap the palm tree fronds over and over. What to make of all this? I don't know--that's why we have to pick up the keyboard and type the first word, the first sentence, and let the rest flow. "I’m going to tell you some stories. Excuse me in advance if I don’t always do it well. But stay with me. Between us, maybe we can make this work. And maybe the effort will be worth it. We’ll see." Brava, girlfriend. I look forward to them :)— October 2, 2009 4:38 a.m.
Memorial Life
Whoa, almost missed this, and definitely missed Monsieur La Placa Rifa's B-day blog. Will correct this error posthaste (isn't that a great term? :)— October 2, 2009 4:14 a.m.
Everybody always wants to throw glass in stone houses and, sooner or later, someone's going to lose an eye!
Welp, it's officially an all-nighter for me. "Borges aside..." I think Borges would like that comment :) So I still support Mindy's right to do what she does, and have no problem with fictional treatment of any kind. I guess there is a shady area when you are talking about public figures, but just like copyright laws--as you well know, gringo--it's a losing battle in this particular age of "information." Part of the reason I love Borges, and Calvino, and Derrida, and scores of other writers who play with the line between fiction and 'reality' or 'truth' is because the line itself is pretty tenuous in a deeper philosophical sense-- and these terms are necessarily bracketed when we try to speak of them. I appreciate your crusade of realism, gringo, and you know I love your stuff, but I would say that it also profitable to realize the 'grounding' in fictions of our very thoughts, no matter what we do or write. Your chickenhead dream is no less 'true' than your musings over your children's struggles for independence; all of your themes filter through your truth-seeking and sorting lens of consciousness, but they also flow in a subterranean, Styxian sort of way, while we grasp around in our respective 'caves.' (Gawd, my bracketings are getting sophomoric here, but it's late, and hopefully the points are somewhat lucid). Anyway, thank the gods for the bubbling upwards and the playful splashings and echoes of those themes, right into our fists, to be held as tightly as one can to nos eaux de reve :)— October 2, 2009 4:10 a.m.