Monthly Archives: August 2010

forgetting & remembering\/\/music is my time machine

August 31, 2010
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forgetting & remembering\/\/music is my time machine

A year ago my hard drive crashed and I lost the music collection I’d been building since college. Much of the music I listened to regularly I had in albums on CD, but a good portion of the songs I lost were from various bits and pieces of soundtracks and compilations, mixes gifted from friends, albums I no longer liked and CDs acquired as a joke and then neglected. The kind of songs I’d forget I had until they came up in the playlist. At one point I’d backed up all of these stray songs on a variety of miscellaneous mixes I made for things like road trips or mowing the grass; I liked to throw in surprises to shake things up.  But when my hard drive crashed, not long after a +1000 mile move, and I couldn’t remember the fate of these made-for-discman CDs. Music is said to help aid memory retention. So is repetition.  This means its easier to learn state capitals or the letters of the alphabet when they’re set to a tune, but it also explains some of the contents of my music collection. I have songs, decades old, that I hated when they first came out. [...]

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the last thing you remember

August 31, 2010
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the last thing you remember

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this week on the avant guardian\/\/forgetting

August 30, 2010
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this week on the avant guardian\/\/forgetting

Things fall out of my head all of the time.  Where I put the keys.  Where I put my wallet.  A phone number.  The name of a film.  I try to look out for a future version of myself who will eventually forget something, and I make lots of lists.  This is the list about the forgetting. Short term memory loss. Long term memory loss.  Selective memory.  Inattention.  Amnesia.  Collective forgetting.  Never forgetting.  Elephants never forgetting.  Trying to forget.  Forgetting fears.  Forgetting things.  Forgetting someone.  Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Forgetting about Dre.  Forgetful Jones.  Forget Paris.  Forget-me-nots.  Fear of forgetting.  Fear of forgetting anniversaries and birthdays. Forgiving & forgetting.  Forgetting and aging.  Forgetfulness.  Being forgotten.  Being The Forgotten.  The end of forgetting.  The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. So, what else am I forgetting? Image credits:  alexis mire

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sub-entry 22> episode 80.4 \/\/ on chasing (and catching) inevitability

August 29, 2010
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sub-entry 22> episode 80.4 \/\/ on chasing (and catching) inevitability

New Orleans, circa 1935. Canal Street, with its bustling shoppers and rushing business workers, chosen to forever serve as the border between the European charms of the French Quarter and the tall business buildings and statue-guarded city buildings of the Central Business District. Even in the midst of the depression, people walk to and fro with places to go, things to spend their money on. But to me this street on this particular day meant only one thing: a way back to where I belonged. I rushed past the hoards of people, followed closely by the clown. (I feel like I should call him something else, something more fitting now that I've remembered who he is, but the fact is he doesn't have a name. And in my defense, he is dressed like a clown. I'd have to remember to ask him about the whole dressing-up-like-a-clown thing.) I felt my wrist start to twitch. “Not yet!” I said. “This sub-entry just started!” “It's not ending,” said the clown, stopping to look into the sky. “Something's coming.”

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traces of the past

August 29, 2010
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traces of the past

accidents happen. and then they keep happening.

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nightmare on egg street

August 28, 2010
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BrokenEgg

I had a nightmare the other night. I was making fried eggs, over medium. The slightly runny kind that leave a little yolk sauce behind, perfect for soaking up with buttered bread. In my dream I was eating the delicious eggs, enjoying them. All of the sudden, I became deathly ill. In the dream it wasn’t just me that became ill, hundreds of people everywhere where falling ill from runny eggs! Which brought to mind a favorite movie of mine, Like Water for Chocolate/ Como Agua Para Chocolate. The protagonist, Tita, has a profound connection with food. So deep that when she cries tears of sorrow for her one true-love, into her sister wedding cake, it has quite an effect on the wedding guests who enjoy it. I know it’s six minutes long and in Español but trust me, it’s a nightmare worth watching. I am begining to think that this romantic disorder could be real and not just a fictional, dramatic story.  If sorrow and terror  travel through this woman and her food, could they in fact  travel through hens and their eggs to make us sick?  Maybe it’s not salmonella infecting the eggs after all…. Who knows? Until we find out, stick [...]

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the k team presents\/\/kreepy

August 28, 2010
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the k team presents\/\/kreepy

Do you sleep with the light on? Maybe it’s time to take a page from ancient Japanese cultures by invoking Baku, the Eater of Dreams. This creature can transform the most terrifying nightmares–of natural disasters, falling, or being chased by a maniaK–into good fortune by special request. Just recite the following phrase before bed: ‘Devour, Oh Baku! Devour my evil dream!’ Or you can just turn that light off and let the K Team lead you bacK into the darK with this dreamy song. Photo by Kathryn O’Shields-Blackman 2010

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un-nightmare

August 26, 2010
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Bundesbahn, Bahnhof Straubing

after all this talking about nightmares how can we go to sleep? well I have a tested cure (tested on animals and vegetables) this un-nightmare can be taken before or after a nighmare (don’t think about what you have under the bed)

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political scientism | we all scream for flat screen

August 26, 2010
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political scientism | we all scream for flat screen

If I wrote a political column worth its salt, I’d use this week’s theme — nightmares — to talk about the upcoming electoral season. After all, the word night-mares could be tweaked to mean “dark horses,” and I’d use that play on words as a jumping off point for a post about the candidates who might do surprisingly well at the polls. If that interests you, may I suggest fivethirtyeight.com? But on to the column that I wrote … Someone who I presume is much smarter than I am wrote that “the purpose of government from an economic perspective is to provide a legal framework that allows individuals to transact through markets.” Being the narcissist that I am, I interpret that to mean that “the purpose of government is to encourage me to buy a flat-screen high-definition television set.” And, in that sense, my recent foray into consumer culture was a– shit, what do you call it? It’s the opposite of a double-rainbow … That’s right, a double-nightmare. Let’s make short work of the first part of the nightmare, shall we? That is, having a television in the first place, which is upsetting in its own right. I hate having to [...]

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how to succeed in crazy without really trying

August 26, 2010
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how to succeed in crazy without really trying

I was going to write on Waking Life, to counterbalance Tyler’s review of Inception, but Inception is fun and Waking Life is not and I just couldn’t sit through it again. Elitist Professor recommended it to me years ago; I sat through it with diligence and focus and boredom and nausea. I formed a resolution in my heart never to learn the how-to’s of lucid dreaming. Then, that night, I dreamt that I woke up and went to the bathroom three times before I actually woke up and went to the bathroom. Or did I? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did. I heart reality. I’m an accountant that way: ever since I was a kid, I’ve liked having one interpretation of the world. It doesn’t hold up, of course, especially after courses in literary theory, but I’m such a square that I’ve been remarkably good at ignoring all I’ve read. Jacob’s Ladder is even worse than my most horrible nightmares. Pollock is about on a level with them. Because I feel very strongly about rock-solid reality, I approve of representational art and am much less fond of modern art. The vagueness bothers me. “Well, this can be titled ‘Ode to [...]

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