Magic Realisim

On July 24th, 2006 I found myself in a large parking garage for a seemingly affluent and slightly futuristic shopping complex. Perhaps the year 2050 or earlier. However, the car I drove was a 1996 Nissan 240sx. It was white overall, with a black hood. As I parked my car I noted that it seemed to be a fairly safe looking parking garage that felt as out in the wide open as it was sealed in. Upon returning from my shopping, I discovered the shattered glass and heat eminatting from the insides of my car. The radio had been stolen (again) and it appeared as if the transmission had been removed and partially replaced with an automatic.

Suddenly, a round, dark woman approached me and offered to help me solve the problem. She said she would drive my car to a higher level of the parking garage (note that this garage was outside at the same time as it was a garage). She drove the car to the second level and I was left waiting. I obviously went up to that level on the elevator and found myself surrounded on this floor by hulkish thugs with many tattoos. They were hefting transmissions and electronics around and taunting me. A few of them soon surrounded me, crowding me in and making fun of me for thinking I could recover my stolen goods. Somehow I realized that I had been lured into something strange--some kind of cult. There were several nurses in uniforms talking over each other. One in particular spoke to me of the situation and described that I had been brought helplessly into the group and was being forced to become a member. However, I felt tricked the entire time and only slowly began to realize the inherent evilness of the group. As I was being taken in, a nurse came at me with a needle as the first step to become one with them. I suddenly refused and tried to escape out of the door and back into the parking garage. During the struggle to escape I was stuck with the needle in the wrist and fell to the floor. The drug flowed through me and I felt weak and intoxicated but fairly peaceful.

“Okay, okay” as I gave in and let them take me back inside. During this state they told me I would be able to take off my new “uniform” when I died there. With this, I attempted once again to flee, using my intoxicated state as a way to lure them into thinking I'd been pacified. I managed to get out of the front door, close my eyes and lift off into the sky. I focused much more deeply in order to move away at an incredibly high speed and managed to barely escape, landing out over the Northwest Territories.

Some of the Good Life

These cold days have pleased me, I am still not done with winter. Everyone else seems to freeze every time it drops below 50. I savor it. I'm ready to swim and go onto boats and bodies of water, though. A hot tea will never surpass a cold bottle out in the sun and that is one thing I am sure of. Just as surely as I feel a sense of peace and satisfaction right now with life. I like my situation, school is holding my attention and I am feeling mentally productive. I think this will be a good semester. Right now I just feel like living my life in chunks of semesters and summers, until I am done with school. This allows for a nice "era" effect in my head that makes memories seem better. Once school is over, life will just be arbitrary and continuous based on career and life happenings that don't conveniently separate into near-seasons. That will be my preferred system in the long run, I believe.

I just realized that I have to change my voter registration back to Austin. It has switched a couple times and the deadline is approaching to be able to vote in the Texas primaries on March 4th. If Obama is looking plenty strong at that time, I will likely vote in the Republican primary where I could have more influence, possibly. It seems that the world is in the midst of sweeping structural changes that will continue regardless of which party takes control.

Find Hljomalind.

I wonder at this point how much the superpower status of the U.S. has already declined and to what extent this will continue, for better or worse. I am thinking better, since I don't like the idea of the whole world always looking to us on nearly every major or minor global issue. The U.S. simply has too much influence over the whole world, and I think it is contributing to perverse globalization.

Find Tickley Feather.

I am also looking into joining a food co-op, Wheatsville. I am right now researching prices to see how it compares with conventional grocery stores. For various reasons, being able to walk to get my supplies would be very beneficial. Also, I like the idea of people voluntarily pooling resources on a small scale within the free market. I am not really interested in socialism otherwise. It isn't expensive to join, so I feel that I probably will. I will report back what I find.

rorrimkcalb dot com

This is a cool short film/music video that lets you mute various tracks. For Arcade Fire fans or others interested.

Also check out Radiohead's video, Scotch Mist.

Winding Down and Gearing Up

I really wish the presidential race would start winding down. There are still too many candidates and since I constantly peruse the news online and on cable, the coverage is endless. Thankfully Fred Thompson dropped out today even though he was supposed to be the savior of the GOP. So Ron Paul managed to beat him out and stay in it for now while still raising huge amounts of cash during his money bombs.

I am even starting to get sick of Clinton vs Obama. All they can do is attack each other and leave John Edwards out of the debate. I was ready and willing to go along with the media coronation of Obama after Iowa, but now that Hillary is bounding back I'm just tired of not knowing. John Edwards is more and more looking like the only civil candidate left, even if he exudes that smarmy southern Joel Osteenness that makes me want to purge.

It is quite nice to have such a low-stress school schedule this time around. I have only two classes per day and only one class on Fridays. This is leaving me with a good bit of free time so I have been looking for jobs, internships and the like. There are also some promising prospects in the "Gigs" section on craigslist. I've considered going in for health studies or becoming a sperm donor, but the studies take up too much time and blood and becoming a donor involves strict on-demand weekly deposits and being chaste for weeks.

I am also looking into internships or study abroad for the summer. After this semester I will make my final decision on a degree, either RTF or Government. If I can make the RTF work, that would be ideal. If not, I will have a bunch of worthless hours that won't apply to a Liberal Arts degree. If I end up with government, I am considering interning at ABC News in Washington, D.C. over the summer. Or, at least I will apply. There are a few other interesting programs, but it all depends on the costs. I wonder if learning about government will actually be helpful to me or society, since I have no aspirations to become a politician or to be in the public eye (other than as a performer). As long as I can work for a few years and build credit and cash after college, I will be able to create something of my own. Maybe a pizza shop, bakery or bar, or something new entirely. There is still much to research regarding this.

Serious Tunes

I was trying to think of the first sentence for this post when I started listening to The Field. Thirty minutes later I realized I had typed nothing and was so distracted by the full volume in my headphones I couldn't begin to think of words. Even as I write this now, it is nearly impossible to focus with this swirling, violent and truly peaceful repetition going on. All I can think about is how powerfully music can become associated with time periods. It makes me want to share it with the world, so I will. Here are some of my favorite albums or songs that bring me the feel of last summer and the end of 2007.

The Field - From Here We Go To Sublime (album)
The Silver Jews - Albermarle Station, The Wild Kindness, People, Dallas, Random Rules, How to Rent a Room
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (album)
The National - Brainy, Mistaken For Strangers
Slowdive - When the Sun Hits
Mew - An Envoy To The Open Fields
The Strokes - Vision of Division, The End Has No End
The Magnetic Fields - Swinging London, My Only Friend

Also I am listing a few other items that I like but that haven't solidified into a place in my mind.

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (album)
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Kavinsky - 1986 EP

There is a lot more but I want the list to be manageable so that maybe someone might listen to something.

Afterward

So I went to Spain for about ten days during the lead up to Christmas. Specifically, it was Barcelona and one night in Amsterdam. Quite an amazing time, I must say, though it was not really at all what I expected. If anything, I was slightly underwhelmed. I think hype kills any chance I ever have of enjoying anything properly. I wish I could just enjoy things at my own rate without people trying to tell me how wonderful something is (especially in comparison to something...lesser). I don't feel like recounting all that I did there, it was mostly just the usual travel stuff (wikiTravel "Barcelona"). Highlights included a lot of walking and looking, some eating, less drinking, poking smot, dancing and rain. Also, I spent some hours working on musical ideas in different styles than I am used to. All in all, it was totally worth going and I will go back again as soon as possible, having learned a lot about travel and what I think I want out of these sorts of things.

2007 was something of a dud. I feel like while a few interesting things happened, the world is much worse off than a year ago. The semester at UT in Austin was patently boring most of the time, but it helped me to just do school and take it easy. Previous recent years had constant stresses involving working, money, school and the like having to be managed all the time, which was fine. But it was nice to just take it easy for once and not have to worry. I think I have the most laid back form of anxiety (think thoughtful) possible, if that makes any sense. My family has come a long way and we are now able to do many of the things we never could, so everyone is just less stressed out.

Certain things this year that had been long in the works started to pan out in various ways. The Shrieks played more shows this year than any years in recent memory. Relationships ended and began. For better or worse, this I am not sure about sometimes. It is hard to tell how things might turn out, or when you have expectations for a long time it is often hard to integrate reality. I just want this year to be done with. I am so ready to be back home (Austin) to move into the next phase of things. I have a lot going for me in so many areas of my life, and sitting in an empty room in a dead suburb thinking too much is just killing the buzz.

It is time to dance, New Year's is so close.

Intense

Look what happened, I will have my own review later.

Knives Out

It has been a busy couple of weeks in Austin, TX. There have been games, parties, grilling parties, dance parties, a lot of eating, schooling, working, poker, live music, jam sessions and more. There is plenty to keep busy with. ACL has also been going on, bringing tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars into the city. This year, I waited too long to get a ticket, though I am not disappointed. Many of the bands I have seen already, and I imagine that it would be difficult to get anywhere close enough to see the ones I haven't. Plenty else has been going on, and friends have come to visit this weekend, which I have enjoyed thoroughly.

One night last week involved 80's dancing at Elysium with a few friends. This has become a standard weekly outing for the most part, in addition to the Thursday night romp. The crowd there thinned out considerably, except for the usual men/women/other that put on their specialized costumes and relive their lost youth. The only truly notable event that night was while walking into the bathroom, someone very openly had out his man-dagger and was vigorously sharpening it while eyeing another man in an open stall. As I awkwardly used the trough next to this, they paired off into an exposed corner to continue their encounter. I've always heard of these bathroom type meetings, but this is the first I've seen first hand. I guess this is what Senator Craig was hoping for.

I am hoping to officially transfer into the RTF school at UT for next semester. I am putting in as much effort as possible to get the best grades I can. There has been a lot of work to do. I decided to create a lie that would allow me to put my part time job on hold indefinitely until I want it back. It is very important that I succeed with school right now, so pizza will not be getting in the way. Here is some of the work I've done so far. The project involved making and finding "lines" in reality and then replicating them in some real or abstract way in Adobe Illustrator. They did not teach us how to use this program, so most of the class seemed lost. Luckily I have used it a few times and already had the gist of it.

I am trying to enjoy this fall as much as possible, but a lot has been left up in the air. I am not sure what I will be doing 6 months from now. I don't know that I will be able to be where I want in school, possibly stuck "undeclared" waiting my turn to get into my choice school. I am eager to know how I will do without having to actually take the time to get there. A few weird things in my personal life leave me longing, so I am just trying to keep busy. As soon as I can manage it (December), I will be leaving the country. Depending on the funds, I will visit as many places in Europe as I can manage, though it will be mostly in Spain I do believe. I am looking to make that the very large bolded exclamation point at the end of a pretty good year.