Suspense

Something happened Monday, at least for a certain definition of "happen." Anyway, I forgot to mention it before. I was on the bus, out shopping. The guy sitting a couple of seats behind me was on his phone, obviously not talking to a live human. He asked something like "if you don't answer does that mean it's over?" So it wasn't going well for him.

And, well, I'm certainly not calling myself an expert on l'amour, but I kind of wanted to tell him, "Just break up with her. Maybe it will impress her. If not, at least you'll save yourself some time. Maybe enough to pick up a hobby."

The sun'll come up tomorrow

Just recently realized that my laptop has a free calendar app. So I can schedule myself things for me to do the next, and set a time. When it gets to be close to the time, I get nagging reminders from myself via the computer. Which doesn't actually mean I'm going to do something. It is a fun new toy, though.

Black and green

This is a very pretty song, from the start of Nick Mason's woodblock beat. I'm sure you could draw a few meanings from it. The scarecrow, brainless and sad for a while, but then fine. Is he a rebuttal of the Scarecrow created by L. Frank Baum and embodied by Ray Bolger, who wants above all to be smart? It's hard not to make that association, at least for me.

Roadwork

A huge stretch of street is now semi-exposed near where I live. The top pavement has been removed, anyway, revealing a ridged, sort of corduroy-like element. This has its annoyances. There's more dust in the air, and I'm sure it's not much fun to drive on. Still, it's kind of educational. It's the equivalent of walking past buildings where the wiring and plumbing is exposed.

Story time

I'm Not Tired! from Birgit Rathsmann on Vimeo.

This short film―three stories and a frame in under 8 minutes―is just a brilliant combination of elements. There's the imaginative animation bringing darkly humorous stories to life. The child puppet is very expressive. I also like the dad, although the leather chair he sits in initially made me think he was a psychiatrist.

Knotty problem

I was having an issue. The laces on my sneakers were coming undone on a daily basis. Really multiple times per day, sometimes more than once on the same walk. Then I realized there were a couple more eyelets at the top of the shoes, not as wee marked as the others. Thread the laces all the way up to there and you'd get smaller bows, which almost always stay tied.

Anyway, I usually avoid the issue by getting shows you don't tie, but I couldn't swing that this time.

Up high

The way people are sentimentalized and idealized after they're gone, this may apply to other things and places as well. One good example is the Twin Towers. Before 9/11 they were always considered an engineering marvel, but not a good looking building.

The WTC's mystique was enhanced by Philippe Petit's tightrope crossing in the upper stories. The ultimate "don't try this at home trick", Petit's feat gave the buildings a fanciful aspect.

Colum McCann's novel Let the Great World Spin isn't necessarily about the towers,, but it couldn't exist without them. A big book with multiple points of view, it's tied together by Petit's crossing, which takes the same spot in a lot of ways as the Bobby Thomson "shot heard round the world" of the '51 World Series did in DeLillo's Underworld.

The characters depicted include graffiti taggers and early computer hackers, as well as a doomed inner city monk. This last one also connects to what for me has been the most compelling chapter as of yet, an artist from an Edie Sedgwick-ish upper class rebel background.

Johnny on the spot

I find this clip from the dawn of the seventies an irresistible mix of good music and high camp. Under the latter you can sort the Man in Black's lace ruffled outfit, which makes him look like a horror movie antagonist. Either "vampire noble" or "undertaker who doesn't always wait until the bodies are dead."

Brenda Lee's performance is quite soulful. I'm pretty sure the song is not about Johnny Cash. I wonder if any of the audience thought it was.

Oak-ay

There are a fair number of oak trees around here. Some rather big ones as well. The tree can get to an amazing reach. Anyway, you see a lot of acorns. They don't germinate to become new trees, but you could change careers to keep them able to do that. Well, someone could.

What you see

The Thematic apperception test is an odd one all right. Unlike the Rorschach test, it asks subjects to interpret objective, identifiable images.Those images were taken from illustrated magazines of the 1930s. That means that as time has gone on they've become somewhat more archaic.

And ripped out of context, they're fairly eerie in the first place. The one above could be interpreted as vampirism, resurrection, haunting, or just the guy on the bed having a very vivid dream. Among other possibilities.

None of which is to say this test can't work. In fact, the open-ended nature of the test could allow patients to access a more creative side than usually comes out.

The wrong arm of the law

There's a good line from an okay episode of The X-Files where Mulder finds out the small town sheriff in the case of the week has been carrying on numerous affairs with the town's women and says, "I gotta hand it to you, sheriff. You really put the service in 'Protect and serve.'"

So does Sheriff Nick Corey of Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280. He seems to have a big appetite in all senses. The meal he describes at the start of the book is staggering. Still, he's an unlikely casanova and would seem to be an unlikely murderer as well. Nevertheless...

This is the second Thompson I've read and it's an interesting compare/contrast with The Killer Inside Me. That was a somewhat claustrophobic thriller. Certainly it had moments of black humor, but it was primarily a nihilistic drama. Pop. 1280, though, is an all-out comedy, albeit one where the lead clown kills a bunch of people. I've laughed out loud at several points, mostly at variations on how Corey allows people to think he's slow and wimpy while craftily leading them to their doom. Anyway, it's great fun.

Nobody cares about the railroads anymore

El tren santafesino from Cristian Llamosas on Vimeo.

Mi español isn't strong enough to tell you exactly what's being said in the narration here. The stop motion animation is gorgeous, though. Animated white paper or cardboard? Something like that. minimalism (of form, not function) in action.

Heat lines rising

Not long ago every place was running air conditioning and fans. That's pretty much ended. Go into an office or a restaurant and if anything the air will be heated. Same if you get into someone's car or a bus. Although in the latter case that might just be from the other people.

I note this because it's one of the signs of the changing seasons. A secondary sign, cultural rather than natural.

The heat hasn't started in my apartment yet, as far as I know. Not far off, though.

Catch the buzz

Above is the trautonium, an early synthesizer which uses no keyboard, but rather something that looks like a thick tape measure without numbers. Associated with the composers Paul Hindemith and Oskar Sala, it was invented in 1929 in Germany. Kind of an awkward time, given the near future. The Nazis were (among other things) kind of sticks in the mud when it came to new art, which an instrument that ranged from plaintive caterwauling to harsh electronic noise certainly counted as.

The Beach Boys famously used a Theremin for "Good Vibrations" and Radiohead went through a whole Ondes Martenot phase, but I'm not aware of any rock artist incorporating the trautonium into their sound. Seems like a missed opportunity.

Get ready for magic realist humor 1

A woman walks into a hair salon. She says, "Give me feathers." The stylist slits open a pillow and gives her a handful of eiderdown.

Later, at home, she drops the feathers on a table. They spontaneously form a Proto-Elamite alphabet.