Category: Life

Minds Connected

I sent Shelley some CDs recently, and she sent me some things in return, one of which was a DVD of The Science of Sleep. This is a DVD which I just so happened to purchase for myself at Virgin Megastore just about 24 hours prior to the arrival of Shelley’s package. This is probably purely coincidental, but I’m going to pretend there are larger forces at work here.

This was yesterday evening, by the way. On that same night, as I was puttering around the kitchen, I started whisting the intermission music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, at which point my roommate mentioned that she had been humming that all day. I was not aware of this at all. Again, most likely this is coincidence, but it’s just too weird. Did I mention both my roommate and Shelley are from Tennessee? That’s a coincidence I can accept. But of all the tunes to hum and DVDs to buy…

3-Day Weekend, Netflix, Kangaroos

Coming out of the sickness, I’ve opted to stay indoors all weekend. I only left once, on Saturday to go to the post office. Mostly I’ve been devoting my time to Netflix on-demand movies. Yes, I finally signed up yesterday. My queue is now full of obscure 80’s movies, Billy Wilder films, and European cinema. The first disc in line is a film that I’ve been wanting to see again since I was a child. I couldn’t remember the title, so I just started Googling and it turns out that the movie is called Dot and the Kangaroo. It was a mixture of live-action and cartoon; it’s about a young girl who gets lost in the woods and is taken in by a kindly kangaroo who lost her joey. I remember watching it more than once on HBO, but I haven’t seen it since.

The Watch Instantly service is something I highly recommend. I haven’t had any drops or lags in the streaming process, and the picture quality is really nice. Here’s what I’ve watched this weekend:

Dark Days – A documentary about some homeless people who lived in the train tunnels near Penn Station back in 2000. It’s amazing to see how they lived and what they accomplished (cooked meals, showers, electricity) by starting with literally nothing. I later discovered that the film was shot by one of the people who lived down there. They got the camera and film as charitable donations. It’s an astounding achievement. And DJ Shadow donated some extended versions of his tunes for the soundtrack. Lauren recommended this film to me, and after riding home Friday night looking out the back of the last subway car, I knew I had to see what life would be like to live under New York City.

Koyaanisqatsi – A hypnotic montage of modern life in 1982. Music by Philip Glass. Some parts were a little irritating and heavy-handed, but overall it serves its purpose by getting you to question the ways in which we’ve shaped our world.

Bedazzled – The original 1967 film, not the sub-par remake! If you like British comedy, you need to get to know Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as a duo. Bits of their TV show, Not Only But Also, as well as their stage show, Beyond the Fringe, are available on YouTube, so seek them out. This one is my favorite. This is really the only great movie they made together, as Peter Cook was reluctant to go into film. But Cook plays the devil so well – with wit, deviousness and humanity. Here’s a clip. Oh, and Dudley Moore composed the music score. What an insanely talented coupling those two were.

Cool Hand Luke – Best. Prison. Movie. Ever. Previously I thought The Shawshank Redemption was tops. Now it’s a close second.

Barry Lyndon – Apparently the most sane film Stanley Kubrick ever made. It’s 3 hours long, but once you get swept up in it, you hardly notice – assuming, of course, that you’re the type of person who can get swept up in 18th century European drama. It’s beautifully made; shot mostly with natural light, it has a very painterly look to it.

The Unintended Consequences of the Dollar Menu

Last week I went into the McDonald’s Express on 7th Avenue, not because I had any particular craving, just because I’ve come to recognize the McDonald’s (and the even more ubiquitous Starbucks) logo as the international symbol for “public restroom.” At the Express, the menu’s focus is the dollar menu. Now, in a large city, this draws a very specific demographic from the lower end of the economic spectrum. The place was populated almost entirely by sad old folks who are unwilling or unable to shop and/or cook for themselves, and by the apparently homeless and/or just plain crazy. I’m not saying it was like visiting the set of The Fisher King, but it was not your average fast food crowd.

Because I’ve learned my lesson not to use a business’s bathroom without buying something[1], I bought a $1 burger and Coke and sat down to eat (the line for the bathroom had two older ladies in front of me). An older gent sat down next to me and greeted the lady to his right with familiarity; apparently this McDonald’s is the neighborhood cafeteria, or more like the local bar for people whose drinking days are behind them.

Having seen the film version of Fast Food Nation, I’m always aware that there is a reason why the meat costs $1. I don’t eat at McDonald’s often enough for it to matter to my health[2], but it scared me to imagine that these poor souls do. And as fewer young people seem to know how to cook these days, the number of individuals on this particularly sad trajectory will only increase[3].

I’d like to blame McDonald’s or capitalism or whatever Big Evil people like to shoot at, but really it comes down to the individual’s choice of convenience. Cooking a meal requires grocery shopping, pots and pans to wash, and the time and labor of cooking. The only way out of this mess is to get people to enjoy cooking a meal or at least view it as something that must be done, like brushing your teeth. My crackpot scheme would be to change public schooling such that Home Economics is a senior-level, yearlong course; because everything I learned in Home Ec, I forgot by the time I went to college. Nutrition education needs to be expanded in there as well; kids need to know that McDonald’s should be the gustatory equivalent of candy – something that is not to be consumed in large daily quantities. But then there are a lot of things I’d like to change about public schools…

And so it goes.

1.) In ’06 I was locked in to a restaurant over near 48th street after I was seen using the restroom without buying something.
2.) I get the jones for a quarter pounder with cheese about once every three months, milkshakes one month.
3.) I am reminded of a defendant in my dad’s court whose justification for writing hot checks to Burger King was “I had to eat, your honor.” My father then informed the accused of the wonders of the grocery store, particularly the produce aisle.

The Internet Isn’t All That Big

Amy IM’d me this evening to tell me about this group she’s been listening to. I checked out their myspace page, and read their amazing bio – two musicians who were fans of each other, met up, and eventually married. What a neat coincidence for them, I thought. Then I scrolled down to their comments section, and the most recent comment was left by none other than my friend Elizabeth!

My other recent coincidence was meeting my new friend Lauren via Flickr. I just happened to add this picture of her to my favorites because I found it on Atticus‘s favorites list. She sent me a message, and it turns out we live in the same neighborhood, work in the same neighborhood, and we both did a semester abroad in London, where we lived on the same street three years apart.

My life is beginning to resemble on episode of Lost. Actually I feel more like Richard Dreyfuss, staring at his mound of mashed potatoes, going, “this means something.”

Guitar to the Rescue

I stayed home from work today because everything below my esophagus is kaput. OK, it’s not that bad, but my digestive system has caught the office bug, in addition to suffering almost 3 weeks of nervous stress. I’ve been on edge every day, not sleeping well, and assuming it will go away as I get a better handle on things. But as I get a better handle on things, I realize how much is in front of me.

I’ve always been the type of worker who has a personal stake in my performance. I want to please people, and when they’re not pleased, I internalize that. But I need to let it go. I need to separate the business from the personal. So today I got some rest, and tried to get my mind off work. I tried meditating, but I’m not good enough at it to completely clear my head. Tonight I was reminded of what works for me: guitar practice. I haven’t really funneled heavy stress into practicing in a long time. I played for about two hours and it really helped. In addition to helping me let go of everything, it also improves my chops. My Eric Johnson strat is a great guitar for practicing like this because it’s not so easy to play. It puts up a fight, and that’s even better.

I can’t say the stress is gone for good, but I can say that I’ve found a workable way to decompress. I don’t know how you regular humans do it without a musical instrument.

Job Offer Accepted!

I got a job offer today and I accepted! The position is Interactive Account Manager, but the web department I’m working in is only a few months old, so everything will be flexible and TBD. The company is called Unit 7 (named for a song by jazz guitar great Wes Montgomery). Check them out here: www.unit7.com.

Their offices are fantastic. Right off Union Square in Manhattan. My commute is about 30 minutes.

The pay is great – twice what I made before, but I’m pretty sure that’s the general cost of living increase for New York. Everything here does seem to be about twice as expensive. I know that if I were to live without a roommate, my rent would be double my LR mortgage. So living with a roommate will allow me to save up a bit.

I have to say my streak of good fortune[1] is still in full effect. I got in town a week ago Tuesday, had my first job interview this last Tuesday, and got the job today. All the more surprising is that I had originally intended just to be a temp for awhile, but the recruiters nabbed me and put me out there. So I’m plunging headlong into this thing. I start on Tuesday, after the MLK holiday. Wish me luck. Hopefully my Arkansas job skills match up to the Big City.

1.) Laptop travails notwithstanding.

Lazy Sunday

It’s almost 2 p.m. and I’m still in my pajamas. I’ve been watching, copying and screen-grabbing a DVD that my brother made of old home movies. I uploaded several shots to flickr, so check those out.

Yesterday I ventured uptown to eat at Tom’s Restaurant, made famous by Seinfeld and Suzanne Vega. I also walked by the Flatiron building (also known as the Daily Bugle in the Spider-man movies), which I’d never managed to find before. I also spent a lot of time at Norman’s Sound and Vision; they were having a big 50% off sale in the basement. Here are the highlights:

The Old 97’s – Satellite Rides: $1.50
Pearl Jam -Ten: $1.50
Beastie Boys – To the 5 Boroughs: $2
Steely Dan – Two Against Nature: $1.50
Elvis Costello – Spike: $1.50

I’d wager that in the next few years, as CDs die off, this sort of thing will happen more often. Stores will start unloading used CDs at the same prices as used vinyl. $1 to $2. The retail CD stores are already gone; it’s just a matter of time before the secondhand places start disappearing.

Beware Wireless Aircards from AT&T

Back before the road trip I signed up for a cellular wireless aircard for my laptop, so that I could have Internet access from the road. There was a 2-year service agreement, and I thought if it worked I could use it as my Internet connection in New York so $59 a month is about the going rate, right? Well, I soon discovered the service was spotty and only seemed to work near windows or outdoors. Needless to say it was not a suitable replacement for a conventional earthbound net connection. I really should have canceled it when I got off the road. Time is money, and so procrastination is expensive. Turns out there was a buyer’s remorse period that had long passed, and to get out of the 2 year agreement I have to pay a $175 early cancellation fee.

Sigh.

Interesting side note that the spell-checker pointed out to me just now: “canceled” is the proper spelling, with one “l” while “cancellation” is preferred with two of them. This makes no sense.

On the Road

I arrived a little early for my appointment today with the recruiter, so I thought I would kill some time by checking out the New York Public Library. They just so happened to have an exhibit of Jack Kerouac’s personal notebooks, papers, artwork, and his original typewritten scroll of On the Road. The scroll is 120 feet long, and 60 feet of it were on display. The contents of the scroll were recently published in book form, but seeing them firsthand was awe-inspiring, even for someone whose exposure to Kerouac is limited to an episode of Quantum Leap.

Yes, I’ve never read On the Road. Despite having just completed my own massively long road trip, I didn’t want to read about someone else’s. And Kerouac specifically always bothered me. I’ve never liked the self-destructive madman school of writing. Bukowski, Burroughs, Thompson and Kerouac all strike me as writers whose appeal is largely vicarious and voyeuristic. The people who get most excited about their works are the people who are very often the least likely to experience that peculiar world of kicks-joy-darkness. And I’ve always disliked beatniks, real or imitated, because they so seldom smile.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe it took way-out cats like that to break the rest of us out of the antiseptic numbness of the 1950’s. Maybe I should read On the Road when I’m done with Gangs of New York. It seems a sensible enough transition.