April 2010
1 post
poetry - hymn to apollo
spring is here. so watch out for apollo. no one fucks with apollo. if you are going to fuck with apollo, you need to get the fuck out. that is all I am saying here. motherfucker is an archer. motherfucker is an immortal god. motherfucker is dangerous. do not fuck with apollo. now get out there and get delphic.
-aristotle, “poetics”
(2010) (a version of this was used in the program...
March 2010
2 posts
ten books, without comment
graham greene - the quiet american f. scott fitzgerald - the great gatsby roberto bolaño - the savage detectives michel foucault - discipline and punish saul bellow - henderson the rain king fyodor dostoyevsky - crime and punishment mark van doren - shakespeare anonymous - the book of isaiah lawrence wright - the looming tower saint augustine - city of god
on the democracy of intoxicants
abw: beer = democracy
cec: cider = democracy
cec: beer is produced by the bourgeoisie to keep the proletariat down
abw: yeah i think historically you're correct...actually
cec: yeah, fermented fruit is democracy
cec: but mike's hard lemonade is not democracy
abw: amen
February 2010
3 posts
an old friend wants you to come out for...
on fanciful (& incorrect) beliefs regarding...
kmt: the radio is now telling me about the neurotransmitters released during sexual intercourse
kmt: WEIRD!
kmt: but interesting i guess
cec: ah, the reptilian brain
cec: it loves sex, loud music and chocolate
kmt: nel
kmt: that's mammal neurocortex all over man
kmt: reptilian brain is hunger and anger
cec: CURSES
kmt: hahah
kmt: can you imagine a crocodile rocking out?
cec: yes
cec: HARDCORE
kmt: only in your anthropomorphic dreams, bucko
January 2010
7 posts
in which my career counseling is not appreciated
scd: c, do you know how phone interviews work?
cec: well, s, telephones were invented by alexander graham bell
scd: *hate*
in which my director and I express competing...
cec: are you saying the law is all-encompassing
cec: because that sounds pretty socialist to me
cec: I want the freedom to de facto hate on people
cec: freeeeedom
wjm: the legal is political.
wjm: MARXISM OUT
das racist (feat. leif) “jungle fever”...
the future is scary
I went on craigslist this morning at around 9:30 am, looking for furniture. (I’m redecorating, in case you needed to know. or wanted to buy me a nice mattress.) I came upon a table and chairs that looked good, contacted the seller, and set up an exchange for tomorrow morning. at 4 pm today, in the gym, a colleague of mine, b, came up to me.
“hey c,” he said. “are you...
the only ones - “another girl, another...
poetry: untitled (haiku)
bagel and donut walk into a bar, saying round about these parts
(2010)
non-fiction: the benevolent sun (part one) →
my first published non-fiction work, on my trip to north korea in 2008.
part one. part two next week.
December 2009
1 post
I, too, wish to annotate sarah palin's washington...
With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.
fffffffffffffffffffffffff. fffffffffffffffffffffffff....
November 2009
5 posts
serial fiction: turkey out of joint
Part 5: The Fullness of the Lips (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
A deep-focus shot of a warm orange room: first the edge of the ottoman, a blotchy velvet street find of the kind you’d leave in a sealed bag for three weeks to ensure the bedbugs were dead before using it. Then the narrow view of the hardwood floor, lacquered cheaply at some point in the seventies or eighties to maintain some...
serial fiction: turkey out of joint
Part 4: The Recesses of the Gums (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)
“Are we there yet?”
“No. Stop complaining.”
“This is maybe the most awkward thing I’ve ever done.”
“Yeah, listen, that goes both ways. If someone pulls me over with you in the car I’m going to claim diplomatic immunity or something.”
“Wait, you’re not a citizen?”
“No, I—what do you care?”
“Making conversation.”
Her name was Delia...
serial fiction: turkey out of joint
Part 3 of 5 The Tip of the Tongue
(part 1) (part 2)
000lvidal000: @xubaihan si sabes nada, bailas mucho
The café was empty, save for the girl at the counter with a boxy dark grey cap on her head and a red checked keffiyeh around her neck. She was reading Franny and Zooey, making notes in the tiny margins with a purple Uniball pen that she occasionally used to brush her short hair back behind...
serial fiction: turkey out of joint
Part 2 of 5: The Whites of the Teeth (part 1)
“Ah, how do you say it, an adaptation.” He put one hand on the bar, the other on the girl’s shoulder. “An adaptation for our times. Pinocchio, you know, but, uh, he is a robot. And he just wants to be loved. But a girl robot. And he wants to be human. She. Wants to be human. And, uh, there is big boobs, so no one takes her seriously, they just want her...
serial fiction: turkey out of joint
Part 1 of 5: The Roof of the Mouth
On the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving I was expecting a call from my then-girlfriend, so when the phone buzzed I left the knife in the peanut butter and dove across the floor of the kitchen to unhinge it from its charger. In the seconds between my belt-less jeans falling down and my own tumble onto the linoleum, I felt vaguely graceful, silhouetted in the...
October 2009
1 post
on returning.
after some time, I am returning to this project anew. a formal re-opening will ensue.
May 2009
17 posts
further administrative notices
apologies as to the delay in updating. I’ve uprooted myself from washington and am currently in a suburban staging area, working on a grad school project and waiting to move my boxes into new york to start my new job. regular updating will recommence then. sorry.
on concise rejoinders to my thoughts in transit...
cec: I am driving through jersey & "thunder road" came on the radio, Bruce springsteen still sucks even in jersey, sorry
ahm: fuck ya jack... jerz rulz
neil young - “I believe in you” from...
link: the secret memoir of zhao ziyang, former... →
After I came to Beijing, my guiding principle on economic policy was not the single-minded pursuit of production figures, nor the pace of economic development, but rather finding a way for the Chinese people to receive concrete returns on their labor. That was my starting point. Growth rates of 2 to 3 percent would have been considered fantastic for advanced capitalist nations, but while our...
paul mccartney - “friends to go” from...
link: woody allen's "brief yet helpful guide to... →
one of my all-time favorite non-narrative pieces. originally published in the new york times, it was collected in “without feathers,” which also has two of allen’s plays in it and is worth every penny.
Miscellaneous methods of Civil Disobedience:
Standing in front of City Hall and chanting the word “pudding” until one’s demands are met.
Tying up traffic by...
on the concerns of late-middle-aged white men in...
overheard at lunch this afternoon, with two bespectacled white gentlemen in their late fifties as the players.
man #1: so, tell me about this spongebob thing. I really don't know anything about it.
man #2: well, you know, it's not like, not like that other one.
man #1: what, oh, teletubbies? oh, yes, I saw that.
man #2: well, no, with spongebob I don't think I can point to any one character that I'd find... you know... effeminate.
man #1: but what does "square pants" mean?
man #2: well, that's spongebob's last name. he's square. he's a sponge. he wears square pants.
gotta watch out for those hidden gays in children's television, you know.
bud powell - “tea for two” 10” -...
on the lenses through which I process all...
aw: c
aw: gotta talk to you
cec: ok
aw: what do we think about 2004 now
cec: a general disaster on all counts, a president defending a terrible war (that actually wasn't that unpopular that year) who totally fucking bombed his first debate spectacularly wound up clobbering his stiff, dumb opponent
aw: no no no no no i mean in terms of the red sox
link: short story: "before you say 'hello'," italo... →
Now that a network of automatic connections extends across entire continents and every subscriber can call every other subscriber at will without asking anybody’s help, I must resign myself to paying for this extraordinary freedom with an expense of nervous energy, repetition of movements, time-wasting, growing frustration. (And to paying for it again in the form of extremely expensive...
on the downsides to my peculiar eastern cultural...
cec: I have been corrupted thoroughly by chinese society
cec: japanese just sounds miserable to me
cec: what a gross language
aw: dude all languages are gross to robots
aw: CHEW ON THAT
cec: when china builds a robot it will be melodious and cultured
cec: or, you know, a bureaucratic nightmarish figure that runs on the blood of provincials, but who's counting
aw: RUIN YOUR FARMS TO MAKE STEEL FOR ME TO EAT
the fall - “garden” from their sixth...
administrative notes
soon after my cheeky discourse on sonic youth’s new record, my computer died. then I had a four-hour exam yesterday. suffice it to say, I’ve been out for a bit. apologies. regularly-scheduled programming will resume sometime after friday. in the meanwhile, I’ll try to at least keep you entertained.
sonic youth - “poison arrow” from the...
April 2009
29 posts
dinosaur jr - “I don’t want to go...
link: oh, no, a computer designed to compete on... →
my final tryout date is in may. I am so boned.
in which I use the gross new powers of the...
via twitter.
pr: Somehow, I don't think "civil rights for terrorists" is a winning strategy for the left
cec: @PatrickRuffini how about "enforcing rule of law?" or "abiding as per the treaty power to our obligations?" we are america, not zimbabwe.
pr: @imitation_sun I must have missed the ratification of the U.S. - al Qaeda treaty
cec: @PatrickRuffini but you couldn't have missed hamdan v. rumsfeld. terrorists must be brought to justice,but not w/an end-run around our laws.
-fin-
surprise, in under 140 characters you can concretely and legally refute arguments by those attempting to yoke the "social conservatives" and the dimmer libertarians together and call them a party.
the neighborhoods - “prettiest girl”...
on charmingly effective methods for refuting my...
ps: what does it say about me that I almost always like supporting characters on tv shows as people more than their respective protagonists?
cec: nothing.
ps: a lovably nihilistic way to end the day.
me, giving my first line from...
stanley lombardo reads book one of homer’s...
“[The fact that young people] were willing to shout down a police officer or...”
– azadeh moaveni, honeymoon in tehran (excerpt from michiko kakutani’s new york times review)
