I went downstairs and boys were sitting in the living room, but the television was off. A blueberry and the desktop computer were in play, but still, it was strangely quiet.
Yesterday I watched Perfume: the Story of a Murderer on Youtube, and today I read about ambient intimacy.
I wonder if this is the 21st century.
“We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.” (It always, always surprises me to realize that Foucault was writing in the 50s and 60s. There’s something very fin de siecle about him.)
Earlier when I walked downstairs the TV was on and “Ince Ince” by Selda was playing over a video game commercial – skateboarding or snowboarding or something like that. Driving rhythm, plaintive vocals, the song fit. Still, it was surreal.
I wonder if this is the appeal of Twitter – the most mundane moments in life are actually (increasingly?) bizarre and fascinating. They deserve some sort of attention. Distracted fragments of attention.
One of my housemates curses loudly, frequently, in communication with his friends. Right now he is singing loudly, off-key. Always something like jubilant and frustrated aggression in his outbursts. Today (when the TV was off) I asked him what he plans to do after high school. He said college, hopefully, if he isn’t too lazy. I said that it’s easier if you know what you’d like to do, and he agreed.
I always find myself itching to incite some sort of ambition, but I resist the impulse because on a personal level it’s none of my business. I wonder what it would take to instill some sort of civic and social responsibility. I wonder if this feeling is similar to the impulse that drives people to vote and make signs to “protect marriage.” What business is it of theirs? None personally, but if they see it as a societal value… Respecting another’s right to have values totally different from one’s own – is that wrong or right?
…Maybe it just means being subversive. That I don’t overtly impose my values because I know that that strategy would be ineffective.
I wonder what subversive homophobia would look like.
3 comments
Sunday 15 March, 02009 at 4:16 pm
Mat
Here’s my 21st Century moment of the day: Sitting in my house in Seattle, I’m watching (over the internet, of course) the Japanese national baseball team beating the Cuban national team in San Diego, while reading up on Cuban baseball, and I came across this passage:
I wondered whether the stadium was towards the edge or the center of the city, when I realized that I could probably find it on Google Maps, and sure enough, I did.
Monday 16 March, 02009 at 9:22 pm
thewaysof
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
“And if true, then they also know that an American journalist using a Canadian baseball nut as his cover and looking for Cuban baseball players worth stealing has found a rare rental car in Havana and talked a bright young Cuban into driving him across the country, unsupervised, with stops at various baseball games.”
I wonder how the bright young driver has fared since the publication of this article.
Actually there is a lot that could be said about this article… and baseball… and other sports… Too much to say!
(something about futbol)
Monday 16 March, 02009 at 8:10 am
Malaya
One of my dearest friends was in town this past week, and over drinks he commented, “You have a strange town here.” Our discussion involved some of thesame critiques you made– this strange egalitarian, PC elitism, an almost muted living. We also discussed the fragmentation of attention spans, and Twitter and its narcissism. Whatever happened to more meaningful interactions? Anywho, when are you leaving again? Shall we attempt a get-together before you depart?