Monthly Archives: January 2008

Plastic Man

Well today certainly is/was/has been lazy. Yesterday at least I had laundry to do, today not really. In fact one high point of the day was cleaning up a broken pint glass. I had one pint of Guinness last night and washed the glass, but this morning as I was getting something from the dish rack the glass fell shattering in so many invisible pieces. Of course I wasn’t wearing any footwear, no slippers, no sneakers. And I know only a handful, or less than a handful have been to this apartment. There are white ceramic tiles throughout the apartment. Other apartments in the building have hardwood floors, my apartment was the one where the landlord decided to try an experiment with tiling the floors.

Because of that, anything that might break if it hits the floor, will break when that happens. At least having a wood floor, you might get some bounce. Too bad the only way to drink Guinness is from a pint glass. Most everything that we use to eat or drink from is unbreakable. Plastic tumblers and unbreakable Corning Ware plates. I would like to think I got all the shards of glass, but you never know. I’ve swept quite a bit, but transparent objects on a white background don’t seem to appear to the naked eye. The naked foot perhaps.

Last night Bill was at his parent’s apartment clearing out a room for the home health care attendant. Apparently it’s a room full of crap that needs to be thrown out. He was going through some boxes and what her found was mainly years old junk mail. So he’s been going through it and shredding wherever his father’s name shows up. It’s been a very emotional week for Bill, fraught with tears. He’s been spending most nights here, trying to avoid going back to the apartment, and facing the inevitable. With Medicare taking Bill’s father in account, sooner or later Bill’s old bedroom would have to be cleaned out, from being a storage room to being a bedroom again. There’s also the situation of if this person, the home health care aide, will they be able to deal with Bill’s mother? Will Bill’s mother be able to deal with the aide? If it doesn’t work out with one, would another aide be sent in their place? These are questions that will be revealed next week.

Tonight is Chaz’ Holiday Party. He used to throw it with Kathe his estranged wife, but there was no party last year and I guess enough people mentioned how they missed the parties, so he’s doing it solo this year. I don’t think Kathe is going to be there. She does subscribe to this blog, maybe she knows about it since I think I mentioned it the other day. It would be nice to see here since I haven’t seen her in a while. I expect other faces from the past should be there as well. My former room mate William will be there as well as this woman Marianne who used to come onto me quite hard. She’s nice but given the chance would monopolize my time throughout the party. Chaz said the soirée starts around 7:00 and 8:00 sounds like a good time to arrive. Still have to figure out how to get there. A cab perhaps, or maybe a walk. If I’m going to take a cab, maybe I’ll split one with Rand and Lisa. Rand mentioned that they were going the other day, so maybe I should give them a call.

Just called, they made other plans, so if it’s cabbage, it’s a solo cab ride. Not going to be a late night anyhow since tomorrow I’m helping Bill with the spare room clear out.

Love Letters

Well today was a great big nothing day, though I did things. I didn’t sleep in too late, but I did wake up and send an email being uncertain about the office. Tom Chin responded that the office was closed. So there was no need to worry about that and I went back to bed for about two more hours. So technically I was up at 8:00 and then got out of bed at 10:00, being a glass half fool most of the time I would say I was up early. And if that’s putting me to sleep, then it’s probably doing the same to you. That had to be one of the most boring lines I have ever written.

Sometimes when I write it just flows, and other times it’s just chiseling away at a giant hunk of marble. Or Jello. That would be more like it. Trying to create a sculpture out of a block of Jello. It certainly is a surreal image. Perhaps it’s been done already. Perhaps I am the first. I once thought I was the first when back in the day while putting out a fanzine with Rand and assorted sordid friends, I came up with ‘Mass is the opiate of religion’, a twist on that quote by Marx, Karl I believe, or Gummo, that ‘Religion is the opiate of the masses’. Now somewhere between when Marx said it and the mid 1980’s, I’m sure someone, somewhere came up with it before I did. It’s an irresistible pun, a black hole of puns perhaps. Or maybe, it’s just not funny.

I’ve been writing a long time. Not just this blog, but for years I’ve had carried around journals and notebooks. Rarely filled. If it weren’t for this gosh darned Internet, I wouldn’t be writing at least 500 words a day and it is an online diary, sometimes disguised as a newspaper column, sometimes like a letter and sometimes like litter. And it is a discipline, to write everyday. I owe that to Bill and Lewis Lapham.

Plenty of people suggested doing what Lapham said that night in October 2005, but when he said it, it really rang true. Why did I listen to Lapham and not other people? Well other people suggest that I do things and since they’re generally bad and if physically possible, might involve hurting myself. Lapham never suggested fucking myself so his suggestion was heard quite loudly. Well that and the microphone feedback came across loud and somewhat clear.

I do enjoy writing especially when it’s easy. I guess I opted out on writing when I decided to write about writing rather than actually come up with something or reporting on my daily activities. But it goes to show how low key my day was. I did laundry, some grocery shopping , cleaned the bathroom a bit and read. That’s about it, stretched over eight hours. Where is the glamour?

I did watch Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, and it was good. I feel the need to watch it again though, since I couldn’t get somethings in it. I was distracted a couple of times, so a repeat viewing could come in handy. It has a strange feel to it, but then again it is David Cronenberg. Weekend plans so far, Chaz’s holiday party tomorrow and Sunday, helping Bill clean out his old bedroom so the home health care attendant will have a room to live in.

Till tomorrow, Cheers!