Schrodinger's Cat

anything but homework

Further thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11, though I'd have to see again to give a properly thought out commentary: I thought a couple of dodgy bits were the pre-invasion Iraq scenes with the people looking all happy (its not like the Baath party were a good government to live under), and the taking the piss out of the coalition of the willing by showing Morocco, Costa Rica etc - but not Britain, Spain, Australia or Japan. It was good the scrupulous avoidance of the footage of planes flying into the towers though, instead focussing on the people's reactions. I wanted to know what George W did after the 7 minutes in the classroom. And it would have been good to have some explanation of why Osama bin Laden hates America (as far as my limited understanding goes, it's because of America using Saudi Arabia as a base during the first gulf war - that can't be all surely?), and what were the supposed links between Hussein & bin Laden (even if they were bogus - aren't they enemies?).

Just occurred to me that this post's probably got 'keywords' in it which could bring it up to be read by some government official... hi there.

Overall I found Bowling for Columbine more interesting, but that's because that film took a more speculative sociological view about wider issues in American culture, whereas a story about corruption among 'the elite' isn't really surprising - my own view is that anyone who wants to be president probably has to be hopelessly corrupt to stand a chance (hmm, I wonder how Frank Zappa would have done if he hadn't come down with cancer and had run for president as he said he would...).

It was also interesting that the American soldiers used the Bloodhound Gang to get themselves pumped up for battle. I used to hate that band at high school. And then there was Britney Spears talking about it being best to follow 'our' president - hang on, isn't she British? Those two scenes confirmed some of my suspicions about mainstream pop music presenting dodgy ideologies. These days though pop's pretty irrelevant to me. I do remember when I was 19 and living in my first flat having stereo battles with one of the flatmates - she kept putting Bloodhound Gang on in the lounge and I'd put on Einstürzende Neubauten (the liner notes said "the Neubauten ethos can be summarised in a phrase: 'to be no part of it'"). The other flatmate was a big Frank Zappa fan... I'm rambling.

I've been listening to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks the last few days (my pattern is to listen to two or three albums constantly for a week or so then move on to others); maybe explains my melancholic outlook the last few days. It's a deeply sad album, in a quite beautiful way. I don't know if I could ever write that well. It's an interesting developmen for Dylan's writing in that the characters in the songs are not just caricatures with funny names ('Mack the Finger said to Louie the King / I got 40 red white & blue shoestrings' etc) but much more like 'real' people with emotional lives. He does some really interesting stuff switching from third to first person and moving around in time in the songs (he said the album was 'different because it has yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the one room'). There's a sense of it all taking place in some other period in history, maybe the old west or even biblical times.

Rambling again. Any excuse to avoid homework. I guess it's something to do with me needing to develop my writing past the caricature level. The last short story I finished was quite fragmentary in form. There's so much to learn with writing, I feel like I'm at the absolute beginner stage. There was a sentence about soldiers drinking wine to overcome fear before a battle - could be a very powerful scene if I could describe it well. Would work well on film. In fact there's an idea for a short film... Ever see the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth?

There's a lot of stuff that I'm just scratching the surface of (hence title of my first album). Will have to somehow bring it all together in a way that could provide entertainment to someone. But first I've got this homework assignment to do. That's the one thing I dislike about this course, there's never any real free time because there's always something due in the background which gets distracting. Part of the reason I didn't do too well at high school (apart from English) was that I was philosophically opposed to homework - home-time should be free-time - so didn't do it on principle. I'd like to have a job where I could concentrate and put my energy into it while I'm at work, and then be free when I go home to think about other things. I guess this whole narrative-building thing that I do through the albums & stories etc is mainly a psychological defence mechanism against anomie, but I can live with that...

Postscript, 10:25am: I think I've screwed up. I'm at the Regional Council for my weekly work experience - I rescheduled it this week from Thursday to Tuesday so I could go for an overnight tramp on Wednesday/Thursday. But my friend Dave who I'm going with says he can only do a one-day tramp on Wednesday. And the work I have to do here at the council involves writing about a proposal for a wetland at Wainuiomata and about flood protection along the Hutt River - and the decisions about which plans to go with won't be made until Thursday so can't really say a lot. I would have been better off spending today on my Treaty of Waitangi assignment and coming to the council on Thursday as usual. As it is I'll probably have the assignment done on Thursday, three days late rather than one. Aaarrgh!

Post-postscript, midday: OK I reached a compromise and have taken the afternoon off from the council to work on the assignment. I wasn't getting much done there this morning anyway. Back on Thursday. Now am I going to waste the afternoon blogging or am I going to get some work done?

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duende

I’m feeling a bit sad, also maybe coming down with a cold. I got the majority of the work done for last week, just the Treaty of Waitangi project to go – roughly equivalent to a decent size undergrad essay, to do from start-finish in 2-3 days. Of course the assignment was handed out ages ago but doing it before the last minute would have been unnatural.

I went and saw Fahrenheit 9/11 this afternoon, bit of a mixed bag. I saw Roger & Me in fourth form (the same English teacher who introduced me to Bob Dylan showed it to us), and used to stay up late on Tuesday nights to watch TV Nation when it was on, so I guess I’ve followed Michael Moore for a while. It was interesting that with the new film he’s trimmed back the humour – to stop being funny can be a powerful technique when humour’s what the audience expect (the second half of Trainspotting springs to mind). The long quote from George Orwell’s 1984 at the end seemed inappropriate though given that the book is a work of fiction, albeit a great one with some powerful insights (or as John Downie tells his classes, “truth is stranger than fiction but fiction is truer”). The last few days I’ve had the (rare this year) pleasure of reading a book in my spare time, one of Orwell’s earlier non-fiction works Down and Out in Paris and London. Have to say I really dig the guy’s writing. I also got out from the library Nathaniel West’s Day of the Locust and Janet Frame’s Faces in the Water, which I may even find time to read if I’m lucky.

Six weeks to go on the course. After that I’ve nominated Dunedin as my place to go for three weeks work experience (& chance to play gig at Arc Café), then after that roam the South Island for a bit. Have my summer holiday early before the tourist season starts, go over to Fiordland and walk the Kepler Track could be a plan. After that, who knows? Anyone want to come with me?

I’ve also been wondering about travel plans for next year, maybe change continents and go to Canada/America rather than Asia first?

After the movie I went to the party on Abel Smith Street, it was good to see a bit of community happening, and bands in a lounge. Parties often leave me feeling down though, I’m not very good at socializing in a party environment. And Elisa was there which brought the usual rush of sadness. I’d been thinking about her at the movie. A couple of the Iraq scenes brought tears to my eyes - I never used to cry at movies before Elisa left me, maybe I had to experience loss even if only on a small personal level to feel empathy for others? I do feel like I’ve changed in a few ways in the last couple of years – I’m less shy and less prone to depression, though not entirely over either, so that must be healthy.

There’s a big difference between depression and sadness. Depression is a dull boredom and overall unhappiness, a leaden weight which slows everything down to a crawl and drains away all energy. Sadness on the other hand is a richly textured emotional world, albeit a painful one. Tears can be cleansing - in depression there are none.

As for shyness, it's not an issue for the rest of tonight. Bedtime now, I don’t feel up to going out again. It’s been cold the last couple of weeks, makes it more tempting to stay at home. I had a wonderful time on Thursday night, I was in town and met a couple of people from my class. We ended up at Go Bar on Courtenay Place. Among all the usual disdainful glances and conscientious avoidances of eye contact from the women there, one girl smiled and got me to hold her drink. We danced and pretty soon were hugging and kissing each other. This went on for three hours, and by the end had become very affectionate and tender - hardly sexual at all, focusing on the inherent pleasures. That kind of thing would never have happened to me a few years ago, it requires eye contact. We went around the back near the toilets where the music was quieter to talk briefly, and another couple went into a toilet together presumably to have sex. That just seemed tacky. I didn’t get to go home with Rachel though, she got in a taxi to Roseneath and I was left to walk home in the cold rain to Newtown, my jacket having been stolen or otherwise lost inside. Could be why I’m getting a cold.

I’m getting up in the morning, weather permitting, to go out to Paekakariki and plant some native trees. It’s almost the end of the planting season, so could be my last chance this year. I’ve planted a ngaio, a koromiko, a taupata and several harakeke (flaxes) in the section at my flat though, could be worth coming back in five or ten years to see. I’ve also got a study week this week – still more than enough work to do but no classes. Wednesday & Thursday should be for tramping. Hope the weather’s alright.

Postscript, 11.30am: Woke up this morning to the sound of rain outside and generally feeling like crap. My nose & throat are clogged up and I'm sore all over (though this is partly explained by my starting a new gym programme yesterday). Think I'll have a day inside to read books & recover. Should be plenty of outdoor time next week - if all goes well there's tramping Wednesday/Thursday, checking possum traps Friday and planting trees Saturday.

Post-postscript, Monday: Hardly left the house Sunday, stayed in reading. Threw lots of hot lemon drinks at the hold and seem to have beaten it into submission.

it snowed the other day in wellington

Odd week, I guess I'm halfway through the workload. The Destiny's Church Rally was a strange & disturbing sight. Thanks to Iona & Fi for writing more & better about it than I could. Although Fi, isn't feeling pity for them for their hate-filled ways just the same as them praying for your homosexuality to go away? My own sexual orientation is boringly hetero but I was a bit shaken by all the fascist parallels.

Although Wellington's been seeing fascist scenes recently anyway - the disgrace at the Jewish cemetary and the triumphal parades for LOTR. Peter Jackson seems a hell of a lot more a benevolent dictator than Adolf or Benito though, the guy is a genuine artist. But there's the whole unity organised around a strong leader figure going on. The Nazi slogan 'blood and soil' could be an apt description of the LOTR aesthetic. Then again Jackson's probably more of a Roman general than a fascist dictator. I had to get out of that scene. I was at Bodega last night, met a guy I vaguely knew who said he was now working on King Kong. He added, out of the blue, "we don't use condoms".

Personally I think if HIV arrived in Wellington via the film industry that would be a horrible tragedy - but I'd laugh if the cosy insiders all start coming down with crabs.

I was also pleased to see in Illusions magazine John Downie's piece (my old theatre & film lecturer) about Return of the King. It's the first piece of writing about the films that I've seen (aside from the occasional bad review overseas) that's taken a remotely critical angle. The films are great in so many senses of the word and there's plenty more yet to be written about them, but it's nice that one little dissenting voice has popped up amidst all the hagiography. Am I not alone in thinking that the media's taken an astonishingly one-sided view of the LOTR phenomena? As Downie said, ROTK signifies nothing outside of itself - the world has been turned inside out by the films, no longer art reflecting life but life itself (in the sense of the wider culture of this country) being molded to reflect a piece of art.

I'm off to court again today. Defended hearing this time where they plead not guilty so it could go either way. Then another cultural story to write in the afternoon. And a letter asking for official information . And haven't even started my Treaty of Waitiangi assignment. And my shorthand still sucks.

On the other hand, I've got a bunch of stuff finished. I mailed in my script to Radio NZ for their Open Story Season, and have written the other stories I need to do for now. I've reached the course target of 40 published. But I'm getting bags under my eyes. Hopefully go tramping next week, that's a thought to hold onto.

And it's Dad's birthday today, Happy Birthday Dad.

rainy weekend

I went to court yesterday, got all dressed up in my navy blue pinstripe suit which I bought for gigs. I had to look on the internet to find out how to tie a tie. I went to see the morning’s indictable hearings where jail sentences of 1-3 years were handed out. The cases included:

• A 23 year old guy who had escaped from police custody after going into a “tinny house”, demanding drugs and attacking the people there when they said there weren’t any (it wasn’t clear whether it actually was a tinny house). The occupants fled so he stole some Playstation games. He was arrested but escaped from the police station, stole a courier van and was on the run for 37 days - some of his friends are going to be angry at him as they're getting charged with harbouring.

• A 37 year old who burgled houses because the voices in his head told him to. He would wander into properties and if caught would claim to be looking for lemons. This actually happened at my flat a few months ago, so maybe it was the same guy. Newtown was one of his areas. Lucky I was there so nothing got taken.

• A 44 year old who had only had two years without a conviction (one of which was spent in jail) since 1976. He seemed to pretty much have no life, except for a daughter who he greatly missed.

In all it was kind of depressing to watch, especially with the lawyers joking about it all beforehand. The same people just keep coming back so for many the prison system is worse than useless in terms of rehabilitating them.
In the afternoon I went to the Pacific Architecture Colloquium at Te Papa to get a Pacific cultural story. A lot of it went over my head, I’ll have to talk to the organizers on Monday to get a fairly general sort of piece.

Next week’s full on with another day at court, having to go out to Porirua for a council meeting, another committee meeting in Wellington, anti-racism forum at parliament, have to somehow come up with a Maori cultural story, and also a script to hand in to Radio NZ on Wednesday.

The script is something I can do over the weekend, and I also need to start reading up for my Treaty of Waitangi assignment. It’s a busy week but by the end of it I should have done the bulk of the work for the journalism diploma – so just have to try and get shorthand up to speed and get ready for the final assessments. And there’s also my piece of investigative journalism which can be a good challenge for September.

It’s recently occurred to me that I’ll have to leave Wellington soon. That’s OK, Wellington’s a good town but there’s something oppressive about it in summer and the arts scene winds down a bit with people away. Going to work on a provincial newspaper is a common path for journalism graduates – if I go to a small town it’d have to be somewhere on the coast. I could go tramping and do creative writing, play my guitar, concentrate on getting music out through the internet, it’d be alright. If I could have a girlfriend I’d be pretty much happy. I just applied for a public awareness job with DOC in Christchurch which goes til June – that’d be great and I’m actually quite well qualified for it by now.

Another good option would be move up the Kapiti coast and work part-time on the newspaper and part-time on the conservation project – except that’s just a scenario I came up with, whether the newspaper has any vacancies is another question.

I’ve been feeling a bit down for the last few days, probably all the deadline pressure + not enough exercise. And I’ve been getting nosebleeds. I had a quiet Friday night, read a book in one sitting (Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – about 100 pages), had a bath, went to bed early. I realized around 9pm that I’d missed a gig at Photospace that I was meaning to go to. Oh well, too late to worry about it now. I see a swim this afternoon in my near future. And maybe I’ll get around to seeing Farenheit 9/11. And work on my script. Sounds like a plan.

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progress report

I just came down with a nosebleed so am typing this one-handed. It's been a worse than useless day for my coursework - I went to the Pacific Advisory Group meeting but the Pacific Advisory Group never showed up. Is that what being on island time means? There was no cancellation announced, and there was a buffet table set so someone else thought the meeting was on. I got the slight consolation of a couple of olives and a bit of cheese. The nonevent is doubly annoying because it was going to double as a Pacific cultural story and a local government story. Now I have to find one more of each to cram into my already overloaded schedule.

Not that you'd guess I was busy from the last couple of days. Yesterday I deliberately took the afternoon off - with the storm it's so easy to stay indoors - enjoying time to myself at the flat. This flat is great, I'll be sad to give it up in October. I stayed in the lounge and did some guitar practice, found an ending to the short story which I'd been working on v e r y s l o w l y since May, and wrote a new song ("Metaphysical Girls #7"). Today was less productive but didn't involve coursework either.

I also bought the new album by The Fall yesterday - it's entitled The Real New Fall LP. It's brilliant. The Fall were pretty popular in NZ in the early 80s but somewhere along the line faded into obscurity, but they're still going (& never stopped). Their late-90s albums - The Light User Syndrome, Levitate, The Marshall Suite, Post-Nearly Man, The Unutterable - are great but this one marks another change of direction: the electronic elements have been pared back and Mark E. Smith no longer slurs his vocals. It sounds like he's given up the alcohol. Smith's the only original member of the band left by this point, I didn't recognise any of the musicians, but it definitely sounds like The Fall. It's not a radical departure, just great new songs. It's got raw guitars, insanely catchy riffs that stretch out forever, eloquence & humour, plenty of dirt, all the elements that make them the greatest British rock band of all time - not excluding The Beatles.

Nosebleed stopped, time for bed. Early start tomorrow, have to make up for lost time...

Postscript, Thursday afternoon: Work experience at the Regional Council today, where I was counting on getting a Maori cultural story done. One of the Maori advisors was away sick and the other didn't have any ideas. Pressure load increases. The good news is I got an extension for the Treaty of Waitangi project over the weekend. So an even exchange - still an intense time.

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mad fortnight begins / cold snap

Less than a fortnight til the deadlines come crashing down and also til the start of spring - and it's turned cold here suddenly. It is still winter I suppose so not really surprising, but we've been having spring weather and blossoms appearing recently. My parents were going to Wellington this morning so I got a lift with them but we couldn't get over the Rimutaka Hills because of snow and slips. I'd never seen the hills so white. I had to get the late morning train, which goes under the ranges. Dunedin usually gets snow in winter but now the city's on holiday because the roads are shut.

Mixed news with the coursework progress. I've drawn up a schedule of council committee meetings and court hearings to get through those stories, and hopefully a journalist friend can help me find a couple of Maori and Polynesisan leads for my cultural pieces. The problem is the research assignment on the Treaty of Waitangi. It's pretty much the equivalent of a reasonable sized undergrad essay, I can do the stories and could tackle that in the fortnight but all together I'm worried that something somewhere's going to end up a mediocre rush job, which would be a pity as I wouldn't learn anything useful from it. Lecturer was not keen on giving extensions when I suggested it a week ago, will have to ask again more firmly tomorrow. Even if I could hand the research assignment in after the weekend rather than before would make a noticeable difference to the quality of it. And there's the script to assemble for Radio NZ by the 25th as well!

I hate being rushed, I just don't find that kind of pressure helpful (some people thrive on it). It was curious how I got nearly twice as many stories written each week at the Kapiti Observer (a relaxed workplace, twice weekly paper) as at the Wairarapa Times Age (a daily, where I put in some 12+ hour days).

Anyway, why is it that when I have to get up early in the morning I always find it hard to get to sleep?

paraskevidekatriaphobia

I finished my fortnight's work at the Kapiti Observer. $9.60 an hour's not a great way to get rich. When I finish my postgrad diploma it'd go up to something like $12. Journalists have a phrase "going to the darkside" which means moving to a career in PR, where there's actually some money to be made. I've gone about it in a roundabout way, if anything I probably started in PR working for DOC last year - I was on $16/hr then. Still, $328 a week is better than student allowance - now I can pay off my police fine (grumble grumble).

The lines between PR and journalism seem to be getting blurred anyway. I've been doing work experience at the Greater Wellington Regional Council on Thursdays, and wrote a press release for them about the new information panels at Queen Elizabeth Park which include a couple of stanzas by local poets. Then, at the Kapiti Observer I got the task of writing a news story based on my own press release - kind of an easy job.

The Kapiti Observer was a good workplace, but Fridays got a bit weird. The first week there was that fatal car crash to take pictures of (it turned out the driver who caused the accident was on her learner license), and this Friday - the 13th - I came down sick. It started off as hayfever on Thursday then turned into something flu-like on Friday. So after finishing work I got the train up to my parents' place in Masterton to get over it.

Masterton's strange, it feels isolated from the rest of the world. I suppose it's better than them living in Eketahuna. I find the constant presence of radio and/or tv here a bit annoying. And we've got aunts & uncles & cousins & new baby over for dinner. I'm having a very domesticated day. The good news is that my temperature went down overnight and while I'm still a bit clogged up I should be OK by Monday.

Just as well because I have an insane amount of work to do in the next fortnight for my course. I got three stories out of the eleven specialist stories and two research assignments done at the Kapiti Observer - so a reasonable start, but the workload is still kind of intimidating. And my shorthand still sucks. Best not to think about it and plunge in. That's what I get for focussing on my Creative NZ application rather than coursework throughout July.

It's just as well the end is in sight for the course, what I really want to do is go tramping and chill out on beaches and get back into creative writing. Nothing seems to come at the moment, maybe because I've temporarily reprogrammed my brain into coursework mode so can't be distracted by other stuff. I'm sure the above entry looks pretty banal. Such is life. I'm not in the position of making a living off artwork - in fact I run at a loss - so need some kind of career to subsidise it. Could be a struggle though if $9.60's as far as I can go...

There is, however, a good gig to look forward to on September 10th.

Self-portrait, August 11th 2004. Result of having a job with access to a digital camera. Taken at the Ames St reserve at Paekakariki after sunset, where I spent January/February cutting out boxthorn (a noxious weed). I went to see how the place looks now and found it had been colonised by boneseed (a different noxious weed).

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Postscript - Dinner conversation topics about which I knew absolutely nothing included the Olympics, wine, breast feeding, the medical profession, mortgage rates, and Fiji. Maybe I'm just out of touch? At least the meal was good.

new recipe / first week as journalist

Ok the recipe first, it's a simple theme that I improvised successfully tonight: Make chai tea in a saucepan, stew x quantity of apples in it. Serve with cloves & honey.

I've had one of my semi-regular changes of direction for the last week and been working at the Kapiti Observer in Paraparaumu. It's a good workplace, pace just about right, and fairly enjoyable job. It's a twice-weekly paper so I like the rhythm better than the Wairarapa Times Age with its jarring 9.30am deadline every day. It's also been a good way of getting my story count up.

As it turns out getting to 40 stories published for the course is probably the least of my worries. There's a major load of work due on August 27. 4 court stories, 3 local govt, biculturalism project, 4 cultural stories and an official information act request. None of which I've started on, and the stuff I've been doing doesn't fit into those categories. Also there's the radio NZ creative writing project to submit a script for by August 25th - so busy busy busy this month.

I was having a good & fairly relaxing time up the Kapiti coast. I wouldn't mind spending another summer there, this time get a flat up there. Wellington's at arm's length and the beaches are better there. I'm due for a bush excursion pretty soon too.

Today was a bit weird - on my way back from a 'soft' story in Otaki (local museum opening) I went past the site of a fatal car crash, three cars involved. I got some photos and talked to a policeman. One of the more experienced journalists got better pictures & info but I suppose it was practice for me. I'm not hugely bothered by it though I can't deny feeling slightly shaky since. I could post the photos on here (no dead or injured people visible) but that would probably just be in bad taste & not achieve anything. Have a look at the Kapiti Observer on Monday if you want to know (and see some of my work).

Getting back into town I met up with Mike & had dinner (hence dessert recipe above) and a jam. I was rusty at first but it got really good when a couple of other guys turned up, there was guitar, acoustic bass guitar, piano, percussion and autoharp going.

Going through town later I went in to Good Luck bar, and it kind of sucked. Music not great and I didn't make any connection with anyone there. At least I didn't waste any money on the place. I thought I saw Elijah Wood, the little brat. There were a couple of gorgeous looking women who did the chatting to me til the boyfriend shows up game. I've done quite a bit of walking tonight, hence on computer at 3am.

Glad it's the weekend...

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full moon weekend

Well I got the Creative NZ application handed in, all date stamped at 5 minutes to the cutoff time. Chris Knox weighed in at the 11th hour with a letter of support, so my chances have improved from 1% to 5% at a guess.

Great weather this weekend, the deciduous trees are getting leaf buds and my vege garden is full of food. There are some promising looking cabbages on the way. We've moved from mid- to late-winter. I made an industrial quantity of vegetable korma for dinner on Saturday, should last a few days (we'll probably be sick of it by then). I also planted a couple of flaxes and a koromiko in the back yard, and went for a good long bike ride around the bays. I recently discovered that nasturtiums are edible so I stopped along the way to snack on them and native spinach, and kawakawa leaves as breath fresheners. On the other hand I saw two of my old summer enemies, boneseed and boxthorn along the way. I'll tell the regional council.

I also played two gigs on Saturday and Sunday, both little five-minute improvisations. I don't want to repeat myself and do stuff off the albums and I don't have any substantial new compositions yet so I think what I'm doing is going for transparency, opening up the works in progress, doing my demo versions in public. I might have a new album in me this year, not sure yet. I don't want to pressure myself. Loose Autumn Moans I'm pretty happy with but I went through some rough times to make it. Now I want to get back into making art for the pleasure of it again.

I made one of my occasional musical breakthroughs on Saturday evening - had a go on my flatmate's violin and for the first time ever got a vaguely good sound out of it.

It's good to have the application out of the way - now I'm having another change of direction and going to work at the Kapiti Observer in Paraparaumu for a fortnight. One of the journalists is on holiday so I'm filling in, and getting paid for something should be a nice change. It was good to have a weekend to unwind so I'm looking forward to it. I need some money - the only sour note in the weekend is that I got a police fine for not having a front light on my bike. I've got a red one on the back which works perfectly. $55 that I didn't have anyway down the toilet. I'll put it on the student loan, maybe I'll be able to pay for it in 20 years. Grumble grumble...

Postscript: Monday 1am

Love triangle bullshit. I got passed on by female third of triangle this evening, explicitly for being a nice guy. In favour of an old friend. The horoscope today for Sagittarius was surprisingly accurate. The veil between worlds thins a bit at these times and such things as horoscopes become valid. I'll just tell myself I'm better than the political bullshit and not mind. But what does it mean? I should be nastier to more people as a way of scoring women? Or refuse to partake?

I also got a ticket for not having a front light on my bike last night - the rear one's fine. And it's the full moon. Beginning of Springtime. The great god Pan holds sway as a jester.

Postpostscript 1:13am

And I had a go on a drumkit this evening and got my arms and legs working together for the first time. This is great, full moon's got its tradeoffs but let's just say fuck yeah.

Postpostpostscript 1:24am

Old friend and I disagreed on merits of Thomas Pynchon vs Salman Rushdie. Guess which side I was on?

And I've been listening to Tonight's the Night by Young Neil again recently. That and the Joe Morris trio - forkin weekid.