an occasional feature

June

My aplogies to anyone who was looking for interesting conference updates. I just spent my first full hour by myself since Thursday this morning and I mostly sat, stared out the window, and returned all the email that's been accumulating. Here's some highlights of this crazy librarian conference...

• Free Speech Buffet where I got to meet a bunch of local small publishers and hobnob with all my favorite librarians. Notably good free food.
• Panel presentation on infoshops where I learned about all the weird ways people have of spreading and sharing information.
• Panel presentation on social responsiblity around the world where I got to listen to what progressive librarians in other countries are up to.
• Finding the Chinese Waffle restaurant walking distance from the conference where I got a complete, huge breakfast for $5 including tip!
• Making my own conference 'zine with assorted friends and watching people read & enjoy it.
• Taking pictures of other tattooed librarians.
• Austrian librarians taking pictures of my hair.
• Mastering the Metro.

6/24/98

Welcome emigres from Eric's journal! Here you'll find half the injuries and twice the illustrations.

I am preparing to go on a long vacation and I can tell it's about damned time based on the number of times I've had to dig through my recycling for the very important scraps of paper that comprise my organizational schema that, in my must-get-out-of-here craze, have appeared to be ordinary pieces of garbage.

6/23/98

I've been doing some cleaning up. You know, I think one of these times that I walk from my office to the kitchen balancing the seven or eight coffee mugs that have accumulated back there since last time I cleaned up I am going to trip and fall on some of the accumulated detritus that litters my floor and hurl forward onto the seven or eight coffee mugs which will then shatter and pierce my flesh in a zillion places killing me [hopefully] instantly. So, I guess I should clean this place up, huh?

6/21/98

Happy Solstice! I got up this morning at 4:15 so I could get to Gasworks Park and watch the sunrise. A bi-annual occurence that doesn't kill me. I brought blankets, coffee, and a friend and returned home to sleep for five more hours. Then I got up and went to the Fremont Solstice Fair where I handed out balloons to children for an hour or so. I have been so busy lately that I've gotten into the "got up, had an egg" style of reporting what I've been doing lately, my apologies.

Big news yesterday is that I went to a music store and bought CDs. I think this is the first time I've bought new music since 1992. I got Neutral Milk Hotel's first album [a mistake, I should have gotten their most recent one] and Two by The Downer Trio featuring the unforettable Joel R. L. Phelps. Why I am now in a whiny boy music craze is beyond me.

6/19/98

I have been crazy working this week. I'm working on a table of contents for the Encyclopedia of Corruption in American Politics, finishing up some research for the headhunters I work for, dealing with some family drama and trying to get my affairs in order before I leave town for three weeks.

The correct answer to the 6/15 parlor game is #4, I haven't finished the book yet.

6/15/98

It's time for everyone's favorite party game Four Truths and a Lie. See how much you know about me. One of these is false.

1. Today is my four-year wedding anniversary
2. Today I asked a guy to move to Pago Pago with me
3. Today I went shopping for underwear with my anarchist pal at The Bon Marche
4. Today I finished the book I am reading about Jungian analyses of alchemy
5. Today I carried flowers around that I'd gotten out of a dumpster

Guesses?

6/13/98

To celebrate my friend's being out of a job, we went to the drive-in in Everett last night and saw The Truman Show and Deep Impact. I remember drive-ins mostly from high school where they were the prime place for underage drinking, or from TV a la Happy Days where they were a make-out oasis. This drive-in was mostly filled with families and high schoolers who didn't look too drunk and people eating a lot of food. The sound was incredible, the screen was giant and it almost made the comet movie worth watching. Almost. This movie sucked, you know when they kill the scientist off in the first five minutes you are looking at a mean-spirited film. Anyhow, it was good that we were in a drive-in because my friend and I could make fun of the movie and laugh very loudly and we weren't bugging anyone [once we rolled the windows up]. Here's a picture of the tidal wave which is the only thing worth watching about this film.

6/12/98

I don't much care for that new AROspace club. It's like hanging out in a trendy airport. Art and Revolution, my ass. Though I did like seeing Diamond-Fist Werny there for free. Am I the only one who is reminded of Gilligan every time I see Todd Werny?

6/8/98

My quest for a hippie mop boy may have ended! My pal Ryan is tired of paying rent and may take up residence in my back room in exchange for light housekeeping. Unfortunately, he is making a face in this picture but he really is quite lovely, and pleasant, and we wear the same size pants. He works up at Aurora Cycle and is taking pottery classes at the UW this Summer. I met him when he was my downstairs neighbor in Fremont a few years ago.

I broke the news to Jack tonight since Jack will be staying at my place while I'm vacationing in Vermont for most of July. He seems okay about it, as long as Ryan helps him mop...

6/6/98

I have spent the last three days doing large amounts of work and spending large amounts of time avoiding same. It's really curious to watch yourself approaching the household chores you never have time to do when you're just hanging out at home with crazed zeal once a deadline is approaching.

Almost as interesting as watching myself write in the second person.

I did see two SIFF films in the past three days. One was Bulgarian and kinda long and one was Spanish and kinda short. Both were worth watching, moreso than Fear and Loathing which was visually interesting [and well acted] but otherwise bereft unless watching a buncha drugged-out guys wreck stuff is your idea of a good time.

6/3/98

All I'm saying is that if whatever you do with your coffee in the morning winds up getting more of it on the floor than in your cup, you need to rethink your early morning coffee procedures....

Results are trickling in!

• It looks like a seal trying to eat a crab (or an exploded cigar).
• It is a bird with its beak sewn shut so it cannot report what it has seen.
• I strongly sense the soul of Groucho Marx. Often the soul of huperits transform into mystical birds and head to the tree/vine/manure pile of eternity. Your visiting sufi monsters obviously had been portioning off aspects of grouchos soul and leaving them behind in hope that his spirit would bring a bit of absurdity to the monotony of madness in our garbled insanity known as reality here on P3. I'm sure Groucho and the sufi monsters are in cahoots and you will soon reap the mysteries this omen...
• It's a pigeon eating its own feet.

6/1/98

Nothing has happened yet this month except that I got woken up by tremendous sidewalk-crushing machinery crushing the sidewalk outside my building at 9 am. I am going to start this month with a puzzle... when the sufi monsters who were in the hall last weekend left, they left behind many puzzling artifacts. Most of this was in the form of food and trash, but they also left this block with this obscure glyph. What could it be? It seems to be something for children... Keep in mind that these people are mystics. I will be taking suggestions.