--A few hours after waking, I started thinking: we need an Interzone, we need a Tangiers.  There are no more little alcoves of real freedom in the world.
        In William S. Burroughs's day, people went to Tangiers because it was warm there, and cheap and there was no interference from the law.  Burroughs called it the INTERnational ZONE, or Interzone.  The place where everyone could meet, be themselves, do whatever they liked, and be happy.
        Naturally, there were some dark, evil corners of the Interzone, like there are everywhere-- but there were also some very good parts, as well.
        In fact, the Interzone seemed to amplify both the good and the bad.  The parts that were evil were as blackly evil as any urban slum on earth (if not worse), but the parts that were good were correspondingly wonderful.  You just needed to know where to go.
        This is gone.  And it was almost a real, true, functioning anarchy-- from all reports, anyway, and reports are biased, yes.  But, regardless, it's gone.
        Tangiers have been gone for decades.
        And now, the only Interzone we have is the Internet.
        And that's hardly free, or even very welcoming.
        And escaping into the Internet is only temporary.  When all's said and done, you still have to go back to society.
        Because if you don't, your eyes start to hurt.

--Pacifism is the luxury of people who already have what they want.  Pacifism is the luxury of the middle classes, and the upper classes, or of those who are being gratified by the media.
        Martin Luther King was only a pacifist because the American news was watching him.
        Ghandi was a pacifist because the British media gave him what he wanted.
        Morality is a lifestyle choice of the rich and famous.
        All you need to do to see this is watch any newsfeed from any part of the world, for only about 15 minutes.

--The saying "money can't buy happiness" was invented by rich people and priests who didn't want the poor people to take all their stuff.
        You tell the poor people that money can't buy happiness and then they feel vindicated in their poverty and so do nothing to accrue wealth and power-- because, they will then tell themselves, their poverty is what makes them happy.  Because if they weren't poor, starving and freezing and lacking stuff and wellbeing, they'd be unhappy like all those fat rich people up there on the hill.  You know the ones, the ones with all that heat, food, cool stuff, and the ability to buy books, purchase information, and then actually intellectually grow and become better people.  This is a criticism that applies to both capitalism and socialism.

--I'm actually stunned by how many people in their early 20s are married.  Now that I'm back at University, I'm confronted with this fact day after day, and it's, well, stunning.  Don't these people have anything better to do than get married?  Are they that desperate to lock themselves into domestic roles, when they should be out there actually experiencing life, doing things and, well, just having a good time?  I mean, I know if you get married you get to fuck more (in theory), and I know if you get married you get to have someone to share the burden of your own tedium and ennui, but there's more to life than that, right?  Or is there?
        Because if you're getting married just so you can have sex, that's pathetic.
        And if you're getting married just because you need someone to share the burden of your life, that's also pathetic.
        And if you're getting married because you have to because you're a certain age and that's what expected-- that's also pathetic.
        And if you're getting married because, well, that's what you do, right...?  (Insert shrug.)  I dunno....
        That's despicable.
        This isn't to rule out love.  But I find it hard to believe that there are that many people out there in their 20s who are really in love, who really even know what they want.
        Hell, I didn't know what I wanted in my 20s, and I still don't.
        And I probably never will.

--So many people at University don't watch tv.  Professors and students.  Or if they do, it's just the news.
        How do they relate to the outside world?
        How do they get by?
        How can they ever hope to have anything valid to say about life, about culture, about anything?

--And if you decided to get married because you just can't bare to be alone-- you picked the wrong species to be, folks.  Because thanks to our consciousness and sense of selves even when you're with the snuggle bunny of your choice you are still, deep down, in your mind, terribly, horribly, permanently alone.
        The whole "telepathic," "intersubjective" effect of love is just an illusion brought about by a neurochemical.
        So much for "two living as one...."

--That said, I would still chew off my arm for another chance at that illusion.

--The word "school" comes from "schola" which is the Greek word for leisure.
        The implication, here is you need leisure in order to think and learn.  If you don't have leisure you're too busy surviving to actually learn anything.
        The implication here is you need money in order to learn.  And this is true.
        You learn nothing from "the school of life."  The only thing you learn there is that life sucks, and also how to survive when you have nothing.  Neither of these things are true learning because neither of these things requires much thought.

--Survival is basic.  Like it or not, everybody struggles to survive.  And then survives.
        Chances are, everybody you know this year will still be alive next year.  Or the ones that die will be very, very old.

--"Thou shalt not steal" actually means "don't steal too much because if you do, you'll get caught."  The people who take it to mean what it says at face value are rich or in power-- either way, they don't have to struggle-- and they also don't want their stuff to be stolen so they have a vested interest in promoting the concept.  I learned that one by catching broke Christians stealing religious books when I worked at the store.

--Does anyone remember when Bill Nye The Science Guy was just a bland schlepp, and Beakman's World was the hip and cool show for young science nerds?  And then Billy Nye stole Beakman's look and jazzed up his show, and Beakman was canceled?
        Does anyone remember that Cheers spinoff-- the first one, not Frasier.  The short-lived one about Carla's ex-husband and his stupid white-trash wife?  The Tortellis, or something, I think it was called.  Does anyone remember that?
        Does anyone remember that awful cartoon Capital Critters that was supposed to cash in on the "adult" cartoon craze The Simpsons spawned?
        Does anyone remember Doctor, Doctor?  The only other good thing Matt Frewer ever did (the first being Max Headroom)?
        And, while we're at it, does anyone remember Max Headroom?  There's some Science Fiction that actually did sort of happen.
        And Frank's Place.  Anyone remember that?
        And Holmes And Yoyo.
        All these forgotten shows.  Archived moments that will never see the light of day again.  Some of them are good, some of them are bad, but right now they only exist in a state of pure potentiality.  Ghosts.

--The most rabid Christians are almost always very poor because Christianity tells you to wallow in your poverty.  Because, as we all know "money can't buy happiness."
        Actually, the same can be said of Buddhists and Taoists and Existentialists.
        But not Jews.  For some reason Jews manage to escape that bullshit.  Jews are actually allowed to have money, and to use that money to better themselves and really and truly learn.  If they want to.
        And that's probably why so many people pick on them:
        They may be perpetually decentred and always looking for a homeland, but at least they don't wallow in self-imposed poverty and think that makes them better people.  Success, however fleeting, is allowed if you're a Jew.
        Oh yeah, and during all the plague years, they actually occasionally bathed and washed all the fleas out of their hair.

--It's funny:
        There was a period when the punk-pop theme for Buffy The Vampire Slayer was hip and cool, and then the 1990s went away and the theme seemed dated and weird.  And now, the show has been of for so long the 90s have come back and the theme seems contemporary again....

--Not knowing what you want to do with your life, ever:
        It's the result of living in the best of all possible worlds.
        It's the most sensible, natural response to a world where you're given infinite possibilities, filled with infinite information, and you have infinite potential, each and every day.
        Perpetual identity crisis is the result of an actualized utopia.

--Also:
        When Buffy first started, the ads that were shown in the commercial breaks were for young-girl things like trendy lipsticks and Barbie dolls, and teen magazines.
        Now, the commercials they show are for diapers, and soup, and family cars....

--If Bush gets Saddam Hussein the USA will have to find another convenient scapegoat.  And Hussein is so perfect.  He served everyone so very well for two pervious presidencies.  When Clinton's job was on the line because of that blowjob, Hussein was right there to divert the media.  And when Bush, Sr. was doing, well, whatever the hell he was doing that he didn't want people to notice, Hussein was there to make everyone stand up and take notice of the glory of the good ol' U. S. of A.  So if Dubbya gets Saddam, he'll have no one to bomb while people are picking holes in his policies.  He'll actually have to try and find and fight Al Qaeda and bin Laden, which is an impossible task.

--It's easy to stay alive.  Staying alive is what we do.  There wouldn't be 6 billion people if being alive was hard.
        A newborn baby will struggle to stay alive.  A drunk freezing in a gutter will struggle to stay alive.  Look at war atrocity footage:  People who have been stabbed in the throat will still struggle to stay alive even as their blood spills out into the floor of the camp.
        The fact that there are so many starving poor people in the world shows that it's easy to stay alive.  The poor and the starving will live and live and live in their shit and poverty and starvation and pain even after their higher brain functions have shut down due to malnutrition and abuse.
        The fact that there are so many derelicts in the streets who constantly fry their brains with drugs and booze-- and when they can't get drugs and booze, they use solvents and gasoline fumes-- the fact that there are so many of these people shambling around, still, after having tried for years to kill themselves, shows that it's very, very easy to stay alive.
        Staying alive is the easiest thing of all.
        You have to do more than just staying alive.

--The theme from Clone High is also retro-90s, punk-pop, grunge-pop, whatever you want to call it.  Instantly catchy and nostalgic.  But Clone High attacks so much.  There isn't a single sincere nanosecond in the entire show (even South Park has moments of sincerity and insight because, deep down inside, underneath all the poo jokes, Trey Parker actually cares about humanity).  But Clone High is not just ironic, it's hyper-ironic-- it's more ironic than ironic because it understands that being ironic is lame now, but it also gets there's no escape.  Irony is dead, but so is sincerity because if you try to be sincere you just sound laughable and deluded-- but if you try to be detached and ironic, you sound foolish and lame.  Clone High knows this and so attacks the world, teenage soap operas, so-called "high-concept" tv, self-consciously "cool" cartoons made by people who came out of the indie 'zine scene, every aspect of pop culture, itself, and also you for watching it.  It's amazing.

--I need something to hold onto.  I really do.
        The problem is, all the stuff outside of me is crap, and whatever's inside is so weak and crumbing and empty it's not doing me any good.
        Sometimes I just start laughing.  And then I laugh until I cough.  And then I cough till I vomit.  Then I laugh some more.
        The Great Circle Of Life.

--In a music store.  They're playing Smashing Pumkins.  And the nostalgia for six years ago practically blinds me.
        Then next up it's "Pets," by Porno For Pyros.
        Is this music actually coming back, or did people just never stop listening to it?

--Generation X and Generation Y.
        Are both the result of an actualized utopia.

--Ever since the coffee shop burned down, more and more my life has begun to resemble a crappy, whiny, off-focus, disintegrating LiveJournal.
        LOL!
        ~~sigh~~
        ^_^
        ;-)   :-)   ;-)
        :P
 

Next:  Bob....