Not That I Care

Upon perusal, the papers proved to be a miscellany of things, snipped from a magazine and torn rudely from newspapers, a few pages from savaged books and a napkin carefully embossed with a logo from a bar called the “Ugly Hitch,” upon which someone had jotted a seemingly complex pattern of nearly-illegible runes and a phone number appended with the name “Henrietta Muskovits.”

The magazine articles, I have since pieced together, all came from the June, 2011 issue of People magazine, although the text of several of them proved different from copies of them which I later compared, having obtained a copy of the issue in a doctor’s office on 14th street, a week later. They spanned a range, from the boring to the mundane, write-ups of lesser films and a particular breed of celebrity gossip that tends to turn my stomach. The bulk of this slick, magazine material, though, was a single review, split over seven pages, of the DJ Skribble album, “MDMA: Reloaded.” I’m not sure what horrors, real or imagined, Scott Ialacci perpetrated on the hapless author of the piece, but the piece was perhaps the single least informative review of an album, of a career, I have ever read. A sample follows:

...the third track is a mess. Skribble throws samples and beats together like a crocodile in the backseat of a used Volvo. I put my back out, I whip my hair back and forth, and for what? Some lousy pimp sticks and a pair of jawtooth bangers? I don’t think so. Loose grooved channel shifters don’t make up for the frankly racist synth work on a floppy little spit of a boulle. This is the kind of thing you’d expect from Skribble, though. He puts his money where his mouth is, only when he can’t get his foot out of the fire, and he’s just proving it with the newest MDMA collection. His smug scratching just proves the point, when a Bro with commie piping gets a little frisky, you can look forward to disappointment...

I am, myself, unfamiliar with the actual fruit of DJ Skribble’s efforts, but I understand he was a fixture of mid-90s MTV. The album in question was released, according to Wikipedia, in 2004, making it a fossil in musical terms, even in 2011 when the review was first published, although here, a tricky piece of reality seems to intrude. Although the pages of the review of DJ Skribble’s album are the only magazine pages with numbers and dates, the review was conspicuously absent from the Doctor’s copy. In its place were a tepid writeup of a Coldplay album, two advertisements for vodka and various halves of things, places where no story or ad was in the layout.

The tearings from newspapers were mostly single lines, and have proven so far to be untraceable, at least with my meager skills. Below is a complete list, in as much the order presented originally as I have been able to preserve.

The last time such an event occurred, two noble fighters left the ring forever.

she said she never saw

unless the GOP can swing the vote in Idowa [sic]

rampant internet culture, left unchecked, proved to be the last thing

CANCER: don’t believe the hype! You are twice as good anyway. A friend long lost will come back to your bodega, if left unbidden long enough.

Also, half of a Heathcliff daily comic strip in which the cat in question rises beatifically from what seems to be a freshly dug grave. Presumably, the missing half includes one of the regular “human” characters, as the half of the quote below runs as follows:

...always knows where to find them!”

The back of the paper is, peculiarly, completely blank.

The pages from books were torn, sometimes whole, sometimes in shreds, from what I have come to understand are called “Altered Books.” Six of the pages seem to have come from an early edition of George Orwell’s 1984, painted with clumsy figures and thick, tacky swathes of acrylic paint. Four pages, those most egregiously torn, came from a mass-market paperback copy of Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. These were colored with chalk, in fluorescent pink and green, with pale blue swirls which seemed to be repeated on each page, the same pattern, until I began to think they may have some meaning. The swirls have resisted my attempts to decode them, though. I think it is this obtuse quality which commands my attention so. A story seems to float just below the next page, until the mystery finally gives way to only the disappointing tabletop.

The napkin presented a small consolation, in that I was able to glean some satisfaction from that blind alley dead-end. I called the number, to find that it no longer belonged to Mrs Henrietta Muskovits, but was answered by her granddaughter, tasked with disposing of Mrs Muskovits’ Earthly remains. Upon my query as to a bar called the “Ugly Hitch,” the younger Miss Muskovits demanded I meet her at the dwelling in question, a fourth-floor walk-up on the far on the East side. Miss Muskovits, Paulette, I learned, was turning over the apartment and its dearth of physical possessions. At the end of her life, a scant three months before, Henrietta had sold or given away most of the things of value in her life, including, I was informed, her small dog and cat. The only things left, she said, of her grandmother were the couch upon which we then sat and the tea set we then sipped from.

“Well,” said Paulette, “Those and the writing.”

“The writing” turned out to cover the walls, floor and ceiling of two of the rooms of the house. It was painted in oil paints, some of it still wet and somewhat smeared. Paulette pointed out the wettest patches to me. Upon comparison, many of the letters on the walls seemed to match those on the napkin, although I was unable to compare it closely. As soon as I removed the instrument from my bag and held it up to the wall, Paulette pounced on it.

“Where did you get this?” She held it close to her chest, eyeing me like a suspicious cat.

“It was given to me,” I lied, although only technically.

“This is fifty years old. She didn't give it to you. Who did?”

“It was left to me,” the lie seemed to work, and I did not have the mental wherewithal to invent a better one.

“Why did you keep it?”

“It seemed interesting.”

She shooed me out of the apartment then, pushing me forcibly in the small of my back. Though I demanded the return of the napkin, she did not even dignify this with a response. She slammed the door and I heard several locks shot to. I turned, dejected, and walked down the stairs.

It seemed interesting.

It was the way he presented the papers to me, though, that required my compulsive sifting at first. He dropped them in front of me as I sat at the library branch on Avenue M (the new branch). I was reading a book about city planning, a recent addition to the collection, in preparation for the city council meeting the following Thursday night. He walked over to my table, made glaring eye contact, and dropped the stack in front of me.

“Not that I care,” he said, and stalked out the front door.

A Sneaky Way to Get Rid of Roaches

Materials:

A Jar of Peanut Butter (Chunky Works Best!)

A Spoon

Paper and a Pen (I prefer an indelible laundry marker)

Process:

Set the building on fire. Sit outside and eat the peanut butter with a spoon. Write out your confession on the paper. No roaches in jail, or, if there are, they aren’t your problem!

You, you, you,

You run and you run
and you stop

and then it's time for breakfast.
Mmmm grains.
Yeah.

When I'm with you, I feel dead.

She didn't come in from a car, but she did come in from the parking lot.
Her easy smile and crooked teeth looked like every girl down the lane that every boy knew when he was of a certain age, and began to become interested in such things. She was wearing a pleasing fish-net knit skirt of an aquamarine color which, again, was of that time when a young man first begins to know what it means when the older people talk about first noticing young ladies. Under the skirt, she wore blue and orange striped panties, clearly visible when she faced one directly and the sun shone on her. She walked with an unworried expression that said with certainty that she was enjoying a lovely day, and that nothing would spoil it. When she walked into the room, twelve heads turned to the door. It was as though the men with the keyboards could smell what had happened, and knew what they must do.
She paused, momentarily, in the portal, observing the gloom as her eyes adjusted. She sached across the stained concrete floor, and into twelve pieces of fiction as twenty four hands slapped keys furiously, trying to capture the perfection of the moment that had just occurred.

It's that time again.

I just finished listening to Anansi Boys (Yes, After Toshi, for them as is counting).
OK, so first, Let me say, the book was

***CRAPPY SPOILERS FOLLOW***

good. Lenny Henry is awesome, and the story moves, despite its large and sprawling nature.

***END CRAPPIEST SPOILERS EVAR***

I'm also going to see about getting American Gods on Audiobook, as Toshi thinks she'll be more likely to experience it (even if she doesn't read it) if it's on CD/Audiofiles. I'm a little afraid, though, that part of it is just that I want to listen to Lenny Henry reading for another four or five hours.
So, I can get it if I sign up for Audible dot Com. It looks good, but I can't actually tell if it is.
Anybody know? Anybody still read this thing?

This is just too great not to link to. They suckered me in, I gotta say.

Everybody fail to limbo!

Wow. It's Saturday. Our show opens in just about two weeks.
The link to Violet Crown is here.

Man, extra innings are really irritating.

Ok, so if you have a link to a site which is selling viagra or cheap anti-depressants, you're wasting your time posting here. Nobody who reads this site is depressed, and nobody who reads this site will click on your link. Sorry. It's not personal. My friends are just kinda mean about that stuff. They write nasty paragraphs that say things like "my friends won't click on your stuff." They're mean. 'N Stuff.

Hey Petunia! How's things?
Whee!

If you walk around the back of the building, you can still see the scorch marks. They aren't really bad, but they are certainly noticeable. If you look closely, you can even see the outline of a pigeon. It wasn't a terribly bad burn, but it is the result of illegal action. In fact, it's about the best evidence of that same illegal action available. One cannot fault the neighbors for being somewhat angry. I dislike the birds as well, but not as personally as they seem to have taken it. They run into my windows during the day, with the only half-believable excuse of not having seen the glass. I, for one, don't believe it for a moment, but one copes where one can. If they hit my windows with malevolent intent, they have at least not caused any damage.
The neighbors, though, have caused actual damage. I'm not entirely sure how they managed to cause these long, black marks under the eves of my house, but I'm fairly certain they are the direct cause of the blackened avians in my yard.
I visited the neighbors. I suppose there are worse circumstances under which to get to know your near cohabitators. I have agreed not to press charges, and I will pay for the repairs. In return, they promise to explain the process by which they caused the birds' combustion.
I'm giddy with anticipation.

I love bumping into something I didn't notice the first time. I just watched the Halloween episode of Freaks&Geeks. It has a great review of Crime & Punishment in it.
Is it good?
I don't know yet. Everybody's name is real weird and long.

Huh. That's funny.
It seems that my angry is broken.

When you’re tired of the same four blips over and over again, you’re tired of life. That’s what my imaginary friend always said to me and it’s what I’m contractually obligated to believe. You can’t take it with you, unless “it” is defined as “all the happiness in the world for some poor, sad loser.” Take it or leave it, it’s what you get. I like expressions like that, like “Believe it or Not!” They say “I’m lying. You can choose to ignore this fact at your own peril.”
When you’re tired of “Ain’t no Holla Back Girl” by the incomparable (which means, please, don’t compare her to anything or she might look bad) Gwenn Steffannii and her little Japanese chamber maids, when you’re tired of “Hip Hop” and its bastard clones, you’re tired of working for eight hours in a place that smells of sweat and health food. No, not a brothel, although that certainly has its upsides. No, at this point one is considering becoming bored with ones current nocturnal activities. One may already be sick of a loud woman with a thick New Jersey Accent calling one at midnight (OR SO) and saying, in effect, I know you’re already asleep, I know you hoped never to hear from me again, but godamnit, please, won’t you come in. Saying, You’re My Only Hope!
Backing oneself into a corner is a fine way to ensure the soft hearted something to do with our time. Ahhhh, to be a hard hearted bastard, to be the imminently hate-able fellow I can so often see in my Mind’s Eye, I can so often hear in my Mind’s Ear, I can so often understand is so absolutely right when he tells me to tell certain people to, frankly and simply, shut the hell up and go the hell away.
What could be worse than life? Well, says the resident wiseass, death. That’s a sentence fragment and it hurts to see it there, doesn’t it? Yess. Of course it does.
It’s always the end of time. It’s been the end of time since time began and it’ll be the end of time in a million years. Remember: don’t live life like this was your last second; this IS your last second, and so is THIS! Aaaaggh!! It never ends.
But that’s a fallacy, isn’t it? It ends elegantly and alone. It ends suddenly and with great gusto. It ends because that’s the natural order and no amount of nasty will change that, so why not be positive and admit that life is beautiful and, if not eternal, at least sometimes very, very long? If you want to realize precisely how long life can be, sit for eight hours and learn to look forward to putting bottles of fruit punch into a cooler for people far more fit than you to drink. This will teach you precisely how long life is. Christ, has it only been an hour? Well, money in the pot, as they say. Well, “they” don’t say it. My imaginary friend says it. And my contract says it, too. Making you sign a contract when only a few minutes old seems a bit harsh, but that’s one of the bylaws of the club. Life must seem a bit harsh until you look at it from another perspective. Then it needs to look very, very easy.
“Easy like a high school boy,” says my imaginary friend. He needs help, though. He’s got problems. I’m sending him to the imaginary shrink tomorrow.

Batman Begins was a very pretty movie, and it goes ahead and plays Batman as a horror-type monster sorta character. And bully for it. The story is classic Batman and plenty fun. And now for the massivest spoilers of all.

Seriously, big, ugly spoilers follow.

If you want to be surprised and you read the next couple of sentences, you will fail.

I mean it.

**Spoilers An' Stuff**

Batman loses. Not as far as the movie itself, but the movie sets up all the ingredients for failure. When the movie ends, about (let's be conservative) three or four thousand Gothamites have been dosed with a powerful halucinagenic drug which causes irreversable mental damage, to the tune of homicidal mania, in the space of hours, with the possability of the first mass-manufactured doses a week or more off. Morgan Freeman took the antidote with him on the day that this large segment of the city was dosed, and said, in so many words, that he would need a week to set up mass manufacture. The next day, by the way, he isn't setting up mass manufacture. He's taking over the company.
That's OK, though, right? I mean, he gave the formula to the police for mass manufacture, right? No. In fact, they didn't. When the dose is given to Gordon, no instructions come with it. Also, what is given to the police is not the formula, it's dose of the antidote. They police labs still have to get it to a lab that can reverse engineer it and mass manufacture it. Let's assume they're faster than Morgan Freeman. if so, they're still looking at more than a day.
But that's OK too, right? I mean, it's just the poor people anyway.
It's too bad. Until Batman lost massively, It was a good movie. Hell, even after that it's good. It's just sad that he loses and his city is, if not destroyed, at least crippled.
That's not to mention that there is now no mass transit in the city.
Oh, yeah, and if anybody has a humidifier or a plant mister, you better watch the heck out. Or a tea kettle; or a coffee pot; or a propensity for having water go down ones esophagus. You get the idea.

I can articulate my disappointment about Hitchhiker's Guide. In the scene in which Ford runs up to the soon ex-site of Dent's home with a cart full of beer, then takes Dent off to the pub, there are some jokes from the book which were omitted. These were taken out in favor of the joke "BEER! Huh-huh-huh." It seems to me that if you feel that "BEER!" is a funny joke, you can laugh your way through the movie quite safely. It contains many such jokes, among them "NOKIA;" "TWO-HEADS;" and "HE GOT NO LEGS!"
I say Americans are smarter than that. I say we've come very far since the stereotype was true and we would actually laugh because somebody had beer or a phone. I say as a society we're as smart as the British Disney jerks who wrote the movie, and probably as smart as the British jerks who laughed at the Hitchhiker's Guide when it was a radio play. Hell, we're among the smartest jerks on the planet, no matter what those other jerks say. We can handle a movie where the guy doesn't get the girl, and we can handle the idea that the government is out to get us and hard to deal with. I say Americans could handle a horrible bureaucracy scene in which the horrible bureaucracy was actually hard to deal with, and in which the forms did not take six to eight seconds each to fill out.
That's what kicked my ass about the movie. I think the average American moviegoer is capable of laughing at convolution and able to leave a movie without rioting, even if the guy doesn't get the girl.

"I don't get it, Maw. Sure, he was a whahny jerk, but whah didn't he get tha girl in tha end of tha movin' pitcher?"
"Don't worry, Hammie. Jus' keep laughin' about tha beer."
"A-huh huh. Beer. That's funny."

Staying on top of the news is increasingly important these days and here on Public Television, we're trying to help. Tonight on Newswatch, we'll kill two daed frogs.