Savages

'He who makes a beast of himself

gets rid of the pain of being a man.'

Dr. Johnson as seen in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

Dante: Somebody put gum in the locks

Randal: Buncha savages in this town.

Dante: That's what I said!

-Clerks

I've tried to avoid E/N (Everything / Nothing) posts but this one I feel deserves to be added to my blog. Especially when I factor the increased speed with which I am trying to depart my current residence. But first a little background: I live in a 3 floor house with 8 other 'adults', mostly the experience hasn't been too bad usual sort of stuff when you get that many people in one place for an extended period. We each have a room and there are three bathrooms, (which will go uncatalogued so as not to expose the squeamish to those conditions) a shared kitchen and a living room. I live on the main floor and it can be loud when a bunch of people are hanging out in the living room but with a few doors closed it's tolerable. And I keep later hours so it's not a problem, most of the time.

I am no stranger to unclean living space, any one that had the (mis)fortune of visiting me when I lived with Rich Watson knows what a bunch of guys and some apathy can do to a place. After all the bathroom doesn't need to be that clean and a layer of dust on pots and pans that no one uses isn't such a big deal, right?

And the various dorm rooms I've lived in during college where not up to surgical standards. They were ok at best and at worst 'wear shoes when using the bathroom' bad. But I did know people that were worse. There was a friend whose dorm you needed to be out of when the sun came in the window at about 10 am because the smell of urine and rotting beans in the bathroom was intolerable. It wasn't until we hung out most of a night that I realized why he always seemed to swing by at about that time. My room was the model of health when compared to his.

So I'm not OCD about cleaning, I wipe down surfaces and try to do my dishes, occasionally putting them away but since I tend to use the same few having them in a drying rack makes sense (to me).

Now the question might be posed, 'If this bugs you so much why don't you do something about it?' Simple: I'm not these people's mom. I do my dishes, clean up after myself and throw out my trash and recyclables. Like dealing with children once you start taking up the slack it becomes expected and like when I had a bathroom cleaning cold war with someone I ultimately lose. In this case I lose by bailing on my lease a month early (with luck) and getting a new place. Then there is the possibility I bring this up to the landlord but since I only know that most of the other people are doing this and not specific individuals no reason to punish others that are just trying to live out their leases and then cut and run.

In the past I've lived in places where things went missing occasionally. But it was usually returned, except in one case where Rich Watson stole my ketchup thinking it was his but that happens since we shared condiments (and some weird condiments we got from Food 4 Less), or some money left in its place. On one of the fridges a house mate has repeatedly put notes saying not to eat his food. Even if something has your name on it there is not guarantee that it's safe. Now if we were miles from a grocery store I could almost understand. It's late (or early) and starved so you snatch a bite of someone's food but we are 4 blocks from 2 grocery stores and one of them delivers groceries. If this were a co-op or people split costs of groceries or a situation like that it'd make sense but nothing like that had happened. To combat this I stopped buying things people seemed to enjoy or went about keeping more expensive items in my room until I wanted them. Not the situation I enjoy. But when the excuse I've gotten was, 'Oh someone else owed me money and I thought they were his' with promises to reimburse that never occur I can take only so much.

My plan is to move, maybe to this decent spot I saw the other day, maybe to another one I'm going to see soon but either way I'm getting the fuck out of this place. But there is something about having to search for something to put your breakfast in and ending up with a measuring cup. Not because you can boil water in it in the microwave without fear but because it's clean. That's how I like starting my day.

----------------
Now playing: The Grouch - Green Day
via FoxyTunes

2HT Weekly Update 1

(Note: I'm part of a theater company and it was decided we should do weekly updates. I haven't been taking it seriously. I'm usually the first one to post.)

I spent the last week or so contemplating lime lighters. The old style ones that often died in an explosion as the mixture of gas was sparked and brought a brilliant end to a career on the Victorian stage.

Other than that nothing to report because I'm still waiting for a letter to be set out so I can beg my folks for some green.
-Sal

All of my best titles are stolen from better people

During my last trip to California I found an old bag of mine, it came free with the lap top I got back in '99. (Jeez that 9 lb monstrosity nearly made it all the way through college with me but died just a year and half short) I haven't used this bag since about the winter of my senior year and only did a bit of emptying it when college ended and left the Land of Enchantment. So here in a place with far more water and trees than the desert that I went to school in I got a few presents.

It was like a delayed X-mas, thankfully no one gave me an orange, chocolate or other perishable that may have made this 4 year package all the more strange. Instead there was an invite to a birthday party for September 13^th and of course BYOB. An add slip for Journalism 105 but the interesting thing on this is that my signature hasn't really changed from the one I was using then. A copy of the 10/7/02 Round Up (Campus auto burglaries rising) and one from 11/11/02 (Insurance cards mailed late [real late indeed]), two thank you cards from 'The Laramie Project', a program from 'Africa A-Z', a Steer Skull bolo tie from a costume I wore back in the Halloween of 2000(?) and a red ribbon saying 'I promise to be drug free.'

Mentally I'm trying to come up with the rationale of why I have all this stuff. Some of it makes sense and some of it (like the skull bolo) is just odd and I'm curious why I would have carried that to class for 3 years or so. A side note to say I'm horrible about cleaning out anything. I horde things and only when I have to move, or transfer materials from one bag to another do I see the reason to empty a bag. Hell one bag I have has several old issues of the Weekly and Stranger from when I first moved to Seattle.
Not first moved maybe a couple months in.
I swear I'm not holding onto them as a memento I can throw them out at any time or so I keep telling myself. But isn't claiming you can quit at anytime one of the signs of an addict? If only I had the AA book I found and have been carrying (in another bag) since Februaryish.

Still all of this says something. But one question persists why don't I have a copy of the New Testament in this bag? I could have sworn that began in College, I know I had one for a bit in high school but was that because we had religion class? Wasn't it back then I had a green covered small copy of Psalms and the New Testament that I had received from campus crusade, newman, or just found on the ground by the New Library? Also I wonder if the coupons that are in the Round Up could still be used. One or two companies failed to print an expiration date on them but that means going down to Cruces to try and get my cheap sandwich, second soda with purchase of a soda or discounted suntanning.

At least there wasn't any old papers that may have changed a grade and caused me to reevaluate my academic career and maybe try my hand in another field that could have left me in a better (read: different) place. That's always a shame when that happens. Like when I cleaned out a bag before college and found an old story I wanted to submit before high school ended. Reading it again I didn't like it as much but at the time (high school Sal) thought it was the greatest work of fiction ever. Now (Late 20s Sal) would like to read that story again, perhaps I won't be so hard on my younger self or possibly I will agree with the arrogant college bound version. Either way there wasn't any work like that this time. Only a hand full of trinkets from a different time like a poor man's time capsule but, I guess, more like the volcanic ash covered town folk of a different time. Yeah that metaphor will do.

----------------
Now playing: Golden Touch - Razorlight
via FoxyTunes

Man, tell me about it

Had this conversation yesterday:
Guy: What's your name?
Me: Sal
Guy: Is that you're full name?
Me: Nah it's Salvador Ponce
Guy: Well that's no John Smith.
Me: Not even for the Spanish

Lama- palooza

Or of Mitzvah and Booming Bass

It was after a long morning and afternoon. My guts felt jumbled from the blast of bass as I walked by walls of subs. There I stood waiting for a bus near the Space Needle but I had better things to do than stare at the retro future landmark of Seattle. Mostly I watched a crowded bus that rolled down from the U District. Full save an old woman and the driver, then completely empty as it left. Most of the students taking pictures in front of the bus, or the stop sign or the Key Arena itself, I don't think the old lady got to be part of their myspace (or facebook) fun, maybe next concert Granny, this one is to live on in cyber form. A few got excited that Kiss and Movin' were there and had to race over, if they were girls balanced perilously on really high heels, or while holding up really large pants in the case of guys. Though I think the guys were racing (read: Sauntering as casually and speedily as possible) to watch the girls. Not that I can blame them as I watched a pair of bottle blondes take pictures first of whatever was written on their tank tops and then on their booty shorts.

Something about if you like these how about these or something.
I forget.

Sure I could blame exhaustion or I could go with the 'Beavis and Butthead' stand by "When you talk I can't see the panties right," that was said during Blues Traveler's Run Around. Perhaps the oddest 90s take on 'Wizard of Oz'. No 'Dark Side of the Moon' but funny in a 4 minute Mtv video. But in someways it reminded me of a shirt on tshirt hell.

Then walking in the opposite direction I saw a couple dressed to the nines and heading toward the ballet… I think. Maybe they were just getting something to eat and then back to watch Kanye. What was odd was just how pregnant she was and how quickly they tried to distance themselves from the growing crowd.

My bus came and I could put some time and space between me and where I would be until 4 in the morning.

For nearly a week before hand I had been knee deep in setting events for the Dalai Lama visit to Seattle. Maybe the blatant capitalism was better than the hidden kind I had witnessed in the previous days. After all does playing 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' as walk music really send the best message when emptying a stadium after a spiritual leader speaks?

And I realize they weren't hocking Lama tour shirts or anything like that but I wonder who was getting a cut of the increase in Prayer Flag, bumper sticker and Buddha sales.

Or did I miss the irony they were trying for and only got the irony I wanted to see?

But there also could have been no irony.

I can't be sure I wasn't on the committee that decided that was a good idea. I was only on the group being paid to schlep cases off the field and to the trucks.

It might not have been the best mitzvah on earth, hell it might not even be a mitzvah but I look at it that way. It's the only way I can look at getting paid half the wage I normally get and have to deal with people grumbling about it the whole time. Call it for the greater good (the greater good) but I'll just convince myself it's a mitzvah. While I doubt the same thing would have been done for other religious leaders I may never found that out. But it was something to consider while waiting for the Ballard Bridge to lower so I could get home, catch a few hours rest, wake up and have to pack all the shit on to trucks.

San José Tried to Kill Me

Way back when there was a cartoon called ’Bambi meets Godzilla’. And it’s a bit of folky wisdom that when you get close to your demise time sort of slows down and so you can really take in those last moments… at least that’s what survivors tell us.

Today while a few hundred pounds of ill loaded masonite and MDF began their gradual descent and collapse all I could think of was ’Bambi meets Godzilla’. Before concern comes flying in I’m fine, the crew I was on is fine, everything is fine… beside the maso, some of that is quite destroyed. But who really cares about that shit?
Not me, not after what it did to me.
Bastard.

So I have a minor paranoia that I’ve become color blind. I also have one that I’m someone’s doppelganger. And today I realized that if I am someone’s doppelganger that person is in some kind of secret society. Often when I stroll down the streets and boulevards random people will shoot me a knowing look and nod. Of course not willing to disturb the plans of others I nod back. Often in a knowing way, letting them know that the time is neigh. We must act soon lest we miss our chance. Then there are the random comments I get. Perhaps code, perhaps insanity and perhaps utter exhaustion is actually causing me to make the first movement in a series of plans that I have no idea or control of but am still at the center of the wheel.

Or perhaps the truth is merely the restoration of the causal greeting to an unknown individual but that’s a scheme I’d rather no envision.

----------------
Now playing: The Munsters - Tv Themes
via FoxyTunes

Things Music Videos from the 90s taught me

(Note: I wrote this at midnight, dead tired after a long day and didn't proof it before I posted it. Feedback about how I screwed up spellings, or context or band names is fine and I'm well aware I suck. I usually do some proofing before I post and I didn't this time. Corrections are in red.-SP)

Despite saying making lists isn't as much fun I'm starting to do it again.

1. Rusty pipes contain meat (Tool - Sober)

2. If you catch your S.O .cheating get a naval piercing, kick a purse snatcher's ass and bungee jump off an overpass. You'll feel better. (Aerosmith - Cryin')

3. Right now is harder than it looks. (Van Halen - Right now)

4. 70s cop shows may go out of vogue but they hardly go out of fashion (Beastie Boys – Sabotage)

5. If you play the VFW's dance and don't feel you'll connect with them. Just ask if they like the music you like and they should come around. (Violent Femmes – American Music)

6. When the artist puts themselves in a cameo role it can be cool. Two cameo roles and a featured part are excessive. (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Into the Great Wide Open)

7. Banned videos are often incredibly over hyped and not very cool (Madonna – Justify my Love)

8. And sometimes they are damned cool. (Prodigy – Smack my Bitch Up)

9. If you light someone on fire and have them run down the street in slow motion the end of the video becomes pointless (Wax – California)

10. Some videos need a shot for shot parody and get it (Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit & Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give it away)

11. And some never do (REM – Losing my Religion)

12. Sometimes death is confusing, as well as marriage (Guns and Roses – November Rain)

13. Singing a song about large posteriors whilst dancing upon one makes me question the current nobility (also it is awesome). (Sir Mix-a-lot – Baby got Back)

14. Don't believe urban legends. They aren't the Olson Twins. (Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box)

15. If you are an outsider and search hard enough you'll find a place where people are like you. (No Rain – Blind Melon)

16. Videos that look like they were made by a bunch of suburban teens bored on a Saturday are cool only when you first see them and when watching them through nostalgic lenses. (Gin Blossoms – Hey Jealous, Green Day – Longview)

17. Just because it's expensive doesn't mean it has anything to do with that song… actually what is that song about? (Michael and Janet Jackson – Scream)

18. Posthumous success and advancing technology can put a departed band member in a video as though they were stuck down and became more powerful than you can possibly imagine. (Sublime – Santeria)

19. Yes 'A Trip to the Moon' was an awesome silent film (Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight)

20. It may not be art blatant double entendres and make up that makes people look like toy cowboys but it should be. (Primus – Wionna's Big Brown Beaver)

21. Having a mostly female band play amongst a group of naked men is an example of gender equality. And sexual exploitation (Elastica – Connection)

22. Happy Days is cool when you combine episodes and when Fonzie Dances (Weezer – Buddy Holly)

23. It would be cool living in an old style Hollywood musical for a day or two. Week at the most. (Björk – It's Oh So Quiet)

24. Living in the suburbs could cause a black hole to form (Soundgarden – Blackhole Sun)

25. Because variety shows don't exist anymore (beside a couple like Sabado Gigante) musicians are forced to create their own (Dandy Warhols – Not if you were the Last Junkie on Earth, Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell, Mike Flowers Pop Orchestra – Wonderwall)

26. Some siblings have confusing relationships (Len – Steal my Sunshine)
    

27. My elementary school had a really under funded drama program (Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm)

28. Men's restrooms are so much more disgusting than women's. (No Doubt - Just a Girl)

29. Despite getting instructions I never learned that damned dance (Will Smith – Men in Black)

30. Guerilla Dance groups need to take themselves less seriously (Fatboy Slim – Praise You)

31. Confusion is all down to perspective (Jamiroquai – Virtual Insanity)

32. Planning is the trademark of a master criminal (Jane's Addiction – Been Caught Stealing)

33. Throwing someone to the sharks at an aquarium and then playing a song in front of the tank is not a good use of your time before the police arrive. (Duran Duran – Come Undone)

34. PSAs would be more effective if they rocked. (Megadeth – 99 Ways to Die)

35. Loading up the micro bus and going to the middle of nowhere is a good way to turn a week end into a month (Rusted Root – Send Me on My Way)

36. If your buddy doesn't take 2 as advice just chill and finish your soda (Blink 182 – Dammit)

37. After how hotel rooms are portrayed any one who cleans them should be canonized. (Joan Osborne – St. Teresa)

38. If they're playing this I guess someone in the band died (Grateful Dead – Touch of Grey)

39. Opening acts won't have a problem if you just show up and steal their slot (Save Ferris – Come on Eileen)

40. If I shave my head, get a black turtle neck, sit in the back seat and buy booze for a pack of teenagers I could easily make this a reality. (Smashing Pumpkins – 1979)
    

41. With the right car and clothes everywhere you go becomes an old style dance party. (Fastball –The Way)

42. Music videos are the new milk cartons (Soul Asylum – Runaway Train)