Today's five questions are pilfered from this crackling back-and-forth between the Guardian and Zizek - about as good a fast introduction to the old Slovenian Lacanian as you could ask for, btw. it's both pithy and "capital C" Communist.
- What is your most unappealing habit?
- What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?
What is the worst job you've done?
- What is the closest you've come to death?
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How do you relax?
1) i have a lot of unappealing habits. picking my nose, par example.
ReplyDelete2) do corduroys and wallabees count as a "costume"? they're my pacific northwest costume, foreva!
3) working on an archaeology crew doing "digs" around ugly southern Jersey.
4) a very good friend, old roommate died 5 years ago. i didn't get to attend his funeral, but his death made Death seem like a "presence" in my life in a way that it hadn't before.
5) being in quiet spaces with my companion, baseball, crime fiction, writing songs with no ambition to play them for anybody besides my friends, corduroys, flavored fizzy water, son volt/sonic youth/slint,
i also highly recommend visiting the very Ingmar Bergman-y Oregon Coast during rainy Winter weekends.
1) scratching plaque off my teeth with my too-long fingernails.
ReplyDelete2) not sure i understand this one, but i think it'd involve a wide pinstripe.
3) tie between cutting the heads off halibut @ a fish-processing plant and a four-day MANPOWER gig setting up a booth and selling trinkets for a desperate middle-aged woman @ a huge gift-shop trade show. (1993 and 1996, respectively).
4) descending the back side of Mt Bachelor @ 55mph in a bike race with 120 other lycra-clad men. the guy next to me got speed wobble and went over the bars. everyone swerved into oncoming traffic. thankfully, an alert tractor-trailer rig's driver swerved onto the shoulder. save for the guy who hit the deck, no other injuries sustained.
5) riding my bike.
1) smoking cigarettes in my car
ReplyDelete2) 1950's era skirt suit
3) Orange Julius. I worked with some latina gang-gals who hated me. I was 16.
4) Driving to Pedro at 90 mph in my Dodge Dart from Al's bar in L.A., on acid, with Linda Trudenich throwing garbage out of the window and me swerving all over the freeway trying to stay her arms.
5) Spending moments reading in the garden with my lover. Riding my bike along the river.
1. I pick my nose on all too frequent of a basis.
ReplyDelete2. I'm with Kevin in maybe misinterpreting this question, but I see costume and I think "costume ball." If I was doing it up right, I'd go the full Henry VIII treatment.
3. Prolly it was working in an upscale market in Baltimore. I had no idea what an upscale market was and I did not fit in.
4. Not too many brushes with death that I recall. When I was younger, I had several surgeries on my knee and I am allergic to anesthesia. I have no idea if I was close to death, but I was in the hospital for week-long stretches after each surgery.
5. Television.
1. Spitting on the sidewalk.
ReplyDelete2. Tattered zip up hoodie with swimming trunks and the old school long white athletic socks pulled up all the way to my knees. There you have it, my "relaxed suit".
3. Shoveling horse shit as a stall boy... my mom was into horses, I was 13 and couldnt get paid for anything else, and I still need a shrink for that one.
4. Plane trip from Kodiak, Alaska at 4:15 AM in an electrical storm. Two words: Emergency Landing.
5. Crowing about a baseball win with my dad, or writing a politcal rant of mine in my room aka "the lair" armed with a beer. Or bush bashing with my friends in the wee hours of the morning to a good vinyl!
1. Picking nose. Close second: getting confused while looking for things in the kitchen.
ReplyDelete2. Middle school shop teacher gear has always been an old fav. But of late I've yearned for the smart Euro suit approach.
3. Gas station clerk and gas station / tobacco shop. Three weeks. Didn't show up.
4. Psychological: shroom candy + alone in mountain house + snow storm + bathtub. Solved by only time I've ever watched Forrest Gump.
Physical: Nasty case of mono + strep + jaundice. Missed first month of school in 12th grade.
5. My lady, quiet beach with waves, reading, listening to tunes, partaking.
1. combing my beard with a fork at the dinner table.
ReplyDelete2. Dressing up like Tom Bombadil (I did this once for a formal in Sewanee, but on the way into the house Officer Tony [no less] made me pour out my decanter of whiskey, which soured the whole night for me.)
3. Raking grass, summer, Tennessee.
4. Southern Nevada. Standing on the edge of a ~12 foot stone cliff, washing my hair in a trickle of water. Stood up quickly, slung my hair back and went ass over shoulders, head-first over the edge. I don't know how I lived, but I was relatively uninjured. I trust it was my guardian angel, seriously.
5. Being anywhere around a lake or an ocean for a few days helps. Aside from that, I make a jack and coke with a lime wedge, maybe a little vain. Put on "1+1+1=4."
killer Forrest Gump story, minx. when was that?
ReplyDeleteBarry - that event was in Feb. or March, 1999. Gilpen county in the mtns of Colorado. Still have very vivid memories of it. I literally got in my bed to "die" at one point. I didn't die. My understanding of Forrest Gump is chaotic at best.
ReplyDeletegood Tom Bombadil story - he's my fav character in Lord of the Rings because he's so gleeful and insane. According to my slim knowledge of the Tolkien mythos, Tom was a leftover god still living in his little area.
ReplyDelete