purposeless play

in 20 years we will be making movies about iraq vets. i can't wait to see 'the return of forrest gump'. he'll grow up in a suburb. a suburb of philadelphia. drexel hill, pennsylvania. bubba will be hispanic. they'll come back from iraq and realize their dream of operating a bed and breakfast in the adirondacks. what is post-AIDS? maybe bird flu will be our AIDS?

• having read don delillo's end zone yesterday, i started re-reading white noise today. i'd forgotten both how funny it is and also how explicitly postmodern it is. at the most photographed barn in america, jack and murray remark that the assembled photographers are taking pictures of taking pictures. it is the most glib of his novels i have read yet.
  
• end zone was wonderful, but clearly formative. the elements are all there; repetition of phrases, focus on vaguely sinister non-words(CENTREX/SIMUVAC/SEMTEX), shabby maladjusted academics, obsession with jargon. a good novel, but i was often distracted by knowing the more fully-formed archetypes from later novels.
  
• we watched TRON for my birthday! TRON! the first time i saw it, i was too distracted by the gorgeous images to follow the subtext, but the anvils hit me tonight. it is about individualism v. communism, NATO v. COMINTERN, freedom v. fascism! i want to see TRON on IMAX.
  
• once again, i am up too late. i do not need to be on campus until 12pm, but i do have a report to write in the morning. i need to stop reading don delillo until friday, and immerse myself in soviet history for three more days. 1945-1991.
  
• i had serious second thoughts about the townhouse on sunday, but tonight it looked really beautiful. i have better coping skills than i generally believe, and can certainly manage the increased cost if i pull myself together. when i get concerned, i only need to imagine sitting on our new patio with coffee and a newspaper in the morning. we can start an herb garden. i have been wondering how to arrange our couch and the ethernet cable between our two computers. we have three stories! two alcoves(two!)!
  
• i'll be attending a public hearing on the gateway transportation project tomorrow, at the north surrey rec centre.
  
• i have:
  
  
  
  • 133 bruce cockburn songs
    
  • 79 destroyer songs
    
  • only 23 dire straits songs
    
  • 87 joe jackson songs
    
  • only 52 stereolab songs
    
  • 62 veda hille songs
    
  • 116 saint etienne songs
    
  • 166 richard/linda thompson songs
    
  • 51 sandy denny songs
    
  • 52 fairport convention songs
    
  • for a grand total of 269 fairport diaspora songs!
    
  • 87 cocteau twins songs
    
  • 141 joni mitchell songs
    
  
  
• douglas coupland uses repetition to make brand names absurd, while don delillo uses repetition to make brand names sinister.