Song of the day. Man On My Mind - Cornelia Murr
being in a new city is odd.
a guy with a guitar does a Portuguese cover of “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths as college kids sing along.
even in another language I can tell they only sort of know the lyrics, and I think of the human garbage bin Morrissey and his anti-immigrant/anti-european sentiments and I start laughing.
they think I’m laughing at them, and I get embarrassed. You can’t correct that kind of nuanced social interaction. You can’t stop them and go “I was actually laughing at the fact that the author of the song your singing is a racist prick and he’d hate this and I think that’s funny” You just hope that they don’t take it with them.
they won’t, they are very drunk.
someone has bought me a shot, that’s the thing about being alone, people want to rope you into their evening. They have this human need to include others in the tribe, a need that they suppress because of “civil” society but when they drink, they return to that sibling-hood of human experience. That we should all belong, that no one should be alone.
Ironic that you have to be alone to experience a strangers closeness.
The guitar guy goes into a “This Charming Man” and it’s time for me to leave.
“Being a man isn’t just about fucking bitches, it’s about going home to cook the chicken in the fridge cause it’s about to go off.”
I overhear this on the street today and I agree. Although I resist any conversation that tries to fence in or define what being a man is. Or honestly the experience of any human. When you define something, it loses an element of itself, cause it was that thing before you named it. The sun was always the sun before we called it that. Defining people is sort of like putting a saddle on a horse, it’s doesn’t help the horse gallop, it helps others ride it. Horses gonna horse.
“Saddled” is a fun term. I feel like I understand it a bit better now.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
I hate reviews. Gone are the days of the graceful and noble art of criticism and now is the age of clickbait and trend chasing. Reviewers taking radical positions in order to galvanize whatever base they are courting at the moment. In the vast economy of thought. Scarcity drives value and so opinions are cheap.
The irony of me offering reviews on books I’ve read isn’t lost on me, but I hope this can be seen as a friendly suggestion. In fact most books I’ve read have been at the suggestion of a friend. I become catatonic in any book store, desperate to not make the mistake by buying a book I will put down after 30 pages.
It’s a fear of failure. It’s being petrified of not completing.
Anyway, read Luster by Raven Leilani. It’s marvelous. She writes how I wish I could.
A: “Security at the 5’9” club is light. Everyone is in there.”
B:“Yeah, 5’6”….. 5’8”….. you name it.”
A:“Right. The 6ft club is full of 5”11” guys and like one really nice 6’3 guy, who is there on a really chill vibe just trying to make some new friends. The 5’11” club is empty, except for like one guy who is really really hot and doesn’t care that he isn’t 6ft. He doesn’t need to lie. He is hot.”
B:“Exactly. He’s got the 5’11” club all to himself and he is in there having a whale of a time. Buying all the hot girls shot.”
A:“Hot girls get the shots.”
B:“Hot girls get the shots”
i feel ur hatred of reviews and the general sentiment of pure extreme emotion over anything else is pushing me off several corners of the internet with which i used to interact with regularly. its all just feels like a contest for who can have the most extreme and least nuanced opinion while maintaining a following. its starting to feel like people get mad about things for the sake of being mad rather than causing meaningful change. these are all things that have been said before countless times but this access to so many different people with such ease is totally novel and somewhat concerning.
Nothing to add, just comparing definitions to putting a saddle on a horse is brilliant. Gonna marinate on that.