Sunday, April 18, 2010

What does your web history say about you?


Mine tells a sad story, a story I don't think I'll have time to fully develop. I was taking a piss in the woods today and thinking about John Updike. Not many people deserve to live forever but I think he did. I really believe that Updike had a gift of observation that deserved to last forever. Maybe there are other people out there with the same gift but they don't get a chance to write. They just observe. Then I wonder if it makes any difference at all. I decided to listen to conservative talk radio instead of NPR. I'm tired of caring. I want Rush Limbaugh to tell me everything is fine, that we've got nothing to worry about.

I did hear an interesting comment that the human population is supposed to peak at 9 or 10 billion. We're at 7 right now. But there need not be a cataclysm for 5 or 6 billion to die. It all comes down to 1.4 babies per woman. In something like a few years it would go from 9 billion to 2 billion without any great plague, just natural die off. Those 2 billion are going to live SO WELL because of the 300 trillion who died before them and slaved building the infrastructure they will enjoy. Or maybe they will curse us like you curse a previous tenant who leaves cat shit in the closet and roaches under the kitchen sink.

If you've never seen a leatherback turtle then I don't see how they will miss them. Biodiversity is relative to the decline you've witnessed. So a baby born in 2100 will only know what is and not what was. Does anyone miss the dodo bird? No, but I grieve for the wolf, noble and rugged living honestly without wifi or earth friendly toilet paper. But the kid who only knows the wolf as an animal in a Jack London book won't miss it. We already idealize these animals since they're so rare. The idealization will be complete in a few decades.

So I did some looking into heart disease to find out when I can expect to be a part of that die off. I don't have shortness of breath but something isn't working right in the plumbing department. Clean up on aisle 4. Hell, even gallows humor doesn't make me laugh anymore.

Speaking of Rush, here's a transcript from the very town I'm writing about. Santa Cruz. How serendipitous~I don't want to edit if for space but here's a sample...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Cat in Santa Cruz, California, great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. First of all, mega dittos, Rush. What an honor. I'm a 20-year-listener calling you from the sea of crazy radical liberals. (chuckles) I've got a brief story I thought you'd enjoy. My son -- a Republican, a conservative like his dad and I -- got a job here in Santa Cruz in a very popular local health food store. He had a button he wore on his work shirt every day that said, "I'm a Republican, bless America." Well, he was told by his supervisor he could not wear the button to work. Well, he continued to wear it. All the other employees there have pierced noses, lips, eyebrows, dreadlock down the back, tie-dyed shirts, whatever so he kind of stood out. Well, he continued to wear his button, proudly, and he got fired. And I refuse to leave Santa Cruz because I love the local area. It's a gorgeous town. But the hate for right-wingers in this town is unbelievable. Please don't ever stop. Don't ever stop and don't forget us out here in Santa Cruz.

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: We need you desperately, desperately. Everybody's in tie-dyed clothing. Oh!

RUSH: Don't worry, you will never be the forgotten. "The forgotten in Santa Cruz "will never be a phrase uttered here, you will never be forgotten. Let me ask. These long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking types that work at the health food store.

CALLER: (laughs)

RUSH: Do they wear pro-Obama or pro-left-wing cause buttons?

CALLER: You know, I am not really sure about that, but to just look at them, you know, they might as well.

RUSH: Now, da-da-da-da-da-da! You're profiling out there. The regime doesn't like that.

CALLER: Yeah. I don't like the regime, so we're even.


"...long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking types..." I think I'll borrow that for my book. What a great thinker this man is.
I know that health food store on River Street. It was across the street from the Food Not Bombs Saturday meal location, the community garden that I'm writing about, the sunflower garden where Jar went to hide from the non-vegans. Or maybe there's a Whole Foods that moved in since I fled back in 1995.

Blue Hills




Bonnie has me on a short leash. She will allow me to take 4 hours to do errands before she shits on the carpet. I took her for a long walk at 11pm and she was in my face at 6:15. These other dog owners must have some kind of system worked out because I'm the only person walking their dog in the predawn and near midnight. If you are fond of sleeping then steer clear of the King James Spaniel. At this point I'm going to steer clear of dogs in general.

I did manage to slip out to be the camera operator on a no budget horror film called The Blue Hills. Advance buzz is that it's headed for Sundance.
Here's a behind the scene picture on Little Harbor Road. The one man crew, Kurt, is applying fake blood to Kevin's knee. Damon the director is in the helmet.

This was taken before the heavens unloaded on us. The final shot was filmed in a complete downpour with me riding through puddles chasing Kevin on his bike with the camera mounted on the handlebars. I said we couldn't have paid a rain truck to do a better job.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.