passing time at fort bragg (qotd:072707)

my brother is at fort bragg preparing with his group to go to the middle east. i guess they have to learn all kinds of stuff this month before they leave. and practice sleeping in tents.

the horror!

i think about him every day and wonder how he is coping. he is very brave about going overseas or puts on a good face about it for sure.

he has seen some drama at the fort. and it is tough place to be. so i’m always anxious to hear news about how things are going.

last night at work i got a text form him. i went into the office to check my phone and see if he was doing alright. maybe he needed something...

it became my quote of the day:
“I am in a brief that would be boring but the woman giving the brief sounds just like Ellen and she’s so far away I can’t tell that she’s not and she’s making me laugh even though it’s not funny. So I could be getting a brief about how not to get killed in Iraq by Ellen. Who knows?”

the visual i got in my head caused me to lmao!

intelligent film (qotd:071807)

I recently watched a film called Shortbus directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Justin Bond, the proprietor of the underground “salon” by the name Shortbus (“for the gifted and challenged”) is giving Sofia a tour of the place.

“...now here is our performance room. Tonight we’re having a film festival. (whispers to Sofia) They’re boring as hell. But I find the more boring they are, the more intelligent people think they are for watching.” (qotd:071807)

I just wish I had come across that quote while I was still in film school.

28 days later... (qotd:071707)

so this loser ex of mine keeps writing e-mails to me. at no solicitiation from my end. to what end, i don’t know.

so i sent a firm (nasty) email months ago about my need for him to never make any kind of contact with me ever. written or in person. and i thought we came to a clear, mutual understanding...

months blew past. out of inbox. out of mind.
the way i like it. peace at last!

then a couple days ago i get another e-mail. like we never even had a conversation about maintaining radio silence.

today i was texting to a life long friend about this issue. “y the hell can’t he leave me alone?” i asked. i don’t understand where the breakdown is. i hate him. he is a shit. i want to go the rest of my life never hearing or seeing his name or anything to do with him. he is not a good person. if he had some semblance of a soul, i may consider a friendship over time. but that’s the problem. he is a trash can of a human being. with the most fucked-up ideas about life i’ve ever heard.

he is losing other friends too. not just me. because he treats others like garbage. and i truly believe he is the only person on the planet that he has ever loved.

so my friend text me back my QOTD:

“i know what you mean – they r dead to u but they keep coming back like zombies!”

i couldn’t have put it better myself.
“exactly! that’s the perfect analogy!” i replied.

declare independence (qotd:070407)

On the 2nd I went to St. Louis for my partner’s birthday. He is a pilot and was there for a simulator training session that all pilots go through annually. Then on Tuesday I made my way back home to Chicago.

On my way home my iPod found the Children of Men soundtrack. I love it. It is a really great collection of songs including Running the World by Jarvis Cocker and covers of Tomorrow Never Knows (the Beatles) and Ruby Tuesday (the Rolling Stones).

Today being Independence Day, I thought it appropriate to start with another song from that soundtrack. It is my lengthy quote of the day. It is Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People) by John Lennon.

“We don't care what flag you're waving
We don't even want to know your name
We don't care where you're from or where you're going
All we know is that you came
You're making all our decisions
We have just one request of you
That while you're thinking things over
Here's something you just got to do

Free the people now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now
Free the people now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

Well we were caught with our hands in the air
Don't despair paranoia is everywhere
We can shake it with love when we're scared
So let's shout it aloud like a prayer

Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

We don’t care what rules you’re playing
We don't want to play your game
You think you're cool and know what you are doing
666 is your name
So while you're jerking off each other
You bear this thought in mind
Your time is come you better know it
But maybe you can't read the signs

Free the people now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

Well you were caught with your hands in the kill
And you still got to swallow your pill
As you slip and you slide down the hill
On the blood of the people you killed

Stop the killing (Free the people now)
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

Bring on the lucie”

It was written during our war in Vietnam, a day not unlike the present. It is a protest song asking those making the rules to “free the people” and stop their self-serving, evil dealings. This is not a mild mannered song.

Lennon likens the leader to the Antichrist and we find ourselves under just such a tyrant. We have a president that has fooled a part of the country into believing he is sent from god and that he is a Christian. Instead he governs in a way that doesn’t benefit the people as promised.

As 2008 elections rapidly approach, I take comfort in the line “…so while you're jerking off each other… you bear this thought in mind… your time is come you better know it…”










Download: Declare Independence by Bjork (Volta)