Saturday, September 29, 2001

ick and two-dollar flags// I brushed my teeth with doggie toothpaste this morning. Not intentionally, mind you. The tube said NATURAL in large letters and it was a brand called St John's. Looked like something you'd get at the health food store -- tasted like it, too. It was when I picked up the tube to see what flavor could possibly taste so bad when I saw the word DOG.

I had a momentary panic today thinking about the training. It passed.

I took the day off. Even though I had some down time in Flagstaff I'm still exhausted from all the driving. I spent most of today lying down reading and napping. I had a curious moment when reading the LA Weekly. First I read an interview with internet celebrity of the moment, Tamim Ansary. He's the Afghani-American who wrote that note about why it would be redundant to bomb Afghanistan into the stone age. He's been elevated from writing mediocre children's books to political commentator. Warhol was so right. Then, I turned the page to begin reading an article called Media Fundamentalism by John Powers. By the end of paragraph one I thought it sounded familiar. By the end of paragraph two I realized I had already read it. It was forwarded to an email list I belong to last week. Say what you will about the hype, the changes being wrought on our minds and society by the internet are tangible. It seems as though we truly are moving towards creating a group mind even if the most immmediate signs are nothing more than bad jokes and mindless hoaxes.

Speaking of bad jokes and mindless hoaxes... Elvis lives, at least in the heart (and on the head and face) of a Stucco contractor I met today who is working on my brother's renovation. He was a short, stocky and blustery fella with a stiff black pompadour wig and near-mutton-chop side burns. When he talked (which was constantly) he liked to make eye contact with everyone in the room so he kept turning his head from side to side making sure to give everyone equal time. He had to hold his head perfectly level so his hair wouldn't slide of his head. Then again, maybe he just had stiff neck and the hair was real. Nah. And he doesn't look a thing like Elvis.

Since the focus of this message seems to be humor... Use the link below to see who I'm sharing the living room floor with. Trouble is no longer with us but Molly is quite a pleasant creature. (The page is slow loading -- my brother is a programmer, not a web designer.)

http://wps.com/about-WPS/personal/dogs.html

Nice of her to let me use her toothpaste...

I went by the Bikram studio today to scope out the route, the neighborhood and the parking situation. It looks like a converted mechanic's garage. One of the guys behind the counter, Ted, nailed me as a trainee the minute I walked in. Not that that would have been difficult. There wasn't a class going on and I think there's almost 300 of us arriving in town this weekend for the session. I'm sure there have been a lot of trainess stopping by and getting their bearings. I sensed an air of exciement but I'm not sure if it wasn't just me projecting a little of my own excitement on the place. Tomorrow is the first day of school.

This is a large city. This is a very large city. I spent most of today driving around this fucking very large city figuring out where things are. Basically, everything is really far from everything else. I like it, though. There are an incredible number of options for just about anything you could want: restaurants, book stores, music stores, thrift stores, art galleries, parks, movie theatres, live theatres and flags. American flags. Everywhere. On every corner, in the middle of every block, in every restaurant window (especially the greek, turkish, persian and generally anything resembling middle eastern restaurants), on every t-shirt, newspaper, magazine, on every government building, every billboard, and appropriately, on every SUV. I think it's enough. Would you ask them to stop?

One of my goals today was to locate a store that has a USB SmartCard reader so I could transfer some photos from my camera to my laptop. I called ahead to minimize my driving time (yeah, right) and was put on hold by Office Depot. The other stores just kept my fingers dancing in the never-ending button mash until I hung up in disgust - is that what they're trying to do? Anyway, while on hold waiting for Office Depot to piss me off enough to hang up, I naturally had to listen to a litany of special deals and offers. I expected that. What I didn't expect was to hear Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner supra-imposed in the background. Would you PLEASE ask them to stop?

I found a SmartCard Reader: http://kaos.org/westward/

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