AFTER AN 'ALL-NIGHTER' OF TRYING TO THINK MYSELF TO SLEEP....VIEWING THE UNEDITABLE STREAMING FROM THE CAVERNS OF SEMI-CONSCIOUS INSOMNIA.......THEN WATCHING THE SUNRISE OF THE LAST DAY OF 2024......

In a world of "images"......hundreds of millions on the hard drives of my own computers.......my Life, in Stuff, digitally documented......decorated surfaces, with referenced ideas and notions, suggestions of mortality, illustrative glossy memorabilia of Life with dimensional indicators......page markers, entwines, separators, consolidations, collaborations and virtual mutualizations of keyboard interstices of gathered photons, reacting to genetic programs, at some level, actually unique in the smallest venues of consciousness........symbols and containers, squares and rectangles that bypass the unfathomable Geometry for the confidences of square corners and flat planes....Film-making, moving completely into the Matrix, eliminating the fleshy egos of big-budget movie stars, making room for the Art, replacing the big screen....full of rich actors....with digital personalities, lacking the "Life" behind black pupils....a logical contrivance evolution from the worlds of gaming and virtual imaginings.......Anime with cerebral connectivity, clumsy eroticism, and purposefully eliminated subtlety of human interactions......the throes of absorption by the Borg.......keep your fingers near the keys, blue-tooth devices implanted in your ear canals, and your eyes on your screens.......Did you just say something, Petunia? I wasn't listening. Isn't the "real" world somewhere else? ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQkHA3fHk_0

A photo, scanned from a 35MM contact sheet....me, posing as 'sales staff' at Stefan's Vintage Haberdashery, during its inception...."May I serve you?"......Then, one could smoke while 'waiting on' a client.......

 

MEMORY FROM A BUSINESS CARD.........

Under some a/c filters, a copy of Robert Pirsig's Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance........the last book that I read, during my 20's.......I just gave it to a neighbor, who asked if it were a book on repairing motorcycles.........Inside......a 'Pirsig' quote: on the back of a business card from Kent Lee, my 'boss' at Saks at that time...and, who was convinced that I would 'burn in Hell' for 'not believing'.....

 

WHY I HAVEN'T BEEN AT THE DENTIST'S OFFICE IN 13 YEARS!

 MY FIRST 'VISIT' TO THE 'FAMILY DENTIST' WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE,  SINCE I WAS LED TO BELIEVE THAT I WAS GOING TO 'THE MOVIES'......WHEN I VIEWED THIS 'CONTRAPTION' AND THE DENTIST BEGAN TO STICK A SHARP 'THING' INTO MY GUMS, I KICKED THE WHITE GLASS TRAY TO TO FLOOR, BREAKING IT AND SPREADING THE TOOLS ACROSS THE ROOM......AFTER WHICH,  I FLED, WITH THE WHITE NAPKIN STILL ABOUT MY NECK.....TO CLINTON STREET......EVEN NOW, I HAVE PROFOUND 'DENTAL ANXIETY'.........EVEN THOUGH THE EQUIPMENT, UTILIZED NOW, IS FAR LESS INTIMIDATING.....

'All Work and Little Playtime', a century before the 'All Play and as little Work as possible' Era of Now......

When friends, who have homes, 2 year old vehicles and pricy 'latest' mobile phones...whine about their misfortunes .....I just look at this old photo of these pitiable kids, in rags, all under 15, that worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, in dusty, cold/hot conditions at the Ragland Mills in Old West Huntsville, Alabama ....a century ago......making cotton thread to survive....This morning, an NPR program about the evolution of X-mas, based on the Dickens' tale, A CHRISTMAS STORY with references to OLIVER TWIST...was being discussed.......as memories flowed from my brain's storage neuron-connects, of stories that my Grandfather told us, of his Youth, where he toiled in a cotton mill, as did many young boys and girls....during the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th Century........