Awe and Nonsense
"Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing."
Truman Capote wrote that when he was 19 years old.
I thought if I copied it, it might somehow seep into my own brain and I'd catch just a tad bit of that talent.
19 fuckin' years old.
Amazing.
I like the new job. No, make that love. I LOVE the new job. E asked how things were coming along - yesterday it wasn't good because I was overwhelmed and did the insecure-I'm-certain-they'll-fire-me-before-I-can-prove-myself thing. Today was different. So when he asked this time, I said I was never leaving and that they were just stuck with me whether they liked it or not. This brought to both our minds the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer "works" at this office but he never really gets hired and the boss asks him to leave and Kramer says something like, "Well, you know, I don't really work here" and the boss says something like "that's what makes this so hard..." Yes it's true, in case you might have been wondering: I do have constant Seinfeld tracts running through my mind. Snippets. Usually if you get a snippet you can throw it at someone else and they can supply the rest for you and you both get a good laugh out of it. Makes coexisting with your fellow humans so much easier when you'd really rather just run over them in your car. Driving in Hollywood must feel a tad like driving in New York City. Damn people walking all over the damn place at all the inopportune times. You finally get a chance to make that turn that you've been waiting and waiting for and just the endless stream of cars just keeps coming and coming and coming and you can hear you old Grandpa in the back of your head saying, "Gosh, who opened the gate?" but NO! You can't turn! There's a person walking there. A bedraggled somebody with a grocery cart walking the speed of molasses in the winter. Or a bitter, angry soul that sees you, makes eye contact, and deliberately walks slowly (yep, this happens a lot.) Or the guy that can't decide if he should walk behind your car, or in front of your car and so ends up doing this little indecisive dance halfway to your car, thereby extending your time spent sitting waiting for an OPEN SPACE in which to pull out...and then there are the people that don't even look - they just start walkin'. And it's not good for them because you see, I'm from Texas. Texans DO NOT look for pedestrians. I think we must like our pedestrians squashed flat...which is probably why pedestrians are rather rare. Either they're rare because they're scared or they're rare because they have been eliminated. I'm amazed that more pedestrians aren't killed in Texas. Not that I have statistics on this or anything. And you know I'm one of those people that just walks out there even though I am from Texas. Almost got my dumb ass run over on Tuesday. But as I've always said about Tuesdays: they suck.
There. I have succeeded in writing a completely nonsensical paragraph. I'll totally write on Capote's level one day. I daresay it's inevitable!
Truman Capote wrote that when he was 19 years old.
I thought if I copied it, it might somehow seep into my own brain and I'd catch just a tad bit of that talent.
19 fuckin' years old.
Amazing.
I like the new job. No, make that love. I LOVE the new job. E asked how things were coming along - yesterday it wasn't good because I was overwhelmed and did the insecure-I'm-certain-they'll-fire-me-before-I-can-prove-myself thing. Today was different. So when he asked this time, I said I was never leaving and that they were just stuck with me whether they liked it or not. This brought to both our minds the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer "works" at this office but he never really gets hired and the boss asks him to leave and Kramer says something like, "Well, you know, I don't really work here" and the boss says something like "that's what makes this so hard..." Yes it's true, in case you might have been wondering: I do have constant Seinfeld tracts running through my mind. Snippets. Usually if you get a snippet you can throw it at someone else and they can supply the rest for you and you both get a good laugh out of it. Makes coexisting with your fellow humans so much easier when you'd really rather just run over them in your car. Driving in Hollywood must feel a tad like driving in New York City. Damn people walking all over the damn place at all the inopportune times. You finally get a chance to make that turn that you've been waiting and waiting for and just the endless stream of cars just keeps coming and coming and coming and you can hear you old Grandpa in the back of your head saying, "Gosh, who opened the gate?" but NO! You can't turn! There's a person walking there. A bedraggled somebody with a grocery cart walking the speed of molasses in the winter. Or a bitter, angry soul that sees you, makes eye contact, and deliberately walks slowly (yep, this happens a lot.) Or the guy that can't decide if he should walk behind your car, or in front of your car and so ends up doing this little indecisive dance halfway to your car, thereby extending your time spent sitting waiting for an OPEN SPACE in which to pull out...and then there are the people that don't even look - they just start walkin'. And it's not good for them because you see, I'm from Texas. Texans DO NOT look for pedestrians. I think we must like our pedestrians squashed flat...which is probably why pedestrians are rather rare. Either they're rare because they're scared or they're rare because they have been eliminated. I'm amazed that more pedestrians aren't killed in Texas. Not that I have statistics on this or anything. And you know I'm one of those people that just walks out there even though I am from Texas. Almost got my dumb ass run over on Tuesday. But as I've always said about Tuesdays: they suck.
There. I have succeeded in writing a completely nonsensical paragraph. I'll totally write on Capote's level one day. I daresay it's inevitable!
3 Comments:
Brains are pink when you crack open a skull, not white...
...shows what he knew!
on pedestrians: i have encountered every type you described. i hate them all. but sadly, i have become one at times and am guilty of each and every thing. my favorite is the dance back and forth...
I lived in New York for about 2 years and the first week I was there, I almost got hit by a car.
My observation in Texas is that we seem to follow the rules a little more. We cross when the cross-walk says to cross and cars, for the most part, stop when they are supposed to. Everyone does what they are supposed to. The ones I worry about are the courier bikes.
Now buses are another story. There was a big article in Houston Press about a month ago that discusses the number of people killed by Metro busses. Pretty scary.
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