Travels on the Bad F*cker Highway

[ Saturday, December 14, 2002 ]

  Warning: Tedious musings on the nature of wanderlust and nostalgia. I was going through boxes of papers last night and found my old Budapest public transit pass. Seeing it made me instantly excited and nostalgic. The substance of this - whatever it is, perahps "wanderlust nostalgia" - is many things, maybe the longing for a sense of adventure or mystery, or the longing for the simplicity of living out of a backpack, not always knowing where I will be every day, or whom I might meet, or what I might discover. After a mind-numbing 6 years working in the same office, I've nearly forgotten that feeling. There are many days when I walk from the bus stop to my office thinking, WHY do I do this every day? How and why do humans tolerate, and to what extent, Routine? What are the limits of Routine before it begins to eat away at us, making us shadows of ourselves? Or is a distaste for Routine just a modern bourgeious complaint?

I do know, without a doubt, that some of the happiest times of my life were in Eastern Europe nearly a decade ago, with no possessions other than what was in my backpack, with just enough money to get by - and drink a little and travel cheaply. I think this is just evidence that we humans (or I) need people and new experiences and art, more than we need routine (and financial security, a nice apartment, and a book collection). I can't wait to get on the road again. [12/14/2002]

[ Friday, December 13, 2002 ]

  I've been noticing, and also trying to think about, the difference(s) between "entertainment" and "fun" recently. And TV is the obvious example that comes to mind. I've been pretty good this year, largely limiting my intake to Junkyard Wars, Gear Guide on the Outdoor Life Network, and the occasional episode of the Sopranos or Oz . (Again, we all have our weaknesses). The drug of a nation. My housemates and I have TIVO and DirectTV (mildly politically embarrassing guilty pleasures), and it is really sad that of the 300 or 400 channels we get, that only one - World Link TV - has any significant independent or Left-oriented political or cultural programming. I guess that is no surprise, but the fact that this constitutes much less than 1% of the programming pumped into my home via satellite is somewhat upsetting and depressing. The best thing about World Link TV is a program called Mosaic , which is "a selection of daily news reports in English from a variety of Middle Eastern broadcasters from Morocco, Egypt, Israel, The Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Iran." If you haven't seen it, try to, it's refreshing to see the story from the other side once in a while, especially when it's TV. [12/13/2002]

[ Thursday, December 12, 2002 ]

  DISTURBING WEB SITE ALERT. So this isn't really a travelogue anymore, or not yet, or something. I've decided to post a periodic reference to web sites that are - um, off the beaten path, perhaps. Maybe not subversive, or surreal, or even sub-cultural fringe fetishes - but which are just plain ... odd. Ergo, see this site devoted to reclaiming the swastika as a sacred symbol. To this end, an artist known as ManWoman has written a book and publishes a site called "The Gentle Swastika." This really has to be seen to be believed. It would appear, actually, that he has the noblest of intentions. There is also an interesting reference to the town of Swastika, Ontario . And no doubt the pre-nazi history of the symbol is mildly interesting. Nice. [12/12/2002]

[ Monday, December 09, 2002 ]

  My trip back to Northern California last night was uneventful, and perhaps the 15mg of valium and one glass of red wine made it slightly more uneventful. Earlier that day, driving on the interstate back to Fargo, I heard the better part of an entire Whitesnake album and most of the Scorpions big hits on FM radio. One of Fargo's rock/metal stations was proudly advertising the fact that it NEVER played Eminem. This struck me as curious, as I thought that Eminem was now this huge fetish/spectacle with teenage Middle America. Maybe all 25 homosexuals in Fargo, North Dakota got together and started some kind of direct action or boycott or something . . .

In any event, I got pulled out of line and searched at the Fargo airport. It should be noted that I was the only person in line, but the 7 or 8 TSA employees standing around should be commended for noticing the "large, it's like a large, like, conglomeration or something . . ." viewed on the x-ray of my Timbuktu messenger bag. They went through my little toiletry bag - extremely polite, all of them, dontcha know - and concluded that it was just "some kind of a strange conglomeration that doesn't show up." There was, however, a huge dried toothpaste spill all over the inside of the bag, which I think tended to diminish any of their suspicions. I told them that it's been my experience that 5,000 hits of MDMA wrapped in aluminum foil will do that to the x-ray, and then assured them that it could not be used as a weapon. (Well, o.k., I really didn't say that, but in a perfect world, it struck me as a clever smart-ass thing to say. Oh, well.) [12/9/2002]