Travels on the Bad F*cker Highway

[ Saturday, December 21, 2002 ]

  WINTER SOLSTICE. It's the shortest (daylight) day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the first day of the year in which the sun will not rise north of 66.5 degrees lattitude (the artic circle). I've never been anywhere where the sun doesn't rise. I think I'd like to try that sometime for a few days. Here is an interesting page on winter solstice information and traditions. Solstice never meant much to me, as I grew up Lutheran, and it was thus clearly overshadowed by the OTHER holiday, and certainly not encouraged due to its pagan associations. I just learned about the overlap of Xmas and solstice and saturnalia, and wish I had known about that earlier. Anyway, I suppose that celebrating winter solstice makes sense, as it is at least based on a real and scientifically observable event. I'm going to a solstice party later at a friend's house - it was described in the e-mail as being ritual-free.

I helped uncle Floss move out of Floss Forest (the three acres of redwood forest near Santa Cruz he was living in) today. All that's left to do is to rid his trailer of the salvia gnome infestation, although they may have followed his trail to the Mission. Moving Floss was sort of sad, but I guess he'll be happier up here in some ways, and it's good that he'll be in the city, as I may periodically want to couch surf at his place next year, if the Bad F*cker Highway gets too intense or boring or weird. I think I have accrued something like 134 days of couch surfing reciprocity rights with him. Maybe there should be a centralized couch surfing exchange program, like Servas, or something. [12/21/2002]

[ Thursday, December 19, 2002 ]

 
Try to remain focused on the things that really matter in life - attaining status, accumulating property and money, and not rocking the boat. [12/19/2002]

[ Wednesday, December 18, 2002 ]

  SUCCESSFUL INTERNET INVESTIGATION. So a few days ago I thought I'd try to locate some old friends using google. I found an e-mail address and a few web sites belonging to my old friend in Budapest Michael Paulukonis, which is really cool, as I've been trying to locate him off and on for the past 7 or 8 years. We just got in touch via e-mail a few days ago. He sent me this postcard a LONG time ago, which bore his motto "Recycling Other People's Culture Since 1970." He's still using it. I think it's a good motto. Michael is making art and performance stuff in northeastern Pennsylvania, and doing his part to smash the capitalist aesthetic regime. I think I will recycle and reuse his motto, and call it "Rejecting Other People's Culture Since 1968. And I think it's o.k. because he's probably against intellectual property rights. It's good to find old friends, and Scranton, PA has been added to the itinerary of the Bad F*cker Highway. [12/18/2002]

[ Tuesday, December 17, 2002 ]

[ Monday, December 16, 2002 ]

  Warning: Random musings on commitment and decision-making. I often wonder how much time is appropriately spent being angry (i.e. being angry about our culture or George Bush or economic injustice, etc., etc.). Many of us in North America, strangely, have the luxury of turning our anger on and off as our schedules and social life permit it. And I wonder how any political organizing or protesting, at least among middle class white people, for example, ever gets accomplished at all? For example, shall I stay home and read The Nation, or go out and get a burrito? In a society of extreme affluence, political involvement for many people means little more than writing a check to Greenpeace each year and buying Ben & Jerry's ice cream. In a society of extreme affluence, we can move in and out of any political position or commmitment at will, with little inconvenience or consequences. I guess there is some relationship between cost/risk and intensity of commitment. (graphic courtesy of www.unamerican.com) [12/16/2002]