October 31, 2004

an experiment for an ordinary Sunday night

(FYI: This is an entry that's going to get posted much later than I'm writing it, so for the record, it's was started at around 7:45PM. This is also going to be a very random entry, so I apoligize in advance. I'm experimenting with the writing of this entry: beginning early, drinking throughout, and ending whenever I damn well please...)

BEGIN.

I'm sitting here trying to write this before too long tonight. I'm sipping on a vodka tonic (my second) and am waiting to see if any more kids come to the door. Additionally, I may or may not be trying to get some work done for Script Analysis for Tuesday (depending on how the vodka tonic and my game of solitare wanes...)

(edit: I got the image around 11:00PM. I'm on drink 4 or 5. The tonic water has run out and I've tried vodka and coke, which is surprisingly tasty.)
This weekend was entirely unremarkable, minus Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Friday night, I went incognito to La Salle:


picture by jess...yes i'm matthem ofmuto for the evening.

Yeah, La Salle's much touted guest system at work. To be fair, the SDR asked if it was okay that he screwed up my name. I didn't know it was that bad, so I said okay. I need to use that name as an alias or something somewhere along the line.

Saturday was spent with Brian Veitz. Veitz, who I haven't seen in over a month. Every period of extended time that I spend with him tends to feel surreal for some reason, like a chapter from a book, or an episode from a quirky television show. I'm not complaining - far from it; I look forward to the next chapter every time we make plans. This week brought us delivering balloons to a baby shower, a really cool little used CD store called Positively Records, and a trip up to Bristol and Croydon.

They're both just small towns (townships? counties? boroughs?) just outside of Northeast Philadelphia. Ever since meeting Veitz, he's always made sarcastic comments about them, going so far as to film bits for an episode of "Studio 56" there at one time. (Studio 56, let me digress, was Veitz's pet project on La Salle 56 back 2 or 3 years ago. "Studio 56" begat "The Show" begat "This is It.")

It was an experience that I won't soon forget. Both are small towns of a real plain variety, mundane to the tee. There is one street that closely resembles what one remembers as "the Wild West" because it runs alongside railroad tracks and the buildings are pretty beat up.

The CD store was a amazing..thousands of CD's in the most random filing systems imaginable. I just wish I had gone in wanting to pick up something(s) specific. Instead, like I tend to do in music/book stores, my eyes glaze over (ooh! thousands of Shiny objects!) and I wander aimlessly attempting to regain my focus. I wound up picking up a promo copy of Brian Wilson's "Smile" for $10, which isn't a bad deal at all.

(Edit: this paragraph written at 11:55, with a vodka and orange juice, as the tonic and coke have both run out.)

I got lost in the CD store looking at the boxes upon boxes of singles that they're not selling of bands that had their five minutes milked and milked and milked. It's strange - these bands still immortalized in plastic metal and magnetic images readable by today's technology. Hundreds of bands, really, some of which I've heard of or seen on MTV or the radio, but the bulk of which vanished into oblivion without anyone noticing. Sad, really.

Sunday morning was spent enjoying "A Moon For the Misbegotten" by Eugene O'Neill. Then the Eagles played, and it was good. Then a quick trip to Acme to stock up on groceries (read: we forgot to buy Halloween candy, and there isn't anything more pathetic than being the one house on the block not giving away candy...or worse, giving away fruit or pennies...) Made dinner then.

And here we are. Vodka tonic to my right, textbook on my left.

--
(edit - 9:18PM: The textbook has gone unopened. I'm on my 3rd drink. I think)

Sunday opened with such promise too...the whole Daylight Savings Time always imparts in me an energy that is lost on other days. Unfortunately, any head starts to the day were interrupted when my roommates came in last night while I was trying to sleep. I heard, for the course of an hour or so, different pieces of furniture on the first floor being banged into. I just lay in bed, staring at the season, thankful that I wouldn't have to file an IR while trying to drift into some sort of sleep.

I found out in the morning that my roommate Jenny and her friend were wrestling. See? there was a perfectly logical explanation. In retrospect,

I wanted so badly to be as far ahead as I was last week, but it hasn't happened. Of course, I'm not terribly far behind, but I'll need to do work during tomorrow and Tuesday morning to be ready for class...something I didn't need to do last week

So to sum everything up, this Halloween can be summed up with wrestling, O'Neill, candy, and vodka.

The quote for this entry comes from O'Neill, who I've now had to read back to back for class. Though it says nothing, I'm incredibly impressed. I've become enamored with his writings. I see thematic threads in his writing that I attempt to touch in mine. His prose is like poetry; his drama incredibly beautiful despite the lack of a happy ending.

Edmund: Sardonically. The makings of a poet. No, I'm afraid I'm like the guy who is always panhandling for a smoke. He hasn't even got the makings. He's got only the habit. I couldn't touch what I tried to tell you just now. I just stammered. That's the best I'll ever do, I mean, if I live. Well, it will be faithful realism, at least. Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people.
--Eugene O'Neill, "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
[Listening to: "Heroes And Villains", by Brian Wilson from the album "Smile"]
(END: around 12:00 midnight AM on monday morning... the experiment was interesting. lots of random im conversations alongside this entry. followup to be posted eventually.) Posted by Matthew at October 31, 2004 11:56 PM
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