Sunday, May 10, 2009

This Is A Moment In Time

Super sleepy. I am reading in preparation for my American Literature paper that is due in a week or so. It is a literature class but the last two books we read relate directly to Sociology, Anthropology and Economics. We should be reading Melville and Twain, not Economic Abundance and the American Character.

The following are a few noteworthy passages within a sea of boredom (or exerts from American Studies in a Moment of Danger by George Lipsitz)...

- (pg. 219) "Some years ago, Gamboa pioneered the concept of "No Movies," staging scenes to make city streets look like sites of gang shootings or suicides in hopes of enticing local television news crews into covering events that never happened."

- (pg. 261) "During the 1960's, artist Andy Warhol explained his silkscreen prints of hundreds of identical Coca-Cola bottles as a tribute to American democracy because the millionaire and the pauper drink the same beverage: no matter how rich you get you can't get a better Coke."

- (pg. 276) "The literary critic Mikhail Backtin tells us that there is no such things as a pure monologue, that every utterance is part of a dialogue already in progress."

- (pg. 309) "Musicians who played with [Albert King] reported that sometimes he would correct their mistakes by slapping them in the face with one hand, and firing his pistol in the air at the same time with the other hand. Band members were often not quite sure if they had been slapped or if they had been shot."


The two girls that live a few doors down from me are having a loud fight. From the sound of it, one of them watched a movie that they were supposed to watch together and then proceeded to lie about not watching it. Please, remember to pick your battles carefully. Life is too short (and so is Danny Devito).

Speak easy,
Neil

3 comments:

Robin said...

Neil -- I love the band leader correcting his musicians by slapping them or shooting off a pistol. Tell Jim that we're a kinder, gentler sort (sometimes)!

Neil Everett said...

He mentioned that he might stop by the house. I would say a guest would have a 25/75 shot of arriving during some sort of squabble. Again, happy mother's day!

Lori said...

Its so important for us to chose our battles n life, We get so washed out with all the everyday stuff, that we soon forget to distinguish between what's important and what;s not.