I started Chuck Palahniuk's novel of short stories Haunted shortly after finishing Rant (arguably his most solid piece of fiction). It was around this time that I had intended to make a short animated music video for Architecture In Helsinki's One Heavy February, basing the artwork on characters and set design from the video game Katamari Damacy. Along with the Prince (main character of the game) and a katamari ball, there seems to be some notes on how to color specific areas of the image. I'm pretty sure the the video involved the Prince getting up and making a cup of coffee and once and a while cutting to him dancing.
The book that this Superbad ticket stub is holding a place within is Run With The Hunter, an anthology of assorted texts by Charles Bukowski. A year and a half ago I was working for a few weeks at Camp Farley working Recreation and Arts and Crafts. I remember one time specifically where I took out most of the supplies that were left in the Arts and Crafts cabin and put them in the center of a table of ten year olds. "Today we are making stuff." They glued googly eyes to pieces of construction paper while I sat on a nearby counter listening to Hellogoodbye, reading exerts from Ham on Rye.
The ticket stub is another story. What happened was my girlfriend at the time, Mariana, asked me if we could go to the Greek Orthodox Church after she got out of work. She is from Moldova and had not made it to church since she had arrived in America on a work Visa. For some reason I was unable to accrue transportation to Hyannis, so I asked her if she would like to go on a double date with our friends Mike and Jackie. After the movie was over I asked her what she thought. "Now I understand why people do not like America." Is all she really had to say about it.
Months later I told her how awful I felt for dragging her to the film and she said that she watched the movie again and liked it and that I shouldn't feel bad. I did end up taking her to church if you really want to know. It was really beautiful.
This bookmark is a small calendar advertisement for a Moldovan mall that I never went to. I am not sure exactly sure where in Moldova I acquired this, but it sure does make a good bookmark. It may interest you to take note on the odd (odd to us anyway) way in which they arrange the calendar. The weeks are arranger vertically instead of horizontally.
I did go to one mall in Chisinau, the Avon. It was kind of like a slightly nicer indoor flea market. My goal was to get a t-shirt with some sort of Romanian or Russian slogan on it. Turns out that the Moldovan people only buy shirts with English or German lettering. The closest thing I could find was a great CCCP rugby shirt for 150 lei (about 16.5 USD).
This polaroid is holding my place in Lolita, the book I won in this year's Yankee Swap. I found this picture on July 24th 2006, waiting for the 6th Harry Potter book to released on the second floor of the Barnes & Noble at the Cape Cod Mall. More often than not, I will pick up discarded or lost items in hopes of finding something invaluable.
When sit down and think about it, most of the little objects within my dorm that orbit my being throughout the day have some sort of story. Narratives and stories fill in empty gaps. They explain what is often left unexplained. They give something meaning.
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“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
- Stephen King on Stephenie Meyer
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Speak easy,
Neil
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