december 2 etc (vignettes)
Somewhere between 12-14 years ago I did a reading of some of my work at a bar called No One Writes To The Colonel in Toronto. Some great writers were also reading, including Julie Mannell and Andrew G. Forbes. Forbes and I were actually quite close for a while but eventually we grew apart. He tired of me, and... fair.
The work I produced for that night wasn't good in my opinion, but there were certainly words and they were definitely on a page (except no they weren't because the page was the Notes app on an iPhone 3GS). At the bar I introduced those pieces as "subway vignettes" and I told the audience I wrote them while on the subway (which was true). I explained that in an effort to not be a dude who stared at his phone like a zombie (yes this was happening 12-15 years ago) I...stared at my phone like a zombie while writing little stories about the people I saw in the subway, some of whom were staring at their phones like zombies.
zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies zombies
NB: they were not actual vignettes. I just use French words when I want to sound smart.
The 2025 version of this is me grabbing my phone to jot down an interesting or important or poignant or funny thought and then trying to stitch or braid them together well after the fact —— and not always being able to. As a result, I have about a hundred million fragments that I need to get out and you're the people I get things out to.
Example:
Do people understand that they are drawn to images and aesthetics and the semiotics of dress articulated by the poses the models are striking and that they buy clothes because they feel stuff based in visual traditions but also angles? Also, do people get that when they are turned on by a model or a porn star or an actor on the cover of Vanity Fair they are at least partially turned on by shapes, angles, and a shared cultural memory and understanding —— and, moreover, do they get that Vanity Fair is a publication that exists to deliver a certain kind of consumer to a certain kind of advertiser and they know exactly what kinds of shapes and angles achieves that?
Example:
The more AI slop oozes its way into every aspect of our culture, our shared reality will be eroded to the point that everyone will become a solipsist island. This is exactly the point of AI slop and it's insane to me that people don't see it. When there is no shared truth there is no shared reality. When there is no shared reality people have to choose from a variety of subjective realities, which really means that people get boxed (read: box themselves) into several parallel realities (because you need to interact with other people) which may not intersect cleanly or at all. This is a recipe for chaos on a level that no one is truly ready for. It used to be you chose the political framing re: the news then it morphed so that you chose the "facts" you wanted to believe and then it morphed into choose the "facts" you want to believe while also shouting that everyone else is lying or false or "fake news" or delulu or whatever else and... like... you can have a coherent society if everyone has wildly different beliefs about everything, yes, but especially the dumb pointless stuff like when Michael Jordan retired in the middle of his prime to play minor league baseball.
You get the gist. Short, pithy, thoughtful, and maybe a bit manic, but also generally... interested.
Anyway, I'm working on some of those at present and will essay to get a full complement of them in a post later this week, probably on Friday.
For now, though, I need to nap. Your boy is burrrrrrrnt and has Raptors tickets tonight.
🌲 gonna
🌼 go
🌱 touch power
🌳 grass nap
🌷 now
Be good to yourself.
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