Snow fell from the general's eyes
as the city dreamt of itself.

The Albums That Made 2007 Bearable

20. Liars - s/t
19. Dinosaur, Jr. - Beyond
18. Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
17. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
16. Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
15. Pandabear - Person Pitch
14. Nina Nastasia & Jim White - You Follow Me
13. Justice - †
12. Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
11. Ponytail - Kamehameha
10. Thurston - Trees Outside the Academy
09. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
08. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
07. Radicalfashion - Odori
06. Radiohead - In Rainbows
05. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
04. Spoon - Worst Album Title Ever
03. Battles - Mirrored
02. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
01. Deerhunter - Cryptograms

Biggest Disappointment: Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity

Favorite reissues: Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen, Betty Davis - s/t, Jean-Claude Vannier - L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches

Best Compilations: Eccentric Soul: TwiNight's Lunar Rotation, Jonny Greenwood is the Controller

write the story of a reincarnated soul as it migrates through history and cultures in (very) short vignettes. have ambiguous threads connect these lives: repeated images, names, vague memories, concepts. maybe do it in chronological order as the soul migrates, or maybe it might be more interesting to do it out of order. include their deaths.

maybe include:
the hunter-gatherer (maybe an indian? or is that too cliche?)
the empress
the soldier
the buddhist monk
the young victorian girl
the explorer (ship captain? or more marco polo? maybe an arctic explorer?)
the housewife
the revolutionary (english civil war? paris commune? russian revolution?)
the missionary (maybe muslim for a change of pace? maybe christians in japan)
the wino

any others you can think of

is this too long for a short story? is this a novel? is this a multi-volume series of epic novels?

notes from 12/12/07

Women pouring out of the sun, filling the sky like sperm dancing on the outer edges of a great burning egg.

A town filled with white squirrels with nothing to fear. The residents deferential to the will of the rodents.

A white policeman's hat floating over an empty collar with no head to fill it.

A city of interiors; a collection of dirty rooms, cramped basements and crowded tunnels that connect one walled space to another.

unicorns are rooting for you.
they all know you can do it.

Being Average in America

Like 55% of people, you watch the news while cooking dinner. You whiten your teeth while you sleep.

Your household has more televisions than children.

You are one of 90% of Americans that own a Bible, only half of which can name a single Gospel.

You will still consume 20 tablespoons of added sugar today.

You are one of the 16% of people who have never been forgiven.

Tonight, you will spend 7 hours sleeping and 20 minutes wondering why you can't sleep.

Like 33% of people, you haven't really felt alive since the summer of 1997

If you're one of the 10% of people who think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, you're also one of the 95% of people who think they're right.

You will live 13 years longer than the average celebrity and will have pictures of your accidentally exposed crotch in 100% fewer tabloids.

You are one of the 26% of people who will burn their children alive.

You will be married three times but still believe in one true love.

You are one of the 71% of Americans who dream with their eyes open, kiss with their mouths closed and make love in the dark.

You will not save any money today.

One-third of American workers see tiny skulls in the mirror.

You will spend 137.8 hours this year commuting to work and 135.2 hours getting back home.

You will only spend 17 minutes a day reading.

You are one of 98% of people who wish they could remember how it felt to be born.

At some point today you will say a prayer. You will not floss. You will take a shower for 11 minutes and not sing in it, drive an eight-year old car to work and spend 95% of the day indoors, in front of a computer, pretending to look busy.

You are one of the 30% of Americans who can not afford to be sick.

At some point today you will wish you could write a beautiful song about love. Like 62% of people, the feeling will pass.

At the age of 71 you will be retired, you will live off Social Security, take three kinds of pills, will no longer speak to your children and will, most mornings, meet your last remaining friend, Bill Stevenson, at McDonalds to drink bad coffee, eat greasy egg biscuits, stare wistfully out the windows at an ugly, tin-foiled sky and talk about things that happened 20 to 40 years ago in softly forgotten tones.

self-portrait

write a love story from the point of view of two merging companies.