Showing posts with label navelgazing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label navelgazing. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fear and loathing in Room 7: The Ex.

It was just another Friday. The trilby was in place, the coffee was exacerbating my arrhythmia and the vodka bottle seems to evaporate per ACT OF THE GODS.

Everything's good in Hill City. The sun shines through my window, in another one of those FREAK events of God, who decides in HIS glory that 8 pm is a great time to have daylight. But who am I, OH LORD, to question your daylight savings time?

Ah, the demerara sugar + fairtrade bullshit coffee + twinnings instant cocoa mix is doing the trick. No more Writer's Block. No more fear. I am part of a writing surge. No longer does my body control my fingers nor do they obey The Words in my brain. No. It is them, those Tenacious Ten, who have a creative orgy over the keyboard and it's up to my brain to think of words, to string them along in strange ways, hoping to hit gold.

But no, it's only blanks that i shoot. The holes in the wall show the endless dart games that end up in my disgrace. The peanut crumbles and grapefruit skins in the floor are a reminder of my growing hernia. My lifestyle determines my deathstyle. Selah.

Will I ever finish this? Who cares? Not me, as I re-read this drivel and only find errors. Mistakes appear like relatives at a funeral. Nonsense prevails. Breaking the fourth wall and stream of consciousness are so horrible, the overused excesses of bad writers. Even worse when they are self-aware.

Mayhaps I need a new career?

The phone rings. I promised to change the current ringtone to something maybe a little more modern. Fads come and go.

It was Ronnie, my exgirlfriend. It always feels weird talking to an ex, as there are Words that you can't say anymore, phrases you can't kick around and memories that are best left in a shallow grave in the forest.

Still, The Conversation is enjoyable. Quirky, but enjoyable. Common stuff (family, Fear of The Future, coffee recipes) is discussed thoroughly and after ten minutes, she says goodbye and I continue typing away.

A friday like this can go on for so long. And yet, you know that all good things come to an end.

It started like a small buzz. A really distant sound. I thought nothing of it, but then it increased and increased until IT BECAME A THUNDER!!!

Ye Gods, it's the FUCKING RUSSIANS! You maniacs, you did it, you FINALLY DID IT!!!

There it was, flying towards me: a black hornet.

No warning, no previous dialogue mediated by Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. It was ME against Nature. And Nature is a Bitch from Hell.

I dived, duck and rolled. No cover was available, but this Infamous Insect had invaded my private space. My room was mine NO MORE. It was HIS and mine.

Where, oh, where is the telethon to save me? Where is the charity record for my plight?

Then the phone rang again. The black hornet saw it. It acknowledge it. A DAMN INSECT RECOGNISES MOBILE PHONES! WE ARE DOOMED!!

The damn thing crawled toward the mobile, taunting me. I threw a piece of peanut, which clicked the left mouse button (I'm an excellent marksman). THE THUNDEROUS MUSIC startled the Hunching Hymenoptera and I made a run for it. Fuck it, no one lives forever.

I snagged the mobile from the desk and then a panda roll but me away from harm's way. Me: 1. Forces of Nature: Zero.

It was Ronnie again. I don't know if it was The Sound of a Female voice or just being out-awesome'd by me, but the Hornet o'Horrors (TM) did not took kindly and went hellbent on me. I threw myself to a side, with the hornet ripping a bit of my shirt off.

"What's that noise? What's going on?" asked Ronnie in horror while listening to me struggle. I did another panda roll, hurting my collar bone, but I managed to leave the room and lock the door.

I explained to Ronnie that I was under attack. The Reckoning had started and God decided to mess with us with Hornets.

She says that there are days when she thanks we are no longer together. Shrug.

"Are you a man or not? Go merc the insect!" she says but I stall. I'm a lover, not a fighter. We talk for a few minutes when my sweet, AMAZING music becomes a horrible, soul-destroying dirge that was a violation of my eardrums.

"That's it, you Terrible Tiphiid" I said while rolling a few bits of the Guardian's sport section. "You will get out of there".

The volume increased. This WAS A WAR and there WILL BE CASUALTIES. Preferably on Nature's side.

I kick the door in, throwing newspaper balls in the direction of the wasp. The insect deftly avoided the attack and flew to a higher position. Ye gods! From the ceiling that insect could be manager. Director. GOD.

It flew towards me, with MURDER in its multiple eyes. Oh, Lord, what is I gonna do? Will the last time my ex-girlfriend listens to me will be when I'm turned into grated cheese by a flying murder machine? IS THIS IT?

Then, my brain, that blocked up matter that hasn't produced anything for weeks, devised a plan. Quickly I crouched, waiting for the sonufabitch to be in range and then THAT BASTION OF KNOWLEDGE, the Torygraph, ehrm, Telegraph, was a Saving Shield.

Yes, a friday edition of The Telegraph saved my life. Stuck in the middle of Alan Duncan's horrible mug was the wasp, stinger embedded in His Living-on-Rationness.

I flicked the newspaper off the window. May Jeremy Clarkson's wig have pity on the horrible insect. I continued to talk to my ex and everything seemed to be smooth sailing.

Until she popped the question, that horrible MOMENT I dreaded all my life: "Say, why do you have Coldplay in your laptop?"

My reputation...ruined!!!


Saturday, August 15, 2009

Remembranza de: Amigos y música.

Corría el año de 1993 y...

Okay, lo siento, va a ser uno de "esos posts" nostálgicos que parecen como conejos apareándose. Todos los blogs los tienen. Creo que todas mis historias tienen algo de nostálgico.

Pero me estoy saliendo de tema.

Corría (hu huhu huh uh you said corría) el año de 1993 y estaba emocionado porque mis padres contrataban Multivisión. Tenía dos ventajas: a diferencia de Cablevisión (el corazón de tu televisión), Multivisión tenía más canales y contaba con MTV. Mi historia musical se divide en "Odio la música completamente*" y "ADORO LA MÚSICA, WWWWIIIIIII!!". El parteaguas fue ese día (octubre) de 1993, cuando el instalador de Multivisión (un tal Macías) me dijo "a los chavos les gusta este canal".

Me dejó sintonizado MTV latino en lo que arreglaba el papeleo con mi mamá. Mentiría si dijera qué grupo estaba tocando, pero el VJ en ese momento era un tal Gonzalo que a mi hermano le cagaba pero a mí me caía bien.

En realidad, antes del 96, todos los VJs de MTV me caían bien con excepción de Daisy Fuentes.

Como sea, cada vez que llegaba de la prepa tenía dos canales que ver: Cartoon Network y MTV. Mi primaria y secundaria fueron horribles (emocionalmente hablando), así que tenía problemas para platicar y relacionarme con la gente (todavía los tengo, booyah!). La música y las caricaturas era lo único que me hacía sentir "aceptado".

Largas horas pasaba viendo a Droopy y al coyote/zorro/loquesea haciendo desmadre y medio. Sabiamente bajaba el volumen si veía a Beavis y Butthead. Mis padres nunca me juzgaron ni me preguntaron si los veía (aunque ellos odiaban a los Simpsons, pero con el tiempo los aceptaron), otro de mis hermanos era el que realmente se preocupaba que los viera y llegaba al extremo de decirme "NO LOS VEAAAAAS!" cada vez que había un anuncio de ellos.

Por supuesto que los iba a ver. En las inmortales palabras del Hermano Velle, no hay nada mejor que saber que hay dos gueyes más pendejos que uno.

Hubo grupos que amé en cuanto vi: Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Crash Test Dummies, Helmet, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Spin Doctors, Oasis, Blur, Therapy?.

Otros que no me gustaron pero eventualmente acepté: Alice in Chains, Nirvana (más o menos), Smashing Pumpkins, Blind Melon (segundo album nada mas).

Mi incipiente (oh no, palabra condechi!!!) gusto por la música eventualmente me condujo a conocer gente que hasta la fecha considero mis amigos. Uno es el maestro Paco (que le perdí el rastro por un tiempo, pero nunca el respeto) y el otro el condenadamente sincero Velle (quién no me sorprendería que algún día se volviera loco al son de 'Footsteps').

Entre pláticas y debrayes, Velle me prestó un disco de Pearl Jam que nunca había escuchado. Decía "The Versus Sessions" y lo escuché. Lo primero que me dije fue "por qué suena tan de la chingada?" (empecé por el final del disco) y lo segundo fue "¿Dónde lo consigo?"

Velle me sugirió el Tower de Niza en la Zona Rosa. Mi hermano que odia a Beavis aceptó llevarme y no encontré el versus, pero salí con el "Siamese Dream" de Smashing Pumpkins (porque me obsesioné con "Rocket"), el "Superunknown" de Soundgarden (que me marcó con "Head down" y "Fresh Tendrils") y el "Ghosts that haunt me" de Crash Test Dummies que me parece de lo más menospreciado del folk canadiense (say whaaaat?).

Eventualmente conseguí el versus en pirata (el pirata de un bootleg tiene 100 años de perdón) y hasta la fecha lo escucho seguido. Tal vez más que el "Yield", mucho más que "Binaural", "Riot Act" o el "AguacatitoJam".

Si no fuera por MTV (cuando era bueno, a hueso) o por los señores Vellenaweth, Godefroy, López (aveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Fénix), Valencia, Cervantes Guarneros (Jonel y César), Zerón, Andrei Moreno, Pity, Solari y las sritas Ramirez(que todo quire), Moore, Madrigal, Rodriguez de San Miguel Arevalo, Herrera y Crook, no quisiera saber donde estaría ahorita.

Como dijo Sean Bateman: Rock n roll. Deal with it.

*Por varias razones, pero la Nana Goya lo dijo mejor que yo: ESA ES OTRA HISTORIA.