sparrow zone

Today is my third day off gluten. I'm for real this time. I finally bought a gluten-free cookbook last night (The Gluten-Free Bible, by Jax Peters Lowell). I bought it because, from her picture on the back cover, Jax seems like a pretty nice lady, with rosy cheeks and a sassy, motherly demeanor. And her name is Jax. I'm going to be really dweeby about this and keep a food journal. You can beat me up if I cheat.

So far:

BREAKFAST

Strong coffee, on an empty stomach.

LUNCH

Veggie bowl at Laughing Planet (mostly beans, brown rice, and lots of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and cabbage - I could have made this at home, but whatever. It was only $4.75, and I had leftovers.)

By the way, Laughing Planet is a totally dorky, un-hip place to eat, and you shouldn't go there unless you're desperate or want to be LAUGHED at.

IN THE INTERIM

More coffee.

++

Easy enough. After I'm fully wrecked from the caffeine, maybe I will cook up some quinoa and chickpeas.

The other night, Greg and I joined our friends Adam, Brooke, and Rosemary for The Go Team show at the Doug Fir. I found them (the band, not our friends) to be repetitive and dull, a false spark. Good, wholesome fun, but kind of a dud. I'm not a big fan of bubblegum pop, and there wasn't much variety in their repertoire besides bland...bubblegum, the kind that loses flavor after 30 seconds. To extend the simile, they were like...Chiclets! The ones that cost 25 cents out of a machine. But, the ear plugs are partially to blame. Wholesome ear protection + wholesome pop music = guaranteed ennui. After they played "Bottlerocket," the only song that I recognized, I went upstairs and sat brooding at the bar, wearing my old, cheap Army surplus gloves that somehow smell like Christmas ornaments and baubles and the fake snow my grandmother used to spray on the windows. I started drafting notes for an essay that I am writing for a zine that I am creating with Nick J. Each issue will have a theme. For the first issue, we decided to both write essays about walking and watching. These are only preliminary dribbles.

I have been thinking of the concept of "zones." What Chris Marker refers to as "a space outside any dimensions of time, anchored therefore in a pure and eternal present from which any recollection tends to be gradually eradicated." In Sans Soleil, he is referring specifically to a space in which memory and perception are disrupted and re-built through digital means, the tweaks of a computer synthesizer, the camera eye. A space in which linear time is a hallucination. "If you don't like the images of the present, then change those of the past." The weapon of perception, cleaving possible futures.

Signs,
this land first speaks to you in signs.

Lately, I have been receiving migratory visions, either during meditation, the cusp of sleep, and most vividly, the tuft of REM sleep that has intensified in recent weeks. The dreams I remember are either shrouded in Lynchian ambiguity, or are so vast, yet enclosed, that they are unapproachable. Like a perfect film (I'm thinking of my experiences with Tarkovsky and Bergman, especially), the kind that makes you want to rush home and produce something, wildly. Forge something that is at least a fraction as beautiful. My experiences with personal intimacy also bring visions, lately a scene of irregular, post-industrial buildings erupting up through the dirt like fists, surrounded by steam clouds.

That's all for now. I'll post more figments and fragments as they develop.

Favorite songs this week: "Is There a Ghost" (Band of Horses) is on repeat, "In the Mausoleum" by Beirut, "Videotape" from the new Radiohead, "Roscoe" by Midlake, and "Soma" (remember the Smashing Pumpkins?). All of my friends are on this Phil Collins bender, and it's infectious. Genevieve and I did a "Sussudio" duet at The Ambassador a few weeks ago, and people sure got the itch. I think I've finally convinced Nick to do an acoustic version of "In the Air Tonight," although the best part of that song is the drum machine break-down in the middle. I love that the song has its own Wikipedia entry.

Ok, coffee headache. Good night.

~a.