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| the end of xanga in the worldHello alleged reader,
I've decided to stop posting on xanga, because in so far as blog platforms go, it is lame, and, also, I do not fit into its target demographic (Asian teenage girls).
Ummm, so... sorry. I don't think this is a huge deal, though.
peace,
John
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| Like your period, this is late.I should have posted my recollection of David Lynch Weekend long ago. Here it is:
The event in Iowa was... different. It was not a festival, but rather, a "symposium" on creativity, the mind, and consciousness, with David Lynch as the primary guest. Also speaking were John Hagelin, whack physicist of Harvard, and singer/songwriter Donovan, who seemed equally conflicted insofar as sanity goes, but was at least entertaining in a _Waiting for Guffman_ sort of way. Hagelin claimed that "consciousness" in conjunction with the super string theory completed Einstein's goal for a unified field theory, and Donovan touted the intrinsic goodness that existed within the vowels AEIOU, although he didn't include the "sometimes Y." He spent about two minutes chanting the vowels.
The whole thing was hosted at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. It felt very cult-like. There were domed buildings, coded for monitored/enforced male and female use. We ate only organic vegetarian food. Buildings were in the process of being torn down and rebuilt to "vedic code." Transcendental meditation was the ANSWER to every dilemma in life.
Example:
Q. My cousin rapes chickens in the yard before slaughtering them and making horse sculptures from the carcasses. Should I be concerned?
A. Transcendental meditation.
Metaphors like "the sea of consciousness" and "the onion of existence" were interspersed wantonly into answers to more realistic questions like, "How do you go about choosing your subject material for your films?"
Hagelin was especially strange (although that doesn't say much in this crowd) and wanted to start schools of peace, where 2000 or so people transcendentally meditate at one time to send out "waves" which then alter the mind structure of others in the regional area to be more enlightened, more peaceful, etc. He/They believe(s) in yogic flying. Yeah, that they can actually fly. It was, overall, frightening, but definitely memorable.
Most of the people there were film buffs, hipsters, grungy sorts, etc. who were equally confused by the university's not so transparent goal to recruit us to their cause. A few were transcendental meditation devotees, who kissed David Lynch's ass with questions like, "how has life changed since you began practicing the Maharishi's ways?"
Uggh... I met Lynch personally and, after some bumbling about, asked him about whether he felt switching from a painter to a filmmaker required a resignation of control, to which he answered, "I didn't know what the heck I was doing. But, it was like, you need to build a room, and you don't know how, and some people do, and soon, you work together, and you find what works to make the room, and you find what doesn't, and after a while, you have built a room."
His answer did not impress me.
Perhaps my favorite moment, though, was when my friend Liz went to the bathroom. Here's the setup: we had been forewarned that at this event, David Lynch might get us involved in an orgy. An orgy, you say? An orgy, I confirm. You know, lots of naked people screwing like rabbits. Half the curiosity in attending the event was to see if there was any validity to such a claim. Well, at the dining hall one day, Liz decided to pee (as she is known to do) and headed to the bathroom. In the bathroom, Liz thought she overheard a stall-mate speaking of the orgy. She thought. In a burst of excitement that someone else besides us had heard the rumor, Liz burst out, "Oh my god, you heard about the orgy, too?!"
There was silence. The stranger asked, "what?" Liz repeated, "are you talking about the orgy?"
"No," a response came. "We were saying how much we liked the oranges here."
Cut to Liz's face going red. Oh Liz...
Yeah, there was no orgy.
Addendum:
The night before, our motel's fire alarm went off just as we began our mini-party, with our makeshift sink-cooler. Someone burnt their popcorn a floor below us. Just hours before, we'd already been pulled over for speeding (but let off by the nice cop with just a warning). As the fire engine and two police cruisers arrived, we posed for pictures in front of the flashing lights in the frigid night. Elderly couples and punk elitist film lovers united in a shared disdain for the unknown popcorn burning culprit.
"Drink if this is the second time you've seen the cops tonight," some asshole said.
Yeah, that was me.
And that was David Lynch Weekend. I do confess: the vegan cookies were AMAZING. Everything else will require future therapy... or maybe I'll crack and transcendentally meditate.
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| TGIGFJOHN: HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!!!!
ERIC: HOORAY! I heart misnomers
JOHN: I heart pudding.
JOHN: I suppose that is where we differ, Eric Diamond.
ERIC: pudding is good too
ERIC: or so i hear
JOHN: (I was walking down the street, and saw someone that looked like you (from behind... yes, I guess I thought I knew what your behind view looked like) on the phone, and I was alone, but wanted to get what I thought was your attention... so I shouted, "ERIC!" and the guy turned around and it wasn't you... and as he turned I looked away and walked into Kayak's.)
ERIC: I should find him and do the same thing
ERIC: "oh sorry, I thought you were me"
JOHN: totally.
ERIC: he'd appreciate it, I'm sure.
JOHN: just look for the guy that looks like your backside.
ERIC: I'll have to check myself out in the mirror first
JOHN: but remember
JOHN: that's the opposite of your backside
JOHN: so you'll have to reverse it
JOHN: in your mind
JOHN: to get the reverse of your backside image
JOHN: and remember that he only resembles yours
JOHN: isn't in fact, your backside
ERIC: got it
JOHN: so look for the resemblance of the reverse of your mirrored backside image.
ERIC: I'll take a photo and distort it
ERIC: or that
JOHN: and you should be fine.
ERIC: well I have to go work now... and then homework and who knows
ERIC: TGIGF!
JOHN: totally. | | |
| Update Me!Thought I should update everyone on life.
Well, I have exciting
news. After what I thought was initially a rejection from Brown, I got
a call yesterday from the director of the program saying one of their
students had dropped out, and that they wanted to offer me the slot.
So...the news is... i got into Brown and will be going there in August,
with a teaching assistantship to boot!!! I am very excited. MFA here I
come. In addition, my boyfriend Aaron and I are moving in together next
week, and we're buying a cat. I've decided we will name the cat
Reginald. We three are all moving to Prov in late July.
I also
just started my new job, which is going rather well. Apparently my
research interviewing skills are better than even I thought, so my
manager Jeni (at Battelle) upgraded my status to supervisor of about
five other interviewers. I travel less and get a slight raise. Money
money money!
I'm going home for Easter and Noah's first
birthday... should be fun. Aaron is coming home with me, which my
parents approved, much to my surprise.
March has been an amazing month, could not ask for more. David Lynch experience to appear next time, kiddos! | | |
| David LynchI met David Lynch this weekend.
More to follow:
Look at David Lynch touching me. What a man toucher. Perhaps David Lynch is thinking, "John Stadler is a wave, and I, David Lynch, am a wave, and we together are two waves converging at a point in the ocean of consciousness, and we are nothing and everything, the alpha and the omega, the sugar and the salt, the Nazi and the Jew." Or perhaps not. This was right before I fainted, a mysterious key opened the dark box, which then fell, spilling blackness over the screen, at which time the diligent spectator realized the first 2/3 of everything was merely a dream.
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