The Oversharing Generation

I belong to the Oversharing Generation.

Twitter, Facebook, *ahem* blogging.

For the first time, human beings are essentially telepathic. For a person with the right technology whose friends are similarly connected, almost any thought can be shared between friends, regardless of their location and almost regardless of their activity, often without needing to ask. Only a glance is needed to stay in touch, even over long distances. Only the thoughts that are offered are shared. How is this not beautiful?

There is always plenty of lament over the ugliness of every new technological innovation and cultural adaptation. "Jazz is going to corrupt our children." "Electrical appliances will make us weak." "The telegraph will kill the poetry of the written word."

Neophobia is so BORING!!!

The best journalistic idea that I may not act on

I had a lightning bolt of inspiration this afternoon that I'm most likely to just let fester and fade.

It looks like nobody yet has made an easily digested, readable, play-by-play breakdown of the new health care reform legislation. I'm talking about an attempt to read and congenially report on every single line of the huge document, a la David Plotz's hugely convenient Blogging the Bible project for Slate magazine. (BTW, thank you, David Plotz. I bought the hardcover version.)

If I were willing to commit the time and effort, I could do this! If I did it well, I could likely make a name for myself out of it. But I might not be hungry enough for success or glory. I'm mostly hungry for comfort. I would rather spend an afternoon in a park with my spouse and/or friends than do much in the way of hard work. Maybe curiosity would help propel me through it? I have a lot of curiosity, but I'm not sure if it will be enough.

Here it is, all 1990 pages. The bill Obama signed into law last month.

The first thing that I would need to do is print the damn thing. Like, on paper so I could write footnotes. This would require going to a print store or library.

Let's see what happens, folks. No promises.

Last-Episode-of-Twin-Peaks-Jitters and "King for a Day"

In addition to being sleep-deprived, I watched the last episodes of Twin Peaks last night. It was massively creepy in a horrible/wonderful way. I'm the sort of person who is easily unsettled by what others can dismiss as cheap or silly, particularly where special-effects are concerned and particularly when it comes to surrealism in the talkie-pictures. I kept one eye on the bathroom door during my entire shower this morning.

The good news is that my music collection on the computer is up to this challenge. It has just finished the most satisfying second half of King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime and has switched to Francoise Hardy's Greatest Hits. Ms. Hardy's extreme femininity is like a dream. I can feel fatalistic and passive while stuffing envelopes today, and let the weirdness wash over me like waves on a beach.

And now, a song lyric moment from the song What a Day from the King for a Day album, because I am self-indulgent and want to share a piece of what I like. I regard this song as being absolutely perfect for someone who's stuck with the day-after-the-last-episode-of-Twin-Peaks-jitters:


A piece of mail.
A letterhead.
A piece of hair from a human head.
They're saying to me, I should've killed it. I should've killed it before.
 You're right, you're right. 
"Kill the body and the head will die."
They're laughing at me, I should've learned it. I should've learned it before.
[...]

A wet sneeze and a no left turn.
A row of teeth and an encouraging word.
Beneath a mile of skin, I should've noticed it. Noticed it before.
[...]
What a day. 
What a day if you can look it in the face and hold your vomit.


I'm a sucker for this song. The words are spit out staccato, like something terribly important is taking place and we must share in the urgency. This is an emergency. It eventually dissolves into something like a rabid animal barking towards the end. The instrumentation is perfect for my tastes, too.


Mike Patton has hinted about wanting to compose for David Lynch and I really hope that this eventually gets to happen. They're made for each other.

Twin Peaks and The Venture Bros.--Molotov and Nadine

I haven't Googled this terribly thoroughly to double-check, but I think I might be the first person in the world to associate the character Nadine on Twin Peaks with the character Molotov Cocktease on The Venture Bros.

I don't get HOW I could be the first person to think of this. Super-strong, playful, highly sexual violent ginger women with approximately the same haircut and similar eyepatches. I think that Molotov may have been directly inspired by Nadine. This is awesome.

(For the less familiar viewer, Twin Peaks is the live-action program depicted below and The Venture Bros. is the animated program.)