Monday, January 14, 2013

Bamgier to Zanesville to Wheeling to Washington to Morgantown to Cumberland to Hancock to Hagerstown to Frederick to Kensington, or: I Had Been Continuing to Do the Same Thing While Expecting Different Results




The rental was a Nissan Altima with push button starter as gimmick. This was the second time in our trips back and forth to Bamgier I've had a Nissan Altima. Engine was fine, better than fine, excellent actually, east to west uphill from Cumberland to Mt Savage, west to east uphill from Cheat Lake to Coopers Rock, smoothest, most powerful, least whiny, of all rentals. It doesn't have a USB port, just an auxiliary port, not disqualifying in itself but heavy demerits, the iPod can't simultaneously charge, the motherfuckers, I can't control iPod from either steering wheel or touchscreen, the motherfuckers. When I run my 2005 Toyota Matrix now with 195K miles and a gamey transmission into the dirt long after Planet graduates college in two and a half years and I begin to consider a new car these minuses are strong but minor blackmarks against buying a Nissan compared to the existential horror that Nissan's odometer adds a tenth of a tenth of a mile to each actual mile - this happened with both Altimas I've rented. I've done the math, do the the math, each and every trip: it is 2 miles from my house out Beach onto Rockville Pike past Pooks Hill and around that motherfucking U-Turn at Alta Vista (oh, if  I had a dollar for every fucking time I U-Turned at Alta Vista) and then onto 270, 31 miles on 270 to 70 in Frederick, 52 miles on 70 from Frederick to 68 in Hancock, 80 miles of 68 in Maryland, 32 more in West Virginia to the Monongahela River bridge on 79 just north of merge with 68, 10 miles on 79 in West Virginia to the Pennsylvania border, 33 miles on 79 to 79's merger with 70, 21 miles on 70 to the West Virginia Border, 14 from West Virginia border to the Ohio River (11 on 70, 3 on 470, left at Elm Grove on 470, not main 70 through tunnel into Wheeling), 70 miles in Ohio (first 8 on 470, then 62 on 70) from Ohio River to Exit 155, Ohio 60 and 146, Zanesville, a total, with two miles variance permitted for eat and piss stops on and off interstates, of 350 miles, trip in, trip out. Either ten miles have disappeared as thoroughly as the days stolen when calendars are converted or Nissan odometers suck or every previous non-Nissan odometer conspired and lied, which is a less scary and improbable possibility than I once would entertain.





I knew of Aaron Swartz but not much about Aaron Swartz, so these links offered more for my education than anything else. The inspiring heroism of Aaron Swartz.  A few thoughts on Aaron SwartzJustice for Aaron SwartzAaron Swartz's politics. Can reddit stop censoring? Another innocent victimSmall world.  Aaron Swartz and intellectual property dead-enders. The days when we had rest. I don't write about work - and I'm not going to start beyond mentioning I deal with copyright issues and publishers better find another business model cause the old one - fairly or unfairly - is broken and obsolete. UPDATE! Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principlesThere is no money. Of course it's number three. Krugman's obamapostasy will never be ready. Five waysNo. Capitalism trumps democracy. Knowledge for money. The Rancid Honeytrap FAQ. I can say with statistical authority that four people like the road-trip slideshows, three the Fleabus slideshows. Expect more, perhaps as soon as two weeks. The llamas of Mt Vernon Ohio. Beware of sheepDelia Derbyshire Day. Drumming. darkblack's Weekend Overnight. Remembering Roxy Music's Flesh & Blood. Remembering Gabriel's Melt. Four new Yo La Tengo songs and a review. Of course Lampchop was on the trip's soundtrack, to and from.





RELENTLESS USURPATION OF TEMPORAL LINEARITY

Dara Ware

I had been continuing to do the same thing
while expecting different results.

On most days the children learned how
to do something. Time passed around us

as something approaching a figure eight
might move in order to let all else move

or be moved by our large numbers of feelings
exponentially on high alert once we let them register.

It passed us around. It passed around us like a river
around a boulder.

Music consisted of light & light came on time.
It was impossible for us not to anthropomorphize everything.

And yes, watching ice skaters, the kind called figure skaters,
the ones who aren't doing anything other than tracking again &

again some figure of infinity marked out on ice for them,
this never failed to quiet us down & take us some place else