Chance Meeting of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella
A Guide to Last Month's Anecdotes.
The other day I was at...
...the mall, in Electronics Boutique. (I had excavated my Jolly-Rancher-pink Gameboy Advance from my basement, and old Gameboy cartridges are super cheap now.) I was looking at games and there were these two boys standing on the other side of the shelf.
Younger, prepubescent boy: I want a DS so I can play Nintendogs.
Older, My-Chemical-Romance-shirt-wearing boy: U R GAY
Younger: It's neat. You get to train puppies—
Older, Or-Maybe-It-Was-A-Linkin-Park-shirt boy: LOL U FAG
Younger: —to kill each other.
...Harvard Square. I swear I walked past the Damon half of Damon & Naomi (formerly the Damon third of Galaxie 500) standing on the sidewalk. This is remarkable because I had just been in CD Spins and I saw this CD Maldoror, and I was thinking about how that's funny because that's named for this French surrealist book, and I've never met anyone who's read it who wasn't a Current 93 fan, and there aren't that many of those, and I was thinking, didn't Damon & Naomi's publishing venture do an edition of that? And that's when Damon appeared in my path. Are you not amazed by this coincidence? No, I did not attempt to say HEY or remind him of that show where I lent him a corkscrew.
...in a Davis Square cocktail bar that shall remain nameless.
Me: I'd like a negroni.
Waitress: We don't have any of those.
Me: Umm.
Waitress: That's funny, you're the second person tonight...
When she came back I resisted the temptation to order a "Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth" instead of "one of those." Later, we went back to my place and watched a tape of Brady's dad on Martha Stewart's (first) tv show and Martha Stewart on Brady's dad's (public access) tv show.
Actually, Benjamin has read Maldoror and probably has never heard of Current 93. He might be if he heard them; does that count?
Posted by: katya | 04 December 2005 at 01:18 PM
Pshaw! I venture far more people have been exposed to Maldoror (the book) because of their interest in the history of Surrealism, Symbolism, and maybe DADA, than the opposite way around. (I'm not excusing myself from having been a Current 93 fan for half my life but I read it years before I was a fan of them, or Nurse With Wound (they had an album called Live at Bar Maldoror)). There's also an Italian metal band called Maldoror, who are much less scary than Current 93.
The Exact Change version is beautifully designed, like most of the books from their publishing house. I highly recommend Pessoa's Book of Disquiet, in case your day is just too cheery. And Aragon's Paris Peasant for a great description of Paris at the turn of the century (it was decidedly non-Surrealistic and the Surrealists turned on him for it.)
Posted by: cobalt | 04 December 2005 at 04:09 PM
I think my problem is I've known more Current 93 fans than surrealists.
P.S. I have a library copy of The Book of Disquiet that's way overdue.
Posted by: sushiesque | 04 December 2005 at 04:13 PM