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dialogue 5 with George Saunders, March 5 1997
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#PORT: @jacee
*** #PORT :End of /NAMES list. *** Mode is + *** jacee has set the topic on channel #PORT to Eight Dialogues / PORT MIT / Dialogue Five *** Mode change "+t+l 8" on #PORT by jaycee *** The date is: Wednesday March 5 1997 -- 11:33 -07:00 #port: jacee @GeorgeS *** #PORT :End of /NAMES list. *** Mode is + jacee: I'm in on my mac and I pray it will be stable GeorgeS: Hello hello? jacee: Yup jacee: hey, can I have you type the string /mode #PORT +o jacee GeorgeS: This is cool, eh? jacee: yeah, it seems to be pretty quick jacee: just pray for a good dialup connection here GeorgeS: /mode#PORT+ojacee *** #port: You're not channel operator GeorgeS: Are there two people on line with me? I'm seeing two "jacee'" jacee: uh you need to put spaces -- you can copy and paste it if you want jacee: two??? jacee: wierd -- may just be a glitch jacee: or you joined PORT before it died when I got off a few minute ago... jacee: I don't know how this stuff works still GeorgeS: /mode #PORT +o jacee jacee: Port MIT people will join us at some point... jacee: hmmmm jacee: are there two windows on your screen -- maybe you need to typew in another window jacee: it is seeing it as text, when the slash should be telling it is a server command GeorgeS: What is that string supposed to do? jacee: It makes me an operator too to I can defend the channel from crashers GeorgeS: There's only one window... jacee: and if you go offline too jacee: Otherwise I can't control anything that technically happens jacee: well, I'don't know the software you are using jacee: so I can't direct it, hmmm GeorgeS: Maybe it's because I was first in...maybe I should disconnect? jacee: Oh well jacee: no, if you disconnect, I don't automatically become op jacee: I don't think. Better leave it as it is... GeorgeS: OKay jacee: I am afraid to go offline at all now... My Mac has been so bad with dialup jacee: that it usually kicks me out after a few minutes... *** Signoff: GeorgeS (OrbitIRC 1.23 - Easy IRC for Win95! (http://www.wbm.ca/orbitirc/)) jacee: And my dad's ouch! jacee: You just disappeared! jacee: Gulp *** The date is: Wednesday March 5 1997 -- 12:53 -06:00 jacee: faugh! jacee: How life goes on and on.. jacee: can I op? *** jacee is hopkins@ip244.prc.primenet.com (John Hopkins) *** jacee is on channels #port *** on irc via server irc.ais.net (American Information Systems-Chicago) *** jacee has been idle for 2 seconds *** jacee :End of /WHOIS list. *** GeorgeS (~george_sa@210.201.internal.radian.com) has joined channel #port GeorgeS: Sorry, I'm back jacee: yep, gees, now neither of us are operators! jacee: oh well jacee: shit happens jacee: so, yer girls are sick? GeorgeS: I've got this high fever and it's making me even more irrational than usual... jacee: you too! jacee: drinking enough water? GeorgeS: Yeah the girls are sick...walking pneumonia...yeah plenty water jacee: hallucinotropic jacee: I had Pneumo when I was about that age -- the only time I ever coughed blood... jacee: hopefully never again jacee: yeah, so, too bad that JC couldn't ever get on GeorgeS: How fast is this anyway? jacee: I think you are on a slow local net before you get out onto the internet -- seems slow now jacee: there is no way to do timing, although I can ping you GeorgeS: Part of the reason it's slow is that I'm at Radian....the office bore was droning on and being distracting... jacee: REAL SLOW the pings are falling away, lessee, maybe 20 sec? longer GeorgeS: As soon as you get this, send me a captial A jacee: It is the dyslexic cocktail party jacee: wow, are you there? GeorgeS: Yep jacee: okay, I was looking at a non-scrolling screen for a moment, jacee: sorry jacee: Okay, wanna try the cap A thing again? here goes, A GeorgeS: This is pretty cool...last year I tried to write a book in this format, only the speakers were all the dead from this little town. jacee: well, maybe we ARE dead in Cyber town jacee: I mean, definitely immaterial GeorgeS: Send A when you get this, instantly. and I'll count from when I hit return... jacee: A jacee: how long? GeorgeS: Seventeenr seconds jacee: not too outrageous, but it can be confusing, as the delay can actually change in time, too GeorgeS: What have the other dialogues been like? jacee: I dunno where MIT is, but that's their problem, I got only one phone line, so GeorgeS: I can call them from here... jacee: Well, they have been dynamic entities with people that I have never met jacee: actually the three that have worked were all with single moms, which I fond curious *** carmin (murph@port_3.media.mit.edu) has joined channel #PORT jacee: found, that is GeorgeS: So this will probably be a blase entity with someone you have met jacee: Hallo Remo! GeorgeS: Freudian slip jacee: Remo, this is George Saunders in Rocheter GeorgeS: HI Remo jacee: George, this is Remo Campopiano at MIT, one of the curators of PORT carmin: Hello, sorry to be late.... GeorgeS: I shake you cyber-hand carmin: this is Remo jacee: Well, gees, George, blas?? Well anyway, we haven't met in YEARS, yer oldest is nine, and I saw her as a, what year-old? carmin: I have you up on one screen and will try to get another.... jacee: fine, Remo GeorgeS: Yeah, it was 1988 or 1989 in Albany jacee: Time flies in the face of whatever it is we do *** PORT2 (murph@port_1.media.mit.edu) has joined channel #PORT jacee: Hot al hell, it was jacee: hot as hell, that is jacee: I have typing trouble jacee: Well, really, here we be -- GeorgeS: I've gotten progressively worse from all the years of tech editing and nascent carpal tunnel and so on jacee: I mean the last four years or three with our Boys email club jacee: Yeah, my wrists are a mess -- you do all your writing work first digital? jacee: or with paper jacee: I think the four of us have evolved as cyber entities in our own rights to each other... jacee: Stefan is the only fleshly link! GeorgeS: No, all on-screen and lately haven't even been printing at all until very late in the process. I think there's a thesis in that somewhere, this question of how working on a computer affects writing jacee: JC, it has been more years than I can remember GeorgeS: Yeah, it's kind of weird, but nice. Because each person has their own unique traits as a correspondent. jacee: Oh definitely, the digital effect -- god, I hope you make backups -- don't wanna lose the novel! jacee: I do find it a real community, something that is full and good, as Job would say GeorgeS: These delays are funny....a weird kind of poetry....I was saying earlier that someone should try to write a novel in this format.... jacee: I think it "has been done" -- there are things on the Net in such form jacee: but to craft one... jacee: I was thinking that if I had terrible tech problems, I could synthesize a dialogue and copy paste it from a script in time GeorgeS: It kind of resembles parts of Kerouac and even a section of Moby Dick...There's an idea. It would've have been interesting to see what you made me say jacee: but, much easier to simply have a dialogue... a real one. I am not so theatrical. Is that a part of your writing? theater? Dialogues in yer head? GeorgeS: Yeah, now it is. The stuff I'm working on now. I'm trying to imitate the weird neurotic stops and starts in our minds... jacee: I realized that the acting out in the head was a part of writing, but I use it only as a defensive mechanism in bad situations -- what I'm gonna say to that jerk... etc jacee: Imitate or synthesize? jacee: Is the craft in the imitation of life or in a synthesis? or simply a charting of what IS? (I'm curious) jacee: I can't believe my connection has held for 25 minutes already... whew... jacee: I can see there are hiccups happening here, too... GeorgeS: Same thing, maybe. Taking my own mental tics and exaggerating them? I'm thinking of "The Falls," mostly, and two things I'm working on now. Oh, I think it is really both. Because what IS is, at least for me, indiscernible and transient, etc. jacee: Well, as I have told you, The Falls is my favorite so far -- deeper into the mental terrain and the "real" terrain is simply mapped across the perceptions of the mind -- very cyber GeorgeS: I would imagine it's the same as in photography...you are working with what is, but selectively, and selecting intuitively. Or, when it's not going well, selecting per some simple version of things... jacee: You are doing two shorts also now? GeorgeS: Well, one is 50 pages and growing and the other is about 20 and almost done. And also a kid's story that is turning out too twisted for actual kids. jacee: Yes, when the mind is messy it shows in the image, so a retreat to simplicity... a distillation (you know me penchant for Zen-like things... jacee: Well, gees, maybe I can coax you to make a reading of it for Loki? He won't know the difference.. jacee: But you are still working on the novel, too, right? GeorgeS: Well, let's see how it comes out. I wouldn't want to do any damage. jacee: How is the intersection of being an educator with your work now -- I have found that to have interesting reverberations.. GeorgeS: I think the novel became the 50-page thing, which seems to be my lot in life. Literary pamphletist jacee: well, hell, there were plenty of hefty documents circulated when paper was rare -- heft measured in socio-political impact... GeorgeS: Teaching is great. Especially after 7 years of a corporate job, where I did very little reading, wrote in 30-min spurts, etc. It was a little spooky at first, to have to be talking about writing all the time, when previously I had been able to be completely silent. jacee: Yeah, it can be a real luxury to speak about the craft -- I had lunch yesterday with the head of the Photo Dept. of the local college here yesterday -- and it is cool to be able to share, well, not just craft, but way of working with an understanding other jacee: Silence is deadly over time. GeorgeS: It just occurred to me that I am sitting in the office of my former nemesis, the basis for many of the bad guys in CivilWarLand. How sweet it is. He's long gone jacee: Where did he go to? jacee: West? North? East? South? jacee: uber? unter? GeorgeS: He went to a Major US Corporation, who Fired His Ass. jacee: I find it humorous that you are in that office at all! jacee: wry jacee: rye-whiskey jacee: he's unemployed and middle-aged? jacee: hmmm jacee: a horrible end *** The date is: Wednesday March 5 1997 -- 13:25 -06:00 GeorgeS: Yeah, they like me now. It's weird -- 8 yrs of memories of stooping over photocopier, sneaking into the Common Area to watch the Gulf War, etc. etc. and the windows don't open and this is where I lived when my babies were small jacee: Looking back into that optical compression. fenced by glass GeorgeS: I doubt he's unemployed. He's got nine lives. Famous quote, from him to me: "I talk, you listen. Shut up and listen." jacee: Oh man! Faugh... I manage conflict like that badly... jacee: probably why I couldn't survive at UNOCAL too long... GeorgeS: Oh, so do (did) I. I think I sort of blushed and slinked away while cursing him under my breath. jacee: Or anywhere, for that matter. the rambler jacee: gees GeorgeS: I always felt somehow responsible for you leaving UNOCAL, a pernicious hippie influence GeorgeS: sleeping in your living room as you went off bright and early jacee: Well, it all worked together, between that class of experience and listening to Bob Marley et al on KCRW jacee: and the sun and warmth GeorgeS: That'll do it. jacee: and the pure lack of expressive possibilities! GeorgeS: Any regrets? jacee: None, despite being only pseudo-employed ever since jacee: I mean, I find as artist, this occupation of the personal space regardless of the situation is paramount GeorgeS: Well, it's good work if you can get it. I somehow am too Catholic to do writing without some kind of job, especially with the babies and all jacee: and that concept runs even against the arts institution, but hey, I am rich with friends, and for that I am happy, and blessed GeorgeS: Because what you said ("I find as an artist") can be applied to working as I did, in a corporate cesspool? Although that wore out. jacee: Well, it is different for each... I find my position unique in many ways and plus and minus, but everybody I know is the same... GeorgeS: I read this in NY Times: Capitalism robs the sensuality of the body. OR some such, Terry Eagleton *** Signoff: carmin (Ping timeout) jacee: Well, it is a statement that shakes people and intrigues others... You are somebody else's dream in many ways, I am sure *** Signoff: PORT2 (Ping timeout) jacee: Well, Market ruling so much. I definitely, as you have also, have measured and felt the exclusive effects of the market... jacee: But, I guess I don't think about it anymore. Just move day-to-day. Save money for plane tickets, grasshopper vs. ant notwithstanding... GeorgeS: What I'm finding more and more warped is the idea that if you can get it, it's yours. If Bill Gates can get 20 billion, it's his, and you're a wacko if you deign to ask why he doesn't give it away to someone who needs it jacee: Like knowing something -- the techno-utopians or hopefuls assume that if something can be known, it should be known -- I think there are things that should not be known... GeorgeS: I mean, intellectually I get it....but it's like the Chekhov story "A Doctor's Visit" in which we see that the entire plant is slaving away so a governess can enjoy rich meals... jacee: I mean we need to know ourselves before we know how to clone sheep anyway... Know Thyself...eh? jacee: And it is clear that each person has their own thing to deal with... no matter of physical circumstances... jacee: She has bad digestion and other complaints to keep her awake, betcha... GeorgeS: Well, it does seem like our grasp is exceeding our reach. There's this incredible wave of weird hurtful shows in prime-time now, Actual Volcanoes and film of a polar bear chewing off a woman's leg and probably soon Live Abductions and the problem is, we have lost the ability to simply not go places. To say: Why in the world do I want to broadcast that? GeorgeS: Cracked Skulls in SLow MOtion, with Katie Curic jacee: Yes, I saw a program about the morgue-people in eLAy. And I was pissed that I let the images enter my head... GeorgeS: She raped the man who raped her sister, who was actually lying about the whole thing jacee: it is not good to see everything, to own everything GeorgeS: That sort of thing GeorgeS: Right, and we can't own everything, we can barely own anything. jacee: yeah. I am amazed, constantly with teevee. And now see how the powers are positioning for the push-generation of Internet jacee: so that the people consume it alone, not produce. The age of actions like this is fading already jacee: I see lots of retired people out here, buying computers, and yet they cannot use/control them without help. What is the point? GeorgeS: There's a great Russian word, poshlust, that describes our media culture. Nabakov describes it this way: Once there was a young prince who fell madly in love with a princess. Everyday he could be seen swimming in her moat, tenderly caressing a swan, to convince her of his goodness. Poshlust is this: The swan was fake, put in the moat by the prince. I refer you to the Super Bowl half-time show. jacee: spectacle -- have you come across Debord? and Society of Spectacle, his treatise GeorgeS: NO\ GeorgeS: That sounds cool jacee: A very French deconstruction that hits a hard as Tacitus and the Annals jacee: from the 60's jacee: been quoted in many ways, but I prefer just to read it jacee: for what it is GeorgeS: AH, so it hasn't worked yet (haw haw).. jacee: Right jacee: But really, here we are in this incarnation, no time to waste. It could soon be over. And has the spirit grown stronger? GeorgeS: I think we have become, in the wrong ways. a culture of ultratolerance. People will die before objecting. I know I'm like this. I found out the other day that a woman who was having our oldest daughter (8) over left her and her own daughter alone for over an hour while she ran errands. What did I do? Moped a bit. made secret speeches in bathroom, etc GeorgeS: Which spirit? Mine? It comes and goes jacee: well, I guess I could type in Scottish brogue, Ha' th sperite grewn strang? jacee: Or just say, Gee, what the FUCK were YOU THINKING, HUH? GeorgeS: Has my spirit grown strange? Hoo boy. GeorgeS: That's better, that I get, being from Chicago jacee: hmmmm jacee: I ponder this medium, and measure it against long-memories of what conversations we have engaged in, but cannot make a simple summation or difference to see what is left GeorgeS: And on the other hand, we waste so much energy being intolerant, excluding whole groups, who could be kicking ass and already are in spite of how often we tell the we don't like them jacee: no doubt, I have found that the margin of institution in whatever form is just fine place to be jacee: where other marginals collect. The myth of centers is just that GeorgeS: Well, one thing is, we have grown so much older....I remember us getting pretty intense and so on (at your sister's house in SF one time) but I somehow don't put as much stock in Ideas as I did then. Ideas cause Problems GeorgeS: I mean dogmatic Ideas, Ideas which purport to be final jacee: Fun ain't no problem... I'd like to have more fun... laugh. Don't do enough of that. jacee: Dogma, what a word! GeorgeS: Which are certainly the kind of ideas I was having then, or trying to have jacee: yeah, well, we KNOW that NOTHING is Final jacee: Now jacee: That whole myth of career has been peeled away for what it is... jacee: I don't think I tried to be final and dogmatic, I just was! there was no experience of insecurity except the flow of internal juices that ruled relations to the outside jacee: Now, is different jacee: the ball spins fast, the songs are short, the words are not clear jacee: and the body occasionally falls down for no reason GeorgeS: Yes. The difference for me is that I hadn't really lost anything at that point or run up against my own limitations. jacee: reason to celebrate in our limitations and being-ness. We know we are not gods jacee: thank god! jacee: later the mantle can be stolen jacee: so, the spirit IS stronger! GeorgeS: I was driving back from Rochester last night with 103 fever and back pain, on the Thruway, and boy did I feel old. Doubled over with queasiness, changing the radio station, and on comes a Christian RadioPlay complete with 1950s organ. "Jim, do me a favor. Read these Bible passages tonight, in your room." A feeling of pomade. GeorgeS: I don't know. I think the general trend that I see around here is that the older and poorer you are, the more you cringe. jacee: well you won't know what hits you when it does. Listen to the Right things, Look at the Right things, read the Right things, GeorgeS: Spirit crushed. jacee: Yeah, but yer not exactly a caged animal, cringe and get a stiff upper lip too, maybe? nah, maybe just realize you gotta come back to everything you DO until it is DONE... jacee: I was in tears last week in bed with this back. Beat. jacee: But everything is such an analog continuum, you know, everything is ATTACHED? jacee: so attached and knit. jacee: that it seems to make no difference except in the way I respond... With open or closed mind. jacee: And I got beat down that far cause I didn't have an open mind. Hot damn, the sun is still warm on the skin! *** Signoff: GeorgeS (Ping timeout) jacee: and here I am alone jacee: everybody left the party! after an hour jacee: gotta pee... jacee: still jacee: alone jacee: MIT gone jacee: George gone *** The date is: Wednesday March 5 1997 -- 14:03 -06:00 jacee: hmmm jacee: ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm jacee: ooooooooooommmmmMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm...... jacee: ooommmmmMMMMmmmMMMMmmmMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm.... jacee: lateetah jacee: tumdeeeeeeeedum jacee: So I guess I can to begin synthesizing the dialogue, eh? *** GeorgeS (~george_sa@210.201.internal.radian.com) has joined channel #port jacee: (georgeS) sure, why not jacee: oh yer back! GeorgeS: I'm back. Don't know what happened jacee: I was just beginning to synthesize somebody to talk to... jacee: Yeah, it's like a balck out when drinking, uh wha'happened? jacee: black, not balk-out GeorgeS: I think I got spontaneously kicked out and then had to make my way through the corporate hallways, scrupulously avoiding conversation jacee: hahahahh! GeorgeS: I've had that, a balk-out, it's when you get really drunk and start hesitating.. jacee: sounds hilarious, "I'm on a MISSION! Unlike you pee-ed ons.... git outta ma way! jacee: Hey, and you noticed that MIT is long gone -- see this i the limit of the medium, and they have HEAVY techno backup there GeorgeS: A guy wanted to know if my old computer could be purged of all files. I said yes. HE looked at me as if I was crazy. jacee: is the limit, that is... jacee: Purge ME baby! GeorgeS: What happened to them? jacee: I dunno -- I'll find out later I guess... Maybe they left the gallery running and went outside or something, that's when things collapse jacee: usually jacee: Wipe my Drive! jacee: I IMPLORE YOU! GeorgeS: It's funny how the fact that we are no longer public changes things.... GeorgeS: Or not AS public jacee: Yes, but, I will worn you, you know, that the text will be posted on my site with the others, although I doubt many read it, But anyway. So, have you made a decision about Syracuse? jacee: will you stay or will you go? jacee: And you were house-shopping on the (a) Finger Lake jacee: ? GeorgeS: Yeah, we took the job and are going to move up there over the summer. The drive is impossible. So I am now Entenured. It's Skaneatles. jacee: Now, how far is that from the school? jacee: hell of a name, Skaneatles, where did that come from? jacee: and from NYC? what, six hours on the Thruway? GeorgeS: indian jacee: We DO have to get together sometime soon -- and I want to have a BOYS happening sometime/somewhere... But it will take planning, given everybodies schedule... jacee: Indian? Not drunken Swede? jacee: whew, SLOOOOOOOOOWWWwwwwwww now GeorgeS: yes jacee: It would be really fun to have a Boys/kids week too -- imagine that! GeorgeS: Had some walk-ins here, hold on jacee: I'm holding... tell'em yer talking to a think-tank in MIT fer chrissakes, consulting or yer new hyper-novel... jacee: jet-fuel jacee: nitro! jacee: dontcha hate it when folks innerupt? jacee: conditions of being as mediated by machine jacee: here, there jacee: there, here jacee: again jacee: 'and back *** No origin specified GeorgeS: Okay. Ex BigBoss was here, the one who in 1991 ordered me never to use corporate equipment for wriiting. HAHAHAHA jacee: oh really! o m'gawd! jacee: Bite the BIG weeny, eh. Dilbert? jacee: aren't you a security risk there? GeorgeS: He wanted to know how gone I was. I told him pretty gone, unless I needed some money in the summer. SO not quite the Dilbert scenario. I don't think I'm a risk. They trust me. Plus I don't know shit. jacee: especially if yer head is showing above the corporate bulwarks GeorgeS: Yes. I am an oddly respected member of the company now, only because I was in People. jacee: eah, summers you can do summer-school for a few extra bucks, or bite it and TAKE THE SUMMER OFF, amazing! jacee: You are a PEOPLE now and forevermore. Guess the NYT BookReview is not often referenced there... jacee: Is your new place similar to the house yer in now? GeorgeS: I'm hoping. Some movie money is coming in, so maybe. No, NYTBR came and went with no notice. If only I could've gotten on Married With Children. jacee: well, you never know. What with Hollywood barkin' up yer tree... GeorgeS: We haven't found one yet. A house, I mean. the town itself is very similar -- old houses in pretty good shape, only the new town is on, supposedly, one of the cleanest lakes in North America. So maybe even more Rockwellian than now GeorgeS: Bark is right. Bark bark bark. And no money jacee: I could imagine they would be swarming to CivilWarLand as a script -- imagine somebody like Kubrick! jacee: I just don't see how you can cope with the Lake Effect weather up there... GeorgeS: I don't mean it's supposedly on a lake. IT definitely is. I mean the lake is supposedly one of the cleanest. jacee: I used to summer on Schroon Lake north of Albany some hours. Wonderful country, and swimming in said lakes is a pleasure not to be missed... GeorgeS: Yeah, CivilWarLand has been optioned to Ben Stiller and Bounty to David Russell. So good people. The weather here, now and always, is gray and sunless with wispy snow. Very deathlike. But you get used to it. And what can you see from where you are? jacee: I look out on brilliant sun, I guess about 60F today, maybe warmer, and basalt boulders, scrub, and a granite batholith peak behind about two miles away, 8000 feet, so 3000 above us. jacee: The west, a couple 3000+ houses and a couple smaller ones. jacee: and behind the National Forest that every one exploits jacee: Definitely the West. I don't know where else to be anymore, given this frantic movement between Europe and the US. Speaking of which, when are you going to Germany? GeorgeS: Yeah I know that lake. Pronounced like "screwin'". I have caught flak from my students for living in too nice a town, but have decided not to worry about it, because my bet is most of them lived in far nicer towns and are only retrospectively slumming. Here I am looking out on parking lot and beyond that a mild berm separating Corporate Woods (where I am) from the Rustic Village apartments. I am sitting behind an unopenable thermopane tinted jacee: ATMOSPHERE jacee: Never did the lake namesake -- I was at Word Of Life camp -- Bible to the hilt... Oh memories are rolling jacee: click jacee: off GeorgeS: This office now belongs to a guy who is always taking time off to go and teach Inuit kids, so all over the walls are posters of loons and polar bears and muskox. jacee: enough Bible jacee: good grief, a "weirdo"? or what? Helping other people? Doesn't make cents... GeorgeS: My lake memories are of Devil's, in Baraboo Wisconsin. Big Indian birdmound that all of his Chicagoans used to play Jarts on for crying out loud. Big pine giftshop with beaded Indian purses. GeorgeS: "Us" not "his" in prev paragraph jacee: Jarts? GeorgeS: Am getting cold chills like crazy. Ugh. Flu. jacee: Oh man, bummer. I have been so lucky with no virus' et al for three and 1/2 years now GeorgeS: You know, lawn darts? Their these dense little arrows with sharp plastic tips and the idea is. you toss them across the lawn into a plastic ring for Valuable Bonus Points jacee: Except for the BACK thing, I have been knocking on wood healthy GeorgeS: We had a sleepover for my daughter's birthday....a Petri dish with party favors jacee: Oh yeah, JARTS.... right. jacee: Kids get em' all GeorgeS: I suspect their banned now. GeorgeS: They're, not their. Ugh. jacee: yep, petri dish. Watch out for the pneumonia-stuff, though, that can be a total bummer that will come back to haunt the lungs later *** Fireweed (here.there@cnc038044.concentric.net) has joined channel #port Fireweed: Hi y'all :) Fireweed: So, are we performing? jacee: so, well, you will be around NY state for a while then, at least some things are certain Fireweed waves to the audience. jacee: right? jacee: (Fireweed IS the audience) Fireweed must look like a real yokel about now... Fireweed: :) Fireweed: Understood, jacee. jacee: you can see the reverberations GeorgeS: Yep. We have a visitor who is Waving to Our Audience. HI fireweed jacee: It would definitely be good to get up there and do some current family portrait documentations GeorgeS: Mom? Is that you? jacee: you have to mouth HI MOM GeorgeS: Anytime jacee: for the camera GeorgeS: OF course jacee: I am planning to drive my STUFF from NJ out here in August Fireweed waves to Remo, just cuz... Fireweed: Hello, Geo. jacee: an adventure, Fireweed: "And when force is gone...there's always Mom - Hi Mom!" - L. Anderson jacee: and then make this the base GeorgeS: I think by August we should be moved. jacee: uhhuh jacee: I am a little jealous of Stefan that his folks are there in Montclair -- as a base outside NYC would be interesting... rather than a cow town here Fireweed tosses confetti into the channel just for EF-fect... jacee: but networking thing can be done from anywhere... Like Lapland Fireweed: * ~ ~* ~*~* *~ *~***~ *~***~ ~ jacee: and so it goes GeorgeS: My folks are about to buy a mondo rv and start tromping around the country, sell house, etc jacee: are they retired yet? jacee: they call them snow birds here Fireweed relaxes with a glass of '97 #Port. jacee: Hey, Chris' wife had a baby two weeks ago... Fireweed toasts the thespians. "Slainte!" jacee: kiipis jacee: I totally lost my train with that last boot off. Concentration is such a fragile thing of late Fireweed muses...if a performance falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it entertain? GeorgeS: Who, just who, is Fireweed? Fireweed: I'm sorry if I'm being a pest...I'll leave if you like. jacee: and the mediation always drives in a wedge (I dunno, don'e matter) Fireweed: Really...I see that I'm a bit of an interloper. Fireweed: George, I'm a friend of Remo's. jacee: but the effect is the effect and the result is the result... Dialogue number three had a totally unreal uncarnation as I never got on... Fireweed: And general-all around extrovert at large. jacee: so it goes. And of course, the gallery isn't even around at the moment... GeorgeS: Well then, let's begin! jacee: again Fireweed: Should I leave? :/ jacee: don' matter jacee: uh, where were we long about 3peeem yer time GeorgeS: Nah what the heck, stick around. What do you do? Who are you? Fair is fair, jacee: ? Fireweed: Ack! LAG!!! jacee: retrospecting has moved us for some time jacee: oracle, too GeorgeS: I think that 's about when I got bumped off, Fireweed smiles. jacee: I try to picture you as the Dad of the house, I admit, a bit difficult. Fireweed: I'm in the process of looking for a job, but I'm a teacher at heart - English at one time, software apps now. Fireweed: I live out in the wilds of Acton, MA Fireweed: I have 2 little boys who are my pride and joy. GeorgeS: ME the dad of the house? Oh yes, in a big way, tho that must seem stramge Fireweed: Ummm...what else? jacee: Gees, see the mechanism of dialogue? where failure dogs Fireweed: Or where dogs fail even... jacee: And JC, too, He sent me a cc: of a long letter he had sent to his brother in Montreal -- and I wondered if I should have gotten it, it was so personal and what surprised me was the DIFFERENCE of the voice with which he spoke! Fireweed: I think lag is hanging us up here... GeorgeS: It's mostly the lag, isn't it,. kind of like when in 1983 I was trying to talk Cindy Lenk out of screwing a Beta from the Telecomm center in Singapore. Big lags and no natural uptakes of hints, etc Fireweed: :) GeorgeS: I was not successful Fireweed: I'll be departing now. jacee: By telly? then, I suppose, they hadn't implemented email at that point GeorgeS: Bye Fireweed: It was lovely. Thank you for your hospitality. jacee: Well, Beta's are what Beta's are, eh, the Other that was not Alpha, not Tau, but Beta! jacee: (My dad walked in, asking me what these conferences were about... Fireweed curtsys respectfully to the artistes jacee: oh Pleeeeze. ah ain't no artistes... Fireweed waves, blowing kisses as she heads for the door. Fireweed: :) jacee: I waft the parfum GeorgeS: No, just telephone, and the place was gleaming by 1983 standards but horrifically expensive, so you spilled your guts and cried and so on in all this sterility, and then walked to a little desk and paid cash to the tune of $200 SIngapore or so and walked home all bummed. Passing at midnight the eggseller's shop, where ancient Chinese men silently lugged eggs Fireweed laves out loud! Fireweed: Bye, y'all! *** Fireweed has left channel #port jacee: You keep an archive of thing? GeorgeS: That was odd. GeorgeS: Not really. I have all our old letters from 1983-87 or so. jacee: Really, odd is a word. I tend to ignore, but get caught halfway. Like the dyslexic cocktail party that IRC is! jacee: You don't write to many folks, do you? GeorgeS: Well it's exactly like talking on a bus and having someone pitch in. Seemed like a nice guy but what to say? jacee: I mean, like correspondance? GeorgeS: E-mail? No. I can't keep up with it so I let it go. Just occurred to me that Fireweed was a woman, jacee: I am making progress on the book proposal, and will send you a maquette within a week or so... just to give a broad idea jacee: Well, don't be too sure about gender on this Net... GeorgeS: Okay. Look forward to it. Am very slow in response these days. jacee: Well, maybe you can be sure, but when you juxtapose with the Real, there may be a juxtaposition! jacee: Well, no need for response, just look at it... GeorgeS: SO you're printing now? jacee: Yes, for three or four evenings, taking it slow only ten negs per evening, but fun as hell, small things, 4x6 inch or so, but it is liberating... jacee: Working with Light again is energizing, and I find the lab I built here ten years ago ain't so bad... GeorgeS: I bet. You;re so freaking good that it must be a great feeling doing it jacee: I need to stock up on gifts for traveling and I will be taking two series of ten prints to the Icelandic National Gallery as a contribution and the Finnish Museum of Photo (A friend is the Dir. there... GeorgeS: Office here has grown strangely quiet jacee: I mean the last time I worked was three years ago more GeorgeS: Yeah, how was that? Rusty? jacee: They are all watching you on a monitor and seeing the text scrolling along! jacee: Rusty ain't the word, papers have gone since then, I had all new papers (to me) which was interesting, but it takes me a day to learn the local system response, then a day to start up, then I can crank jacee: Between that and the ability to do layout (slowly) of images and pages on this meager machine jacee: it is fun... And I think I can get a publisher... jacee: no problem jacee: well, man, you must be suffering to get home to the kids and to bed yerself... Don't get any more sick (Is Paula down too?) GeorgeS: NO, she's the only one who's okay. And I have to drive to SU tomorrow and teach. Argh. I usually bounce back pretty fast, so I'm hoping. jacee: and your system there is jelling like hot molasses on snow jacee: we made it technically, and, well, the next thing is the tete-a-tete OUT of cyberspace... GeorgeS: It's weird how just a few extra degrees of body temp makes you feel like a monster jacee: Furnace to the brain cells jacee: seeing red GeorgeS: Yes, we have to. I think I'm supposed to be in NYC for some book stuff in spring and then again in October, if nothing else jacee: well, thanks fer dragging yer butt out and participating in this strange project... I will be in NYC ~april 13-19? possibly, and then in August... sometime jacee: Do ya FEEL like a REVOLUTIONARY? jacee: well, give my love to the family, I look forward to the pleasure of meeting them again soon... GeorgeS: No, but more and more I tend to look like one, because my hair is drying out and sticks up and my face is looking more and more beat. All I need is one of those bombs that look like bowling balls. GeorgeS: All right man, it's been really fun. I'll talk to you soon *** Signoff: GeorgeS (OrbitIRC 1.23 - Easy IRC for Win95! (http://www.wbm.ca/orbitirc/)) jacee: okay! jacee: cheers Session Close: Wed Mar 5 14:12:03 1997 |
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