Sunday in the park with David and Leon
2009 08 09
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Reading Infinite Jest for a book club.
Sitting in the park with the remains of my Oktoberfest sausage (with onions, if you please), the Best Lemonad in the Universe (no joke), in unfamiliar humidity (as this part of Canada hasn't experienced what I'd refer to as much a summer as of yet). Waiting for Leon Redbone to come on stage. A gentleman carrying a Holga (most odd, don't see that much) asked if he could take my picture because he's doing some photo series on people who wear high power lens eyeglasses, which I do. Most peculiar. Not entirely certain on the taking-this-seriously scale, but he gave me a couple of gallery names he's worked with, and says he's going to email me a copy of the picture when it's ready (not that I want to see it; I hate having my picture taken).
Some of the things I've highlighted recently - the poor thing's getting a beast of a workout, and I have neon yellow stains on my fingers.
- an expression she probably thinks looks blandly deep but which really looks exactly the way a girl's face looks when she's dancing with you but would really rather be dancing with just about anyone else in the room. (437)
- before he got to the no-choice point and surrendered his will to staying straight at any cost. (435)
- votaried self-transcendence. (434)
- drawn a chalk ectoplasm. (433)
- You can't induce a moral sensibility the same way you'd train a rat. The kid has to learn by his own experience how to learn to balance the short- and long-term pursuit of what he wants. […] This is the crux of the educational system you find so appalling. Not to teach what to desire. To teach how to be free. To teach how to make knowledgeable choices about pleasure and delay and the kid's overall down-the-road maximal interests. (429)
- Because a certain basic amount of respect for the wishes of other people is required, is in my interest, in order to preserve a community where my own wishes and interests are respected. (426)
Leon Redbone was a highly enjoyable experience for me. I only wish my camphone had some form of perfunctory zoom.