From the mouth of Elizabeth Christine Starke: That's why I like 90210: It's got all the cheese and none of the sleaze.

I picked up some groceries on the way to the Downtown Mall. I was on my bicycle, and since it has so many customized payload capabilities, I could have carried much more than I did.

The plan was for today to be much like yesterday. I sat in the Artspace and painted while customers trickled in and out. Some girl actually bought some Jenfariello photographs today. As I worked I had snacks and coffee to satisfy my oral desires and Bob Mould to satisfy my aural desires. A girl who uses the Artspace as a studio was there too. Naturally, I don't recall her name. She makes large charcoal figures on cardboard.

I've been aware that my Right Brain still has the capacity to assume command because I've felt it taking over whenever I've spent more than a minute in Photoshop.

This painting thing is not coming back to me easily, but it is coming back, mostly in the details. I found myself working again on the painting I'd started yesterday. This time I was using oil paint. Up close, I'd lose myself in the world I was creating. It looked good to me on that level. But then I'd back up and realize the essential composition is still a big chaotic lump of smelly poo. Still, the moments of Right Brain abandon are there, waiting to show themselves. I've been aware that my Right Brain still has the capacity to assume command because I've felt it taking over whenever I've spent more than a minute in Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, of course, there is no "Undo" when one paints. There is also no "Revert." No "Save As." There is but one option: "Interactively Print to Canvas at 0.5 baud."

I also read some more articles from I.D., a magazine for designers. One article I found most thought provoking was from the May-June 1994 issue (page 38) entitled "Robobabes: Why Girls Don't Play Video Games." The article drew a distinction between the differences between what boys and girls find fun when they play. Boys like games that require rapid thought within the confines of extremely limiting rules, with a definite sense of winning or losing as a motivating factor. Meanwhile girls prefer games that require understanding the thoughts and feelings of characters, with creative bending of rules in a flexible environment. For girls, winning and losing are not as important (and provide little motivation); it is the process of playing that is fun. The article made the point that since video games are what introduce most children to computers, girls are being increasingly left behind by shoot-em-up video games. Of course, the article was written before the big Internet explosion. I would imagine that a networked computer lends itself as much to the sort of play that girls enjoy as it does to the kind boys enjoy. This is because a networked computer is a window into an essentially limitless world. It is more like a telephone, and it also opens up new avenues of creativity for interests that are more traditionally female. Just by way of example, those who keep online journals are mostly female. I've noticed that most of the feedback I get to my Big Fun Glossary is also from females. As the Internet matures into a widely-used media, there will emerge niches in which males will find few of their numbers.

Back at the Dynashack I found myself watching 90210 with Elizabeth and Steve. The show is an dreadful sequence of cheesy scenese and scenarios, but there is something compelling about it. It seems, the directors or writers have left little hooks for the viewer to apply his own frames of ironic interpretation. It's extremely subtle though; there isn't any of the obvious social commentary of the Simpsons, for example. Whatever it is that compels Elizabeth and myself to enjoy 90210 is lost on Andrew. He was disgusted and went to his room and shut his door.

Amy, the girl who works at the Tokyo Rose and who I first met via email, came over at this point. She had a GusGus demo CD she gave me (with the proviso that I would not like its discernable disco heritage). GusGus must have played in town recently, since Plan 9 was giving away stickers and naturally some wiseass housemate put one on my door.

I had a vodka bottle in my hand, and from it I was gulping a clear fluid. Most people seeing anyone but me doing such a thing would conclude that the fluid must be water, and that the bottle is just a container used to hold it. But my reputation is such that when I am seen drinking a clear fluid from a vodka bottle, the fluid in question must be vodka, no matter with what ease I take my slugs and no matter how sober I appear to be. Even someone like Jessika who should know better assumed, when she was visiting, that the vodka bottle indeed contained vodka, and that, after having just gotten out of bed, I was drinking vodka as casually as one might eat potato chips. Amy doesn't know me as well, though, and I felt it necessary to tell her the bottle was just my water bottle.

Whenever we'd finish discussing something, the teevee would provide a new topic.

90210 was still on the television. Instead of "shut up I'm watching" or "turn that shit off it's driving me crazy" Amy and I seemed equally content to use the screen as a constant source of departure for our conversation. Whenever we'd finish discussing something, the teevee would provide a new topic. Advertisements worked as well as programming. It was like being on a roadtrip with a friend, driving through a tacky but fascinating Burger King District on a lazy Summer day in the Midwest. Back in 1993 and 1994 when she was my girlfriend, Leslie Montalto and I made such experiences for ourselves in a series of automotive daytrips to college towns in Ohio.

=========== [ Chosen as The Site That Links to the WALTER MILLER HOME PAGE Site ofthe Day 04/16/97 ] ===========

My web fame begins in earnest. I have finally received the most coveted accolade of all! Walter Miller has given me a 99% score on his new "Poorselfimage Boost Relevency" index and has linked to me from his links page! I never even asked him for these laurels and garlands. I always considered my pages unworthy of his company. He even says that I'm the one who inspired the idea for the Poorselfimage Boost Relevency index in the first place. Now I have the honour of displaying the award, which, in typical Walter Miller form, is entirely textual.

Eat your hearts out, my good readers!

As a footnote, Jessika has stated on several occasions a desire to move in with Walter and help him with his many tasks. There are, of course, boils in need of lancing and collectibles in need of organization. From an astrological perspective, I suspect that Jessika and Grandfather (and I) share a common rising sign.

For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?970416