December 1996 Musings of the Gus

What remains of a close friendship entirely disintegrates.

• 01: Needlework digitized - Jessika and Gus continue their game of mutual avoidance, except he phones her.

• 02: Grungy Xeroxes and No Vino - I hate losing things like paint brushes and sleep.

• 03: the endeavour to keep flowers in a jar - A metaphoric discourse on hopeless issues of the heart.

• 04: melodrama with two Italian sisters - Relationship troubles plague one sister while another acts as a therapist.

• 05: A Dodge Dart in Snow - Also, revisiting some troubles that won't go away concerning slacker friends.

• 06: Liberatingly Pathetic - Also, revisiting some troubles that won't go away concerning slacker friends.

• 07: the Party for the Happy Ones - Also, revisiting some troubles that won't go away concerning slacker friends.

• 08: the starkness of winter's isolation - When we cut ourselves off from all we have, can we really expect immediate joy?

• 09: the chore of Masturbation - Not now, that part of my body, I have a headache.

• 10: the first to get pink flamingos - They thought they were on the cutting edge.

• 11: the positive feedback loop of social approval - They thought they were on the cutting edge.

• 12: The fall of useless horses - They thought they were on the cutting edge.

• 13: A paucity of real-world interactions - Upon finding life's purpose in cyberspace, what then of this world of eating, drinking and making love?

• 14: A Tragic Absence in the Life of World Travelers - The man who hitch hikes through West Virginia is nothing like the girl with clean hair on a flight to Hamburg.

• 15: Work-Sleep-Work - There is no life outside the workplace.

• 16: Missing - Among other things, a little silliness with Jen Fariello.

• 17: The Everpresent Macarena - Views on Walmart and the minimum wage and strange dreams of intoxication in the workplace.

• 18: Drinking and Driving in Charlottesville - Tooling around Charlottesville with a ketchup bottle of vino in my hand.

• 19: From the Reserves - Suddenly I find myself putting in a day of work.

• 20: Twenty Dollar Crisis - There is no room for the rational mind when dealing with issues of jealousy.

• 21: a firewall against hate - Normally events like those yesterday would leave me with nascent feelings misogyny. Not this time.

• 22: Charlottesville picobrewery - Nathan VanHooser gets a little help from me in the brewing of beer at his little house on Little High Street.

• 23: news of punk rock carnage - Post Big Fun society is rocked by a car crash.

• 24: what makes for qualitative music theory - My views on the current state of my pathetic musicianship.

• 25: Paranoia in a Pear Tree - A pleasant stab at Christmas followed by harsh and noisy live music in the house of a paranoid redneck.

• 26: the burden of being human - A few thoughts on what to expect from a hairless anthropoid ape in the 1990s.

• 27: watching paint dry - Adventures mostly dictated by the speed with which acrylic paint dries in cool humid conditions.

• 28: a little interfacing - I stay up late into the afternoon and sleep even past midnight.

• 29: my tendencies for obsession - If I motivate myself to do something at all, chances are good that I will at some point develop an obsession.

• 30: power and control and expression - When I say what I say does it curtail my ability to say something else later?

• 31: punk rock new years 97 - broken glass, Carlo Rossi Paisano, Beast Ice, cops and kisses