September 1997 Musings of the Gus

The internet has increasingly tangible effects on my part of meatspace: from romance to violence to computer hardware. Also, big social upheavals: Rory has a car accident and Leah breaks up with Matthew.

• Photographs taken in September.

• 01: how Altavista improved my love life - A sixteen year old girl visits me and we have a brief but intense afternoon together.

• 02: Frat Boy Machine: the components - I'm building a machine to make Frat Boys out of regular folks. Here's the basic parts list.

• 03: Frat Boy Machine: assembly - Making the thing look high-tech by spray painting it silver, I inhale far too many fumes.

• 04: Frat Boy Machine: details - Skinheads complain to Comet, devastation at Kappa Mutha Fucka, and attention to details on the Frat Boy Machine.

• 05: Frat Boy Machine: a demonstration - The Machine works perfectly, and I encounter a little actual violence with skinheads on the Downtown Mall of Charlottesville.

• 06: half pre-anthropoid - With a sprained thumb on my left hand, I know how non-ape primates must feel. Also, some gut-wrenching sexual politics.

• 07: trip to the Tidewater - Kappa Mutha Fucka, Natalie and Sarah go on a road trip to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach.

• 08: what the sexes are for - Why people like to watch the X Files.

• 09: friends for his morphine - CJ abandons his friends at the hospital when it turns out that all they really want from him are his prescription medicines.

• 10: infuriatingly pastel - I miss the chance to be Charlottesville's Michelangelo.

• 11: retro-glamsters - Some day you Warrant fans can claim you're old school. Also, a Carolyn Burke glossary, thoughts about feelings, and the way ugly girls smell.

• 12: Friday night excitement, in my dreams - I forego the adventures of my friends and instead experience peculiar entertainment in my dreams.

• 13: news of a British felon - Rory is in jail for felony hit and run. Also, I attend a Yellow Journal party at his house.

• 14: amputated internet - For a few hours, I find myself completely cut off from a major new organ of my body.

• 15: sadness comes in threes - We bail out Rory, but his spirit is broken. Matthew and Leah announce they are going different ways.

• 16: it's a Virgo! - Peggy delivers the Baboose and I get a little media attention.

• 17: apples and ant lions - We visit the new baby up on Carter's Mountain and drink a lot of alcohol.

• 18: day of sobriety, news from Jessika - A censored account of a crazy day.

• 19: dissecting betrayal - I discuss Rory's behaviour with several people, including Jessika, Matthew and even Rory himself, and members of my house go visit the local fraternity.

• 20: hangover mental condition - I lose higher-level powers of concentration.

• 21: the hit and run contingent - Rory, Leah and Ocean have been welded together into a clique by the stress of the recent hit and run incident.

• 22: nothing happened - A certain satisfaction despite the emptiness of the experience.

• 23: Primitive Beat - Scotch drinking among the aquarii, and I read about those smelly Beat dudes.

• 24: to read, save and be desired - On environmental radicals, my father, teaching your kids to read, and the value of affirmation.

• 25: bottle of special magic - A bottle of tequila, a new computer for Matthew, and a new mailing list for me.

• 26: spy in our midst - On another drunken night, Angela's boyfriend hangs out with us to spy on the Matthew-Angela situation.

• 27: disowned on our front porch - Angela's mother critiques her daughter's new friends. Also, we hang out with a molecular biologist.

• 28: the dry white spirit of tussin - We experiment with powdered Dextromethorphan.

• 29: those clunky noises - There wasn't much to talk about as I swatted at evil grey and white Tiger Mosquitos. Matthew and Angela did little errands, such as up to his room.

• 30: spam skirmish, sex weapon - While spammers roam free, they will face enemies like me. Also, what's wrong with the uses I see made of sex.