Mute

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” I’ve seen this platitude festoon an abundance of freshman blogs and journals that ramble on before their eventual abandonment. Judging from the state of my life and the state of my own blog and journal, I’ll go on to say that the examined life isn’t that much farther …

Ethyldivinol

Alcohol is the catalyst which slows me down so that everything overwhelms me, by which the profane becomes profound, in which patterns emerge in the chaos, and for one brief moment I find god. Everything suddenly makes sense, because I am too incapacitated to hold all the infinite possibilities in my head. Divinity by chemical …

Drill Sargent Dad

The reason I don’t succeed in life is because I don’t go to sleep before midnight and wake up before six, but that’s just what Drill Sargent Dad tells me. Of course he’s not real. But he is a mental reflection of those of you who would say, “Well, yeah, obviously.” And I write this …

After Sunrise

That last three minutes of “Before Sunrise” (1995) are always a punch to my gut. The inevitability of the end of the shining relationship. The rising of the sun burning away the evening of dreams and possibilities. Collapsing infinite potentials into a concrete reality. Exposing the detritus of the night’s revelry. Exchanging uncertainty on the …