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GEODESIC_DOOM

a letter to some friends                        7/16/94  


     "Did you read The Gripping      Nope.  Another book to avoid
   Hand?  If so, what was your       until it hits the used bookstores.
   reaction?"

     "How many nights did you        Zero.  Don't watch much TV.
   stay up watching CNN's            Well, I guess I did see Dr. Who
   coverage of the Hubble repair     last Sunday.  Ace is cool.
   mission?"

    "How 'bout that DC - X?"        Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.
                                    Haven't seen the Av. Week shots yet.

    "News reports suggest that      Harlan Ellison should drive a
   James T. Kirk dies in the        stake through his heart.
   upcoming Star Trek Movie. How    I liked the press release for this:
   should he meet his demise?"      compare the acting careers of
                                    Shatner vs. Stewart, then imagine
                                    them in the same movie.

    "All that plus my own           Upon which I will score rock bottom.
   invention -- a formula for       I live in an 8 by 10 room, sleeping
   estimating your Bourgeoisie      under a plywood and 2x4 loft I constructed,
   score (I remain a social         I listen to music on a 2nd hand Sears
   scientist)."                     stereo which can play 8-tracks, but not
                                    CDs.  The TV I watched Dr. Who on is a
                                    5 inch diagonal b&w I got from K-mart
                                    to use as a monitor with Will's old
  If anyone is interested           Atari-800.  I must admit, I do now have
  in adding up my Bohemian          *two* cars.  Someone gave me another
  score, I'd probably do            78 Toyota Corolla.  Neither of them are
  better.                           running at the moment, but with luck
                                    I will improve this situation tomorrow.
  My main hobby
  right now is the radio
  show I do on the Stanford       Why the doom schtick?
  radio station (KZSU 90.1FM),    Well, there was this
  where I am "The Voice of        bboard once where I was    Being a college
  Doom".                          changing my name every     DJ is an interest-
                                  day... Boris Badanov,      ing thing...
 I live in "Luck House",          Francious Villon,          more recorded
 a semi-communal                  Dr. Benway, Rafael         music is released
 group house, where               Sabatini, Victor von       then you can
 I am one of a set                Doom...  I noticed that    possibly
 of six people.      I always     many people were           comprehend,
 We all have our     seem to be   genuinely confused by      and about half
 own bedrooms,       1 of 6.      this.  I asked a friend    of this acoustic
 though, there are                which name I should        firehose is
 more than one                    switch to permanently.     blasting through
 bathrooms, and    LUCK           She said that "'Victor     my ears, and 
 half of us are                   von Doom' matches your     sometimes through
 female.  Most of                 sense of humor".  Then     my mind.
 the books in the                 came a long string of
 living room are                  unix accounts under the      My main goals
 mine.                            name 'doom'.  Then when      on the air:
                                  I became a Dj, what          apply a struct-
         I'm currently            name could I possibly        ured, planned
         doing software           use but "The Voice of        approach to
         work (sometimes          Doom"?                       create new
         interesting,                                          art forms.
         though not often                                      The 3 song
         enough) at Simultrans                                 tension-release
         a company that            I am all too                set.  The
         "localizes" software      familiar with               4 song
         for other countries       Windows for                 subversive
         (which we will not        Workgangs.                  set.  The 45
         call foreign).  One       And MS Word.                minute essay.
         of the jobs we're
         doing right now:                        I got a call on the air
         translating a software                  tonight from "Wendy"
         package that claims       I am really   who claimed to be in
         to be able to do          feeling the   Boston.  A friend she
         automatic translation.    need to       called in CA had my show
                                   get back      on, and she listened to
As for relationships:              into a lab.   a lot of it over the phone.
my long string of relatively       Sputtering    She wanted to tell me what
brief ones and long dry            magnetics     a good show I was doing
spells seems to have ended         at Almaden    and that I have a "great
with the most excellent            was much      voice".
woman    I've been seeing          more fun.
for about a year and a half                      This is not a typical call.
now.  A lot of adjectives        And perhaps
go with her ... intelligent,     into another          (Usually I get
pretty, athletic... but          graduate               requests for Motley
most people seem to fixate       program...             Crew.)
on "young" though it won't       though not
be long before she's out         quite yet.
of her teens.

The story.
    Past:                              Future:
    There's this place,                Another three months of
    the Stanford Theater,              making money, and she and
    restored by David Packard          her girlfriend are going to
    (son of the "P" in "HP")           follow through on their years
    to it's pristine 1930s             old plan of doing a trip
    condition, devoted to              around the world, focusing on
    early Hollywood.  I go             the indonesia side of the planet
    there a lot.  Often                (Europe, in their opinion, is
    wandering in by myself.            too boring).  After nearly a
    One night, coming out for          year of that, it's off to college
    a dose of coffee and               for her, though we know not yet
    chocolate between movies,          where (Boston? New Mexico?),
    this babe behind the               and then it'll be time for me
    counter makes a point of           to finally leave California,
    handing me a napkin.               and say farewell to "Luck
    Turns out it has writing           House".
    inside "You don't have to                                ((well... not
    go to the movies alone."                                   quite: DANGER.))

But enough about us, how about you?

Recommendations: _The Sandman_ (advances the art of comicbooks,
immensely readable fantasy, loaded with convoluted references to
myths, folklore, literature... start with _The Doll's House_ trade
paperback if you haven't started already); rec.comics.misc (a silly
news group which nevertheless provides a lot of insight into _The
Sandman_, a dozen sets of eyes being more powerful than one);
rec.music.industrial (for the latest in music); Mary Renault's trilogy
about Alexander the Great: _Fire from Heaven_, _The Persian Boy_, &
_Funeral Games_ (if Alexander were a character in a fantasy novel I
wouldn't believe in him); "The Brain Wash" on Folsom near 7th
(greatest coffee house/laundromat/performance space/gallery in the Bay
area); _Liberty_ (a much more reasonable libertarian rag than say,
_Reason_, in that it's willing to publish criticism of things
libertarian, e.g. the libertarian party -- speaking of which, "Go,
Stern!", though I wish he'd drop the death penalty); Prigogine &
Stengers _Order out of Chaos_ (a nice balance between popular and
technical)...

And as far as music goes, Clock DVA (technophiliac, promethean
industrial dance); Voice of Eye (excellent industrial ambient, dark
and moody); X-tal (local folk punks with excellent lyrics); SunRa's
_Cosmic Tones_ CD (astounding cosmic psychedelic big band jazz music,
far ahead of it's time), or maybe Moondog's _Sax Pax_, with some cool,
laid back lyrics going for it, or what about the International music
scene? Shu-De, Ziskakan and Sheila Chandra are all amazing, which brings
us to the Pokrovsky Ensemble and their "Les Noces" CD demonstrating
Stravinsky's roots in Russian folk music, and speaking of "classical"
do you realize how much exists that gets no play on "classical"
stations?  I mean you may have heard about some great stuff by Michael
Nyman (you know, "The Piano" flick), but how about Morton Feldman (as
performed by the Kronos Quartet, perhaps), or if you want some Hip-Hop
that isn't bogus, see if you can find Paris or Aztlan Nation, and did
you even get a chance to hear The Gits, punk with superb powerful
lyrics and vocals, before their lead was murdered?  You can't get 'em
to shut up about Kurt Cobain, but nobody's even heard of Mia Zapatta...
Argh.  I'll shut up now.

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