Live from Kyrgyzstan profile picture

Live from Kyrgyzstan

stalin's rocket engine

About Me

"I have another vehicle," said Dudley -- "an abandoned car rescued from the auto cemetary: my empire. I stand still and go everywhere. No wheels, no motor, no lights, no traction. I wander through jungles, rivers, swamps, deserts -- in search of the Mayas. We are trying to find our father, our name, our address." "It's like a grand sickness," said Dudley, speaking of the Letter which he had at last begun. "I want to wash up my own life and literature too. The book opens with a nightmare, an evacuation, a complete waste of images." ... Apparently, I'm also so good at Photoshop it causes people to lose control of their bodily functions.

My Interests

Myself, girls, disseminating propaganda, trick billiards tournaments, being culture jammed, alcohol, listening to hip-hop ironically, census figures, football aka soccer, outsmarting rob, ideological justifications for dubious behavior, democratic socialism, Russia, poverty, reading about cultural theory, making fun of cultural theory, inciting revolt, revolting insights, and generally being an ass.

Music:

Gansta rap, Russian pop, and grime in the morning, twee indie and electronic stuff at bedtimes.

Movies:

Harrison Ford saving his family, or anything involving a heist.

Television:

What is it about television as a medium that makes it so ideologically repulsive to progressive thinkers, aside from its cultural ubiquity? Yes, most TV programs are bad. So is the majority of music, visual art, literature, etc. I'd much rather watch brilliant TV shows like Arrested Development, the Office (BBC version), and the Wire, or even passably engaging entertainments like Lost and Law & Order, than listen to half of the shitty punk bands that come through Gainesville. Hell, even Iron Chef or Mythbusters beats a free show at Common Grounds, as far as the quality of the entertainment is concerned. (Of course I also like the usual scene-approved TV exceptions: Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, et al, not to mention the oft-unrecognized brilliance of King of the Hill and the poorly commentated football matches of the Fox Soccer Channel, which Cox has inexplicably picked up instead of Sky Sports).

Books:

I hate: Chuck Palahniuk, most memoirists, David Foster Wallace, the Village Voice. I love: Jonathan Franzen, Haruki Murakami, Thomas Pnychon, and the New York Press (EDIT: They just fired all their cool writers and went conservative. LAAAME). Some other authors I like are: George Orwell (including essays), Phillip Roth, Phillip K. Dick, Hunter S. Thompson, Knut Hamsun, Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Raymond Chandler, Gunter Grass, Nicholson Baker, Martin Amis, Walker Percy, Jonathan Lethem, certain Brett Easton Ellis, Kurt Vonnegut of course, and dozens of others I'm forgetting. If this list leads you to believe I also like Jonathan Safran Foer or James Frey, you'd be dead wrong, because I loathe both of them with a passion (Frey even before his scandal). I've also left off Russian authors because any one you can think of I am in love with, especially Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Pelevin, and Bulgakov. In fact, if you're at all interested in 20th century Russian literature, let alone contemporary authors, we need to get married. I also read a lot of nonfiction books, which is why I actually know some things even though you've only ever seen me doing drugs and drinking 10,000 beers.

My Blog

fuck a bunch of fuckers

I don't usually get this way, but here I am again: depressed. As you all know, I've been poor and drunk and jobless pretty much since I came back to the United States. And I'm certainly to blame for m...
Posted by Live from Turkmenistan on Mon, 27 Feb 2006 04:11:00 PST

just thought I'd post something because the last entry is so old

What will I miss most from Prague? It's hard to say. The friends? The adventures? The partying? Nah. My money's on the smazeny syr.
Posted by Live from Turkmenistan on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

finally got some pictures

Sorry they are all from the same evening, but I don't own a camera. Special thanks to Jackie Tarr!
Posted by Live from Turkmenistan on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST