Thursday, August 14, 2008

airports, Kundera, and The Gutter Twins

Airports always arouse a melancholy and ruminative mood within me. I'm always anxious, leaving somewhere or headed towards something; and whatever I'm leaving or headed towards is most always something that is valued or dreaded. At times, I am leaving something I love for something I would rather not be involved with. The airport has constructed itself into such a grand metaphysical annex, insulated with the weight of it's paradoxical isolation. I imagine it as a purgatory, all of these different people from al over the world, simply waiting, doing what they can to distract themselves, at the mercy of intercoms directing their flight times and departure gates. It's such an obscene suspension, considering the fact that all of these people are in transit, airports breed anxiety and boredom all at once. People are out of context, a lot of them appear clueless, or worn and tired. I watch people walk or run by and their image takes on a whole new meaning. The freedom that my mind has to build the story of their life is much greater because are not in their context, they are free from the tight walls of routine and identity, and enter into a place where there is little control over your immediate fate, or desired plans. I think a lot in airports, it's a neutral area to make sense of events that have all happened in other times, in other places, surrounded and defined by context and company. It's all reflection and helplessness.

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"In existential mathematics, that experience takes the from of two basic equations: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting"-Milan Kundera

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

We can't wait to hug you on Sunday!

10:03 AM

 
Blogger Melanie said...

The term, "hurry up and wait" is pretty much the picture that airports bring to my mind. Purgatory might be an apt metaphor for an airport, though. LOL I am usually tired and a little restless at airports. I either find someone to chat with, or do crossword puzzles - preferably the easy, almost mindless variety.

I hope this time you were headed for something you value.

Really interesting video. Something tells me they had a little fun making it. Sometimes, I could get into the computer smashing portion. ;) I like the lyrics.

The citation is interesting. I will give it some thought.

12:38 PM

 
Blogger Ezekiel James said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

5:01 PM

 
Blogger Ezekiel James said...

here are a few things I like about you David:

a. When you listed your favorite books section you didn't list "Blue Like Jazz" or "Velvet Elvis." You listed actual authors. I have no personal issue with D. Miller or R. Bell but I personally believe their writing to be heinous.

b. Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Jets to Brazil (a little personal note about myself; I sang "Sweet Avenue" with my buddy Jake Clemons on piano backing me up on my wedding day.)

C. Noam Chomsky and Soren Kierkegaard. I look forward to some good conversations/debates.

good stuff.

11:28 PM

 
Blogger Ezekiel James said...

In a previous comment, I had mentioned that I had nothing personal against these authors sad attempts at creating a genre I'd like to refer to as "christian beat writing." The truth is, I have met Don Miller and have lived with some very close friends of his and have reached the conclusion that he's a total douche bag and I'll say the same for Rob Bell. Awful writers and even worse theologians. They have become the "hip" youth pastor that try pathetically hard to "meet you where you're at."

It's totally not cool at all to dig Pantera. Which is why I love them. Cemetery Gates, dawg. TGSTK, rocked me at 14. Especially with the "hardcoreness" of the opening track was rad. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but all those dudes were in hardcore bands before they created they're southern brand of metal. Phil is on the documentary "American Hardcore" making commentary on the southern hardcore scenes. If you haven't watched American Hardcore by now, then I highly recommend it. I would bypass reading the book. It's a biased piece of shit. I'll summarize the book for you:

"The DC and Ian McKaye crew were the shit. Henry Rollins was a loser asshole. Bad Brains were amazing and then they became dogmatic rastafarian dicks. Boston was violent and racist. New York Sucked. LA Sucked. There was NO music happening in the NW other than DOA (TOTALLY NOT TRUE). SF Sucked. The South Sucked....Oh yeah, did I mention that DC was awesome and everywhere else sucked?" I bet you can't guess what east coast city the author was from?

Anyway, consider yourself linked my friend. watch yourself.

10:30 AM

 

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