Back from Miami

Haulover - the clothing-optional section of Miami Beach
Originally uploaded by JasonUnbound.

Where it was 32C, warm and about 50% cheaper to rent a place than it is here in NYC. It did make me wonder why I choose to live here - though with my still having a total sun ban post Radiation treatment I think that the sun and the proximity of the beaches would be torture.

I wanted a picture of a sign that said "No loitering in the sea grass" but couldn['t find one - so here's someone's arse on an overcast haulover beach

Bleary eyed in foggy Frankfurt

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Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Didn't sleep on the way over here, due to leaving at 5pm, sloping 'beds' and Lufthansa's insistance that good service and waking people on the hour are positively connected.

On to Miami and 35C heat today, I only wish that the beach was an option but my weight and the fact that post radiation I'll burn like a peeled albino at the introduction of sun mean that it's the hotel and sleep for me.

The pic btw is Deliah, Jude and Velcro enjoying the Indian summer in Billyburg

An aimless ramble

Isn’t this just the most fantastic image? There’s something about smoke suspended in air that’s undeniably sensual. I think that it’s the fluidity that does it, smoke doesn’t move with purpose, it lingers. It lingers around the mouth, it dares you to inhale; reminds us of our proximity to other people, that we share the same air.

If the world was black and white, the women were French and slouched the louche slouch of the aristocratically debauched and if the walls of every bar reeked of the decadence of the torch song then I’d be a happy man.

What am I blathering on about? I’m not sure but I find that as I get older I get more nostalgic for times I didn’t witness. I love the idea of 20s Harlem or 30s Berlin. The danger, the slumming, the energy, the easy outrage. The idea that there were still boundaries to push against, minds to expand.

I find myself nostalgic for times when experience required effort. How different was life when entertainment had to be sought out. I think that that’s the major change I’ve seen in my lifetime. 25 years ago if you wanted entertainment you had to leave the house and seek it out. You wanted a saucy thrill and to see what all the ‘Deep Throat’ fuss was about, you headed to the nearest ‘porn cinema’ and dealt with all that that meant. These days entertainment doesn’t live outside the home, it lives inside our every device. ‘Deep Throat’ is available On Demand, it’s inside this computer, it’s available on my phone, I could even get a fridge that could find it. We’re so used to having entertainment available that we expect everything from Church to the shape of our Fish Fingers (Fish Sticks) to entertain us.

Mind this change is the basis of my theory that boredom was a 20th century disease. Prior to the 20th century you were too busy throwing piss out of a window and burying your children to be bored. Just look at any of those ‘ye olde house’ shows where people ‘travel back in time’ and end up spending 16 hrs a day polishing the fireplace.

Then came labor saving devices. And around the same time radio and TV. Both offered tantalizing glimpses of other worlds. Both entertained. Both raised our expectations – and both fell silent for long periods of the day. We were shown that the world could be endlessly entertaining; we were excited to the point of giddy by masked men and their sidekicks and then… nothing. The screens went blank and nothing else seemed as interesting. We were prisoners to scheduling and the dead time dragged.

But no more. This is a 39 / 7 economy. That’s how long a day is these days. 39 hours. Or at least when you ask people to keep a record of all that they’ve done and how long it took them the tasks add up top 39 hrs. There’s multi-tasking for you. So no more boredom. 10 mins to wait – TXT. 20 mins to wait – e-mail. A half hour – Messenger. A whole say – Secondlife.

So no more boredom. But no more illicit thrills. And no more smoke. No more Marlenes, no more Mae Wests, no more Josphene Bakers. No more. Pig Porn yes. Old school provocation no. Sad huh?

Thank you very much... we are STILL the Pet Shop Boys

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Originally uploaded by _Giulio.

Pet Shop Boys last night and they were much better than I'd expected. Neil's voice, which I always had assumed relied heavily on studio steroids, was actually really strong. The set was simple but innovative and the crowd pretty appreciative - to the point of bonkers on any song that was more than 15 years old.

The new song old song routine did have us up and down like a tart's knickers - as people 'danced like their dad' then caught second wind during the new stuff. But I really enjoyed it.

I'd have enjoyed it more if Jude and I weren't simultaneously at breaking point. She has two big interviews, a thesis, a paper and teaching to contend with. I have two huge presentations, pressure from two offices to give them my undivided attention and a potential life shift coming up. I think we've both felt this tense before, but never at the same time and we're feeding off the other's edginess.

Still nothing we can do other than put our heads down and grind through the next two months.

What a miserable entry.