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None have power of an hour
Tuning in earlier this evening to Biden's address on ending his campaign for re-election—heard on the radio, his voice audibly fragile and talking of kings and dictators, the idea of America in its people's hands—felt a lot closer to catching a late fireside chat by FDR than I am used to my presidential broadcasts sounding. It gave me an unexpected emotional reaction and I hope the parallel is proven to be an artifact of my general immersion in the last century rather than the trajectory of this one. I have donated to the Harris campaign.
The problem with the construction is not just that it is generally disruptive and exhausting, I have finally realized that thanks to the combination of my natural nocturnal rhythms and the pain-driving insomnia which has worsened so badly over the last few years, it is hitting me right when I should be entering REM and I am not sure that my body is establishing any kind of normal sleep cycle afterward. It is difficult for me to fall back asleep once woken and even if I manage it, the constant noises and vibrations leave me feeling as though I am thinly dozing more than actually sleeping. I have weird shallow flashes of dream or just the sense that I have lain awake for an impossible number of hours listening to the beeping of trucks and the juddering of jackhammers even through the earplugs which I dislike sleeping in to begin with. This month has been back-to-back with physical stresses and I am wondering if on some actual neurochemical level I am recuperating from any of them. I don't feel that I can think in any meaningful fashion and it is frustrating to me. I would much rather be talking about movies.
Gwynne Garfinkle's Sinking, Singing (2024) is forthcoming this fall from Aqueduct Press and I highly recommend getting hold of a copy. Its eleven stories are a showcase of moments as disquieting and liberating as a virtuoso punk setlist or a marathon of films from a different Hollywood, each tilting the world to another quizzical angle of sirens and robots, extinction and reinvention, remixed history and warped discographies. It should come with a companion CD, never mind that its most important tracks come from a music industry of the author's imagination. You can hear them in these unpredictable pages. Malfunctions unleash the beauty of surprise.
The problem with the construction is not just that it is generally disruptive and exhausting, I have finally realized that thanks to the combination of my natural nocturnal rhythms and the pain-driving insomnia which has worsened so badly over the last few years, it is hitting me right when I should be entering REM and I am not sure that my body is establishing any kind of normal sleep cycle afterward. It is difficult for me to fall back asleep once woken and even if I manage it, the constant noises and vibrations leave me feeling as though I am thinly dozing more than actually sleeping. I have weird shallow flashes of dream or just the sense that I have lain awake for an impossible number of hours listening to the beeping of trucks and the juddering of jackhammers even through the earplugs which I dislike sleeping in to begin with. This month has been back-to-back with physical stresses and I am wondering if on some actual neurochemical level I am recuperating from any of them. I don't feel that I can think in any meaningful fashion and it is frustrating to me. I would much rather be talking about movies.
Gwynne Garfinkle's Sinking, Singing (2024) is forthcoming this fall from Aqueduct Press and I highly recommend getting hold of a copy. Its eleven stories are a showcase of moments as disquieting and liberating as a virtuoso punk setlist or a marathon of films from a different Hollywood, each tilting the world to another quizzical angle of sirens and robots, extinction and reinvention, remixed history and warped discographies. It should come with a companion CD, never mind that its most important tracks come from a music industry of the author's imagination. You can hear them in these unpredictable pages. Malfunctions unleash the beauty of surprise.
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*hugs*
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(And I hope they stop/calm down/move much further down the street/disappear through an unexpected wormhole to another dimension soon. Probably one of the first few of those rather than the last one, but it's a thought. <3 In the meantime, you have all my sympathy: it's such a misery, both too much noise and lack of sleep which means lack of function which means lack of being properly human, and on top of that, the dratted earplug solution, only rarely anything like it's cracked up to be.)
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I had not thought of that, and it's a brilliant observation.
*waves* Hullo! I don't remember where I saw you commenting in someone's journal and followed you home like a kitten, but I did mean to say hi. Lack of sleep really does make the best of intentions impossible to achieve.
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Thank you.
Hullo! I don't remember where I saw you commenting in someone's journal and followed you home like a kitten, but I did mean to say hi. Lack of sleep really does make the best of intentions impossible to achieve.
Hello! It's nice to meet you. Sympathies appreciated re sleep and I hope you are getting a reasonable amount at least.
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And I know what you mean about those shallow flashes of dreams. I've had dreams that I'm lying awake in bed, and the only way I've been able to understand, after the fact, that they're dreams is from some surreal detail or other.
You may not be talking about movies at the moment, but I appreciate your endorsement of Sinking, Singing! I like Gwynne's stories.
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It's worth hearing in full. I understand there has never been a situation like the one that occasioned it in American political history before, but I've also just never heard a political speech like it in my own life.
And I know what you mean about those shallow flashes of dreams. I've had dreams that I'm lying awake in bed, and the only way I've been able to understand, after the fact, that they're dreams is from some surreal detail or other.
I got sleep paralysis once that way! It was weird.
You may not be talking about movies at the moment, but I appreciate your endorsement of Sinking, Singing! I like Gwynne's stories.
Thank you! So do I.
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*hugs* I hope the constuction ends soon and your insomnia improves.
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I hope people heard it.
I hope the constuction ends soon and your insomnia improves.
Thank you.
*hugs*
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Biden's speech made me emotional too (as did Lawrence O'Donnell's retrospective of Biden's career yesterday evening).
I really hope the construction ends soon and that you can get some better sleep.
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You're welcome! Your book deserves them! May it receive many more!
Biden's speech made me emotional too (as did Lawrence O'Donnell's retrospective of Biden's career yesterday evening).
I missed that. I have read some assorted encomia (and one response from Adam Gopnik so gonzo that it has slightly put me off him for the time being).
I really hope the construction ends soon and that you can get some better sleep.
Thank you.
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Thank you. I'm tired and it's nuts.
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*hugs*