2024-07-24

sovay: (Rotwang)
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.
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