Marmalade Daydreams

Delicious. The Goddess giveth, and She taketh away.

It's 6/6/06, a momentous date for those who put significance in numbers (and why not, as our brains are but pattern-creating machines), and I had to convince my students today that it was not the end of the world -- I told them what I knew of Revelations, what with the three-headed beast and the four horsemen and the 144,000 and the streets running with blood; one girl said, 'you're scaring me mr. stein', and i said, 'hey, it's your bible'. if anything, i think I may have inspired a few kids to look critically at the amalgamation of beautiful & bizarre myths called the Christian Bible.

My dear friend Jesse is in town and, while we took thirty minutes to visit our mutual friend Sol in his Crown Heights apartment, Jesse's father's car got towed. This meant that I had the distinct experience of yet another trip to the NYPD's Brooklyn Navy Yard impound lot. I once began to write a piece about this place, as every detail about it screams with the contempt of bureaucratic institutions for the individual, a piece of the Eastern bloc right in our backyard, but I grew too full of animosity to complete it. A few choice details: the sign posted on the inch-thick glass, 'WELCOME TO REDEMPTION', hilarious juxtaposed with the joyless municipal workers and the 'no left turn' sign posted devoid of irony as art on their wall; the stench of the rotting stinkberries rising about you from the blacktop as you wait for the police van (which smells no better) to escort you to your poor car, stranded in a sea of seized vehicles like animals at a shelter waiting desperately for imagined owners; the orange ticket on your windshield, a final fuck you from the authorities after paying one-eighty-five for the privilege of the tow.

But all worked out within our timeframe, and I was glad to be able to share the delightful misery of the place with a like-hearted soul who can rejoice in uncommon pains. I got dropped off at my favorite beerbar up in Williamsberg (yet further proof that the brightest sparks of light flourish within the great darkness) where the brewmaster from Heavyweight, an amazing Jersey brewery, was showing off his favorites on the occasion of announcing the closure of his largescale distribution (though he plans on soon opening a brewpub). Tasty offerings included an herbal 'viking' brew full of fruit and foresty flavors, a smoked ale tasting strongly of coffee, and a porter that reminded me of nutella without the sugar. I met an older swedish woman who's well-traveled, both in internal and external voyages, and we spoke of desert hotsprings and internal martial arts. Lovely.

Anyway, I'm new on this blog scene, without a good sense of how long to make these posts. I'm going to stop this one here. Much love to the peeps, had a great time up at the Hamilton 5 year reunion (saw good old friends, laughed with and about people i haven't thought of in years, and stuffed myself well with the incomparable vittles of Vernon, NY's Only Cafe), looking forward to Bonnaroo next weekend (music festival in Tennessee with a huge lineup), and to further travels in asia this summer.

Peace.