Uncle Dave's House of Useless Crap

Latent Miseries

As many of you who are close to me know, I am moving. With me this is no minor consideration, as I have practically a museum at my disposal; thousands of records, tapes, videotapes and many boxes of ephemera - music manuscripts, old gig posters, etc. This time the move was effected not by a change in venue due to some financial snafu or discord with the landlord - things you can sort of judge at a distance and therefore ready yourself for - but by the occasion of the breakup of my fifteen year marriage, which came out of nowhere. I have been moving since July 27, now it is August 11 and after tomorrow I will have no further opportunity to move, as my landlady is already throwing stuff out of the old place. She dumped my crockpot and I barely saved a whole spindle of radio programs from the boot of her fancy hatchback.

On Wednesday, I came home to find my computer non-operable. I took it into my computer guru who pronounced it and its hard drives dead for good. Five years of work - gone. All of my programs - gone. I can retrieve some of the programs from discs, although right now isn't the best time to be looking for them; a goodly part of my record collection is sitting out on the patio and were supposed to be hit by some small monsoon tomorrow. [voice of Batman straining against being doped] Have to...empty boxes of records...to make room for... more records in that room...can't stop now, must keep fighting it..."

I had a dream about Dan Rather reporting about a means of mass murder used in a totalitarian regime: it is a deep wedge shaped pit of which the inside is constantly vibrating and there are strong, hurricane force winds. Inside, constantly spinning and banging around, is a giant, sticky mucus colored ball that is the remains of humans who are thrown down there, all adhered together along with their clothes into this massive sticky ball. And indeed, that's a good metaphor - I feel stuck helplessly to a giant ball of snot, spinning around as centrifugal forces are tearing me apart...

Uncle Dave Lewis