Peg Life Vol. 7

Last night I wrote what I thought would be Peg Life Vol. 7 in a state of theoretical sobriety. I hadn't drunk nor smoked (nor injected, inserted, insufflated or otherwise ingested) anything but I wasn't necessarily in a usual state of mind. Then again, what's a usual state of mind. *Irrelevant, that's what. Get back on track.* Right, so it ended up being really personal and confessional and when I thought about it in light of everyone I was sending it to I changed my mind and didn't. Then I'm browsing around the Wikipedia website today and I come across the Wikiquote page so I decide to peruse some quotes from literature. I click on a link for Atlas Shrugged and the third quote from the top is "It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener." This got me thinking, not about how the other version of this email could/would have been embarassing (embarassing confessions are different from embarassing opinions), but about something I got into briefly in that other version. That is, the nature of the audience. *Ooh, he's talking about the NATURE of something. Doesn't THAT sound deep and meaningful. Prepare to reexamine your entire concept of an audience. Let's hear it.* Fuck off. Well now I've got performance anxiety. I can't write about this topic. My philosophical hard on is withering. I also brought up not being able to do anything about the beginning or end of life and how it was just a really long middle. It was only slightly more clever than the way I just described it. Today I listened to William Shatner's 1968 album The Transformed Man. It was one of the most bewildering things I've ever heard. It consists of him reading Shakespearean excerpts and popular music from the sixties accompanied by musical arrangements that sound the score of a Star Trek episode. I'm not sure if I can actually recommend seeking it out, but if you do, his rendition of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds will either make you laugh your ass off or want to burn Shatner at the stake for blasphemy. If there is anything to be taken from the album it is gratitude that you've never seen William Shatner actually portray King Henry V, Romeo, or Hamlet. In fact, as a person who sees value in the potential of mystical experiences, I dare say the title track goes so far as to offend me. But I won't give Bill a hard time about it. He's had to endure so many nerds that I think he's suffered enough. Plus, that was almost forty years ago. He's gone on to do bigger and better things. Like Star Trek V. Rescue 911. TekWar. The children have to learn about TekWar sooner or later. That's it. I'm done. I have to sleep.

Tony Hawkins formed formica for me.