So everyone has their own distinct associations between certain sensory impressions and moments and places in their life. The sense impressions are always involuntary and lying somewhere between the conscious and subconscious. For example:
When I hear Joanna Newsom, I immediately think of riding the T to my clinical and being cold and exhausted on the subway.
When I smell guava, I get sharply jerked back to being in my apartment in Bangalore with the French girl who was too scared to eat anything but fruit.
When I smell coconut oil, I am immediately overcome with the presence of AIDS. (When I massaged patients in the afternoons, I used coconut oil.) (oh, and uh...Think of AIDS today, it's World AIDS Day. You don't get a legitimate AIDS Post from me.)
When I hear "What's Simple is True" by Jewel, I am back with Ashley Kolaya my first girlfriend in high school in the winter time in Christmas in 1998.
When I hear Staralfur by Sigur Ros, I'm back in my bedroom in Durham, sitting next to Jon Ross witnessing absurdities compiling absurdities and spiraling into conflicting contradictory...you get the picture.
...And now...today, I noticed that the new (but very strange choice of) air freshener in all of the public toilets in Harvard...an unmistakable, very real smell...of freshly baking chocolate cookies.
Gross. Whichever direction this association runs is not good.
12 comments:
Wow. A post that runs the gamut from pretentious to the absurd. On a more relevant note to real world happenings than the cookie dough air freshener in the Harvard men's room (ours smells like stale urine, in case you didn't remember) what do you think of Mike Huckabee? You are good at poking holes in my irrational exuberance, and I have a man crush on Huck. (Caveat: the use of "man crush" and "poking" in no way implies any endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans.) Oh my god, I just realized I value your opinion on something. Damn.
RS
No one could see your nickname choice. Nice. Though I can see it in my email account. Nicer, albeit totally bizarre.
1) Wash U bathrooms smells like stale urine because it seems like everyone just pees directly on the floor. Something about the air and food in st. louis that just diverts the urethra I guess.
2) I considered Huck's campaign a non-starter, so I didn't bone up on him the way you did. (The use of the phrase "bone up" was to imply that you are, in fact, gay.) All I know is that he's the conservative's conservative, unless you count Fred Thompson, who doesn't appera to count for anything except forced rounds of applause.
Personally, I like (but don't support) Ron Paul. (and yes, he's at least partially batshit crazy.) I'm going to contribute to his campaign sometime soon, just as soon as exams end. I had started writing a long post about him, but then stopped and got bored.
What are Huck's numbers at? Just off the top of my head, he has to be at least 5th in line...
On a quick note, and before I head to bed, finals dontcha know, Huckabee is currently a few points behind (or leading in a few polls), Romney in Iowa, and gaining ground in New Hampshire. Ron Paul isn't partially batshit, he is really insane. I think that Huck has a great chance of beating Hillary. I like where he stands on the issues. And he is endorsed by Chuck Norris. The last counting higher in my book than anything. (BTW - the use of the word "dontcha" does not imply an endorsement of Canada)
And my nickname is better than "Jolly Roger", my nickname on Raidertake.com. Which wasn't my choice, it was given to me. The Raiders are pirates, so it fits I guess. And I use Boanērges because it refers to the impetious exuberence of youth. Also, I'm too tired to check if impetious is spelled correctly.
RS
I have to admit the Chuck Norris commercial is up there as one of the best campaign commercials I have ever seen. Although I am startled by how unconventional it was...that is, for a political commercial.
I generally don't pay much attention to political coverage these days because it disgusts me despite my general engagement with policy issues. Blech. I saw Huckabee play bass. And if you play bass, and you are not flea, victor wooten, or a jazz bassist, you are the one not getting laid.
And Huck's got sorta walleyes or a lazy eye. And that's enough to lose my vote.
Chuck Norris + he wants to get rid of the IRS. Fanfriggintastic. Now Bed.
RS
P.S. Huck is a preacher. He doesn't want to get laid. Whats your excuse?
P.P.S. Jazz Bassists get laid? By whom?
Whenever I eat tzong-zi, I think of your mom.
the post gives a new meaning to glass bead game.
j
J,
I understand the reference, but I don't get how it is applicable. Can you explain it to my psuedo-intellectual self so that I can steal it and use it to pick up chicks.
RS
i think i have a worse one:
white cheddar cheese-its = dissecting opossum
Gross. But that just leads to the question of how/why/wtf were you eating cheez-its while dissecting a fairly large hairy animal, presumably reeking of formaldehyde?
I mean, even logistically...
well, a very small hairy animal, the grey short-tailed opossum, not the big ones we have here. and the answer is in your question: formaldehyde gives you the munchies. when inhaled off an opossum in the basement of the biosci building, and you don't care about public decorum, you get said snack from the closest vending machine and eat while dissecting. yes, i know. but it was a 3 hour lab right before dinner time.
You haven't answered logistics.
You dissect with gloves? With two hands? One? How does the cheez-it make it into your mouth? Directly from the bag?
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