07.05.2014> Hello Internet. 1^st post writing from DreamWeaver Creative Cloud (a.k.a. CS∞) ... + our new spanking MacBook. Our «old» (8 years old—which by today's standards is perhaps a relic) laptop completely croaked in Chicago. Good thing it died now + not over the summer while we was in the UK. Managed to salvage everything + sync the new machine up w/ our existing profile ... more or less seamless xcept when we went to axess our Adobe products (which is pretty much where we spend the majority of our time ... InDesign, PhotoShop, DreamWeaver + Bridge) we got various weird cryptic errors + couldn't axess anything.

About a year ago Adobe decided rather than release the next generation CS7 line of products, they would just go to a "Creative Cloud" subscription model where u pay a monthly fee ... regardless what u think of that (we think it's pretty evil) we're fucked ... don't have a choice. We have so much invested in Adobe there's no going back + we have such a hodge-podge of various versions (some illegally downloaded) ... + we can't use BitTorrentz now in the Columbia network, so we drank the CCloudy Kool-aid ... all fine + dandy in theory, but had all these fucking issues even tho this is a new machine w/ the latest + greatest everything. So spent 2 hours on the phone w/ some tech support guy while he drove my machine remotely ... + it seemed like he was driving drunk as there was a sort of lag so ½ the time he would have to ask me to type out commands for him ... + of course he had a heavy Indian accent + we couldn't understand ½ of what he was saying. Always kind of creepy when someone is driving your machine remotely ... even while we was on my other machine waiting for him to do what he had to do (basically login as administrator + change all my rights + privileges so we could install the damn software) we felt like he could see what we were doing, on our other machine, or for that matter into our apartment.

always under surveillance (DC)

Obviously we eventually got up + running as here we are ... on DreamWeaver anyway. Have to make sure InDesign works as that's probly how we'll be spending our summer. Guess the Creative Cloud u can axess what u was working on from other machenes ... tho don't really see how this is any different than using DropBox.

Went to bed thinking about Calypso (the nymph that detains Odysseus on her island) + dreamt that some naked woman (Calypso) was holding a phone over her thrusted-out crotch ... + she was holding the phallicky receiver out to us ... tho we were watching ourself in 3^rd person + it was more like we were our brother ... Chaulky. It was 1 of those old rotary phones + it had one of those locking plugs on the 1 slot so u couldn't dial around to any other numbers (anyone old enough to member those? ... all the phones in Mexico (in the 70s + 80s) used to have them ... guess people were paranoid that people would sneak over + make long distance calls). If we wanted to phone home we had to use Calypso's phone ... she made some comment like «sorry it's not touch-tone».

rotary phone w/ lock not unlike the 1 we had

Probly seems way primitive + skeuomorphic to kids these days ... but that's how we rolled then w/out trying. And now we have guys poking around on our desktop from all the way in India ...

Not that remote desktop access is anything new ... our most memorable experience w/ it was when we worked at Napster + were helping a customer in some other part of the country (yes, they made us do that a few times to 'get to know the customer') + we was on their desktop troubleshooting shit when she asks «do you smell that? Something's burning!» Sorry ma'am, that's 1 thing we can't do is smell what's going on in your house. Maybe 1 day ...

J is still in Nepal ... today she is in Bhaktapur (on a field visit), which is fate because that's the 1 place that last year she didn't get to go to but we went by myself, w/ a perverted Brahmin guide that kept pointing out all the phallus + vaginal symbolism.

09.04.2014 > Foggy. Can barely see across the river, let alone the river itself. Saw Liars last night. Even more amazing then this same time last year. Here's a clip someone else grabbed + we got caught in the crossfire of photographers (almost got into a fight w/ 1 of them) + made BrooklynVegan, tho now we can't find it.

«Genius is the ability to leave entirely out of sight our own interest, our willing, and our aims, and consequently to discard entirely our own personality for a time, in order to remain pure knowing subject, the clear eye of the world; and this not merely for moments, but with the necessary continuity and conscious thought to enable us to repeat by deliberate art what has been apprehended and "what in wavering apparition gleams fix in its place with thoughts that stand for ever!"»― Arthur Schopenhauer

12.04/2014 > J came back from Nepal but then had to turn right around + go to DC + figured we'd go w/ her since we're hardly seeing her this month. It was national train day too, so figured a train ride was in order. Didn't bring my laptop cuz figured it'd be good to have a break from computers. In transferring our footprint strait over from our iMac to our new Macbook what we forgot about was our automatic backup (w/BackBlaze) ... seems they were competing over which machene should be the master 1 backing up + BackBlaze just freaked out + froze up so now we got to start over from scratch + back up everything (all 175 GB worth) all over again. So for the time being, this laptop was also our backup.

somewhere along the way in New Jersey (undoctored—not sure what the paint is all about)

Started to read Cane by Jean Toomer ... we can appreciate Cane given it's context (that it was written by an African-American (or mixed race, if he even qualifies for that ... guess it's sort of debatable) writer in the 20s) ... for the time it was probly fairly experimental + radical + has some good language in it, fore xample:

«From down the railroad track, the chug-chug of a gas engine announces the repair gang is coming home. A girl in the yard of a whitewashed shack not much larger than the stack of worn ties piled before it, sings. Her voice is loud. Echoes, like rain, sweeps the valley. Dusk takes the polish from the rails. Lights twinkle in scattered houses. From far away, a sad strong song. Pungent and composite, the smell of farmyards is the fragrance of woman. She does not sing; her body is a song. She is in the forest, dancing. Torches flare ... juju men, greegree, witchdoctors ... torches go out ... The Dixie Pike has grown from a goat path in Africa.
Night.
Foxie, the bitch, slicks back her ears and barks at the rising moon.)

Wind is in the cane. Come along.
Canes leaves swaying, rusty with talk,
Scratching the choruses above the guineas' squawk,
Wind is in the cane. Come along.»

... but as a whole, in this day + age, couldn't get into it or at least relate much.

Also started to read The Words by Jean-Paul Sartre, but abandoned it after 50 pages or so (it's his autobiography + not sure his life is as interesting as his ideas).

And on the train read Rules of the Bone by Russell Banks ... we was a bit more into it + read ½ at least + skimmed the rest ... delinquent coming of age hijinx that at times reminded me of The History of Luminous Motion or Deep Ellum.

Stayed in Dupont circle/Adams Morgan area, which seems to be where we stayed last time we were in DC. Coming from NYC, everything pretty sterile + cookie-cutter as ever, lots of roads + lawns, guys w/ khaki shorts + tucked-in shirts + ladies that look like the shop at Anne Taylor. Doesn't even seem like a city really.

1 of many bureaucratic looking buildings (think this 1 was WHO)

Walked around 1 day while j was in meetings ... down thru Foggy Bottom, past Watergate, to the Potomac, all the usual monumental stuff on the mall. Went to a bunch of Smithsonian museums ... at the African Art Museum there was a exhibit of Roger Ballen (an American actually, who moved to South Africa in the 70s ... famous for directing the insane 'I Fink U Freeky' video by Die Antwoord + perhaps largely responsible for their zef aesthetic. Good stuff.

The Hirshhorn had a "destruction" exhibit featuring some interesting stuff by Christian MarClay (Guitar Drag), Ai Weiwei, Rauschenberg, Warhol + Yoko Ono (Cut Piece). DC's Natural History museum blows. The Natl galleries a nice place to stroll thru. Ate a burrito on the mall. Walked around some more, met back up w/ j + then caught the train back + now busy stuffing envelopes (for both The Blast + The Luminol Reels ... anyone wanting ARCs let us know) ...

Hirshhorn