Wed, Oct 17, 2001 11:17AM -0600

(And all of the sudden, that song by the Fixx enters my head. Am I the only one this happens to? Some random phrase almost always manages to trigger the memory of a song....)

So it was 2:30 AM. A classic tale. Some bastard M1As decided to have a party in honor of finishing their exams. Nellie's "Ride Wit Me" was blaring through the floors and the walls, the bass making everything tremble. Meanwhile, I was trying to get some sleep, and trying not to freak out about today's Microbiology Final (we will not speak of that matter ever again....) But actually running up there half-naked and pulling the plug was beyond my physical means at that moment. (I wish I had my brother's katana. That could've been very effective.) Instead, I think it took me 15 minutes to flip over in my bed (as I had awoken face down).

I pondered my options. Being the passive-aggressive wuss that I am, confrontation did not seem very palatable. Besides, it seemed like someone had beaten me to it. An exchange of "Fuck you"'s ensued, and I driften in and out of consciousness, hoping that silence would prevail. Alas, I was sorely disappointed.

By 3:30 AM, I had to take matters into my own hands. 150 mg of Valerian Root extract and 6 mg of melatonin were not doing the trick. So I popped in "OK Computer," pumped up the volume to match their noise, and cheered up when "Airbag" successfully masked even the bass. I drifted back into Dreamland listening to the lilting melodies of "Paranoid Android." Ah music. Potent stuff.

- * -

With Radiohead drifting in my mind, this morning I decided to leaf through the "Kid A" booklet that I had bought at the Tower Records in Trump Plaza in New York this past July. I was kind of shocked to read the following on the back cover (maybe I'll scan it in someday....):

WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO CARRY OUT WHAT HAS BEEN THREATENED
THIS IS NOT OVER UNTIL ABSOLUTE UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER
AND COMPLETE MEETING OF ALL DEMANDS
THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER WARNING WHATSOEVER
AIRSTRIKES ARE IMMINENT

Almost looks like a transcript of one of Dubya's speeches. Fact and fiction. The wonderful pattern-matching capabilities of the brain.

Which leads back to "Idioteque." The lyrics are all-of-the-sudden quite eerie.

We're not scare-mongering, this is really happening, happening
We're not scare-mongering, this is really happening, happening
Mobiles skwrking, mobiles chirping
Take the money run, take the money run, take the money

War. And media distortion. And Big Brother being birthed in Congress and Senate as we speak, born of John Ashcroft's loins. And war profiteers (time to invest in Bayer, the makers of Cipro. I think it's very disturbing that the media makes no mention of the fact that penicillin is quite useful against anthrax. I wonder if it's because penicillin is dirt cheap, unpatented, and therefore won't make the pharamaceutical companies any money, while Cipro and other fluoroquinolones are insanely expensive. Take the money and run, indeed.) It's all there. Scary shit.

Which is an even better reason to think worry about nothing but the present.