Distant Thunder

Strange percussive events, takes me a while to remember fireworks. Bullshit dreams of freedom, say the wrong thing at the post office and end up in prison. I take the fourth with a grain of salt, still, took part of the day off and read a book about fresco painting. Realized that a problem at the museum, a peculiar bubbling on some plaster surfaces, was out-gassing from un-slaked lime, a really slow process that can take decades to be noticeable. Failure can be a spectacular event, like a bridge falling, or slow, like a fresco failing. I think about that, having a second breakfast for a midnight snack. Duchamp said that only one thing in art is valid --- that which cannot be explained, Which is almost true. Artists are often hoist by their own petard. I'm reasonably gregarious, a decent docent, but stupidity is not my field and I often walk away from conversations. I left a table in Boston where three certified geniuses were tooting their horns, I was just there because we were doing a show and they needed technical support. I tend to be "technical support" because my ego is somewhere else, off to the side, out of the frame; I don't care, really, can look at things as they occur and not feel that I'm responsible. Nothing is what it seems allows me freedom. Rain all morning, pee, drink juice, go back to bed, listen to NPR, finally get up, fix breakfast again, what passes for cleaning house, put a few books away, reading passages as I go. A day like this, I listen to the radio, read, talk to myself, consider life. Samara calls to complain I haven't called Rhea who was involved in a car accident, she's fine, but Marilyn flew down to Arizona to get her. Here's the thing, of course Rhea's number is a cell-phone, but I still think in terms of land-lines, and thought I had to wait until she was back home. Duh. In my defense, I don't have one, so I don't think that way. New fat figures today, Mississippi still number one, Ohio is ten, I'll look up the list tomorrow, see where Mass and Colorado fall. This Mountain Top Coal Removal debate is bullshit, I have to turn off the radio, the coal barons are ruthless bastards and should be shot. They have this Republican Conservative Advertising going for them, they're good at that, but they are wrong and actually bad. When I turned the radio back on there was a slice of Bach, he always sneaks up, you realize he's controlling the pace. First this then that.