9.26.2025 - Weekly Digest
9.23.2025
I'm deep in REM, there's some kind of drama going on where there are all these Supreme Court justices running around and it's my job to get to know them for some reason, only most of them are new and they have fully formed personalities and backgrounds and this requires a lot of work, especially tolerating the older white guy who wears a vest all the time like one of these tech bros you see around, when in this world there's a loud slap against the siding and I'm jolted awake and the fan is wobbling on the windowsill and it's a lot to piece together, what with where I just was and all, this is a whole set of problems altogether different, and I come to the ready conclusion that an animal, possibly the hawk I saw perched on a neighbor's fence on Monticello, must have smacked into the window with enough force to make the fan wobble like that, wobble for a full thirty seconds, I guess, and now I'm fully awake but not quite with it and I'm thinking I should take precautions, make sure there isn't an animal under the bed or something worse, having watched Close Encounters recently, I'd rather not have to deal with toys and appliances turning on of their own accord, and in the morning when I see the hook on the door to the other room where I've stashed all the stuff I don't want to deal with has come undone I'm thinking okay well there's definitely an intruder in the house and I should arm myself with something before I investigate but before I prepare to battle a stranger I have the presence of mind to check the news and there was a 4.8 just east of Berkley at 3 a.m. and that's the story of how I experienced my first temblor.
9.24.2025
Is this the warehouse that burned down? No but it's full of ghosts anyway. Here we have an open space but you have to reserve it. It's empty. That's correct. You'll need to sign up for an app and you'll use that to open the doors. All the doors? All the doors. You can see the fire and smoke damage on the corrugated tin from the fire at the illegal club that killed all those people. Oh no those are intentional design markers. Up here is the roof where I spend all my lunches. I see why. Is it raining? Only a little. It's cold out here. Look I'm from Michigan this isn't cold. Of course, she says. This is a memorial, this monument in the middle of the building, a column of light that extends up through the upper stories and where the names of the victims of the fire that did not happen are recorded. So there's no way to rent a monthly membership, I'm seeing here. You can rent one of our closed office spaces. What is the open space for? Mourning, vigils, dedications, mostly. Collective expressions of grief. It's a helluva thing not to be able to get over a thing that never happened. I couldn't agree more. You look like you have more to say. We should get a drink sometime. I wasn't expecting that. Forgive me I'm not myself these days.
9.25.2025
If a superhero were real, say Spider-Man, the economic and social consequences would outweigh the benefits, says a guy I'm thinking about, a Cliff Claven type, only this is on a bus, and I can see this guy clearly and in my imagination he looks exactly like James Brown. Think about it, he says, he comes in, starts cleaning up crime, every day he's in the headlines and on your phone, and what happens? The tourists show up, and the gentrifiers, and whole new demographics come in, the ones who can afford to move to these new crime-free neighborhoods and even worse you have the folks who follow him around with cameras, and the cottage industry around all of it, the way any big personality can become a cult figure for marketing purposes nowadays, and even if you don't have as many, say, group muggings in broad delight and supervillains starting chain reaction explosions and poisoning the water supply as you used to have, sooner or later you start missing the old days, and the cleaner things get the less you trust it, and then you have to move out of your old apartment or your house cuz things got too expensive, and maybe you even start your own crime ring, either to keep up with costs or just out of boredom, and now the super-guy starts showing up in your new neighborhood and the whole cycle starts all over again. You think about that, he says, and I promise I will.
9.26.2025
Assessment Day. What's different between this picture and that picture? The guy on the raft in the second picture is having a crisis. You can't tell from the look on his face but he's going to have a lot to answer for when the tide comes in. Otherwise the images are identical. Unsatisfactory. Next test: can you find the DMV in the shopping mall? Not easily. Malls overstimulate me and make me want to steal fantasy novels but this one doesn't have a bookstore. I brought all my documents with me. Congratulations have a seat. Next to the screaming infant? Is this the test? They're just questions, Leon. Now go over to that terminal and take the driver knowledge exam. How often is it acceptable to leave a child or a pet in a hot car? This one's definitely a trick. Do they have something to read? How fast should you drive when going the wrong way down a one way? True or false fleeing the scene of an accident while being pursued by law enforcement is the best time to turn on your fog lights. Okay I think I passed. Stand on the feet and smile.