윤

Son and I began a rewatch of the series, now that he’s more familiar with the retro music cues, maybe to combat Teen Titans Go! fatigue, and I can’t help but notice the similar theme of outrageous escalation, further heightened because of its comparatively “regular” origins. In fact, I’m reminded of my own forays into fantasizing about escaping from uneventful times, my only scans of which I’ve collected here (and implore owners of any existing hard copies to contribute):

• “The Amazing Zit”
• “Morning Run”
• “The Videogame Conspiracy” Part II

“Have you been in Five Guys, Callum?”
“Oh, at least.”
I suppose it is funnier that way, so I’ll give [Inside No. 9 writers Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton] a pass, as clever as their writing usually is. Plus, the use of the River Styx mythology in [latest series opener] “Merrily, Merrily” reminded me how each go on the rower could be my last. I had always imagined achieving a threshold S/M to cross over into dream-life, but maybe it’s more like the Flash outrunning the Black Racer. What happens when Charon can’t pay me? One thing’s for sure, if I can’t cough up the fare, it might very well be because Five Guys cleaned me out. Over $20 for a single burger, small fries and a drink?!

Honestly superhero-saturation has gotten to me, too, but I’ll always appreciate any irreverence it explores, not unlike Lynchian disruption, which face it, has always come from the DC side, unconvincing pastiches aside. Why after all, wouldn’t gods be free to say “fuck” or vaunt their sexual prowess?

Speaking of DC characters with potty mouths (but at least don’t all sound the same as James Gunn), I had a dream I was seated next to Dianne Guerrero—I am unable to do more than that nowadays—whose hair was cut short, pixie-style. Our folding chairs were in a line and on my other side of me was a third wheel.

A mainstay in my 5-disc changer, the one into which I painstakingly keyed so many titles for it to display throughout the early 90’s. Talk about life’s labor lost, I wonder if its onboard memory preserved them, or like my 100% Super Metroid save, they’re all but digital ghosts in broken-down machines, the precarious memories of yet another who is himself fast approaching the same state.

…Until then, however, I’ll accelerate things by eating whatever the fuck I want, including supermarket deli lasagna and Oreo Cakesters, which take me back, too, perhaps not as far, but still to a time when there seemed more ahead than behind. Got me thinking how the Metaverse/San Junipero will recreate ancient treats like these in our minds, because I can’t recall re-experiencing them in dreams, maybe by hijacking the right areas of the brain and simulating the sensations? Could this be done in real-time, say, to disregard information your nerves are sending and fool you into thinking that your dinner smells and tastes like dessert? Might the discrepancy in the fake crunch of the delicious burnt pieces cause bite irregularities or would that be compensated for as well?

Where else would I turn to for my surrealism fix now that 구경이 has ended, most likely for good? There are more contemporary options, of course, but leave it to me to go back twenty years to a pre-Hallyu time before the Japanese community surrendered the LA OTA market. (I make no claim that developments in this petite niche represent any cultural significance whatsoever; it just so happened to intersect with my many small circles of attention when Sunday nights I began switching channels to 내 이름은 김삼순 and 환상의 커플.) Lynch certainly would’ve made short work of the audio, the episodic format is more in keeping with a cheaper ongoing series than the superior longer-form arc that Koreans sometimes manage without drawing out too much—i.e., I didn’t remember a single one of these stories—and man, was Koo as slick and smooth as its star’s perfect complexion, but I really enjoyed the distractions in the background during the interplay between the two leads and wonder if the later reunions established that one was a figment of the other’s imagination? Pity they played up 美人マジシャン Yukie Nakama’s 貧乳 but not her gorgeous profile:

Just when I thought I was out of weekly TV to watch with the end of Inspector Koo, they pull me back in with the next season! It’s a short one, unfortunately, but then again I’m grateful they don’t drag out the painful reign of the Belter egomaniac between the larger threat beyond the gates. There’s always something, right? I’m reminded of times when this nearest of futures was uncertain, but not only do the content providers always manage to come through, somehow, more miraculously, one of their committee-driven products gets me.Novels had a satisfying finish, thanks Libby! (I’m reminded of blowing through the Ice and Fire books on the Kindle, but the OLED screen’s a vast improvement, as fond are my memories of that device. The service-free unlimited Internet was not long for this world.) Looking back at them I can see the story arcs comprising the narrative of a game it was originally intended, with the player as Holden. An MMO might have had to delve into the 30-year gap or extend the war between universes, but that ending was straight outta Final Fantasy, tentacles and all.

“I can’t sit in traffic. I’m—I’m too smart. I’m not like these people. You have to have done something stupid to be in traffic. I don’t belong here.” With every season and three or four years that passes, the laughs come fewer and further between, more forced and familiar as ever, but there’s an occasional banger from him even at this advanced age. It’s nowhere near one of his most original or insightful grievances, and he did just admit being responsible for his very own predicament, though of course what sets Larry apart from the rest of us who might have the same thought is that he can so easily extricate himself from it (keywords in this week’s Doctor Who were “quantum extraction”), walk the fuck away and not give any, he’s got the money, fallout with a half-life of only an episode, and above all, the willingness to do so without compunction.

Only because it happened the weekend I was on a red-eye for the job I since quit must I have missed the news and maybe a memorial seed of Tricks of the Trade, though all I’m seeing is a porno with that very title released the same year.