the old-school guestbook archives
my amazon wish list... my favorite astrologer... my favorite artist... yerba mate revolution! erowid: a travel guide for interior journeys... no more war: MoveOn.org United for Peace and Justice True Majority seek the truth: Common Dreams Unamerican Activities The Nation people I adore, diaries I read: rev.raikes ariana cubiclegirl epiphany glitter333 laurakay wammo the music: the asylum street spankers backyard tire fire blue highway bill camplin wendy colonna freedom tribe joules graves guy forsyth band hamsa lila hanuman libby kirkpatrick leftover salmon pamela means medeski martin & wood the motet the nice outfit nickel creek open road rose polenzani railroad earth south austin jug band string cheese incident taarka tha musemeant the devil makes three tim o'brien band trolley wild sage keller williams yonder mountain string band |
the devil's game ~ February 01, 2002 - 1:30 a.m. how about we not talk about my relationship today, okay? let's talk about tetris. I'm convinced that tetris is some kind of secret mind-control experiment. I have been for years, ever since I got hooked on it in college. there was a handful of video games outside the cafeteria, in a glass-walled room called "the fishbowl", 'cause from the outside that's what it looked like, except full of people instead of fish. there was an ongoing controversy about whether or not video games belonged in the fishbowl. just because. antioch is a hippie-beatnik-punk-rock-freak-queer-revolutionary college, and people wouldn't know what to do if there wasn't something to fight about. last time I stopped through there, there was only one video game left in the fishbowl. but when I went to school there, there was a good half-dozen, including a couple of pinball machines. one of the pinball machines was the twilight zone machine, because rod serling went to antioch. I was hooked on that for a while. but then I discovered tetris. I would hit the video games at about three in the morning, unable to sleep and needing some mindless entertainment to quiet down my brain. it got to where I could easily spend five or six bucks on tetris in a sitting. there's something almost sexual about the pleasure you get from fitting those little shapes together. and that music... da-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-da-da-da-DA-DA-DA-DA-da-da-dum... I can still hear it in my head. and back then, when I was playing it a lot, I heard it in my head a LOT. just glancing at the machine was enough to ensure that that tinny little tune would be with me for the rest of the day. and after my 3 a.m. adventures, I'd finally run out of quarters and take myself off to bed, and I would lie there with that music amplified against the inside of my eardrums. I'd see the little shapes dropping down against the backs of my eyelids. no lie. it's a little scary. I lost interest in tetris after college. I could pass by it in an arcade without even wanting a game. and then. just a little while ago, I discovered that ozone's laptop, the one I connect to the internet with, has a pretty decent tetris game on it. it's a little different from the arcade version, the russian soldiers don't come out to dance, and there's no music. you can change the background if you want. but there's still that crack-pipe compulsion to play game after game. I try to limit myself to three a night. maybe four if the third game goes badly. I go to bed with the shapes still wizzing past my eyes, and I wonder what new and interesting mind-control channels are being carved in my brain. at least there's no music.
(((rings))) |