Subway sect (Dream)

The other night I dreamt of being lost on the subway in New York City, a place I haven’t visited since early 2005. In the dream, I was surprised to learn that the 1-9, which I used to ride waaay uptown to the apartment my brother shared with his girlfriend (who is no longer his girlfriend, actually. Her last name had the word Music in it, isn’t that awesome?), no longer connected north & south Manhattan. I was gonna have to change trains a billion times to reach my destination. I remember that it was wintertime, everyone was all bundled up, & thinking “How does Courtney do it, manage to get around?” bc the new subway map looked so confusing & complicated, @ least 2 me. I was wearing The Dress of Disgrace @ the time.

As far as I can recall, I’ve never been lost on the NYC Subway. But I have on the Paris Métro. Very unhappy times. I had absolutely no idea where I was, not just geographically speaking : P Like I totally know now, ha. Anyways, it was also probably a kinda dangerous situation, but of course you don’t consider such things until later. I was crying, everything was spinning (Anoche me acosté y todo daba vueltas menos mi corazón, says a friend’s screen name. Last night I went to bed & everything was spinning except my heart. LOLz. He’s 15, ok, STFU. He's also like a TOTAL ~st0ne fox~, I fell head over heels when I saw him, I couldn't wipe the Cheshire Cat Grin off my face. So I corrected the spelling mistakes in his screen name) but somehow I texted Eugenia, who luckily managed to guide me back to hers.

“Lost in a Paris nightclub”, Kahimi Karie. Hm…Don’t think so. But I did get kind of lost on the way to Le Paris Paris. Rather, I...lost the club. Couldn’t find it. I knew the street (Ave de L'Opéra) & which corner it was supposed to be (across from a bank?) on but...it just wasn’t there dude, I’m srs. I thought “What if it’s like those places that only show up @ certain times & 4 certain ppl?” Like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter or the bookstore in The Neverending Story. I went once with Eugenia & Baptiste, one of my best nights in Paris. After having wine with Andrés near République. I missed that night for the rest of my trip. Anyways the girl guarding the bathroom @ Paris Paris was soOoO pretty, I was like SALUT TU EST TRÈS JOLIE (I said this 4real). She had blood red lipstick, it was LOVE. Then I tried to go again with Yael but we couldn't find it so we went to Le Marais, & this couple of lesbians came & asked us if we were lesbians. Also I tried to go alone one night but I couldn't find it either. So I got on the vélib (public transport bicycle) & rode back to home (Quai de la Loire), wasted, losing a scarf with ~deep sentimental value~ in the process. DOUBLE FAIL. I came to the conclusion that the club isn’t open every weekend when summer is approaching & I hope I’m right bc otherwise it means I am a gigantic retard.

“Lost in the supermarket”, The Clash.
I think of it every time it’s my turn to do the groceries. It reminds me of Nyssa as well bc she liked. & I texted it to Andrew one time he was @ the store while I waited for him at the St Paul métro. Condensed milk in a tube plz.

“Lost in the K-Hole”, the Chemical Brothers.
I had no idea K-hole actually meant something & was not Chemical Babble, but Whitney recently enlightened me: Ketamine hole, “but a k-hole can be anytime you are tragically stuck & cannot quite get out...” DUDE, I KNOW ALL ABOUT THOSE LAST ONEZ. But I’m not in a K-hole right now…nope… : ) Chemical Bros to me is Marcia bc I went to the concert with her (tragic experience, 4 another post), Dandy, 2005, Fernando Peña (this has an explanation), my radio class with JPT...

Richey Edwards (yes, I can find a way to mention him in EVERY POST) liked a band called Subway sect, especially the song “Nobody’s scared”. & now I gotta go get my sins absolved...

Synapse to synapse (How my mind works, Green & umbrellas)

Sometimes I think my mind (perception?) works like the Internet, maybe. Is it the same for everyone? I don’t remember it always being like this. It jumps from one idea to the next, often I can barely keep up. From one related concept to another. Like… stream of consciousness, free association or I dunno what. The ideas just branch out infinitely, like that Chemical Brothers video, you know, “Let Forever Be”? @ some point this became my reality. I just almost always associate things, involuntarily & immediately. Usually words, lyrics, images, things I’ve heard/read. Stuff ppl have said (well-known ppl or just ppl III know). My memory’s good, which helps.



The other day I went to this place ppl call Plaza Borges with my friend Martin. It was really green. So right away I thought
- “Green”, the Dandy Warhols
- “Green machine”, Apples in Stereo
- “For Reverend Green”, Animal Collective
- "A certain shade of green", Incubus etc etc etc...

Green is my friend Sofi’s fav color, I remembered. & in 1st year of Uni, we had to make a collage describing ourselves. She had cut out the words MUNDO VERDE (green world) & put them near the center of hers. I’m pretty sure there were also jungle leaves & a photo of Charly Garcia (maybe el Flaco Spinetta too?) but I could be wrong about that. Nyssa liked green too, but yellow better.

Green was my House @ school. See, @ my school here (a private, Catholic, all-girls) in Buenos Aires, the English department divided students into Houses, like I guess the private schools do in England. In Harry Potter, Hogwarts has got Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw & Hufflepuff. We had the Green, Blue, Red & Yellow Houses. Each had a patron saint. Blue: St Thomas More, Green: St Bede (who the hell?). Don't remember the others.

I enjoyed being in Green House as I always favored the color, still do in fact. My most comfortable pair of Chuck Taylors are green, FYI. I’ll think of my House mates such as Lucy A & Ceci D, both of whom I still really care about. Blue was pretty nerdy, IMO. I think the best grades ("top marks") usually went to Blue or Green. Cali was in Yellow. No offense but as far as I remember, Yellow tended to be fairly mediocre…am I wrong?

All this came up bc today the internet said Paco was listening to “Son of Mr Green Genes” by Frank Zappa. The next track was “Little Umbrellas”. Right away this orchestral-sounding line played in my head

♫ Just when I thought that my vista was golden in hue

one thousand umbrellas opened to spoil the view ♫

It's from one of my fav songs off Skylarking by XTC, recommended by Romo in 2006. The others are “Ballet for a rainy day” (which reminds me of ppl who paint -Pool, Consu L, Daniel Dubois, Kata, etc- bc it has this line: I push my paintbrush to conjure a new world as this one is slowly washed away) & “The man who sailed around his soul”.

See what I mean? But there was also

- “Preparen sus paraguas”, Fantasmagoria from the Clearence EP, which possibly my VERY fav song by them (”La Laguna”) is off
- “Under my umbrella”, Incubus...BEFORE Rhianna's! One of the last tracks from the album “Morning view”, the last album of theirs I really loved.
- Well of course the Rhianna song, although I h8 it. EHH EHHH…NO THX. Not even after the Manic Street Preachers covered it. I do recall NRS had the chorus line as her MSN name though. Only I remember these things, right?

So, it’s mostly got to do with music. But not exclusively. I also thought of how Jime P (schoolmate) had an umbrella with Tweety Bird (Looney Tunes) wearing a raincoat on the handle. "Mary Poppins", "Singin in the rain" (one of my fav movies), Gene Kelly "walking down the lane with a happy refrain", the girl from the salt I grew up eating in the States...



...how Laurita forgot her umbrella the night of that party on Altolaguirre (what a night that was...in my life, anyways), how I forgot my umbrella @ Lucinda's bday last year, the same night I met someone who didn't know who "Rock the casbah" was by (I couldn't believe it either).

If I hear something about the subway I’ll think things like “Subterranean homesick alien” by Radiohead or “Subterranean homesick blues” by Bob Dylan. When riding the Deutschebahn across Germany I thought “Train in vain” by The Clash & “Strangers on a train” by Lovage, although I knew there was a film of the same title. I haven’t seen, although Tute mentioned it when we talked a lot. I did seen “Stranger than Paradise”, the Jim Jarmusch movie, though. Richie had recommended that one. Esteban really likes Jim Jarmusch. & I saw a photo of Sol S with him (JJ) once. & so on…& so on…& so on.