082305

                                                                                                             Santa Fe, NM

Saturday August 23, 2005

     7:36am  I woke up around, I don't know, six forty five or so. I think that dude who sleeps here too, I think his name is Brandon. That punk girl he usually sleeps with, I think they broke up, he said. I've had a good morning. I'm all stoned. I'm going to pack up my shit now.

     8:03am  I finally finished packing up all my shit and I'm all loaded up. I'm taking my time.

     8:29am  That sucks, I walked all the way to the Salvation Army and it's closed. I should call this girl about my ride to Denver.

                    I don't know. I kind of want to stay in Santa Fe.

     8:57am  I am talking to Monique in the plaza. What's your email, Monique? moniquetyndll@yahoo.com

                   I am leaving the plaza. I'm going to try to go to Walmat. Oh yeah, and Villa Linda Mall too. I'll go get hooked up at Cici's again, like last year(6-29-03, 5:47pm) and the year before(7-27-04, 2:30pm). I need to go buy some supplies. I want to buy a new pack of socks, so I don't have to wash the ones I have and I can throw them away.

     10:39am  Not only did Crystal who's working at the parking lot right next to the bus stop listen to my whole odyssey, she gave me some screaming sour candy.

                     I was taking off walking from Crystal, and it just occurred to me to ask her for a cigarette. She gave me four 72's. I appreciate it, Crystal.
                    
     10:50am  Ray driving route two is hooking me up with a courtesy ride. Even a transfer. I appreciate it, brother. Whoa, it's a whole daypass! Everybody gets credit, thanks.

                     He even told me, "Welcome to Santa Fe." He asked me what my name was again and I told him, "Victor Antonio from San Antonio. I am San Antonio." He was this Hispanic guy.

                     I really like it here.

     11:24am  I just got dropped off at the Walmart. That was a cool-ass bus driver. He gave me a daypass. I told him, "Thanks for mobilizing me." He called me Antonio.

     11:39am  I came to the Walmart and realized I didn't have enough money to buy all the things I wanted. I needed socks, CDs(They're fifteen here and twelve in Socorro.) and sleeves. Ahh, I've got a couple clean socks left. I also got a couple bucks back in change, so I'm going to go do my laundry so I don't have to buy socks. CDs are more mission-critical than socks.

                     Ok, I put all the CDs in sleeves and put them in my bag.

     11:58am  Oh, I ended up buying some blank CDs meant for music. Like they have a big music note on them. I am almost positive they'll still work to put my webpage on. They were the cheapest they had. I still have a master CD I burned in Socorro. I have fifty blank CDs in my bag. Now all I need to save the world with is a CD burner.

     12:06pm  I went in the Conoco and the guy in there was very helpful. He pulled out a phonebook and looked up a laundromat for me.

     12:24pm  Wanda, at the laundromat was nice enough to give me some change so I can dry my laundry. I appreciate it, Wanda. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     12:35pm  I'm standing out here in front of the laundromat waiting for my laundry to dry. I'm going to smoke some weed.

                     I had gone in the bathroom and put on my swim trunks so I could wash my cargo shorts. The wash cost two dollars, but luckily some lady hooked me up with some money so I could dry my clothes.

 

Page 226, The Multi-Channel Society. Good section.

THE MULTI-CHANNEL SOCIETY

The basic direction of change in the media
since at least 1970, when Future Shock foreshadowed the
coming de-massification of the airwaves, has been toward the
breakup of mass audiences into segments and subgroups, each
receiving a different configuration of programs and messages.
Along with this has come a vast expansion of the sheer amount of
imagery transmitted by television in the form of both news and
entertainment.
There is a reason for this image-explosion.
Humans, of course, have always exchanged symbolic
images of reality. That is what language is all about. It is what
knowledge is based on. However, different societies require
either more or less symbolic exchange. The transition to a
knowledge-based economy sharply increases the demand for
communication and swamps the old image-delivery systems.
Advanced economies require a labor force with high levels
of symbolic sophistication. This work force needs instant and
largely free access to all sorts of information hitherto considered
irrelevant to its productivity. It needs workers who can quickly
adapt to, and even anticipate, repeated changes in work methods,
organization, and daily life.
The very best workers are worldly, alert to new ideas and
fashions, customer preferences, economic and political changes,
aware of competitive pressures, cultural shifts, and many other
things previously regarded as pertinent only to managerial elites.
This wide-scan knowledge does not come out of classrooms
or from technical manuals alone, but from exposure to a constant
barrage of news delivered by TV, newspapers, magazines, and
radio. It also comes indirectly from "entertainment"—much of
which unintentionally delivers information about new life styles,
interpersonal relationships, social problems, and even foreign
customs and markets.
Some shows, like Murphy Brown, which stars the actress
Candice Bergen, deliberately build drama or comedy around
current news. But even when this is not the case, television
shows, sometimes despite themselves, convey images of reality.
It is true that the intentional content of a television show—
the plot and the behavior of the principal characters—often
paints a false picture of social reality. However, there is in all
television programs and commercials, as well as in movies, an
additional layer of what we might call "inadvertent content."
This consists of background detail—landscape, cars, street
scenes, architecture, telephones, answering machines, as well as
barely noticed behavior, like the banter between a waitress and a
customer as the hero seats himself at a lunch counter. In contrast
with the intended content, the inadvertent detail frequent ly
provides a quite accurate picture of quotidian reality.
Moreover, even the tritest "cop shows" picture current fads and
fashions, and express popular attitudes toward sex, religion,
money, and politics.
None of this is ignored or forgotten by the viewer. It is filed
away in the mind, forming part of a person's general bank of
knowledge about the world. Thus, good and bad alike, it
influences the bag of assumptions brought to the workplace.
(Ironi-, cally, much of the worker's image of the world, which
increasingly affects economic productivity, is thus absorbed during
"leisure" hours.) For this reason, "mere entertainment" is no
longer "mere."
In short, the new economy is tightly tied not only to formal
knowledge and technical skills but even to popular culture and
the expanding market for imagery. This seething market is not
only growing, but is simultaneously being restructured. Its very
categories are re-forming. For better or worse, the old lines
between show business and politics, leisure and work, news and
entertainment, are all crashing, and we are exposed to a
hurricane of often fragmented, kaleidoscopic images.

Page 377, The Global Sell. Good section.

     1:27pm  Manuel, at the laundromat gave me a dime so I could finish drying my stuff. It was still damp.

Page 383, "Governments will no doubt invent more sophisticated lies
with which to rationalize their self-serving actions and
manipulate the increasingly systemic media. They will also step
up propaganda efforts to improve their global image. But if such
efforts fail, they could suffer significant economic penalties for
behavior frowned on by the rest of the world."

     2:03pm  I am all done at the laundromat. Clean clothes. I'm going to go back downtown and tell my story, hehe. Now I don't have any money. I don't mind.

                   Oh yeah, I'm on the bus. The driver just told me the Cici's at the mall closed down. That sucks.

     2:35pm  I am back downtown in the plaza.

     2:57pm  I am telling Tony my story here in the plaza. What's your email, Tony? mranthonycurtis@yahoo.com

     3:13pm  Tony hooked me up with a cigarette after listening to my story. I appreciate it, Tony. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     4:07pm  I am telling Chris my little story in the plaza. What was your email? scott4043@yahoo.com

     4:15pm  Chris and Tony hooked me up with another cigarette. I appreciate it, brothers.

     4:54pm  I just had this badass presentation with this beautiful girl named Elisha. I blew her mind. She was the best listener I've had in a long time. I just loved her reactions. I wish I had a CD to give her. I need to find somewhere with a CD burner. Oh yeah, and some guy kicked me down a nugget after hearing my shit. So now I have even more weed.

      5:29pm I am telling Molly my story here in the plaza. What's your email? mollyismyname@hotmail.com

      6:58pm I am talking to Ethan right in front of the Starbucks. What was your email? ethan.marc.stone@gmail.com

     7:14pm  I'm talking to Danielle, Josh and Andrew. What was your email, Danielle? lellebell@ufl.edu

     7:32pm  I am talking to Joe Alabama, who works at St. Francis Hotel. What's your email, brother? joe_esmeault@msn.com

     8:53pm  I never mentioned I've been hanging out with John, who I hung out with in Durango last year. They're going to take me to their camp. With Rosemary, this crazy lady that camps with them. I think John called himself Skitz in Durango. Him and his brother Ghost(9-2-04).

     9:23pm  We came to the Save-On drugs in Rosemary's truck Hidalgo. What did we come here for? Tobacco. Then we'll go to camp.

                   I am still struggling with the idea of going to Denver tomorrow. If she's taking me all the way to Denver, then shouldn't I stop in Colorado Springs first?

                   If I go to Denver I just have to go to Boulder.

                   I don't know what time it is. It's around midnight. We came to this camp. Cool, I'll have a mattress to sleep on. They cooked up some food so I'm not hungry anymore. I'm going to go to sleep now. I am tired. Ugh, I can't decide if I want to go to Denver. I kind of want to stay in Santa Fe. It is so cool here.

Next day..