Sometimes, when you've had a really bad week-going-on-several-weeks-to-a-month, the best thing to do is engage in something entirely out of the ordinary. A truly non-typical activity. Something to take you outside yourself for a time, to permit some distance, perspective, and chance to disengage completely.
No, not acid. Well, you maybe, but not me. Too much, too long, with no brakes.
Actually, I'm talking about the Twin Peaks Marathon, here in Austin, at the inimitable Alamo Drafthouse. Somewhere in the vicinity of 26 hours of Twin Peaks. Every single episode, including the 2-hour pilot, back to back, in a darkened theater. With a bunch of folks that are oddly obsessed with this brilliant but offbeat show. Plus freakish dancing dwarf contets, and a cherry stem tying contest as well. And coffee, of course.
LOTS of coffee, I imagine.
Should be... interesting.
Twin Peaks paralleled a pretty significant period of my life. Not significant "good," really -- it was on-the-air during the period when I flaming out in college, succumbing to tons of early-twenties angst and general emotional exhaustion. I was a VERY intense late-teen/early twenty type, and it really took its toll over time. I wound up bailing on college with about 8 credits left to my degree and landing, luckily, at a decent job in NYC. Finished the degree a couple of years later, once I got some working time under my feet, a wedding band on my ring finger, and the stablizing presence of my gorgeous wife in my life.
But anyway, Twin Peaks was one of the very specific and memorable high points in an otherwise exhausting and confusing period of my life. In the midst of a lot of mess, it was something which challenged me like little else had to that point. Funny. Occasionally terrifying. Disturbing. Chock full o' gorgeous, gorgeous girls. And above all, WEIRD. But weird in a way that made me feel like maybe I wasn't the only weird one around.
God, I loved this show.
Anyway, back in the early-mid-nineties I was active in the alt.tv.twin-peaks forum on USENET (gosh, remember that?). Curious, I took a bit of time and dug up some of my old posts, revisiting myself 10+ years gone. Newly married, childless, living in South Florida, working my first real serious paying job (IBM, contracting, at Boca). Snarky, smug, mid-twenties know-it-all. But clever.
This was around the same period when I was obsessed with Northern Exposure (where I first met some folks who would later become online friends of the upper order, including, I believe, Lee) and Mad About You (I was one of those people who were convinced the stories were somehow lifted from their young, married, self-absorbed lives. I'm even in the FAQ that's out there, somewhere...), and predates my later obsession with alt.showbiz.gossip, where I met some of my finest online friends, and where I also learned a bit more than I care to know about how wonderful and yet utterly dysfunctional online life could become. Ask anyone who was active in alt.showbiz.gossip during to mid-to-late-90's and they'll understand. The highest of highs, the lowest of lows, in online relationship terms. It was worth it, but god, what a mess.
It's a bit unsettling to see your earlier self so clearly. Google (and DejaNews before it) is weird that way. It's this odd window to your past, extraordinarily SPECIFIC, online self. Your words, often forgotten, sometimes embarassing, occasionally so different from the you of today, immediately accessible for anyone to see. I mean, there's nothing I'm terribly ashamed of out there (though I went through something of a Net Vigilante stage during the mid-nineties AOL invasions. Not very nice, but someone had to learn those bastards. Still, not something I would engage in now...), but still, it's odd to spend a few minutes with a part of yourself that is so distant, so of-a-time.
If you're curious about my formative online years, Google "Bo Duke"
(I bore a striking resemblance to John Schneider throughout my early twenties, so it seemed appropriate) in the alt.tv.twin-peaks groups and see what you think. Prior to that I was mostly wandering around in the comics forums, chatting about Sandman and god knows what else under a variety of pseudonyms that I can't recall right now. Not always nice, and not always someone you'd want to invite to drinks, but it sure sounds like me-or-someone-like-me.
Anyhow, the Alamo Drafthouse features wireless access in their theaters, so I'm planning on bringing the laptop and documenting the Twin Peaks Marathon Experience here in my journal. I'll also have Trillian going the whole time (AIM ID: GreggPTX) so if you'd like to say hey and see how I'm holding up, please don't be a stranger. It'll be a weird, Twin Peaks-ian happenin' man.
Mood: Buzzed, beat.
Now Playing: Kate Bush, "Hounds of Love"
4 comments:
AWW! You remember! {sniff} Gawd! I can't believe both NoEx and TP were 10+ years ago now. The Hallark Channel is replaying NoEx and it's interesting to watch the show all these years later. And I recall heading up to the Seattle area to see where they shot NoEx and seeing where they filmed the intro to TP. (Snoqualme Pass area)
And dear ol' asg! Whatta hoot! Still see many of those people in a yahoo group.
Have fun at the marathon!
Of COURSE I remember! You and Nancy both were active in the Northern Exposure group. I mean, how could I forget? Clever conversation, and then there was the way Nancy was always flashing her pussy at everyone....
And ASG. Sigh. Talk about a topic that I can't even go near without dropping into Dickensian rambling (best of times, worst of times, yada yada yada).
And as far as that Yahoo [gossip] group, I'm a member as well, assuming we're talking about the one that suddenly came to life again and resulted in hundreds and hundres of e-mails a few weeks back. I've decided to just stay in lurker mode there. There are a couple of members who are quite active who really get on my nerves, so rather than engage in conversation I just gather the gossip as it floats by.
I figure someday maybe I'll get the inertia together to get the good ol' Den of Iniquity rolling along -- all of my bestest ASG buds are members of that one as well, but we just haven't been actively chatting for months now.
IM me later, or check back here for updates -- the marathon begins at noon CST and runs through Sunday, 1:00PM-ish...
I'm in constant e-mail contact with Nancy on yet another e-mail group (which consists of a few Prodigy NoEx Board members) I blame her and Jeff K. (hi, Jeff!) for getting me involved with asg! ;-) I knew them both from other places and both were on asg. Which reminds me, I wonder whatever happened to Joey (Joey the Hoey from Chicago)?
Yes, that's the yahoo group I was referring to. didnt know you were there as well! I have AOL IM up and running but don't see oyu there at the moment.
Post a Comment