Saturday, September 28, 2013

LOVEINT, a piece of surveillance poetry

I dreamt 
last 
night
that I was being 
tracked
followed monitored judged desired by
the best surveillance man in the business
that he could tell I wanted him
even when I looked a picture of normality
that his dark gaze could pierce me
whenever he turn't it toward me
and never often enough.

I dreamt
that everything I did had an audience
that the secret significance of my actions
had someone to appreciate them.

I dreamt 
of chemtrails and HAARP arrays
and distant lovers,
desirous of my scent like the old stasi 
watching me
waiting
aching for an excuse to render me 
extraordinarily


I woke.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Outside Lands and vexilology (Or: the importance of having a flag)


Last summer I went to Outside Lands, the great big music festival held in Golden Gate Park. I had not really been to a major music festival before. Stepping into the sea of humanity friday evening, I rapidly came to the following observations:
  1. My subjective geography of the park had been massively altered by filling it with people. A plain that once took a minute to cross could now take half an hour to scoot and elbow through.
  2. Everyone was making a futile effort to call their friends, taxing the cell system and making it impossible to get a call through. SMS was an option, but it might take 20 minutes for the text to get through, assuming your friend even has their phone charged.
  3. My friends seemed to be in various altered states, and not necessarily good at finding needles in haystacks.
  4. Standard methods of finding your friends are therefore woefully inadequate.