This is where thoughts become things.

Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my personal lair on the Internet. This is where I write about storytelling, activism, technology and pop culture. Sometimes I post videos. I update my lair when the mood strikes me. Follow me on Twitter for daily updates (@dcap).

Tag : diary

The Archive: Dream Club (2004)

I am in the process of cleaning out a hard drive that has been in my possession since 2000. The files that I am stumbling across are so old and random; I can’t believe it was me who wrote them in the first place. I was so scarily honest and hilariously tragic while purging all this brain vomit, never intending for any of it to see the light of day. As such, I will be sporadically posting the best finds on The Lair and then providing one paragraph of context below each submission.

These are all my original words as typed. Nothing has been or will be altered to avoid embarrassment.

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Dream Club
By daniela

My idea of a really cool club would be one that played Macy Grey, Tori Amos, Le Tigre, Janet Jackson (90’s era only up to Velvet Rope), Modest Mouse, Tricky, Stereolab, Radiohead, Alicia Keys, Portishead, and other artists like that.

And the people would be intelligent, and everyone would be beautiful and inquisitive and funny, and really witty.  And although they might appear as such, no one would be clique oriented. pretentious or rude. Respectful elitism would be allowed, but not to the extent that anyone’s feelings were seriously hurt.  Anyone would be able to experience this club but the regulars would all be against Bush, non religious or theoretically spiritual, probably members of the green party.  People would mix throughout the night, from painting to discussing things with strangers to dancing to experimenting with new exotic drinks. Of course, people would order martinis and daiquiris and cosmopolitans.  The club color scheme would be black and white, with hints of red.  There would be plenty of comfortable places to sit, and people would be reading in a lounge type room or playing chess, or making art.

The dance floor would light up with black and red squares of light, and the bartender would be sexually androgynous looking, and wear suspenders. The ceilings would be very high, and rope dancers would swing above the crowd. No one would fall or get hurt.  No one would smoke, or want to.  All bartenders would recycle, and a woman dressed in jade green would walk around silently picking up any waste that people left, and putting it in recycling bins.  But her job would be very easy, as everyone would remember to recycle.

There would be an area similar to the Korova Milk Bar, only instead of acid laced milk, they would offer different kinds of thai iced tea, and beautiful men and women of all ethnic backgrounds wearing little except body paint would walk around serving the drinks, bending to ask thought provoking questions on current political issues.  They would get a lot of tips, and enjoy their work and clientele.

the only men in this club would be polite metrosexuals, and they wouldn’t all be white.  People would comfortably speak in other languages, and lecherousness would not be allowed, by anyone. Including me, the owner of such a club.

There would be a smalls screening room where short films would be played all night long.  A regal looking sign would grace the front door, listing the films that would play each hour with a brief description.  The screening room would offer a full candy bar, and homemade popcorn.

And radiohead and following radiohead, Stereolab, would grace us with surprise performances, and then ladytron would do a remix of Playgirl.  The end.

I wrote this while living with a family in Washington Heights. I was renting a tiny room from a single mother who often walked around in her underwear, as did both her sons ages seven and twenty three. Once, the bathroom ceiling caved in and it wasn’t repaired for a week. We had to use a communal bucket. I think I wrote this while fantasizing about being able to afford a better place, which led to thoughts of something else I did not have at the time – friends.

Times Square Celebrates Obama Victory

It is almost midnight and Times Square is on fire. From my view on the 29th floor I can see them below like ants – there is a huge crowd (bigger than in the photo I took a few minutes ago) cheering and all the taxis are honking like crazy! I can hear the roar of the crowd, even this high up. It’s amazing.

The sounds of the crowd and the horns are growing louder and louder with each passing moment, a cacophony of joy and excitement. It’s like New Years.

When the results came in, I was in the bathroom and heard the news through the door. I was so shocked and happy I dropped my cellphone in the toilet. Since I can’t call anyone right now, I am temporarily only able to share my experience through The Lair.

Stuff I Love: Scaring You With Dolls & Killer/Scary Doll Movie List

 I’ve been re-reading Borderlands: La Frontera this week and have been preoccupied with the passages describing the Shadow Beast. This morning I wondered why that was and then I realized that Halloween is coming up, a time when I tend to focus on the macabre.

Since I’ll probably seem more creepy if I do this another week, I figure a quick blurb on the art of Justin Aerni tonight is as appropriate as it’s going to get before Christmas.

Justin Aerni is a young artist living and working in Spokane, Washington. According to his bio, most of his art has been symbolic in dealing with what he (and other humans) fear most, Death. His work reflects the fragile human condition we are all held in. Most of it could be described as “Abstract Depressionism.”  Yay!

Not to worry folks, he also creates non doll-that-will-haunt-your dreams work. Check out this cheery Obama piece on Justin’s flick. He was also featured in this week’s episode of Epic-Fu.

In honor of Justin’s assemblage of petrifying playthings, here’s some history about scary dolls in cinema + a list of scary doll movies:

Wanna Play? after the jump… (more…)