I want to explore old 20+ story buildings in old but big cities. Bask in the weird architecture. Tiny bathrooms in closets on each stair landing. Seeing office people coming in and out of the bathrooms as I’m walking up the stairs.

This would have to be done while tired, going on like 3 hours sleep and lots of coffee. Walking around downtown all day, in and out of buildings, up and down stairs. Would have to be done in spring. This is what people should be doing between the ages of 18 and 24. Urban appreciation, experiential grasps of historocity. The smells and sounds of each building. The cramped wooden staircase squeezed into the corner of the 30 story building from the early 1900s, creaky stairs, big lead glass windows looking out onto the turquoise spring street at every other flight. The railings stopped needing to be restained years ago. They’re amply oiled up daily by the palms of officeworkers in the thrum of paperwork and due date anxiety.

A pleasing thing is freely moving in and out of these environments, being in such a different mental state. Like when you’re off on a work day and there you are spacing out at home while your fellow humans toil around you.

I buy my last 20 ounce coffee at 4 P.M., finish it by 5 P.M. I walk another five or so miles around the city, stop in a couple more random buildings as the sun goes down. Then I return to the hotel and kick off my shoes and feel the blisters all over my feet and the sweat on my clothes and I lie back on the bed. Scoot up so my head’s against the pillow, turn on the TV. Space out as I flip through the channels.

• The Art of Noises
• Dwindling Power of a College Degree
• On a Throne Made of Vanishing Ink
• Bike Videos
• Compare Daily Bank Rates

Listen to a song like this at a young enough age (pre-21 years old), and it will stake out new emotions for yeh.

If you’ve seen Drive with Ryan Gosling, you know this song. Listen to the synth in the chorus (starting at 1:15).

Susheela Raman – O, Rama by xroliks

As a kid, would listen to this song and feel the tension. This is one of those songs where you don’t have to understand English, but you’d know what the song’s about.

Was walking to work last fall and listening to this song on headphones on repeat. On that day, despite years and years listening to the song, I suddenly realized that there’s something happening from 2:40 on. We don’t know for sure. There’s just that slight hint at it, the lines “I hear the fear in her voice” and “she pulls the covers tighter.” How did I not notice that for all those years?

Music to fall asleep to.

Kidding: the song is actually the sound of sheer evil.

In thinking about Venetian Snare’s “Tushe Love,” I was reminded of “Spider and I” by Brian Eno. Whereas “Tushe Love” could be the ambient sound of hell, Brian Eno’s “Spider and I” could be the ambient sound of heaven.

If you are going to be with family and friends this Christmas, connect your laptop to your flatscreen and sit everyone down to watch this four hour movie:

It’s Vespa broadcasting from the top floor of The Compound on the outskirts of Helsinki. Accessible only by long winding staircases that can themselves only be accessed by trap doors. Trance is always good for the holidays.

Arty – Kate’s People (The BeatThiefs Bootleg) by TheBeatThiefs

He was simultaneously ashamed of and falling into the trap of a trend. Or was he just more aware of those things he did which coincidentally matched the things done by those on the commercials?

Words are tricky territory. Apt to convey something insufferable about a person. They can masquerade as being meaningful when the person using them in fact has nothing of meaning to say and they can inflect the person’s socioeconomic status and they are frustrating. The pursuit of mastering them is an intractable exercise of the mind.

There is so much mastery on display on the Internet. That if you were concerned with establishing yourself as the master of any one domain, you’d drive yourself crazy if you knew how to use Google. Where to start?

Take a step back and turn it all off.