peak experiences

11.06.98

I've been fairly busy in the darkroom over these last few days, but not as busy as I'd envisioned. On the first morning of the New Thrust Toward Productivity that I'd planned, I came into my cozy little office here, flipped on the light and bloop, all electrical power went away. Thinking it may have been the wall switch, I replaced it with a new one. I got it all hooked up, flipped it to the ON position and tadaaa, still nothing.

A dark dead cold office is no fun on day one of a New Thrust Toward Productivity.

Luckily, my office is not my darkroom, which is where I had planned to spend most of my time anyway, so I sucked up the plaintive wail of a man with no juice and headed in there to make some pictures. cola and bird

As so often happens in my tiny laboratory, I lost track of time. It's ironic that in an activity that is by nature so focused on time -- exposure, development, fixing and washing all are precisely measured operations -- my sense of its passing in general becomes vague. It's not unusual for a four hour session in the darkroom to feel like 45 minutes. Maslow, the humanistic psychologist, would describe this as a peak experience.

While I was in the darkroom having my photographic petit mort, Viv was off on her business trip. In the Rockies. It doesn't get much peakier than that. And judging from the hotel brochure that Viv brought home with her yesterday, the brochure of one Hotel Monaco in Denver, a stay at this fine establishment is Mondo Peako.

I've still got some film to develop, so I'm gonna get out of here now. It's only by the magic of extension cords that I've been able to communicate with you fine people, and with any luck there'll be an electrician out to the house sometime soon to give me back my juice in exchange for what will probably be an arm and a leg. My knowledge of things electrical is limited to the extent of being frightening.

And I suspect that electrocution may be the ultimate peak experience.

 
 
 
 

Today's Music:

"Electricks" -- Roni Size -- REPRAZENT/ NEW FORMS

 
 
 

Wisdom of the Day:

"Power is the great aphrodisiac."

- Henry Kissinger