6 posts tagged “holiday”

Just posted a lengthy review of the novel "Little Children" to the website for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (cclapcenter.com -- you're now reading every day, right? You've mentioned it at your own blog by now, right?). I ended up really loving the novel, actually, and a big part of that was because of the ways that author Tom Perrotta shows the silly elaborate rituals that many people in their early and mid-thirties will engage in, that they think is 'grown-up' behavior but is actually as immature as their teen years (hence the title of the novel) -- such as how many of the men in their community participate in this evening "Fight Club" style intramural football league, where teams will meet at the expensively Astroturfed high-school field once a week, a group of accountants versus a group of cops for example, and spend a night illegally pounding each other with no refs, the only rule being "the first one to quit is a faggot pussy," and with the hordes of former frat dudes spending the entire evening calling each other bitches and slamming each other's chests together in torso high-fives.

And sitting here finishing my time at Holiday tonight, I realize -- dude, that's just like the fucking trackball bowling videogame found in bars like these! How many times have we who are secure in our masculinity and adult choices we're making in our lives sat in bars with such machines, and watched a group of drunk, insecure, date-rape assholes spend the night getting ALL GEARED UP BEHIND THAT TRACKBALL, DUDE, and put up a leg and get all behind that push, and WHIZZ THAT LITTLE COCKSUCKING WHORE round and round until getting a strike, YELLIN' AND SCREAMIN' AND HOOTIN' AND HOLLERIN' AND HIGH-FIVIN', all their terrified little girlfriends in the corner and sucking down Sex on Beaches and trying to blot out as quickly as possible what horrific unsalvagable situations they've gotten themselves into.

Seriously, a pretty great book. I encourage you to stop by the site and see what I have to say about it. Man, for the rest of my life these bowling videogames are now going to creep me the fuck out.

Hey, I'm out again, at Holiday again, having Guinness and a grilled-cheese sandwich and mashed potatoes. It's Saturday night, give me a freakin' break, I want to be out! Damnit, I may even get on my bike later and pedal down to Lakeview, and maybe get in a little trouble old-skool Belmont and Clark style. We'll see!

Earlier this week I read the first half of this slim new-age self-help guide called "Happy," by this guy who apparently teaches a class at Harvard on "how to be happy," which apparently is the most popular class currently available at Harvard (yeah, roll eyes here, I know). And that's why I stopped reading halfway through, frankly, is that the book's mostly a bunch of obvious new-age claptrap about positivity and empowering visions and the like. One of the things the author suggests you ask yourself, though, is what exactly the definition of 'happiness' is anyway, which I've been doing this week and have realized is much harder than it sounds. The best I can do, in fact, is come up with things that can lead to happiness, while also acknowledging that I don't know what combination one needs to truly be 'happy...'
--The absence of pain.
--A sense of accomplishment.
--A sense of inner peace, of acceptance of oneself and one's surroundings.
--The sensation of pleasure.
--The sense that one is contributing to the world, instead of simply consuming its resources.
Here I am right now, for example, at Holiday Uptown in my neighborhood, currently pretty happy, but only because of a combo of little things -- because it's warm, because I'm outside, because I'm having a beer and am a little buzzed, because I've gotten a lot accomplished today, because half-dressed hot nerdy girls keep walking by me, because I just got done with a good mid-distance bicycle ride, because I've eaten, because I have a satchel full of just-published edgy small-press books, that I got for free because of living in a city with such a large and well-funded library system. And this doesn't even count the more existential reasons I'm happy -- because I live in a city I love instead of hate, because I'm starting my own business and am my own boss, even if that means barely any money right now, because I'm doing something with my time that I feel is adding something constructive and meaningful to the world, versus (for example) using my creative talents to be selling fucking hamburgers for some soulless multinational corporation. Sound haughty? Well, that as well is part of what makes me happy.

So what's the magic combination? Well, that's the fun part of life, isn't it, of discovering just what that combination is. I can tell you this, though, that the older I get, the more sure I am that is has almost nothing to do with the things preached to us in a consumerist capitalist society -- the accumulation of wealth, the accumulation of possessions, the getting ahead of your fellow humans, the long hours and little rewards and endless frustrations of most white-collar jobs. It's not just a thing for hippie undergraduates to believe in, I keep realizing more and more -- that the quest to simplify one's life, the effort to enjoy the current moment instead of deferring your entire personal life to the twenty years before you die, is of paramount importance to having true happiness in your life.

Er, that's all. End of line.

I was a good boy tonight; got every single thing with the new CCLaP website (cclapcenter.com) working except the commenting feature, and got tomorrow's Obsession of the Moment and book review written in advance, so am now rewarding myself with a Pabst Blue Ribbon and grilled cheese sandwich at Holiday Uptown in my neighborhood, a rare nighttime trip out for me because in general I can't afford it, in the company of a bunch of hot, drunk hipster females, which of course is always a pleasure. I don't necessarily have to be directly interacting with my fellow humans to be happy -- in fact, I've discovered that it can often make me annoyed rather than happy -- but that I do at least need regular time around other humans, periods where I feel like part of a society and not so cut off in an online netherworld like most of my day is spent. Always good to get out occasionally and have a beer among the hoo-mons.

Enjoying CCLaP yet? Book reviews bitchy enough for ya?

I felt like spending a little time with the Hugh-Mons tonight, so I'm at Holiday Uptown in my neighborhood having a beer. Not a lot to report - lots of hot slcker girls, lots of goofy slacker boyfriends, several IT specialists hogging the pool table. Yet another Saturday night in Uptown.

It's unusually warm tonight -- 68 degrees in Chicago at the end of October, which you usually don't hear of. I spent 14 hours in my apartment today and couldn't stand a single moment more, so thought I'd go to Holiday in my neighborhood and have a drink.