Good morning, astronauts. Today is moving day. (Taken with instagram)

Good morning, astronauts. Today is moving day. (Taken with instagram)

I have two work spaces, one in Paris, the other in the country. Between them there is no common object, for nothing is ever carried back and forth. Yet these sites are identical. Why? Because the arrangement of tools (paper, pens, desk, clocks, calendars) is the same. It is the structure of the space which constitutes its identity. The private phenomenon would suffice to shed some light on structuralism: the system prevails over the very being of objects.

Roland Barthes from his autobiography. 

I wonder about this kind of thing all the time. Does the place actually change the structure of writing? Does it really change? My friend Rick said something last weekend that touches on this—that I seem more level, calmer, and focused in the things I post when I’m home. I thought about this for awhile because there is something about having an opportunity to write and create at home. Place does make a difference in that your mentality shifts. That’s really at the core of why I’m going home: I’ll be able to do what I care about up there, because the place keeps me level. Whereas here I’m like a chicken with its head cut off. Too much stimuli.

Going Away Party.

Chums,

So, two weeks from today I’m leaving.

My friends and I are getting together at Hell Gate Social in Astoria at around 9pm, which really means about 11pm on Friday, June 1. Please feel free to come and bring a significant other or three. 

Tumblr has been a pretty big part of my life here in NYC for four of the seven years I’ve been here so come down and let’s get a beer. 

Tanks and Guns,

Dave. 

A year and a half, twenty-six sources, forty-two pages, six drafts, and it’s finally in. Can’t believe it took me this long, but I’m damn proud of it. Time for a victory lap. (Taken with Instagram at Brooklyn College)

A year and a half, twenty-six sources, forty-two pages, six drafts, and it’s finally in. Can’t believe it took me this long, but I’m damn proud of it. Time for a victory lap. (Taken with Instagram at Brooklyn College)

Roland Barthes. I picked up A Barthes Reader today after getting into a discussion with some of my Wolfe Institute co-workers. Almost instantly, I felt like I just took down a massive chocolate shake, which really only happens when I have a chocolate shake, and when I find something within myself in relation to a great writer. Susan Sontag, in her introduction, writes:  “Throughout his late writing Barthes repeatedly disavows the, as it were, vulgar roles of system-builder, authority, mentor, expert, in order to reserve for himself the privileges and freedoms of delectation: the excerise of taste for Barthes means, usually, to praise. What makes a role a choice one is his unstated commitment to finding something new and unfamiliar to praise.”  This is something that I’ve exercised for a while, to put it simply—as one’s mother might tell us—if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. In my waning days here in New York City, I find myself trying to celebrate and go forth with as much energy as possible. There is barely any time left. Enjoy your life, Sontag seems to be saying, pay attention to it.  When I started reading this introduction there was a girl who got on the train with me, she had a black backpack and on it, stenciled in pink, “Cupcakes are the new black.” She was going through Poets & Writers Magazine with a pen, constantly working. We never stop working do we? Expanding, learning, seeing where we can put our thoughts.  “Writing is Barthes’s perennial subject—indeed, perhaps no once since Flaubert (in his letters) has thought as brilliantly as passionately as Barthes has about what writing is. Much of his work is devoted to portraits of the vocation of the writer: from the early debunking studies included in  Mythologies of the writer as seen by others, that is the writer as fraud, such as “The Writer on Holiday,” to more ambitious essays on writers writing, that is, the writer as hero and martyr, such as “Flaubert and the Sentence,” about the writer’s “agony of style.” Barthes’s wonderful essays on writers must be considered as different version of his great apologia for the vocation of the writer. For all his admiration for the self-punishing standards of integrity set by Flaubert, he dares to conceive of writing as a kind of happiness…” All of this puts me back to where I started here in New York, when Miller told me to “get a notebook and write down everything you see here,” because before I know it—I’ll stop paying attention. Like this renews my sense of celebration, of taking note and the joy in my life here. Now that I’ve figured what I enjoy, I’m going to go away and spread it around, see what can be done with it in a place I love. Saying, “We’re only alive once! Do what we love! Write about it! And then share it and see if you can help someone get to this point!” Chappelle has it right, “It’s a celebration, bitches!”  

Roland Barthes.

I picked up A Barthes Reader today after getting into a discussion with some of my Wolfe Institute co-workers. Almost instantly, I felt like I just took down a massive chocolate shake, which really only happens when I have a chocolate shake, and when I find something within myself in relation to a great writer. Susan Sontag, in her introduction, writes: 

“Throughout his late writing Barthes repeatedly disavows the, as it were, vulgar roles of system-builder, authority, mentor, expert, in order to reserve for himself the privileges and freedoms of delectation: the excerise of taste for Barthes means, usually, to praise. What makes a role a choice one is his unstated commitment to finding something new and unfamiliar to praise.” 

This is something that I’ve exercised for a while, to put it simply—as one’s mother might tell us—if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. In my waning days here in New York City, I find myself trying to celebrate and go forth with as much energy as possible. There is barely any time left. Enjoy your life, Sontag seems to be saying, pay attention to it. 

When I started reading this introduction there was a girl who got on the train with me, she had a black backpack and on it, stenciled in pink, “Cupcakes are the new black.” She was going through Poets & Writers Magazine with a pen, constantly working. We never stop working do we? Expanding, learning, seeing where we can put our thoughts. 

“Writing is Barthes’s perennial subject—indeed, perhaps no once since Flaubert (in his letters) has thought as brilliantly as passionately as Barthes has about what writing is. Much of his work is devoted to portraits of the vocation of the writer: from the early debunking studies included in  Mythologies of the writer as seen by others, that is the writer as fraud, such as “The Writer on Holiday,” to more ambitious essays on writers writing, that is, the writer as hero and martyr, such as “Flaubert and the Sentence,” about the writer’s “agony of style.” Barthes’s wonderful essays on writers must be considered as different version of his great apologia for the vocation of the writer. For all his admiration for the self-punishing standards of integrity set by Flaubert, he dares to conceive of writing as a kind of happiness…”

All of this puts me back to where I started here in New York, when Miller told me to “get a notebook and write down everything you see here,” because before I know it—I’ll stop paying attention. Like this renews my sense of celebration, of taking note and the joy in my life here. Now that I’ve figured what I enjoy, I’m going to go away and spread it around, see what can be done with it in a place I love. Saying, “We’re only alive once! Do what we love! Write about it! And then share it and see if you can help someone get to this point!” Chappelle has it right, “It’s a celebration, bitches!”  

Things that need doing between now and June 4.

June 4 being the official date I leave the city. Rachel inspired this post.

  • Final revisions on my thesis. (I’m on my fourth draft since my first turn-in)
  • Organize bedding, food, and other incidentals for the Student Competition for the Lake Placid Film Forum
  • A course description for a Graphic Novel introductory class
  • At least 32 pages of comic script
  • Do all of my coursework for the semester (a syllabus, a journal, and composition teacher portfolio)
  • The last bullet will be done by this time next week 
  • See A Cabin In The Woods (Friday)
  • Figure out a way to save a movie theater
  • We are not starving but we are hungry
  • Announce going-away party
  • Head bang
Witness the slouch. I am a slob of a person, photo by Francis. No wonder I have that unseemly belly. I’m gonna go do some sit-ups, I’ll catch you guys later.

Witness the slouch. I am a slob of a person, photo by Francis. No wonder I have that unseemly belly. I’m gonna go do some sit-ups, I’ll catch you guys later.

Awkward C3PO tape dispenser. I went to the Museum of the Moving image today to get the final day of the Jim Henson exhibit. It was like I de-aged twenty years.

Awkward C3PO tape dispenser.

I went to the Museum of the Moving image today to get the final day of the Jim Henson exhibit. It was like I de-aged twenty years.

Some selected photos from this week.

Brooklyn sunset.  I’m leaving New York City in June, to go home to Lake Placid and begin a new adventure so for the next 130+ days, I’m going to take a photo per day to commemorate these last days. I know, I’m a sappy guy. The idea came off a thing Xtop is currently doing. Some days there will be more than one photo but the idea is to take at least one every day. I’ll mostly be updating the photos here, I don’t want to spam y’all every day. That’s annoying.

Brooklyn sunset. 

I’m leaving New York City in June, to go home to Lake Placid and begin a new adventure so for the next 130+ days, I’m going to take a photo per day to commemorate these last days. I know, I’m a sappy guy. The idea came off a thing Xtop is currently doing. Some days there will be more than one photo but the idea is to take at least one every day. I’ll mostly be updating the photos here, I don’t want to spam y’all every day. That’s annoying.