Ennui

Boredom descended today. What to do when nothing seems interesting?

First of all- get out of the station before someone coaxes you into a discussion concerning the philosophy of radio. Alright, I made a quick getaway. No problem there. No one actually expects me to be interested in work anymore.

Home by 10:30- check out Sunday’s Formula One race on Tivo? Schumacher’s starting in P3 but there’s some speculation that he may be carrying a heavy fuel load. He might put on one of those dazzling shows where he nails five or six perfect laps at the end of his fuel run and passes everyone while they stop early to pit. Wishful thinking- Schumacher pits first. He’s got nothing and Alonso walks away with another easy victory.

12:15- Call Greg and talk about all those scripts lying all over the place. He’s worried that the U.S. is going to get knocked out of round one of the World Cup. He was a goalie or something in high school. I can’t relate- but we agree to meet tomorrow about the latest thing we’re sort of doing.

1:00- Still bored I write a super-short story about a guy named Martin who’s allergic to meetings:

Martin is allergic to meetings. Nothing of any consequence has ever happened after the first ten minutes of a meeting in the history of the world. Or so he would postulate. It’s an exaggeration of course, but he hates meetings with a passion. After ten minutes in a meeting he gets woozy and itchy and flush. He is allergic.

Dan is pontificating while circling the conference table. He’s talking, as he’s always talking, of the philosophy behind the sell. According to Dan, a salesman, or person, or whatever they are, has to believe in what they’re selling in order to make the ‘genuine’ connection with a potential customer necessary to close the sale. It’s elemental! He said.

Elemental was one of those words Dan used an awful lot. In fact, he was really the only person that Martin knew who used the word at all. Strange- that one person would so adopt a word that no one else would touch. A guy he knew years earlier was fond of saying things were, “off the hook.” At first it came in a conversational trickle. The boss was, “off the hook.” But it wasn’t long before the President and that show on TV last night were, “off the hook.” Soon, everything was, “off the hook” and Martin found a new friend.

The meeting was creeping up to the ten minute mark. Martin began to feel that pre-panic thing before the real thing. First he would get uncomfortable at the thought of getting uncomfortable then he would get uncomfortable. Here it comes.

Okay- that’s done. Now what?

1:30- Scour the news for audio to feature on tomorrow’s news jog. Idiots standing in a tropical storm, more Zarqawi stuff… blah, blah, blah.

3:30- Since the age of 13 or so I’ve enjoyed wasting time by making mixed tapes of some of my favorite bands and singer/songwriters. This is an art. It’s not enough to just to plop a bunch of your favorite tunes on oxide. The running order has to flow as if the artist would have released it as an album themselves, or its crap. Tapes are now pre-historic, but the mixed CD presents the same challenges.

I’ve been obsessing on the Flaming Lips lately so I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. Here’s the resulting play list. It makes for a great CD, and with I-Tunes you can buy the tracks separately and play along at home.

1.) Are You A Hypnotist?
2.) Do You Realize?
3.) The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
4.) Race For The Prize (Remix)
5.) Waitin’ For A Superman
6.) Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell
7.) A Spoonful Weighs A Ton
8.) Fight Test
9.) Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt.1
10.)Mr. Ambulance Driver
11.)Haven’t Got A Clue
12.)It Overtakes Me
13.)The W.A.N.D.
14.)Suddenly Everything Has Changed
15.)Goin’ On
16.)The Gold In The Mountain Of Our Madness

I tried to add some earlier stuff like ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ and ‘Bad Days’ but they just didn’t work with their later sound.

5:40- almost bedtime. Thank god. What’s on the Science Channel?

Don’t call it a funk.

Call it ennui.