air in air out

and i still belong to no one else

Mazzy Star, Halah

comforting manatee

god bless the sea cows

it felt like you were in a Bruce Springsteen song

all images are copyright of Joe Maloney, who said, "“it felt like you were inside a Bruce Springsteen song" on being on the Jersey Shore during the late seventies and early eighties. captured below are carnival rides on the boardwalk, bikini-clad teenagers, and landscapes brimming with saturated hues and glowing lights.

Blue Fence (1980)

Casino (1980)

Girl in Cab (1980)

Reaching (1980)

Stocky (1980)

Sugar Ray Empress Match (1980)

Tall Couple (1980)

Girl With Stuffed Animals (1980)

Two Girls (1980)

Palace Amusements (1980)

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Monday, September 30, 2013
12:29 AM
in five hours and eight minutes, an alarm will tell me to wake up. as if i have not spent the past eight hours trying to drift into the arms of unwelcoming sleep.
the hum of the podcast presenter began to bore me at 10:30 PM. i paused his voice, hoping sleep would accept me soon. after two futile hours of meditatively counting sheep, i opened up my beckoning laptop.
there is something to be said about surfing the internet when the rest of the world is asleep. a certain serene stillness attaches itself to every webpage, making reading articles with the quotation "plants have souls" in the title seem natural, visiting Facebook profiles of the deceased perfectly normal, and cyber-stalking best friends from elementary school acceptable.
why, in these hours in which i beg my body to slip into a state of unconsciousness, does this internet behavior feel somewhat necessary? perhaps my subconscious mind needs these confirmations of death or change of once-called friends to answer some of life's pressing questions that nag at my fragile consciousness.
in this state i wonder the following:

which is worse: the beloved dead or the once-loved alive, continuing to exist without you in their life?
is everyone growing up except me?
am i the only one who can't tell the difference between a National Geographic article and one from The Onion?
how do people even fall asleep anymore?
are enough people listening to Sea Oleena?

Sea Oleena, Untitled

where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

Simon & Garfunkel, Mrs. Robinson

"my childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. middle America as it's supposed to be. but on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out - some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. i discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. because i grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast." - David Lynch

i find 60's to 70's suburban life in Middle America deeply fascinating - a time of stars and stripes, apple pie, and clothes hanging to dry in the backyard. but underneath it all: a dark underbelly of poverty, racism, and the feeling that all of this illusion of safety, serenity, and wholesomeness was slipping through one's fingers.