"Still I've always kind of missed her,
since that last sad night I kissed her.
Left her heart, I broke my own.
'Adios, mi corazon.' "

-BD

Well, my birthday wish didn't come true.

I must've checked my email about a million times today and it didn't come true.

Great Moments In 21st Century Literature

Reading Dave Eggers' latest book The Circle, the major theme of which is social media and the evolving roles of communication and interaction in the 21st century. An ex-boyfriend is talking to the main character, who has just landed a job at a multi-billion dollar social media corporation, when he explains:

" 'When you and I communicate, I want to do it directly. You write to me, I write to you. You ask me questions, and I answer them... It's not that I'm not social. I'm social enough. But the tools you guys create actually manufacture unnaturally extreme social needs. No one needs the level of contact you're purveying. It improves nothing. It's not nourishing. It's like snack food. You know how they engineer this food? They scientifically determine how much salt and fat they need to keep you eating. You're not hungry, you don't need the food, it does nothing for you, but you keep eating these empty calories. This is what you're pushing. Same thing. Endless empty calories, but the digital-social equivalent. And you calibrate it so it's equally addictive... You know how you finish a bag of chips and you hate yourself? You know you've done nothing good for yourself. That's the same feeling, and you know it is, after some digital binge. You feel wasted and hollow and diminished.' "

Really?

"Is there anything more American than America?"

Hard to believe Bob Dylan really said that in a Super Bowl commercial. On the other hand, this is the same guy who made a Christian rock album in the 70s with a Jewish atheist for his producer.

Happy birthday to James Joyce.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman passed today. I remember when he won an oscar for his portrayal of Truman Capote he referenced Van Morrison's "Madame George" in his speech.

I stood outside a bowling alley and pretended through the cold that i was in there, with her and her daughter, having fun and being silly. We all were.

It was a feeling more unique than a snowflake.