All of My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

I was tempted to read Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land by this illustration, featured on the cover of the 1968 paperback edition:


But unfortunately the book could not live up to this paisley image of man and woman merging in grok. In fact I did not grok the novel whatsoever. I expected it to be a time capsule of Summer of Love hedonism and hippie mysticism, part Harrod Experiment, part Chariot of the Gods, part Transcendental Meditation. Maybe I could learn something about student utopianism from that last real flowering of revolutionary spirit among privileged bourgeois youth, get some insight into what motivated and sustained them. But after suffering through nearly 200 tedious pages, I finally had to admit to myself that the bunch of stock characters spouting exposition and clumsy, smirky neologisms weren't the unfortunately necessary prelude to something awesome but were in fact all the book consisted of.

The Pink Messiah

Here's a yousendit link to an MP3 of the song: http://download.yousendit.com/DACEAA7321446A03

I know there's a better way to put MP3s on blogger; if anyone happens to see this and would like to share, please let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Webster's 11th's helpful defnintions (3)

Rolfing — used for a system of muscle massage intended to serve as both physical and emotional therapy

Here I thought it was a weird sex thing along the lines of felching. I knew people in high school who used rolf as a onomatopoeic synonym for barf. Even knowing what it is, I don't think I could let anyone Rolf me.

Bars I Don't Have the Balls to Enter (1)

Though it is called No Partners on B'way, it's actually on 21st Avenue near 31st St. in Astoria.