Stray - 5/8/02

Well, that was easy.
I now have a flat, halfway up an apartment building
in an area poeple who don't live here call the
Dublin ghetto. Don't know why.
I am surrounded by spaniards. Remembering, let
alone pronouncing their names is a daily ordeal.
Out of my flat and assosciated poeples nearby I'm
one of only three out of thirteen not from Spain,
or Basque, which is apparently NOT the same place.
Quoth the sepratist.
As of tomorrow I will be sharing my small room with
an Italian guy. There are four of us total and the
apartment is not too large, but I like it.
It was the fifth one I looked at and the first
four were UNBELIEVABLY AWFUL. So I feel pretty
lucky.

I've been battering away at this busking thing, to
little avail. I had one reasonably good night, one
utterly useless. But... there's a club here that
has a circus/cabaret sort of thing each Friday and
Saturday, including fire dancers. They have three
on at the moment, and apparently no one ever
auditions since no one really does it here. I have
an audition this Tuesday.
Five hours each night, but you're on again off
again, so your not even working most of the time.

It pays (allegedly) 250 EURO A NIGHT!!!!
That's one thousand NZ a week!

If you're the praying type (Grandma I'm looking at
you specifically) then this would be something
worth wishing me well for. Make a good birthday
pressie.

Anyway,
it doesn't look like I can get a work permit in
less than two months, if at all, and that could
well complicate things.


There are several signs I live in a Catholic
country.
In Europe naked women sell everything. If you see a
poster not using sex, its a novelty.
But this whole sex sells thing has got to be
getting over saturated. I know its the lowest
common denominator, but people will surely get
desensetized enough that its no longer economically
viable.
I've been watching it develope, its going pretty
fast. Nipples have appeared and are creeping their
way from edge of frame profile to full frontal. I'm
using their angle of view as a barometer of how
much impact is left in this.
I don't think it'll ever go hardcore porn, coz that
aint sexy.
And what then? There's nothing more base. Maybe
they'll jump back up a notch and start in with
violence. Brutalising our culture for the sale of
product. Could backfire. Punk and Ska, and other
angry person music is already worryingly popular in
Europe.

But they don't use sex here. We're all catholics.
They use guilt. My flatmate watches MTV in the
mornings (I wish he wouldn't, I always end up
watching it too) and every single ad is a heart
renderng appeal for various charities.
Makes me want to quit smoking and stop beating my
kids.

Anyway, must dash. Did everyone get the last mail a
few days ago? Mail me if you didn't.

much love

Daniel.