Bloggrokker (Scott) 10/17

OOOOOOOOOOHHH--BLOGGROKKER MAAAAAADDDDDDDDD!!!!!!
You want tmesis?
Here's some tmesis for ya--
#$%^()(_(&&JI%Ffrt5776555r--crapsuckin--%^*((&3!&&%$!!!???)**^^&$%^+#%!!!
Alright, ok, yes, I know--an explanation is in order--and maybe along the way I can shape things into a proper blog entry.
I'm typing this entry with one of the computers in the Olin Library. Why? Oh, don't worry, my computer's safe, it's just Internetically-challenged--ya see, my roommates' cut out Web access at my current prehistoric hellhole of a residence. They did this, AND DIDN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!
They didn't say anyhthing 'cuz they're--oh, forget it, I'm not gonna waste some killer expletive on 'em.
I woke up, and the modem's, poof, gone!
Alakazam, and hawdayadoo!!
I'll deal with the logistics of dealing later, such as they stand.
'Cuz here comes Fredric Jameson happily traipsing into my head, reminding me of the idea of high-tech paranoia, the impending techno-cultural fear of a machinery-gone-berserk coup-d'etat, and I gotta know.
I gotta know if I'm not experiencing the obverse of Jameson's high-tech paranoia, specifically a low, low, low, low-tech paranoia wherein minds, far, far, far, far below those of the simplest Simon electronic game--and I know I'm revealin' some age here; who remembers the '78 Sears Wishbook?--aren't keepin' me down.
I suppose if I were in a more sarcastic mood I'd call it My Li'l Y2K. Ooops, too late!
And My Li'l Y2K just brings to mind that I had a really promising blog idea, a blog idea that probably wouldn't surprise anyone, considering the nature of what it is.
Oh, what the hell. I'll try it, anyway.
It happened last week, last Wednesday, 10/11--5 years and 1 month after 9/11--when a small plane hit an apartment high-rise in Manhattan. It's--dare I say it--Li'l 9/11! Aw, ain't it cute?
And weren't the media quick to harp on this comparison. One of those 24-hour spinworks--I can't remember which, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC; Christ, it doesn't matter, they're all the same, they're all doin' the Adorno-esque and Horkheimer-ific slide, they're all filtered through Das Kultur Industry--put up parallel images of the hit WTC and the smoking apartment building.
Indeed they did. And can they be blamed? After all, it's their job to keep us all in perpetual fear, at least 'til they got it straight the pilot wasn't some jihadist looking for the 42 Virgins E-ticket Outta Here, but a hopped-up baseball player. It's their job to remind us bin-Laden's still out there--although what they should tell us is that, considering the fickle shifts in a highly entertainment-based culture, he's not Osama bin-Laden anymore; these days, he's simply Osama "Has-Been" Laden. Zinnng!!!
Anyway, I compared Li'l 9/11 to something, too, although nothing so obvious as Big 9/11. I compared it to Madonna's "Vogue" video when we ogled it way back in the beginning of class. Madonna reinvented the past through her mimicry of Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Did not Li'l 9/11 reinvent the past, too? If Madonna's "retro-culturizing" of classic screen stars is a hip re-packaging of the past, isn't what happened on 10/11 also kind of a hip re-packaging of past events--it had the nostalgia feel to it, the nostalgia of fear of what might follow, but a safer, more comfortable variant of the Zizekian "it's all kinda like a disaster film" truth kicked in when it turned out no terrorists were involved. It turned out safe. It turned out hip.
I see truth in the falsity of hip re-packaging, even though Li'l 9/11 makes for a poor simulacrum. It tried, though, it tried.
And now back to my regularly-scheduled wireless troubleshooting and roommate horn-locking.