[Powderworks] Currency for Cultural Exchange
Kate Adams
kate@dnki.net
Fri, 12 Apr 2002 17:42:12 -0400
I was staying in the hostel in Washington DC earlier this week. I turned
in early, before my bunkmate even arrived, because I was completely wiped
out from an overnight train trip and ten hours of symposia. Since there
was activity in the room, I decided to use my cd player to drown out the
random noise.
I was pretty close to out when my bunkmate arrived. She was a
standard-issue HI/AYH swagwoman - an internal frame pack with legs, just
like the ones you can find at every hostel. But this one didn't say G'day
like they normally do ... she was eagerly waving the crystal case from the
Ghostwriter's Fibromoon in my face.
She was doubly astonished to find out that I was not Australian.
As the disc was in the closing strains of Cold Heart, I willingly
relinquished it, along with Second Skin and Capricornia. She hopped out to
meet one of her companions in the hallway, boombox in hand. ("got them
from a yank! can you believe it?"). I put in another cd and crashed
totally. I think she'd been away too long.
Of course, had I not been so beat, I'd have joined them. The discs were
sitting next to my bed in the morning.
I also got a new appreciation for Diesel and Dust last night. The train
pulled out of Penn Station headed North around 1am, and I curled up on the
double seat and popped it in. The tracks between NYC and New Haven CT are
so bad that the fast trains have to slow way down. The bumping, jostling,
lurching and trying to stay on the seat and sleep added an entirely new
dimension to D&D. If only fresh air had been involved.
******************************************************************************************************
Kate Adams
Doctoral Student
Epidemiology
Department of Work Environment
UMass Lowell
******************************************************************************************************
"There are a lot of people who as they get older get mellow. I don't like
mellow music. I don't like mellow. Period." - Moe Tucker
******************************************************************************************************