[This entry was written on a plane and posted as of the date written]
This morning I was watching a long-running tracking shot. I found myself captivated by the atmosphere of it. It felt like something out of Lost in Translation or one of the Cohen Brothers unapologetically sentimental stories. The soundtrack (Massive Attack) sync'ed perfectly with the movement of both the camera, and everyone in it (but not in that VW commecial way)
The reason that this this is worth noting at all is that I was walking up the causeway into the terminal at SFO from the train to the rental cars. The "soundtrack" was being provided by my iPod & new headphones (which do a remarkable job of filtering external noise)
Feeling like an spectator in my own life is hardly an unusual phenomenon, but the detachment in this case was nearly complete. The other oddity was that I was enjoying the sensation immensely. I think I'm starting to see what iSteve is beaming about when he talks about living the iLife.
And yet, I can't help think of Chuck Palahniuk's observation in Lulabye (I'm paraphrasing a master, so trust me that he conveys the idea much more effectively than I ever could) that George Orwell's Big Brother has come true, except that instead of a tyranical govenment monitoring the thoughts of the citizens, it's a multi-national capitalistic juggernaut that beams images and sound into our heads in such a ubiquitous deluge that we end up with a society of "consumers" uncomfortable to be left in silence with their own thoughts (a much more effective solution to mass-control than the panopticon of ubiquitous surveillence (which we're making great strides toward every day, but I digress, that is another story for another entry.))
