The Grand Experiment

Darkness.  It wraps around him, heavy and paralyzing, like a blanket weighted with lead.  He tries to move, but the darkness resists him.  The whole of Ocean may as well rest upon his shoulders.


There are voices in the darkness.  Shapeless mutterings.  He tries to make out the words, but they are just as intangible as the darkness.


The faint crackle of electricity; the smell of burnt air.  


The light erupts, cutting a shaft in the darkness.  It is the dimmest light there could ever be, but against the darkness it is the sun.  He feels the darkness slip away from him, and for once in a very long time he discovers that he can stand tall.  


He stares out at the darkness: a thing now separate from him; an other finally perceivable and with form.  He listens to the muttering voices in the darkness, and, after a time, plucks from it his own.

Errr... Hello.

My name is Michael, and this is my attempt at keeping a regular blog.  I had one many years ago, but it quickly fell out of use.  However, lately I have been feeling the urge to write down in some kind of public forum my thoughts and opinions on... well... pretty much anything and everything.  So I feel like now is the right time to try this out again.

Maybe someone out there will read what I write and find enjoyment from it.  Perhaps no one will even notice I am here.  Who knows what will happen?? That is the grand experiment, and shouldn't each and every one of us try to make our lives a grand experiment?

But perhaps that is selling this tiny little blog a bit too dearly.  There is always an implied amount of  narcissism whenever one keeps a public blog.  Keeping one is usually an exercise in self-indulgence; it is an attempt to separate yourself from the world around you, and to try to implant a false sense of authority and importance to what you have to say.  It is vainly shining a light upon yourself to separate yourself from the darkness.

Though we do not realize that the darkness before us is as thin as a sheet of paper, and that beyond it is another light, and another person shouting as loudly as they can.

Sometimes the light is what creates the darkness.

Or maybe not.  Oh well.  Metaphors are only metaphors, and they can only take you so far.  Eventually one must discard the metaphor and confront the thing itself.  The best map of the world is the world, as they say.  This is a blog I will write, and you will either read it, or you won't.

I'm not quite sure what this blog will be about.  I keep trying to write movies, but usually fail at it.  I'm sure I'll talk about that now and again.  I'm currently unemployed and thinking about pursuing a career in sound editing for film and TV, so I'm sure I'll write about that too.  I sometimes write music, and may post pieces here.  I will talk about movies I've seen, and books that I've read.  Once in a while, though not often, I will probably get political (though this will probably take the form of condemning both the left and the right at the same time, and just wondering why people can't bother to be nice to each other for a change).

In short, I'll write about whatever I feel like.  I'll write about things that I find interesting.  I will be very selfish, and I will always be right, and you will always be wrong.


Maybe it will help me become a better writer, as it will force me to make my thoughts on subjects more coherent and linear.  But we shall see.  There's no better practice for writing than just sitting down and shaping out sentences.


By the way, the title for this blog comes from a song of the same name by a band called The Gothic Archies.  It is another band fronted by Stephin Merritt, leading force behind The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, and Future Bible Heroes.  I'm guessing the line also appears somewhere in the children's novels "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", as the sole reason for The Gothic Archies's existence was to make an album of music inspired by those novels.  I had debated between this title and "The World is a Very Scary Place".  But right now "Smile! No One Cares How You Feel" somehow felt more appropriate.  I might change it later.

So here we go!

He stares into the light.  He will keep staring until it blinds him.