Hanging out with Norm
Days 10-12 Tuesday-Thursday August 19-21, 2003
Praying that the car wouldn't die for that last thirty miles was stressful but the tension disappeared after seeing my old college chum for the first time in a year. The next day we went driving around looking for some juice but my car died a couple miles out. After a stressful couple of hours taking the bus throughout Tempe we came across a kindly lady who let us take a gallon from her pump and even drove us back to our car. |
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Norm is a dedicated artist whose works merge sound engineering, 70's funk, the works of William Burroughs, robots, sculpture, sock puppets, performance art, and a touch of bluegrass. After finding a sound engineering program in Tempe he and KD headed west after a lifetime in Virginia. The next couple of days were like old times. Norm had brought his familiar musical studio set up out from Virginia, a hodgepodge mix of new and used computer equipment spliced with the latest software and obsolete free shareware programs, a jumble of wires in and out of components used beyond their original purpose and function, set up on sawhorses to create an abstract universe of electronic creativity.
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| Norm and his famous studio |
Norm's sock puppet collection. My favorite is the robot, blown up on the right. |
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The next couple of days we resumed our college routine of media saturation and manipulation, speaking in Simpson's quotes, watching the movies from old like the 80's
"V" sci-fi miniseries and catching up on the David Lynch that's come round. In between there were stretches at the pool and aimless walks around Tempe, Norm being very patient with rants about the twists and turns my life has taken of late. One evening I borrowed his insights for a few hours while trying to get a game to work on my laptop that I had brought along. Before leaving I had bought a new computer game with plans of holing up in a hotel somewhere for a couple of days, but the obsolete hand-me-down model from my Aunt didn't have the right drivers and programs. The laptop had been with me on every stop so far, an inconvenience while passing through airport security, and I couldn't even use it. For several hours we put our minds to the task and couldn't make it work. But sometimes the fun isn't the end result but the process itself, whether things work out tis no matter.
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