Bugging Out Over The International Date Line

There are times when this shared dream shows its true binary nature.  It's so sophisticated in its simplicity that someone as locquaciuos as I has great difficulty translating its calculated beauty.  The closest I can come is through anectode and having faith that the energy transmits through shared experience.

This is how the night sky looked as I passed by Japan in MH 094 seat 48A:

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           JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJAAAAAAAAAPAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN


The in-flight media entertainment system was acting buggy all flight.  I guess it isnt Y2K7 friendly.  It started to shut down intermittently as we approached the International Date Line.

I started my evening watching The Sting -- great friggin movie, starting with the opening sequence and scene which are the only things I caught of the classic before my videos retired for the flight.  So I searched the music channels and landed on a song with mad lyrics to Rage Against The Machine angst anthem:

I sued Niemen Marcus for putting Christmas decorations up way out of season;
I sued Ben Affleck -- c'mon do I really need a reason...

I lmao and when the next song which came on was a hip-hopped polka, I realized I landed in trip soundtrack heaven -- A Weird Al Yankovic Channel!!!

Then my nervous system lit up amber and I realized the proximity of my physical machine to my birthplace and the first sights I saw as I made my very first overseas trip in 1976, going backwards in time by going east over the IDL, then the numbers started lining up in my mental machine.  The date 1022 in binary is 1111111110, which if you are counting on your fingers looks like every finger raised but the right pinky.  Of course, this means the date 1023 in binary is 1111111111, or two open palms up -- Dual Buddha's Palms.  Oh, that is a great inflight movie, I forget the title though -- Kung Fu Hustle maybe?  Also, the first time my nervous system was affected by crossing the IDL eastwardly, was February 24, 1976, or LL's birthday.  The starry sky was cosmic and stunning.  When we flew by the Aleutian Islands, I thought about Zia living alone and independent on the Island of The Blue Dolphins -- how I wished forever that I could be her, know her bravery, share her adventure.

When my family went on our summer vacations by bus, I always had my Walk-Man and cassettes to accompany me on the road trips.  My sister usually slept, my brother sat with my dad and my little sister sat with my mom.  My cassettes for 1985 California trip was Police's Synchronicity, The Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill and Weird Al's In 3-D.  I loved those cds -- nostalgic love, yknow?  Everything I know about obsession, partying and adaptation is influenced by The Police, The Beasties and Weird Al... circa 1984.

Anyway, back to the now.  Flipping around the music channel, I came across a song I recognized but never heard before.  I soon realized it was a Barbra Streisand song my godmother had taught me to sing.  She accompanied on piano as I struggled with the range, but she believed I could do it.  Now, hearing Barbra kill it, I was like, Oh, she thought I could sing like that?? Wow.

The Sting movie references my piano playing potential as a toddler when I was playing The Entertainer by four years old.  Considering I started piano lessons when I was 3, it's something that puts a smile on when my godmother talks about it.  Later I landed on Guns-n-Roses Welcome To The Jungle and felt sad about how I let my gangrape interfere with my friendship with Donna.  I quickly jumped back to Channel 32 (100000, or left thumb up, right closed fist) for another hour of Weird Al.

The song he does to R.Kelly's Stuck in The Closet, I think it's Stuck In The Drive-Thru is priceless -- pure comedy on so many levels, he perfected the asinine hip-hopera genre.