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☮ Social ☮ PD Social Distancing Talk Thread: Swirly Congregation That's 100% Pandemic-Proof

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The tracking says that the package went through a customs inspection, and then the next update says that it is being held by customs because they expect me to pay some taxes or something and that they need my ID information. Not looking good. Im gonna ignore it for now.
 
Zeta:

So you haven't actually heard from anyone about it directly, you just saw that update on the tracking?

You absolutely should not take my word as legal advice, but ignoring it is probably what I would do, along with keeping the house clean for a while. If you respond to the situation by reaching out to them yourself if kind of just proves you were tracking it, right? Might as well retain some modicum of deniability.
 
Just ingore it small packages don't warrant further investigation. House raids are scary shit especially when tripping feels like a god dam movie scene.
 
leet said:
Absolute Nightmare! Did plod find out you were tripping?
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acid seems to have a insane power of making you sober up really quick in very dire situations to hold it together they didn't what i was on they just knew i was high off my ass.
 
TripSitterNZ said:
acid seems to have a insane power of making you sober up really quick in very dire situations to hold it together they didn't what i was on they just knew i was high off my ass.
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Tell me more, how was it, the house search? Do you live in the US?


TripSitterNZ said:
Just ingore it small packages don't warrant further investigation. House raids are scary shit especially when tripping feels like a god dam movie scene.
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This really depends, I've heard people got raided for like a few grams of weed seized. But yeah if it was small order and not illegal RC or grey area, they probably won't do it. It really depends where you live, dunno.
 
xammy said:
Tell me more, how was it, the house search? Do you live in the US?




This really depends, I've heard people got raided for like a few grams of weed seized.
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Outside of the US. I didn't live their it was more a central come and go of various hippies and heavy drug users. i was deep on a decent hit of acid and weed when shit hit the fan at dawn the old megaphone telling you to come out with a bunch of totally fried hippies we thought were just bad tripping then the door got kicked down with armed police and dogs and everything searched. I got off easy since i was just in wrong place at the wrong time and referred to counselors for substance abuse.

Looking back it was a really stupid place to trip or hang out as a raid was invetiable.

It was like slow mo a scene straight out of a action movie i couldnt fucking believe my eyes was pretty much just fear through my being been handcuffed and questioned and trying to act sober while time is out the window riding out the remainder of the trip in a jail cell was just stuck inside my head really just soaking in the fact that i had a really fucked my own life up for years and years. Felt like purgatory
 
TripSitterNZ said:
Outside of the US. I didn't live their it was more a central come and go of various hippies and heavy drug users. i was deep on a decent hit of acid and weed when shit hit the fan at dawn the old megaphone telling you to come out with a bunch of totally fried hippies we thought were just bad tripping then the door got kicked down with armed police and dogs and everything searched. I got off easy since i was just in wrong place at the wrong time and referred to counselors for substance abuse.

Looking back it was a really stupid place to trip or hang out as a raid was invetiable.

It was like slow mo a scene straight out of a action movie i couldnt fucking believe my eyes was pretty much just fear through my being been handcuffed and questioned and trying to act sober while time is out the window riding out the remainder of the trip in a jail cell was just stuck inside my head really just soaking in the fact that i had a really fucked my own life up for years and years. Felt like purgatory
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Wow, I've never even been in jail for drunk behavior or anything, going through that while tripping would scar me for life for sure.

I'm interested where you live, I think house searches here are more civilized, like they ring the doorbell and just come politely to search your house, not kicking the door in armed or anything. I live in EU.

Must've been an experience really.
 
I just got back from almost a whole week on the road with my band. Had so much fun, played 4 shows across 3 states. I might tell stories about it sometime tomorrow but for the moment I have shit tons of PMs and stuff to catch up on. We are really getting good now, it's pretty amazing to me. And way more consistent, too. Also my guitar player asked me if I could do some solo classical-style improv, because I was playing it after staying up all night on acid with the drummer and bass player the night before (we ate a few hits at 6am for some reason, after hitting the plateau of some really good MDA, after our show in Baltimore, and walked to his parents' house to get his mom to take us to buy cigarettes, and she ended up making us eggs and pancakes too), and feeling super in the flow. So at the end of the show last night he told me to stay up there after everyone else got off at the end of the second set, and I played for about 10 minutes and got so many compliments, someone was crying because it made them feel so emotional, and some musicians I really respect told me I was an "amazing player" which felt... amazing. :) I'm getting better at singing and playing at the same time and soon I want to take over some of the lead singing (everyone in the band wants that). I worked my "normal" job from the road, worked a whole day on LSD and no sleep, even. So it really proves to me that I can successfully do my job on the road. The band is most of what I think about these days, I'm totally immersed in it and it's the best thing ever. We have so much fun and we're all really close like brothers now. We have fans most everywhere we go, too, so we always have people coming to the shows, and hanging out/a place to stay the night. Couldn't be better. By the end of the year we'll have played like 50 or 60 shows I think... the goal for next year is to hit 100 shows for the year. My girlfriend doesn't like that I'm gone so much, which sucks, but it's 100% clear to me that I need to be following this dream. I hope she can handle it... but really, I've never felt so solidly sure about anything in my life, that I should be doing this.

Cosmic Charlie said:
What a diet right, like 30 bucks on the menu :D
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Jesus christ, fuckin' New York man... that is absurdly expensive!
 
^Lol at $30 pizza, can't find any that expensive in my city.

Day 4 sober.

About New York...
I started reading Requiem for a Dream, the novel by Hubert Shelby Jr. It is intense, I actually didn't know the movie was based on the novel. Without seeing the movie, I don't think I could read this. It written in the" stream-of-consciousness mode" but since I've seen the movie, i can get a pretty good grasp of it. Anyway it takes place in Brooklyn. New York has fascinated me a lot, hasn't it been called City of Sin, or did that mean just some particular area in NYC? I've never been there or in the US. I really should get this in physical version because reading from e-book from the computer screen sucks. But I have to paste the preface from the writer himself, and the foreword from Darren Aronofsky, the director of the movie. Sorry for the long wall of text, but it got me really interested instantly.

Preface to the New Edition

Requiem for a Dream was originally published in 1978. It is extremely gratifying to know that it is still in print and going into another edition. Also, it is being made into a film, production scheduled to start the middle of April this year. So the book still lives and breathes (as do I).

For me there is something beautiful and ironic in the fact that all this is happening now, during a time of “unparalleled prosperity.” The Great American Dream is coming true for many. Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but selfdestructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.

I am not suggesting we need to give everything to the poor and homeless—the millions of them who are still here in the midst of plenty—put on a hair shirt and go through the streets with a begging bowl. This, in and of itself, is no more nurturing than the pursuit of “getting.” I am not afraid of money and what it can buy. I would love to have a house full of stuff—of course I would need a house first. I have been hungry and see nothing noble m hunger. Neither do I see anything noble in eating high on the hog though eating is certainly better. But to believe that getting stuff is the purpose and aim of life is madness.

It seems to me that we all have a dream of our own, our own personal vision, our own individual way of giving, but for many reasons we are afraid to pursue it, or to even recognize and accept its existence. But to deny our vision is to sell our soul. Getting is living a lie, turning our back on the truth, and Visions are glimpses of the truth: Obviously nothing external can truly nurture my inner life, my Vision.

What happens when I turn my back on my Vision and spend my time and energy getting the stuff of the American Dream? I become agitated, uncomfortable in my own skin, because the guilt of abandoning my “Self/self,” of deserting my Vision, forces me to apologize for my existence, to need to prove myself by approaching life as if it’s a competition. I have to keep getting stuff in an attempt to appease and satisfy that vague sense of discontent that worms its way through me.

Certainly not everyone will experience this torment, but enough do and have no idea what is wrong. I’m sure the psychologists have a term for this freefloating anxiety, but the cause is what is destroying us, not the classification. There are always millions who seem to get away with doing the things that we think abominable, and thrive. It certainly appears that way. Yet I know, absolutely, from my experience, that there are no free lunches in this life, and eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.

This book is about four individuals who pursued The American Dream, and the results of their pursuit. They did not know the difference between the Vision in their hearts and the illusion of the American Dream. In pursuing the lie of illusion, they made it impossible to experience the truth of their Vision. As a result everything of value was lost.

Unfortunately, I suspect there never will be a requiem for the Dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn its passing. Perhaps time will prove me wrong. As Mr. Hemingway said: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

— Hubert Selby, Jr.
Los Angeles
1999



main_900[1].jpg





Foreword to the New Edition

I was a public school kid from Brooklyn facing my first exams during freshman year of college, and I was terrified. High school was a joke. The only thing I learned was how to get away with cutting class. So, when college came around I wasn’t very prepared. I hit the library and tried to learn.

But Selby fucked everything up.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the word “Brooklyn.” Now when you’re from Brooklyn and you see anything related to Brooklyn you’re immediately interested. I pulled a worn copy of Last Exit to Brooklyn off the shelf. This was before the movie, and I had no clue what I was holding. From sentence one I was done, and so were my finals. I blew them off and I read. I read and I read and I screamed and I connected and I recited and I rejoiced. This was storytelling. This was understanding. This was a deep yet simple examination of what makes us human. I now knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to tell stories.

Storytelling took me to L.A. and film school. Before school started they told us to prepare three short scripts for projects to be executed during the year. So, I figured I should read short stories from my favorite authors. That led me to Selby’s “Fortune Cookie,” which I shot right away. The story follows the rise and fall of a doortodoor salesman who gets addicted to the fortunes in fortune cookies.

After film school I figured it was time to make a feature, so I turned to novels of my favorite authors. I found Requiem for a Dream in a book store on Venice Beach. I was excited to start it. I did, but I never finished it. Not because it wasn’t good. Rather, the novel was so violently honest and arresting that I couldn’t handle it.

It was on my shelf for a long time. Then, years later, my producer Eric Watson was heading off for a ski trip with his family in Colorado. He needed something to read, and he grabbed the book off my shelf and asked if he could borrow it. When he returned he said Requiem, for a Dream ruined his vacation and that I must finish it. I did, and I knew we had to make it next.

This book is about a lot of things. Mostly it’s about love. More specifically it’s about what happens when love goes wrong.

When it was time to write the script I rented an apartment in South Brooklyn, out by Coney Island. The novel had amazing structure and it translated very well into three acts. But something was strange. While breaking it down I realized that whenever something good was supposed to happen to a character, something bad happened. Because of this, I couldn’t figure out who the hero of the novel was.

After sketching out all the character arcs I realized they were all upside down. So I flipped them over, and suddenly I had a “Eureka!” The hero wasn’t Sara, it wasn’t Harry, not Tyrone, not Marion.

The hero was the characters’ enemy: Addiction. The book is a manifesto on Addiction’s triumph over the Human Spirit. I began to look at the film as a monster movie. The only difference is that the monster doesn’t have physical form. It only lives deep in the characters’ heads.

Ellen Burstyn, who knocked it out of the park as Sara Goldfarb, told me Hinduism has two main gods—Shiva and Kali. Shiva is the god of creation and Kali is the god of destruction. They exist as a team. One cannot exist without the other. Just like the Christian God and the Devil. Good and evil. There is a balance. Selby writes about Kali. He writes about the darkness.

It is in this darkness where Selby flips on his flashlight and searches for our humanity. It is that tiny but priceless diamond of love lost in a universe of evil that he cherishes. And by leading us to it he reveals everything—our beauty and our vanity, our strength and our weaknesses. He shows us what makes us tick, what makes us hate and what makes us love. He reveals what it is to be human.

I needed to make a film from this novel because the words burn off the page. Like a hangman’s noose, the words scorch your neck with rope burn and drag you into the subsubbasement we humans build beneath hell. Why do we do it? Because we choose to live the dream instead of choosing to live the life.

You won't ever forget this read.

—Darren Aronofsky
May 1, 2000
 
That's incredible, I didn't know the movie was based off a novel.

Thanks for sharing, Xammy. I liked Selby's preface a lot. Powerful stuff.
 
Img_9999 said:
That's incredible, I didn't know the movie was based off a novel.

Thanks for sharing, Xammy. I liked Selby's preface a lot. Powerful stuff.
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found the book from my local library, should get it in a few days. It's also translated, which will be nice but also a lot is lost in translation... couldn't find the original.
fuck I miss working in the library. I ordered to pick it up from another library when I made the reservation, not the one where I worked. I didn't feel like meeting all those people since they don't know anything what happened to me since I worked there (psychosis etc)
Such a carefree and easy job with enough socializing everyday, helping people and just chilling.

But yeah I never thought how the movie is much more about than addiction... I will watch it again when I've read the book.

It has one of the best soundtracks ever

 
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That movie is phenomenal, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. I've seen it 3 times (separated by many years) and every time it was better/more disturbing/impactful. I'd love to read the book now, I also didn't know it was a book first.
 
Hey good news... I just opened the letter with my final balance due for my lawyer and it was only $1,250... I was imagining it was going to be substantially more because of horror stories from other people. Doable. :) Also good news, I've got the ball rolling on the home renovations/refinance. Gotta line up 2 more contractors. Also gotta find a car but my girl is giving me a loan for that and I'll pay her back by her not having to pay me rent (I'll also try to add a couple hundred every month). So it looks like everything is working out. :)
 
What great news :)

I'll officially be closing the summer this weekend with a last festival, weather is good, line up is great and it's fairly small.
Bringing some LSD & MDMA, it's been too long.
 
I'm not only very paranoid right now, but also lost a not so small amount of money with the package that got seized :(
Shit sucks. I don't think I'll order stuff online to this address ever again. ?
 
Xorkoth said:
Damn, sorry man. :( Never had anything seized myself...
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Do they not use dogs or x-ray scanners there with customs, or just don't care that much? Or is there just so much post going through that they just don't have the resources?I find it weird that you have never got anything seized. I understood you order a lot of stuff from China etc... It only takes for dog to mark one huge box of letters and then all of them go through x-ray.
 
No idea, I don't think they care about small-time stuff. They're more worried about kilos of heroin and shit. Also there is just so much. But I've even had the sketchiest-looking Chinese packages come through no problem.
 
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