Posthuman Blues

Bumper-sticker anthropology

I see several of the same cars while driving to and from work, which I recognize from their bumper-stickers. I feel like the drivers (myself included) comprise some sort of secret club, and often wonder if they recognize my car (a thoroughly hideous white '86 Caprice that looks like it's survived several bomb explosions).

I think the first of these recurring vehicles I noticed was a white car with a so-hip-it's-lame Darwin fish and two bumper-stickers reading "Goddess Worshipper" and "Pagan and Proud." I've never gotten a good look at the driver, but I have the impression she's mousy and embittered. And I can't help but roll my eyes at this savvily marketed "pagan" thing. Adherents of "Wicca" think they're rebelling against the status quo; instead, they're dutifully lining corporate pockets. "Rebellion" is totally commodified, just like everything else. (I find the Darwin fish particularly insulting. $100 says this self-infatuated "goddess worshipper" doesn't even know who Richard Dawkins is.)

Then there's this blue car with an upward-tilting Jesus fish. (Seriously, how hard is it to glue one of these stupid things on the back of a car correctly? Does the tilted fish have some esoteric meaning I don't know about?) Interestingly, the driver's a black guy -- the only black person I've ever seen with a Jesus fish on his car. I thought the Jesus fish was the official icon of white trash. Apparently I was mistaken.

There's another car that I see occasionally while driving home. It boasts a glittery bumper-sticker that instructs me to "Expect a Miracle." (Oh, really? Could you be more specific?) From the shape the car itself is in, I'm guessing the driver's been "expecting a miracle" for a very long time now.

Blog Bash

This evening I'm getting together with some college friends at an Italian restaurant not far from my apartment. This get-together began as a "pre-emptive strike" against Kansas City Bloggers, a group of local blognauts who like to get together for pizza and beer and, presumably, talk about "blogging" (the fine art of posting random thoughts on the Internet -- lots to talk about . . .) All four of us have weblogs, but so far only Jason and I are listed at the K.C. Bloggers site. Then again, I haven't exactly been paying that much attention.

Mars book update

The Mars book mss. has been returned from the editor. The essential probem with the text, as is, is the lack of organization, so I'll spend the next couple months assembling it for readability. I was very pleased to note that my editor knows what he's doing and can ably envision the final product.