In short, the Aerovores, as they called themselves, believed that humans could learn to acclimate (a climate?) to a diet of nothing but air. And Gene wouldn’t have cared otherwise but for the fact that they had invaded his domain with their stupid rhetoric. He had a hard enough time with putting up with the moaning of Vegans, but this was Darwin-award stupid. No one could survive on air alone. And it wasn’t with too much thought that his quip occurred to him. Right below the Aerovore’s comment:

Humans have adapted their dietts many ways over the centuries and lurned many things about nutrition and what we can consume and everything that we have learned abou tthe humans diet points the way toward a deeper understanding and love of the environment, our mother. We should not take from our mother Earth! With patence and practice it is possible to learn to subsist on only air. You will save so many souls!

He wrote:

You know what goes good with air? Bacon.

He didn’t think about it again for a while after that. And he didn’t know it, but bacon would come to haunt him.

Read the whole story so far: A Field Guide to the Socially Inept, Incunabula

Characters and Places: aerovores, Gene Warren, Sausage Rumaki

Travis and Nick make their way upstairs at Mean Mike’s, and spot Dizzy sitting at the top near the railing in a light blue dress. She is talking to a guy but stops when she sees Nick and Travis. She gets up to hug them both. Leaning in to Travis, she says in a low tone with a laugh, “Save me.”

Travis smiles and looks at her, keeping one arm around her waist protectively. “Well, where are Ian and John and Kristin?”

“Over there,” she says, pointing to a booth a few tables away.

“So, come and sit with us then, baby,” Travis replies.

“Okay. Let me get my drink.”

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

Ian and John wave and keep walking up the street, discussing John’s upcoming show. Ian had decided to photograph it. Travis follows Nick into the ATM booth for no reason at all.

“Did you call Victoria back?” Travis asks. He’d left a message on Nick’s door that afternoon before leaving for the Engine Room.

“Yeah,” Nick replies, punching buttons on the ATM. “I told her I was gonna’ hang out with you guys.”

Travis smiles. “What’d she say?”

Turning around for a moment while the machine processes his transaction, Nick imitates Vicky in a huff. “Fine. I didn’t want to go out tonight anyway.”

“Sure she didn’t,” Travis replies sarcastically.

Read the whole story so far: Unthreaded

Every time that you open your eyes after they have been closed for a while, and maybe you’ve been listening to some music or your breathing or something to just set your mind at ease, and there before you is the shock of the world—the moon harbored by clouds, pink from a setting sun—that moment is egoless. Surprise and awe are egoless. The you that is necessiated by the moment to moment, estimates of transition, endlessly measuring existence, is gone in the sudden, singular moment of being wide, wide awake.

Read the whole story so far: Incunabula

The group make their way through the crowd in front of the Georgia Theater, looking at all the people waiting on show tickets as they go. Nick leans over conspiratorially to Travis as they made their way. “Over at the ticket booth. She’s buying one. Check her out.”

“What?” Travis asks and looks. There was a particularly unattractive girl at the booth window.

“Yours,” Nick said casually out of the side of his mouth.

“Sonuvabitch!” Travis curses under his breath. “I’ll get you for that.”

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

Characters and Places: Georgia Theater

The walk up Washington Street, to Lumpkin, and left again on to Clayton was a short three block stroll. Ian, John, Nick and Travis pair off and talk among themselves, passing and waving to acquaintances on the sidewalk, and smoking on their way to meet the girls. “I haven’t seen Daphne in a while,” Nick says as they all walk through a bank parking lot to cut over to Clayton.

“I saw her last weekend. She was out with that Vic guy,” Travis replies.

“There’s something about him I don’t like.”

“Yeah. Tell me about it.”

“What is it?” Nick asks seriously.

“I don’t know. He’s a little flashy, don’t ya’ think.”

“I guess.”

“Like, whenever Dizzy’s around, he acts real friendly. But then, a couple of weeks ago I ran into him at a barbeque a friend of mine was having, and he just blew me off. Didn’t talk to me for two minutes.” Travis takes a drag off his cigarette and thinks about it.

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

Characters and Places: Georgia Theater

John and Nick return, sitting on either side of the booth.

“What’s the occasion?” Nick asks regarding the toast.

“Ian finally had sex!” Travis offers.

Nick guffaws.

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

“What were you reading there when I came in?” Ian asks.

“Some lyrics. You wanna’ read ’em?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Travis opens the notebook to the spot and passes it over to Ian. Sitting, quietly sipping his beer, Travis just watches the bartender while Ian concentrates. His friend’s face is unusually serious as he reads and nods at this or that point. Ian had a way of unconciously pointing at things on a page that caught his attention, and Travis always liked it when he managed to get that reaction.

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

Finishing a few phrases in a beat-up composition notebook, Travis shuts it and looks toward the entrance of the Engine Room where Nick and John are making there way toward him. “ER” as the boys call it, is about like it sounds. There is an emergency room sign hanging on the back wall—of unknown origin. The whole place is lit with the bare minimum illumination required for human vision and is filled to the brim with knicknacks and show posters of most of the bands from Athens—everything from R.E.M. and the B-52s to a few flyers from John’s band and Travis’s shows. Despite the atmosphere of the place—black walls built around a barroom brawl waiting to happen—the conversation tends toward art and the meaning of life.

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy

“You just run into her?” asks Travis, sadistically, enjoying his friend’s discomfort.

“About thirty minutes ago. Blah blah blah! She never shuts up.”

“Are you guys goin’ out?” Ian asks.

“Not really…” Nick says, knowing that Vicky thinks differently.

“You just slept with her?”

Nick sips his beer. “We got really wasted last night, and it was cool.” After a quick sigh, Nick continues, “She was in a really good mood or somethin’. I took her home—totally was just gonna’ drop her off…” The rest of the story seems too obvious to explain to three men in their twenties.

Read the whole story so far: Carousel Cowboy, Unthreaded