Key Bar

—02.19.2000—

Again it feels like I haven’t written anything for ages. Stopping for a while makes the process seem unfamiliar. I only have a few days left on Gugh. It’s been very nice being here, though I’ve been watching too much satellite television. 500 channels and they’re still mostly a waste of time. Of course, for the first few days I couldn’t resist watching soft porn which felt like a poor substitute for actual physical connection.

Anyway, the TV and the lack of a comfortable place to type have contributed to keeping me away from the journal. I suppose I’ve also been feeling like there’s been something lacking in the writing lately, some thread of truth, or honesty of approach. Like I’ve been thinking too much about this account as a commodity instead of as a vehicle for exploration. Even as I lament the fact that everything is consumable, I find myself planning to sell my own experience.

I suppose to a degree that’s been driven by a growing sense of my dwindling resources, the two are related as you may imagine: the lower my funds, the higher my anxiety. My bank statement came in the mail yesterday, however, and given my limited spending over the past three months, it looks like I’ll be able to survive until Easter and still be able to afford some snacks for the flight home.

The remote working experiment isn’t bearing that much fruit, I have to say. I’m still convinced it’s feasible. With my lack of promotion, however, I suppose it’s wishful thinking to expect much more. I may change tack and just start planning for the work I’ll be doing when I return. I’ve been thinking about business ideas as well. I don’t think I’ve told anyone but Mirasol about these yet so let me know how they sound.

The first idea is to follow through with this “Key Bar” idea I’ve had for a while. The idea is that after the bar’s opening night the front door is always locked. On opening night, however, you hand out copies of the key. From then on the keys get passed out to friends, copied, and so on. I think it’d be really cool to watch how the crowd developed. The inside the bar would be sooper-fresh and basically be designed to invite people to connect, to comfortably, safely, be in closer physical proximity to each other. I don’t think we do it enough. Maybe something special could happen in the bathrooms. Maybe the sink extends under the mirror linking the men’s and women’s sides so hands could meet in the soapy middle? What else? Low lighting hanging from the ceiling down to almost the floor, lots of pillows. It sounds super lovely. If after a few months the crowd not so great we give our friends new keys, change the locks and start again.

The other idea is a two part plan for a car rental place, only it doesn’t rent to the public. You join like it’s a club. Say you live in the city and don’t want the hassle of owning a car but you need one a few times a month. You join this club and you a get a cool little car like a VW Golf or something but you don’t have to deal with street sweeping, tickets, parking, leases etc. In the end it’s cheaper than renting and the business promotes alternative transport by saying, “Walk, bike or take the bus and use one of our cars when you really need to drive.”

The other version of this is fairly expensive but all of the cars are mouth-watering classics, like old Porsches, Jensens and Ferraris. This way every couple of months some web designer or software engineer can drive the car of their dreams. How do those sound?

——

Ooooh, I’m going to sign off. I’ve just been watching TV again... brain sooo soft, almost 30% softer than the leading brand.