It's been a quarter of a year since pixel was put to screen on this blog but Pemulis is back and he's back in California. After never having been here till last Fall, it's now Pemulis's number #1 travel destination for the key Fall 2018 / Winter 2019 time segment. It's not exactly clear why Pemulis is in California right now but the prevailing understanding -- some call it a narrative -- is that he's here now so that he won't have to go later in the year, we believe. It's a mystery that A&E will surely one day make a series about: how do these technology companies make any money at all when you see what goes on behind the scenes? Modern Mysteries, premiering next Fall, after Parking Wars and before Hoarders: Motorhome Edition, only on A&E.
What is Pemulis doing here? Pemulis feels like he could probably get a real benefit out of some personal counselling from Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, maybe Albert Camus, somebody, anybody, because he really has no idea. It kind of seems like he's not doing anything for any purpose and these guys and gal might agree / have agreed. Didn't people used to spend a summer in Europe after college to find themselves before entering the real world having everything figured out? Well, if you haven't been keeping track, Pemulis has spent seven years there now and he probably feels more lost than ever, we imagine. Ostensibly, he's here -- here, being Californ I.A. -- for "meetings". Now don't go telling the CFO, but are these meetings really going to change anything about anything for anyone? (purely rhetorical question for anyone looking for the "contact" button).
In the back of your mind, you can always go home. But eventually, after seven years for example, home isn't what you remember it to be. And your new place sure isn't your new home either. Poor Pemulis; destined to be running away from something forever and ever, amen. Pemulis does have two important reasons for being here, however: number one, tonight's total lunar eclipse will not be visible in Europe (the land of demystifying one's dreams) and the Bay Area should be a prime spot for viewing (unfortunately, however, the forecast calls for 100% chance of cloudy conditions most probably negating reason number one); and, number two, helping to treat (though one can't be so optimistic as to imagine "curing") a serious case of the wintertime blues. While tonight's "super blood wolf moon" will in all likelihood be rained out, the rest of the week calls for a whole lotta warm California sun of which one should be out there having fun in and while Pemulis will be "working" during the day, he will also be 200% sure to get out there even if ever so briefly for some key targeted lunchtime sun exposure.
One thing that being in California seems good at accomplishing is creating a fake nostalgia drenched feeling of one-time bliss felt through music created and played during the 1990's. Did Third Eye Blind do anything after that first album? Doesn't matter. Did Jewel eventually start making dance music and give in to the evil temptation that is autotune? Pemulis hopes not, but even if she did, it doesn't matter either. Did Counting Crows become cringingly, embarrassingly terrible? Yes. But all that music that helped form Pemulis's psyche when he was around 14 years old is now forever tied up in some very complicated and very messy tangled-up knots of neurons that are somehow tied to California and once thinking that he might have had an idea of what he wanted to get out of life. And no, the San Jose Sharks are again on a road trip this week.
There's a wide wall that Pemulis can't see over now. It's a good thing that Pemulis is a fictional character by the way (emphasis added). One thing that this fictional character in particular really quite likes is warm(er) (always warmer) weather and California seems to have that more or less in spades. It's really nice to get away from the cold but then when you head back to it it seems even colder than before. Wow this writer is some kind of philosopher king. And so you find yourself on a "business trip" tired, jet-lagged, and alone, wishing for it to end but also dreading the end of it and the return to dark mornings and afternoons, grey skies, and freezing rain.
I have to say I'm a little bit jealous of Pemulis. And in fact I find it kind of irritating that he sometimes seems so glum, because from my view up here at around 10,000 feet he seems like a pretty lucky dude. Why, I heard that just today he spent a couple of hours at a Baron Barista sipping some very fine caffeinated products while reading Jonathan Franzen's seven hundred and eighty-fourth consecutive essay saying the same thing about the same birds (OK, maybe that part was the more irritating in all this). So therein perhaps lies the problem? Maybe he's reading the wrong stuff.
It was a long December and there's reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last. And it's one more day up in the canyons. And it's one more night in Hollywood. If you think you might come to California, I think you should (but don't go alone).
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