GeZi World - my universe and thoughts I have about it

 

 Requiem for a Travel Mug - Death of an Era4 comments
10 Dec 2006 @ 05:34, by Ge Zi

Something that survived unwaveringly distraught and upheaval has now died!

This is its story.

It all began in the early dawn of the internet bubble. Who does not remember the days when you just wrote - yes, sometimes with pen and paper - to yet another startup to get free stuff?

That was the time when I received my free commuter mug from - Amazon.com. And a nice mug it was. Poetic wisdom printed right on it:

"I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened by old ones." - John Cage

or

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination." - Henry David Thoreau

This mug found its way right into my life. A firm place in the cup holder of my old Jeep Wrangler - a trusty companion on my trips to clients.

Over the years the internet bubble burst, the clients went away or changed and the Wrangler was succeeded by a Grand Cherokee.

But the Amazon mug remained. An indispensable companion on the less frequent journeys to clients but more frequently on my desk when discovering the depth of internet marketing - a subject that had initially given birth to it.

I could not imagine a life without it - I had so much gotten used to it as it probably had gotten used to me - we were a team!

But then three days ago I noticed first signs of trouble - condensation between the two layers of plastic that had protected my hands from the hot liquids inside and which, between them, had given home to the paper shouting into the world words of wisdom - little water droplets that should not be there - that could not be there!

Unable to confront the reality of these facts I just tried not to see them - "It will go away - it will evaporate!"

But it did not.

Today it was more than just condensation droplets, way more - today it was tea from last night I noticed when in the morning lovingly grasping my mug.

The diagnosis could only be a crack in the inner container. Nothing that could be done about it - nothing!

The only relief from my sorrows I could imagine was writing this requiem as a little thank to a dear comrade who finally cracked under his burden - dutiful but often not noticed.

Thank you! And thank you Amazon for giving rise to this friendship - although I still don't know who is John Cage.



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4 comments

10 Dec 2006 @ 14:25 by jmarc : Here's his bio
I see nothing about the phase in his life which he devoted to creating pithy quotes for internet-bubble-coffee-mug-give aways though. Maybe we could edit?
LINK  

11 Dec 2006 @ 04:16 by Ge Zi @76.168.91.127 : Initially I thought...
... that it might be this John Cage, but then I thought - naugh. Yeah, maybe you are right with your Johnny Cage.  

22 Dec 2006 @ 08:37 by Darlene Franz @206.124.150.122 : My Amazon mug died today
Well, the same Amazon promo mug has traveled everywhere with me, too, since my long-ago days in procurement for a corporate library earned it for me. Your nice little elegy provided some consolation since just hours ago I discovered my mug met the same fate as yours. Mild condensation appeared sporadically for years without any further problems, and then, tonight, tea between the inner and outer plastic, forever darkening those lovely quotes. I looked on E-bay for a replacement, but to no avail. I know one other person who carries a mug like this everywhere, but I doubt he could be persuaded to part with it.

John Cage is undisputedly the father of avant-garde 20th century classical music. He championed the musical potential of all sound, and wrote some seriouly wierd stuff that really got people's attention in the 1950's and 60's. Perhaps his most famous composition is a piece called 4'22" (Four minutes and twenty-two seconds), in which a classical pianist walks onstage, seats him- or herself at the piano and appears to be getting ready to play. But s/he never plays a note, just sits there for - you guessed it - 4'22", then closes the lid and walks offstage. Cage's point was that the expectancy of the audience, combined with whatever ambient noise occurs during the elapsed time is just as interesting as conventional music. It's a Zen kind of thing, and Cage _was_ into Eastern philosophy. He used ambient noise and "random" sound in many other pieces as well. Cage's ideas, though not new anymore, still inspire composers, listeners, and others. He was considered to be "ahead of his time". I'm sure there's an entry for the real John Cage on Wikipedia. I'm just not savvy enough to know how to link it here. Assistance, anyone?

So thanks for writing about your mug.
R. I. P., Amazon mug. No other mug can truly replace you.  

22 Dec 2006 @ 23:46 by Ge Zi @76.168.91.127 : the right John Cage
Thank you, Darlene!

yes, this correct John can be found on Wikipedia as John Milton Cage.

Great for sharing your experience with the Amazon mug. I had hoped that somebody from Amazon would run into this post and be so moved as to finding me a new (old) mug in the Amazon vaults - but no luck so far.

But now it's already two of us - so our power of intention has doubled - will see what happens now.  

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