Whew, three days at the brothel! My student narratives are getting old. I mean these are photos from Cuba, so much history and culture and all they can think of is this!

I'm beginning to think that it wasn't such a great idea to digitize myself in this Cuba world. Not only am I forced to live out narratives created by my students, but I'm starting to lose pixels. If this keeps up I'm going to be extremely lossy.

I am now roaming the streets, searching for rum and cigars. How creative.

I asked a guy on the street where I can obtain quality cigars. He looked at me as if he'd seen me before and gave me the names of a few stores. He then walked up to me and whispered in my ear that somebody was around the area looking for me. Finally, I think that this narrative might get interesting. Who could it be? Che? Castro? Who knows, I'll keep my eye out.

I walked on and out of the corner of my eye I saw someone that looks like an actor who was a comic sidekick in a number of films in the 1950s. I couldnt' think of his name, but I remember that he also appeared on the Milton Berle Show in the late 1950s. He was really very funny, but then disappeared from show business.

I found a nice quiet area and decided to lie down, write in my journal and take a nap.

I had a dream that I was in the Bahamas.

While in the lobby of my Bahamas hotel, I met a man and his wife. We had small talk for a minute, then the man looked at me and said, "It's for your own good, Academic."

At that moment I awoke, bewildered.

I decided to roam around and look for the cigar stores.

I crossed a corner and nearly ran into the actor who I saw earlier in the day. At first he tried to get around me, like he was scared. I told him that I know him. He looked at me and said, "Yes, you've probably seen me in the pictures; I was a movie star." I thought to myself that "movie star" was a bit of a stretch, but I must admit that I was a bit star-struck. I told him which movies and TV shows I've seen him in and how I thought they were very funny. He told me that he'd lived in Cuba for about forty years, in retirement. He still performs on stage, though, and told me that he had a show that night at a local club. I told him that I would love to see it and then talk afterward.

After my encounter with the Movie Star I found the cigar shops and bought two boxes.

That night I arrived at the club.

I saw the Movie Star perform on stage. It was a weird experience, like he had done the same act for forty years. Afterward he sat down with me with some rum and we talked. He told me that some detective was looking for me. I realized that this detective was probably sent to get me out of this digital domain and was most likely the same guy in my Bahamas dream.

Switching subjects, I asked what it's like to live in Cuba for so many years. He told me that it has changed a lot. In the 1950s all the movie stars came here. There were so many fans. Over the years, he said that he felt stuck in time; the cars were still 1950s, but his fans were gone. I told him that I understood what he meant because I felt really stuck here too. Before I could tell him my crazy story, a man stepped up to our table. It was indeed the Detective.

He didn't have to say anything. I knew that we was there to bring me back into the real world. He called it a "rescue mission," but this guy didn't know the first thing about the digital domain. He's lucky he made it this far.

I heard a choking noise and turned to see the Movie Star clutching his throat. There was no saving him; he toppled over and died. He seemed pretty miserable without his fans and fame, so he was probably ready to go. Who knows. I motioned to the Detective that we should leave the club.

As we were walking away the police and the ambulance arrived.

I told the Detective the reasons I digitized myself and some of the adventures I had. He seemed impressed and I sensed that he wanted to stay here and live out a fantasy life. He wouldn't make it for a week because doesn't know anything about digitizaiton, compression, resolution, or metadata. He was just on a bizarre rescue mission in hopes of a promotion. As we walked closer to the plane he looked at me with a feeling of accomplishment, put out his hand, and incorrectly declared, "Hey, that's it; the Movie Star was in Casablanca!"

Home | The Detective's Story | The Academic's Story | The Movie Star's Story

A ficitonal narrative created by Bob Dirig during Spring 2001 for UCLA Information Studies Course 208: Development of Cultural Information Sources Using Digital Multimedia, taught by the infamous Howard Besser.