I live in a large apartment complex, the kind that I sought to avoid when I moved to Atlanta. The units are clean and well designed, but they lack character and somehow feel like a display model in a home furnishing store. They were designed for easy turnover - I don't think most people spend years, much less decades, in these things. Consequently, the units are as bland and as appealing to a large base of people as possible. In many ways this mirrors a lot of my complaints about Atlanta, but that's not really where I want to go with this.

I decided I had to paint over at least one wall of my room to give it a bit of flavor. I picked a very bright and deep red because it went well with the cheap-hotel-yellow I was given and I chose the wall behind my desk, which also happens to be the same wall my brightest lamp stands against (I don't have overhead lighting). When it's the only light I have on, my room is both notably darker than it used to be and a lot more red. Like, a lot more. It gives the room a warm glow, but as I was warned by Justin, the red is a bit intense and the glow isn't necessarily relaxing. It's just very present.

I was cleaning and reassembling my room one night when 120 Days' "Sleepwalking" came on my computer, and the mixed- down atmospheric synths came over that indie dance beat in waves, cresting and crashing, present but never overpowering. "Sleepwalking" is, essentially, slightly erie new wave. It has a melody and discernible lyrics and never really lets itself fall into the experimental camp, but it certainly flirts with it. It makes that erie tension fun and, in turn, a bit less erie.

Anyway, I'm not sure if my room's glow is good all the time - it definitely isn't conducive to studying - but I guess I kind of like it for what it is. At least I have a few other lamps to offset it when I want to.

120 Days - "Sleepwalking"