dream!
the flip side of reality
sunday, may 13, 2007
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River tour tourists wait, Chrysler building, aritist in deepst bottom corner, giant lips and cheeks sculpture, she uses RIM at RimNetics and EKG.
saturday, may 12, 2007
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friday, may 11, 2007
extroverts in ankara
I'm wandering a foreign city, maybe Canadian, alone in the evening after a day of busy activity with others. I wander into an elevated tower of a building in the middle of the park, and to my surprise I find Dan Williams and a circle of half a dozen seated friends in a little room with open windows. The room is clearly a public place, but only elsewhere is a public place cared for so well. I'm very impressed that there is a library that lines the walls, many of the books are cookbooks.
At first it looks like a place that people would gather to do drugs and party hard, but this crowd is very sober and present. They take turns telling various stories. It's both invigorating and relaxing at the same time. At one point we all join hands and One of the girls launches a little opera she wrote about a train arriving in Ankara. A few Western backpackers arrive and local townspeople come to sing to them in accents about various news stories and propositions. Most of the characters are elderly and I think we are meant to believe that they are a bit batty, and overcome with that desperate sort of attention-seeking that the new visitor experiences in some third-world countries. The kind of no-holds-barred shameless interaction that is held in check among the sane and prideful but which flows ever so freely from those with so social or mental barriers to such behavior. Gee, I think I lost myself in that last thought.
Just when an old Turkish man grabs my hands and starts to sing me something, Matt Culligan enters the scene. He has a friendly but insistent "I intend to tell you something that must be told but I'll do it in the least possibly intrusive way I can, although I will do it at all costs regardless" look on his face and guides me with an arm behind my back out the door of the little tower. It's not an appropriate moment to bid my new friends farewell but I can hopefully come back before they disperse.
Matt guides me without speaking across the lawn of the park and down the street. I assume it's so we can talk about an important phone call he just made... and then I guess that it's because I lent him my car and he can't figure out how to unlock the tricky door. We arrive at my car but--no--he wants me to open the door of a corner store where perhaps he left his keys inside. The door is bowed outward, almost into a semicircular cross-section. This must be so there is more room for people to stand indoors who are waiting for a table and who don't want to be out in the weather...?
Coming from a very mild climate, it's interesting to visit Northeastern cities in the summer time... it's just as warm and wonderful as anywhere in the summer, but there are conspicuous architectural elements that betray the vicious guiles of winter climates... like revolving doors and double-door entries. And coat rooms!
thursday, may 10, 2007
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wednesday, may 9, 2007
farewell, chris
Natta has a poetry/dance performance and she has asked Wendy and I to join her. It is in an auditorium near my work, and I find out at the last minute that there are two performances... one at 7:30 and one at 9:30. I decide that I should get some work done first so I go to the office at 6:00 and plan to head to the 9:30. I stop by briefly to see that Natta slides down a zip line in her act, and lands sliding on kneepads into the corner of the room.
At work I see Chris Edgett leaving and tell him to stop by to say goodbye before he leaves for good. He says we should keep in touch.
I get to the office and many of us have new monitors. Reuben's has been downgraded... I have a CRT now but it is gigantic. IT has also added a stereo amplifier and an electronic slide projector to my desk. Jimmy and Reuben and a few others are still working... Jonathan has left for the night. A very young teenage boy sits over in Charles's old spot... what is he doing here.
I head to the bathroom in this concrete hallway and another young teenager in soccer shorts is holding a paper pinwheel in front of a girl. He shouts out spontaneously, in response to whatever she said "Who has some rope?" I reply that there is some in my car, but going out there isn't spontaneous enough and the idea moves onto something else. As I continue onward I add over my shoulder that there is a roll of string in my desk drawer but his idea of hanging the pinwheel for her has already moved onto the next topic.
I get to the wet concrete restroom and my red jacket is laying in the floor of the giant open peeing area! Yuck, how much pee has it absorbed and what is it doing here? I hang it up for future washing, and since there is no privacy (the soccer shorts teenager is now futzing with the pinwheel near the urinal) I pee around the corner in a stall. The teenager is acting weird... once he starts peeing he leans way back and sits on the ground, projecting his pee to the back of the tray, afraid to touch anything.
Early in the night I was wandering/playing in big building with tall windows, near the water.
tuesday, may 8, 2007
The (name of the band) Summit and Expo
Jeff is coming to town and needs a place to stay... I know that Kathy, the neighbor behind us (she lives next door in the waking world), has offered her home since she'll be out of town, so I tell Jeff all about it and he arranges to come.
In the meantime, on a whim I go to a show with Pete. It's a band visiting from Japan, three girls and a guy playing indy rock. The show is billed as "The (name of the band) Summit and Expo"... and it starts pretty early, before the sun is even down. I meet Pete there, after paying the 10 or 15 bucks to get in, and wait for the action. Most of the crowd is much younger than us.
The band comes onstage (at first I don't notice them because there is plenty of other activity and there is only a partial drum kit around), and the lead singer (the guy) comes on to say in very broken English how lame it is that the record label calls this a Summit when it's really supposed to be a show! Before our eyes he shreds some tickets with scissors, apparently in protest of his label, and instead of playing, the band stands on stage while someone plays 15 minutes of their record through the loudspeakers. The music is good, but it's very quiet, and everyone is disappointed the band isn't playing. Then it's over and we are supposed to get to opportunity to meet the band and see what's for sale. Some people stick around, hoping it was a joke and the real show will start soon, and others leave while the sun is still up!
Pete and I go for a walk and I realise that I left my green fleece across the room with my camera and wallet in it. I go back to retrieve it and I take his mug with me, telling him I'll grab him an extra cup of coffee while I'm at it. I grab the sweater and come back absent-mindedly with an empty mug... oh, sorry Pete I feel pretty bad about that. He takes it with only mock resentment.
I get back to my house and Jeff is on his way over and I totally forgot to tell him that Brindusa will also be staying there... she was our Romanian roommate in college and the two of them didn't get along. It has been ten years and I think they've both mellowed out by now, but I still think it's very important to give him a heads-up before he arrives. I sneak away to intercept him and call him... no answer on the phone but I catch him just in time. It's a beautiful sunny spring day and the houses are in the tiny crowded medieval part of an old European city, set across from the rest of the town by canals and river and walls.
monday, may 7, 2007
Pestulon
I cross the Pacific ocean by sailboat and arrive at a remote US government island called Pestulon. There are a tourist restaurant and souvenirs there. Karen got new job for Catholic youth program. She calls it "a professional job". They're buying a $200,000 church.