Saturday, October 22, 2011

Endless Construction

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Approximately four years ago I would drive across this bridge and wonder when it would ever NOT be under construction. Somehow I have ended up back in this town, driving many of my old routes and I get to ask the same question. What is wrong with this bridge anyway? I have never seen a construction vehicle or worker attending to anything here. It always makes me feel sad and empty for some reason - like really and truly nobody cares for this thing. So I'm featuring it here and giving it a moment of attention, because in just the right light and with the cooperation of well-placed clouds, it almost looks like this road leads somewhere interesting.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Secret Code

Andre the Giant Has a Posse...

I love being back in an urban setting and have discovered a very new fresh feeling. (Quite the opposite of that "not-so-fresh feeling"... call it the "City Douche Effect" maybe.) In the same way that I felt intrigue and excitement about the wild, rugged, organic Vermont lifestyle when we first moved there, a similar thing is happening here. I'm expanding. Or I've grown up. I have a much clearer sense of who I am and where my place is in this insane world, and a lot of that has to do with surrounding myself with the unknown and being able to feel like I'm hiding in my community, even if I occasionally run into people I know when I'm getting groceries.

Graffiti makes me feel comfy. Dumpsters are intriguing. Traffic and sirens remind me that there are tragedies and realities that continue to plague people, even if my life seems to be running smoothly. While I sit here typing on my couch I can hear the excited, jazzed-up college marching band version of "Call Me Al" echoing from the Brown football stadium... occasional cheers erupt. Then some crickets chirping. Then more drums and horns. Somehow I find it pleasant to feel a crowd nearby.

Sure, there's a ton of the ugly shit too... those crowded strip malls and office plazas. The hideously boring Targets, WalMarts, BedBathBeyond-villes. The crazy masses of overweight Americans mindlessly stuffing their lives with more and more unhealthy shit... and more shit... and more stuff... and more stuff-on-shits. It's the American REALITY that I have chosen to confront everyday, rather than escape. And on days that I'm out walking the street signs are winking at me and they whisper rather convincingly:

"Andre the Giant Has a Posse!"

For real. And if you're lost and totally not with me on this one... DO YOUR RESEARCH.