Thursday, August 27, 2009

only shallow people



People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray," Oscar Wilde

[California Avenue below Chicago Avenue]

Sunday, August 23, 2009

junk that's going round

Mother told me yes she told me I'd meet girls like you
She also told me stay away, you'll never know what you'll catch
Just the other day I heard a soldier falling off
Some Indonesian junk that's going round.

Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away


"Surrender," Cheap Trick

[Chicago Avenue west of Washtenaw Street]

Saturday, August 22, 2009

creating an imaginary, it's always imaginary

You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing? My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I'm creating an imaginary—it's always imaginary—world in which I would like to live.

~ William Burroughs, Paris Review, Fall 1965

[Illinois Street west of New Street]

Friday, August 21, 2009

last night i ate stolen bread



Yes, lass, last night I ate stolen bread and left my son among men who are going to use pick-handles on the authorities, so I thought I might just as well look you up this morning.

"Independent People," Halldór Laxness

[Ukrainian Village below Augusta Avenue]

Thursday, August 20, 2009

i am the least difficult of men



Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous
(and how the same names keep recurring on that interminable
list!), but one of these days there'll be nothing left with
which to venture forth.

Why should I share you? Why don't you get rid of someone else
for a change?

I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.

Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too,
don't I? I'm just like a pile of leaves.


"Meditations in an Emergency," Frank O'Hara

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

i used to think they were all alike



Today has that special, lapidary
Todayness that the sunlight reproduces
Faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
Sidewalks. No previous day would have been like this.
I used to think they were all alike,
That the present always looked the same to everybody
But this confusion drains away as one
Is always cresting into one's present.


"Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," John Ashbery


[Armitage Avenue east of Spaulding Avenue]

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

secrecy, masonic oaths, an underworld


The word 'subculture' is loaded down with mystery. It suggests secrecy, masonic oaths, an Underworld. It also invokes the larger and no less difficult concept 'culture.' So it is with the idea of culture that we should begin.


"Subculture and the Meaning of Style," Dick Hebdige

[Damen Avenue below Division Street]

Monday, August 17, 2009

he loved lightning he lived on an island

He loved lightning
He lived on an island
His mother was a
His father was a gold
Cutting tool
Old scholia say that
Stesichoros says that
Geryon had six hands and six feet and wings
He was red and
His strange red cattle excited envy.
Herakles came and
Killed him for his cattle

The dog too


"XV Total Things Known About Geryon," "Autobiography of Red," Anne Carson

[Chicago Avenue west of Damen Avenue]

Sunday, August 16, 2009

desiring



The fact there is massive social repression that has an enormous effect on desiring-production in no way vitiates our principle: desire
produces reality, or stated another way, desiring-production is one and the same thing as social production. It is not possible to attribute a special form of existence to desire, a mental or psychic reality that is presumably different from the material reality of social production.


"Capitalism and Schizophrenia," Deleuze and Guattari

[Chicago Avenue east of Winchester Street]

Saturday, August 15, 2009

making my life absurd



I hate the government for making my life absurd.

~ Jane Jacobs

[Damen Avenue below Division Street]

Friday, August 14, 2009

most of my time



I spend most of my time not dying.
That's what living is for.
I climb on a motorcycle.
I climb on a cloud and rain.
I climb on a woman I love.
I repeat my themes.


"Racer," Frederick Seidel

[Chicago Avenue at Winchester Street]

Thursday, August 13, 2009

when you stop listening



People are aware of having too many external stimuli. What do you hear when you stop listening? The question is about whether anyone has an internal world any more.

~ Adam Phillips

[Armitage Avenue east of Spaulding]

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

using a feather



Erotica is using a feather, pornography is using the whole chicken.

~ Isabel Allende

[Halsted Street north of Hooker]

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

kodachrome

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
My sweet imagination
And everything looks worse in black and white


"Kodachrome," Paul Simon

[Damen Avenue above Haddon Street]

Monday, August 10, 2009

all kinds of supernatural powers



Like the artist,
the government has at its disposal all kinds of supernatural powers.
Without anyone telling it anything,
it knows everything. What it can do,
it has not learned. It has
learned nothing. Its education
is sorely wanting, yet magically
it is able to put in a word on everything, to decide everything,
even on matters it doesn't understand.


"The Government As Artist," Bertolt Brecht

[Augusta Avenue west of Damen Avenue]

Sunday, August 9, 2009

the cat & the squirrel


The thing comes
of itself

(Look up
to see
the cat & the squirrel,
the one
torn, a red thing,
& the other
somehow immaculate
.

"Love," Robert Creeley

[Chicago Avenue west of California Avenue]

Saturday, August 8, 2009

your absence


Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with its color.


"Separation," W.S. Merwin

[Armitage Avenue east of Spaulding]

Friday, August 7, 2009

it knows about taking sides, positions, risks

Tango is a practice already ready for struggle. It knows about taking sides, positions, risks. It has the experience of domination/resistance from within. Tango, stretching the colonized stereotypes of the Latino-macho-Catholic fatalism, is a language of decolonization. So, pick and choose. Improvise. Hide away. Run after them. Stay still. Move at an astonishing speed. Shut up. Scream a rumor. Turn around. Go back without returning. Upside down. Let your feet do the thinking. Be comfortable in your restlessness. Tango.

"Tango and the Political Economy of Passion," Marta E. Savigliano

[Damen Avenue below Division Street]

Thursday, August 6, 2009

they are taking pictures of taking pictures

Several days later Murray asked me about a tourist attraction known as the most photographed barn in America... Soon the signs started appearing. THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. We counted five signs before we reached the site. There were 40 cars and a tour bus in the makeshift lot... We stood near a grove of trees and watched the photographers. Murray maintained a prolonged silence, occasionally scrawling some notes in a little book. "No one sees the barn," he said finally. A long silence followed.

"Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn... We're not here to capture an image, we're here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies." There was an extended silence. The man in the booth sold postcards and slides.

"Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We've agreed to be part of a collective perception. It literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism." Another silence ensued."They are taking pictures of taking pictures," he said...

"What was the barn like before it was photographed?" he said. "What did it look like, how was it different from the other barns, how was it similar to other barns?"


"White Noise," Don DeLillo

[Damen Avenue above Rice Street]

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

inherent vice



Doc got out his lens and gazed into each image till one by one they began to float apart into little blobs of color. It was as if whatever had happened had reached some kind of limit. It was like finding the gateway to the past unguarded, unforbidden because it didn’t have to be. Built into the act of return finally was this glittering mosaic of doubt. Something like what Sauncho’s colleagues in marine insurance liked to call inherent vice.

"Inherent Vice," Thomas Pynchon

[Damen Avenue below Rice Street]

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

sexual desire from epic to everyday, all they could sweep up

Was it possible, that at every gathering—concert, peace rally, love-in, be-in, and freak-in, here, up north, back East, wherever—those dark crews had been busy all along, reclaiming the music, the resistance to power, the sexual desire from epic to everyday, all they could sweep up, for the ancient forces of greed and fear?

"Inherent Vice," Thomas Pynchon

[Chicago Avenue at California Avenue]

Monday, August 3, 2009

tobacco is her consort





If alcohol is queen, then tobacco is her consort. It's a fond companion for all occasions, a loyal friend through fair weather and foul. People smoke to celebrate a happy moment or hide a bitter regret. I love to touch the pack in my pocket, open it, savor the feel of the cigarette between my fingers, the paper on my lips, the taste of tobacco on my tongue. I love to watch the flame spurt up, love to watch it come closer and closer, filling me with its warmth.

~ Luis Buñuel

[California Avenue and Chicago Avenue]

Sunday, August 2, 2009

by hazard's quirk

In sullen light of the inauspicious day.
Now, free, by hazard’s quirk, from the common ill
Knocking our brothers down, we strike a stance
Most mock-heroic, to cloak our waking awe
At this rare rumpus which no man can control:
Meek and proud both fall; stark violence


"Channel Crossing," Sylvia Plath

[Division Street and Damen Avenue]

Saturday, August 1, 2009

a visible counterpart to the feeling in everybody's skin

Santa Anas had been blowing all the smog out of downtown L.A., funneling between the Hollywood and Puente Hills on westward through Gordita Beach and out to sea, and this had been going on for what seemed like weeks now. Offshore winds had been too strong to be doing the surf much good, but surfers found themselves getting up anyway to watch the dawn weirdness, which seemed like a visible counterpart to the feeling in everybody's skin of desert winds and heat and relentlessness, with the exhaust from millions of motor vehicles mixing with microfine Mojave sand to refract the light toward the bloody end of the spectrum, everything dim, lurid and biblical, sailor-take-warning skies.

"Inherent Vice," Thomas Pynchon

[Chicago Avenue west of Winchester Street]

Friday, July 31, 2009

there is no question



It was a City of dreams,
Thus there is no question of architecture
.

~ Paul Valéry

[Chicago Avenue west of Winchester Street]

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

the bluest blue it is possible to obtain

In the light transmitted by cuprate of ammonia of a certain thickness, the red, yellow, orange, and green are wholly extinguished while the blue, indigo, and violet are allowed to pass. The result is the fullest and bluest blue it is possible to obtain.

"Proceedings of the Royal Society of London," 1876

[Below Chicago Avenue west of Winchester Street]

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

i arced from coast to coast



At the hotel coffee shop that morning, the waitress was wearing a pink uniform with “Florence” written in script over her heart. And the man who checked my bag had a nameplate that said “Ben.” Behind him was a long row of royal palms. On the plane, two women poured drinks from a cart they rolled down the aisle—“Debbie” and “Lynn” according to their winged tags. And such was my company as I arced from coast to coast, and so I seldom spoke, and then only of the coffee, the bag, the tiny bottles of vodka. I said little more than “Thank you” and “Can you take this from me, please?” Yet I began to sense that all of them were ready to open up, to get to know me better, perhaps begin a friendship.

"Traveling Alone," Billy Collins

[Chicago Avenue west of Winchester Street]

Monday, July 27, 2009

cat four days lost



Dead silence. The cat
four days lost. Only the child's deep
drifting-into-far-distant-sleep sigh
and the perturbed crackle
of chairs devoured by death watch.


"Lost Cat," Robert Duncan

[Damen Avenue below Chicago Avenue]

Friday, July 24, 2009

what to do about garlic, onions, cloves, spices



This sprightliness of affect tended to win the day against rigid piety. If coffee modifies the spirit, as it does, and therefore should be banned, what to do about garlic, onions, cloves, spices?

"Bohemia," Herbert Gold

[Chicago Avenue west of Damen Avenue]

Thursday, July 23, 2009

moon's acid light



The full moon's acid light flows down this cold
Vein from the dark wrists of hills to the broad palms of meadow


"At the Road's Turn," Ruth Lechlitner

[Damen Avenue below Chicago Avenue]

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

competing pleasures will be destroyed

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.

"1984," George Orwell

[North Avenue west of Wells Street]

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

the ability to disclose what already exists



There was a quote by John Berger that I had in mind all the time I was writing 'Born Yesterday'—that imagination is not, as most people think, the ability to invent, it’s the ability to disclose what already exists.

~ Gordon Burn to Richard T. Kelly.

[Lake Street at Ogden Avenue]

Monday, July 20, 2009

a thousand angels making festival



And once, one looked above the wood and saw
A thousand angels making festival,
Each one distinct in brightness and in function,
Which was to choreograph the universe,
Meanwhile performing it. Their work was dance.
Together, wings outstretched, they sang and played
The intellect as powerhouse of love


"A Wood Near Athens," Thom Gunn

[Lake Street west of Ada Street]

Sunday, July 19, 2009

another secret



There is always another level, another secret, a way in which the heart breeds a deception so mysterious and complex it can only be taken for a deeper kind of truth.

"Libra," Don DeLillo

[Originally Michigan Avenue over Chicago River at Wacker Drive; rephotographed, Chicago Avenue east of Bishop Street]

Saturday, July 18, 2009

jubliating birds



She took the risk, at last, of certain joys—
Her birdtable and jubilating birds,
The 'fashion' in her wardrobe and tallboy.


"The Lift," Seamus Heaney

Friday, July 17, 2009

just wait, wait




Fireworks are wasted in the day
I set 'em off anyway
To pass the time 'til you return
I can’t see a thing 'til you return
Maybe a little smoke 'til you return
With fireworks
More fireworks!
And you tell me to wait
Just wait, wait
Just wait


"A Man Needs A Woman Or A Man To Be A Man," Bill Callahan

[Chicago Avenue east of Winchester Street]

Thursday, July 16, 2009

vanished quite slowly


"I wish you wouldn’t keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.”
“All right,” said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. “Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"


"Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

Thursday, July 9, 2009

opening night this is 606

Int Day

this is 606 opening

[Chicago Avenue east of Bishop Street]

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

the continued stream of second attention awareness

Play all lottery

These quotations are on the wall at the Architrouve exhibition.


The important fact about urban living: the continued stream of second attention awareness. Every license plate, street sign, passing strangers, are saying something to you.
~ William S. Burroughs

Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city; the changes, shifts, breaks in the cloud helmet, movement of light on water. Drifting purposefully is the recommended mode, tramping asphalted earth in alert reverie, allowing the fiction of an underlying pattern to assert itself… The born-again flâneur is a stubborn creature, less interested in texture and fabric, eavesdropping on philosophical conversation pieces, than in noticing everything.
~ Iain Sinclair

A city sidewalk by itself is nothing. It is an abstraction. The same might be said of streets. A city cannot be a work of art.
~ Jane Jacobs

when the wind was right

They stood in the street light through the kitchen window there'd never been much point in putting curtains over and listened to the thumping of the surf from down the hill. Some nights, when the wind was right, you could hear the surf all over town... "How about a beer?" He went to the fridge, pulled two cans out of the case he kept inside, handed one to Shasta. "There's this guy," she was saying.

"Inherent Vice," Thomas Pynchon

[Hoyne Avenue at Walton Street]

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

cast a shadow




To light a candle is to cast a shadow.

~ Ursula le Guin

[Damen Avenue above Rice Street]

Monday, July 6, 2009

thinking of stabbing us to death

The radio aches a little tune that tells the story of what the night
is thinking. It’s thinking of love.
It’s thinking of stabbing us to death
and leaving our bodies in a dumpster.
That’s a nice touch, stains in the night, whiskey and kisses for everyone.


"Little Beast," Richard Siken

[Chicago Avenue west of Leavitt Street

Sunday, July 5, 2009

write it again, eventually



If a book is lost, then someone will write it again, eventually. That should be enough immortality for everyone.

"With Borges," Jorge Luis Borges to Alberto Manguel

[Humboldt Park]

Saturday, July 4, 2009

the air now clean, for a moment weightless without memories, or need for a past


The only thing I miss about Los Angeles is the Hollywood Freeway at midnight, windows down and radio blaring
bearing right into the center of the city, the Capitol Tower on the right, and beyond it, Hollywood Boulevard blazing—pimps, surplus stores, footprints of the stars —descending through the city fast as the law would allow
through the lights, then rising to the stack out of the city to the stack where lanes are stacked six deep
and you on top; the air now clean, for a moment weightless without memories, or need for a past.


"California Plush," Frank Bidart

Thursday, July 2, 2009

alarm at dead of night



I hear the alarm at dead of night
I hear the bells — shouts!
I pass the crowd — run!
The sight of flames maddens me with pleasure
.

"Poems of Joy," Walt Whitman

[Detail of print shown at Architrouve; originally Chicago Avenue west of Damen Avenue]

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

you are too preoccupied by the secret smudge in the back of your soul


What name do I have for you?
Certainly there is not name for you
In the sense that the stars have names
That somehow fit them. Just walking around,

An object of curiosity to some,
But you are too preoccupied
By the secret smudge in the back of your soul
To say much and wander around,

Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets to be kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting.
Counterproductive, as you realize once again

That the longest way is the most efficient way,
The one that looped among islands, and
You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.


"Just Walking Around," John Ashbery

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

no light will project them


The films never made: they are like someone's last, unheard words, lost notebooks. No light will project them, no one will endlessly imitate their lines. In the invisible universe where everything we know has its opposite, these unmade films will be playing and the others will only be dreams, in which, as might happen if we could rewrite history, the world would be better.

"Europe," James Salter

[East of California Avenue below Chicago Avenue]

Monday, June 29, 2009

the waitress turns kitchenward, her ankle blooms with daisy


What's the line from James Salter's "A Sport and a Pastime"? "A flash of elegant calf and you are tumbled into unbearable love"? You look up from your cup, the waitress turns kitchenward, her ankle blooms with daisy. I do not know her name, only this tattoo and smiles of hello or good-bye. This is a demonstrative solitude. Even silent and shy and swathed in shadow in barroom darkness, this, too, is sociability, the contact buzz of other human existence. I will write about you: but that is another story.

"Artless at Work," Ray Pride

[Detail from Architrouve show; original Chicago Avenue west of Winchester Street]

Sunday, June 28, 2009

the eerie brightness of nighttime


Mr. Mann’s digital manipulations, in particular, which encompass almost pure abstraction and interludes of hyper-realism, is worthy of longer exegesis, one that explores how this still-unfamiliar format is changing the movies: it allows, among other things, filmmakers to capture the eerie brightness of nighttime as never before.

~ Manohla Dargis in her New York Times review of Public Enemies.

[Illinois Street at New Street]

About Me

Chicago, Illinois, United States