Geoff Nicholson's Blog, page 52

A HARD DOG TO KEEP ON THE PODIUM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EVvz0r4jkA..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EVvz0r4jkA..." width="266" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A long time ago in London in the very early 1990s, my girlfriend and I were waiting for a bus, in the Strand, at about 10.30 in the evening, and who should come walking along but Dennis Thatcher, heading more or less in the direction of the Houses of Parliament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margaret Thatcher was still an MP at that time, though no longer Prime Minister.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Even so it was a surprise to see Dennis walking all by himself, no bodyguard or security detail in sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My girlfriend and I sort of looked at him, and he sort of looked at us, but we really acknowledge each other’s existence, although the moment he’d gone my girlfriend and I simultaneously said, “That really was Dennis Thatcher, wasn’t it?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there was no doubt whatsoever that it was.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0gvXvKw1I8..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0gvXvKw1I8..." width="347" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Largely thanks to Private Eye’s portrayal of him in as a gin-drinking, golf-playing, saloon bar bore, Dennis Thatcher was largely a figure of fun in Britain during the Thatcher years, but there are much worse things to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was wise enough to keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble, which seems to me as much as we can or should demand of the spouse of a political leader.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In the United States however things run a little differently. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to be president you have to drag out your spouse at the party convention to make a speech saying what a good egg you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When your spouse just happens to be Bill Clinton, well, it’s no surprise than he turns up the rhetoric pretty effectively. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcZUJr0U4N..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcZUJr0U4N..." width="426" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The home life of the Clintons remains inscrutable, in fact downright unimaginable, to most of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And needless to say Bill Clinton’s speech made no mention of jetting around on Air Force One, of hobnobbing with dubious dignitaries. nor how he and Hillary enjoy the billions contributed to the Clinton Foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, folksiness was the order of the day, and what’s more folksy than WALKING?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">First there was the cute meet:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“I saw the girl again, standing at the opposite end of that long room. Finally, she was staring back at me. So I watched her. She closed her book, put it down, and started walking toward me. She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me, and said, "Look, if you are going to keep staring at me, we at least ought to know each other's name. I'm Hillary Rodham, who are you?"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Obviously things went pretty well:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“I asked her to take a walk down to the art museum. We have been walking, and talking, and laughing together ever since.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNx-xtyyTO..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNx-xtyyTO..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yes walking is apparently one of their things, and yes, judging by the pictures a dog is </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">usually involved. He went on:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“I can tell you this — if you were sitting where I am sitting and you heard what I have heard and at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation, on every long walk, you would say, "This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything.’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Otbx1haf-H..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Otbx1haf-H..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Some might think that a series of long walks with somebody who’s constantly expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo, might be a little wearisome, but Bill’s obviously made of sterner stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course he insisted that walking isn’t just the province of rich white folks:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“If you are a young African-American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be. Help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people who wear blue to protect our future.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Who could disagree?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m not saying it isn’t a damn good speech, and if it helps put Hillary (and him) in the White House, then that’s OK by me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m just not wholly convinced that the two of them really do a whole lot of walking together, unless there’s a photographer nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I suppose any number of bodyguards.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2fredW_bZ4..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2fredW_bZ4..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcZUJr0U4N..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 27, 2016 12:10

YOUNG WOMAN (DON'T) SHARE YOUR FIRE WITH ME

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zlmsgfgjDQ..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zlmsgfgjDQ..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If you felt like going for a walk in Los Angeles last Saturday afternoon you would have been well advised not to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The air quality was (as we say)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“unacceptable.” There are so many things about life that are unacceptable but air quality is one of the few that gets an official designation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Above is how it looked from where I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looked way more dramatic elsewhere.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o06cLuJ-gF..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o06cLuJ-gF..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The sky was that color because of the “Sand Fire” which sounds a little more “end of the world” than it actually was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was plenty serious enough – 37,000 acres of forest fire in the Sand Valley, about 30 miles north of the city, up near Santa Clarita, 10,000 people evacuated, 18 homes destroyed (all these figures provisional, of course), but the name invokes something even more extreme: dunes bursting into flame, sand particles turning into molten glass, something like Herzog’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lessons of Darkness.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--92lBKtECb..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--92lBKtECb..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The LA Times helpfully ran an article under the headline “Air quality around Sand fire is 'like being around second-hand smoke,' expert says.” Some might have thought it was rather like being around first-hand smoke, but then we’re not all experts.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The man they’d got to pontificate was Mark Morocco, a clinical professor of emergency medicine at UCLA. “The danger posed by the Sand fire depends on how close people are to the flames,” he said. And did he have advice for walkers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well not specifically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“For everyone, it is best to ‘throttle down on your exercise’ and get to places with better air quality, Morocco said.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There was a psychological element too. “'People feel anxious about it when the sky looks like a zombie apocalypse, when the sky is red and these smoke plumes are on the horizon,' Morocco said. ‘If you have anxiety, you’re going to feel worse, or if you have depression, you could actually get depressed.’" You don’t say, Mr. Morocco.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Fact is, I’ve been watching the skies more closely than usual as I continue to read Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cloudspotters Guide. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course those weekend air conditions above LA weren’t clouds, which I suppose meant they couldn’t be spotted and named and classified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the most interesting section I came across in </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Pretor-Pinney’s</span> book was about cloud seeding by the Americans during the Vietnam War, “Project Popeye” as it was known, designed specifically to mess up the Ho Chi Minh Trail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This came as news to me though I’m sure not to many.</span></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1CcYD8Rk8h..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1CcYD8Rk8h..." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><style> <span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">General Vo Nguyen Giap looking pretty cheerful on the Ho Chi Minh Trail </span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As I understand it, the Ho Chi Minh Trail </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">was the supply route for men and equipment that ran from North to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a monsoon region, </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">and when the rains came down. the trail became impassable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The American military boffins reasoned that the longer the rains went on, the more disruption there’d be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was revealed to the American public in an article by Seymour Hersh in the New York Times, July 3, 1973.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For years apparently the American military had been spraying chemicals<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(silver iodine seems to have been the active ingredient) into the clouds above Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in order to make rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-poNtbR6cFG..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-poNtbR6cFG..." width="518" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Frankly, the Ho Chi Minh trail doesn’t look like it was a walk in the park even at the best of times, although you could evidently get an elephant or two along at least part of it on a good day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvnRI3Mr8-..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvnRI3Mr8-..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Project Popeye seems to have worked pretty well in itself, not that the US won the war or anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> then there was also "Project Commando Lava," created by some guys at Dow Chemical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Aircraft dropped paper sacks filled with a mixture of Trisodium Nitrilo-triacedic acid and Sodium Tripolyphosphate. </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When mixed with rainwater this substance destabilized the soil and created “artificial” mud. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some quarters It gave rise to the slogan "make mud, not war.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And that is something that the folks around Sand Valley (and elsewhere) will in due course have to worry about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s much the same every year around these parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a fire, scorched earth, destabilized soil, then the rain comes and creates mud slides (real, not artificial) even without chemicals. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anybody might think California was a war zone.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T456fBDJ6..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T456fBDJ6..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 26, 2016 11:13

WALKING WITH THE MOONDOG

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mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A few days before the 4th of July 1932 a fifteen-year-old boy named Louis Thomas Harden was walking along beside the railroad tracks near Hurley, Missouri.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local mill pond had recently flooded, and pieces of inscrutable debris were left beside the tracks when the water receded.</span><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w3og-aB420..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w3og-aB420..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Louis was a tinkerer, the kind of kid who made wooden models and built projects out of Popular Mechanics magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when he found an especially intriguing piece of debris there where he was walking, he picked it up and took it home with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The object may have have looked something like this:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xc3q-r-ABZ..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xc3q-r-ABZ..." width="562" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">On July 4th itself he examined his new find more closely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It proved to be a detonation cap left behind by a construction crew some distance away, and transported trackside by the flood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Louis looked more closely at the object it exploded in his face, and despite some desperate and painful surgery he was left permanently blind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In due course Louis Thomas Hardin (1916–1999) became Moondog; an all-American original, a composer, musician, and poet, who between the late 40s and the early 1970s could be seen in various locations around Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point he was a fixture in Times Square, but more often he could be found on 6th Avenue between 52nd and 55th Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked like this: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b3PbHmpweQ..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b3PbHmpweQ..." width="426" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sometimes he played music, just like any busker, sometimes he tried to sell merch, and other times he just stood there looking like a Viking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure he was photographed many thousands of times, by gawking tourists as well as by serious photographers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The classic image shows him as the still point, as the other walkers of New York swirl around him.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xtSbN5dh2N..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xtSbN5dh2N..." width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Le0DPIo9uK..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Le0DPIo9uK..." width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m always slightly surprised by how many blind people there are walking the streets of Manhattan, especially when you consider how many sighted people claim to be terrified at the prospect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_dIqodKHhV..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_dIqodKHhV..." width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m sure Moondog had friends and helpers but he obviously did get around the streets under his own steam. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philip Glass, in his essay “Remembering Moondog” (which is the preface to Robert Scotto’s authorized biography </span><i><span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Moondog, The Viking of 6th Avenue</span></i><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">) writes, “he was so confident in his walk you wouldn’t think he was blind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wondered how, as a blind man, he managed to cross the street without an instant of hesitation until he showed me how he listened to the traffic lights; I had never heard them before in this way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t suppose Moondog ever had much use for a printed map of New York, but he had a sound map in his head.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZjCj4JUnRt..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZjCj4JUnRt..." width="640" /></a></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 22, 2016 12:13

AFOOT IN SUBURBIA WITH PEN AND CAMERA

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Geneva; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 0 0 0 147 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I felt a bit like a mad dog a couple of days ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The temperature hit 87 – and I reckon walking gets to be a bit of an ordeal when it’s hotter than 80 – but I’d promised myself a walk, and so a walk I had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t the only man on the street, but there weren’t many of us.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G09aUyQ7SL..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G09aUyQ7SL..." width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A midday walker (not me)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I was on my way to meet my pal Claire for lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has acquired a dog, not mad as far as I can tell, but it seems to have changed her life – and it has certainly changed the way she walks<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- both of which may have been intended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked like this:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0KIoPci5Ic..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0KIoPci5Ic..." width="470" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In fact my walk to lunch - about 3 miles - wasn’t quite as punishing as I expected. I walked through Los Feliz, an area that manages to be thoroughly suburban but also somehow exotic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The agaves in front of the Lloyd Wright house were flowering, which look very fine though in fact flowering is a harbinger of doom: they flower and then they die.</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByxcQDsBUu..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByxcQDsBUu..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Other cacti and succulents, these in a pot by the roadside, looked the worse for wear:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zbSrUyFCqY..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zbSrUyFCqY..." width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There was topiary:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7J6ii7WnJi..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7J6ii7WnJi..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And whatever this plant is:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xZx_maE3Rx..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xZx_maE3Rx..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And there was this tiled fountain on a street corner, which looked much like a public amenity, though in fact it’s right at the front edge of somebody’s garden.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzJC5wHxQh..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzJC5wHxQh..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And finally there was this fairly hilarious sign, one of several I saw, stuck to various uprights around the neighborhood:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W9L4f_AJog..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W9L4f_AJog..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I couldn’t tell if it was for real or some kind of performative tease and having been to the website I’m not a whole lot wiser.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s how it looks on the website:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zTeCc4W2D7..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zTeCc4W2D7..." width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Chuck seems an amusing enough feller, and I know a guy’s got to try to make a living, but $7 a mile – that’s $21 an hour – I mean, really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do like the line about being forced to face thoughts of the unknown future and my own insignificance in the ever expanding universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, you know, that’s pretty much the main reason why I walk.</span> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 16, 2016 16:26

WALKING WITH THE EXECUTIONER

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Geneva; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 0 0 0 147 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I’ve been reading a book titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hollywood Hell</i>, so that you don’t have to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was published in 1985, and of course it was the title that hooked me - and maybe the cover, though it's not very representative of what goes on in the book,</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> which is all about waifs and strays and street kids, who get involved in crime and porn.</span> </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XMkSMGYOo0..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XMkSMGYOo0..." width="478" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The hero is one Mack Bolan – sometimes know as the Executioner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X_IQ2hTkkW..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X_IQ2hTkkW..." width="510" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not to be confused with Marc Bolan obviously. "You’re not really going out in public in those shoes are you Marc?"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8mpCv7vKNx..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8mpCv7vKNx..." width="432" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mack Bolan is the creation of Don Pendleton – and if online sources are to be believe he’s appeared in 600 novels. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pendleton sold the rights somewhere along the line, and a crew of lesser scribes evidently took over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsFfNRxsME..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsFfNRxsME..." width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don Pendleton</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mack Bolan gets around: Cambodia, Soho, Beirut, and does a lot of killing with a very big gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be fair most of the really violent action of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hollywood Hell</i> takes place in Topanga and Pasadena, and the writer (who isn’t named, though somebody called Mike Newton is given “special thanks” on the copyright page) doesn’t put a whole lot of effort into giving a sense of place, but there is one strangely evocative description – of walking in Hollywood – almost certainly on Hollywood Boulevard:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“The hunter (that would be Bolan) parked his rental car upwind, deciding to walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He noted there seemed to be no continuity among the people he encountered in this neighborhood of sleazy bars and businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the short block’s walk he met a human of every race and gender.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Men in stylish business suits looked sheepish or defensive as they caught his eye: the punks, decked out in leather with their spiky hair dyed every color of the rainbow, tended toward defiance seasoned with a dash of apathy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A macho body-builder type paraded past him, hand in hand with his diminutive bearded lover.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Across the street a stoned guitarist played for the amusement of some black youths dressed in street-gang colors, and a wino occupied the vacant doorway next to his objective, grumbling fitfully in alcoholic slumber.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">All of which sounds vaguely appealing, like a cultural and ethnic rainbow coalition, where everybody’s learned to just get along, which might be the very reason so many waifs and strays end up on Hollywood Boulevard, although Mack Bolan takes a different view.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OnGBtWsVRH..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OnGBtWsVRH..." width="424" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I walk along Hollywood Boulevard all the time and of course I see waifs and strays, and sometimes their interactions with cops, which in general seem to be a lot less antagonistic than you might imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember seeing one tough-looking kid, maybe in his late teens, being asked by a cop, “How long you been out here?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The kid replied, “Been out this time for ten days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Been on the street since I was 12.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In Hollywood just about everybody knows how to deliver a good line.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And because I’m one of those scavengers who picks up unconsidered trifles when he walks the street, I found this:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EBKMPaeJ-F..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EBKMPaeJ-F..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s a piece of rather expensive cardboard packaging, dense with layers of writing by different hands, not all the words legible, some of it a birthday greeting to Ringo Starr, some a description of street life of Hollywood waifs and strays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best I can make out says: - “I want my best Hollywood house now - my safe place 2 sleep” – “How many guys have my phones” – “Pinup poster girl & everyone keeps stealing my stuff” – there’s also something I can’t quite make out about sleeping outside and finding the sprinklers suddenly turned on.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-thRWqhS0ym..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-thRWqhS0ym..." width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QBwuUdvgoA..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QBwuUdvgoA..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s better written, more moving, more eloquent than anything to be found in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hollywood Hell</i>.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 12, 2016 14:23

ZONING OUT

Guy Debord looking for a zone of distinct psychic atmosphere:

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Published on July 11, 2016 11:05

DRIFTING WITH MR. CUNNINGHAM

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mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’ve been trying to find something not too mawkish to say about the photographer Bill Cunningham (op cit in this blog) who died on June 24, aged 87.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TUZvxBZjvx..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TUZvxBZjvx..." width="426" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I loved his artfully artless photographs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He worked for </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The New York Times for about 40 years, and was a cross between a street photographer and a fashion photographer, snapping the fashionable people out in public in Manhattan. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did some other stuff as well, at parties and balls, but it’s the street stuff that matters.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fUonh9Wtii..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fUonh9Wtii..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cunningham wasn’t one of the great New York walkers (he actually got around by bike mostly) but he was certainly on foot when he took his pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was certainly a kind of urban explorer, and probably an anthropologist, and maybe even a psychogeographer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_wVhS2KyK9..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_wVhS2KyK9..." width="426" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">He may not have been looking for, in Debord’s terms, </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“zones of distinct psychic atmosphere” </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">but he certainly knew where to go to find people who were looking good and wearing fabulous clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course he often photographed them while they were walking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eUeeRmMDOf..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eUeeRmMDOf..." width="308" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hAJx2-b1iR..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hAJx2-b1iR..." width="352" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I never saw him when I lived in New York, but I know others who did, some of whom wished he’d take their photograph, but he never did – and I know some snappy dressers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">He seemed to have had the trick, and maybe we should say gift, of appearing benign and good-natured when he photographed his subjects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he wanted to take your picture then you didn’t feel threatened or maligned, you knew you looked good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compare and contrast with that other great New York street photographer Bruce Gilden, who creates this effect:.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qXTjzObgA2..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qXTjzObgA2..." width="426" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Even so I’m not sure there are many men who could get away with the kind of thing that’s going on in the picture below:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7T9XkCMkUX..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7T9XkCMkUX..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If most of us tried to photography the feet and shoes of a bunch of women standing on the street in Manhattan, I’m pretty sure the cops would be called.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think you could probably talk your way out of it, though I wouldn’t advise you to say you were a flaneur, much less a psychogeographer.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 09, 2016 16:25

DIFTING WITH MR. CUNNINGHAM

I’ve been trying to find something not too mawkish to say about the photographer Bill Cunningham (op cit in this blog) who died on June 24, aged 87.

I loved his artfully artless photographs. He worked for The New York Times for about 40 years, and was a cross between a street photographer and a fashion photographer, snapping the fashionable people out in public in Manhattan. He did some other stuff as well, at parties and balls, but it’s the street stuff that matters.

Cunningham wasn’t one of the great New York walkers (he actually got around by bike mostly) but he was certainly on foot when he took his pictures. He was certainly a kind of urban explorer, and probably an anthropologist, and maybe even a psychogeographer.

He may not have been looking for, in Debord’s terms, “zones of distinct psychic atmosphere” but he certainly knew where to go to find people who were looking good and wearing fabulous clothes. And of course he often photographed them while they were walking.

I never saw him when I lived in New York, but I know others who did, some of whom wished he’d take their photograph, but he never did – and I know some snappy dressers.
He seemed to have had the trick, and maybe we should say gift, of appearing benign and good-natured when he photographed his subjects. If he wanted to take your picture then you didn’t feel threatened or maligned, you knew you looked good. Compare and contrast with that other great New York street photographer Bruce Gilden, who creates this effect:.

Even so I’m not sure there are many men who could get away with the kind of thing that’s going on in the picture below:

If most of us tried to photography the feet and shoes of a bunch of women standing on the street in Manhattan, I’m pretty sure the cops would be called. I think you could probably talk your way out of it, though I wouldn’t advise you to say you were a flaneur, much less a psychogeographer.

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Published on July 09, 2016 16:25

SKYWALKING

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mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sEKYNTm9Yk..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sEKYNTm9Yk..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGRL5JAcZ-..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So enough about staring at the ground while walking; maybe it’s time to look at the sky.</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’ve always liked skies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember being at college and a group of us had been to a lecture on landscape poetry and at least two of us said, “Nah, I don’t really get landscape, but I get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">clouds</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’ve always taken a picture or two of interesting clouds while I’m out walking – I suppose many people do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like this one:</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGRL5JAcZ-..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGRL5JAcZ-..." width="434" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And so I’ve been reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cloudspotter’s Guide</i> by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, begetter of The Cloud Appreciation Society.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ntOihzEc7-..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ntOihzEc7-..." width="420" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s one of those books that’s such a brilliant idea you wonder why somebody else (as in me) didn’t think of it before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m thinking I’ll write about it at greater length at some point, but for now suffice to say that if nothing else it makes you look at the sky in a new way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, I have been known to complain about the skies of Los Angeles, that they’re too tame and featureless and samey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although of course the more you look the more you see, and lately it seems to me that they’ve been a lot less samey, which of course says more about me than it does about them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So I was out walking in the Nicholson acres a few days ago and I saw a strange circle in the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it wasn’t a cloud, but I didn’t know what it was: a chem trail, an alien signal?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EhSPjwXkJa..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EhSPjwXkJa..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Well no, I soon realized it was a vapor trail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the plane filled in the circle so that it what looked like a smiley face, or at least an O with eyes and a mouth, though of course it was upside down from where I was standing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2n-X0wsXFr..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2n-X0wsXFr..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But the plane hadn’t finished. Next came a letter B, which I thought might be some reference some reference to President Obama.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TUUZRfp0B3..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TUUZRfp0B3..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But then a D appeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OBD – there aren’t many words start that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obdurate was the only one that sprang to mind, though that seemed an odd thing to write in the sky.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1_QVNYzNfi..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1_QVNYzNfi..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Anywa,y to cut a long story short, after that there was an A, and then a Y. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it still took a moment or two to realize what OBDAY meant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I eventually worked out that yes, the O was indeed a smiley face, or more precisely a happy face, and B was for birth. So it was saying Happy Birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose you’d have to be impressed if somebody employed a skywriter to celebrate your birthday, but OBDAY still seems a slightly banal thing to write in the sky, or anywhere else.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8O3zj21Zi..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8O3zj21Zi..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So I started thinking, what would be a less banal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well you see I think words are not the way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One word or even two or three are never going to be very profound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love, Peace, Walk Tall, Kilroy was here – it’s just not quite good enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I think I’d go for a symbol, an actual glyph, maybe something from the alchemy – perhaps this symbol for Transformation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cxuINuKKds..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cxuINuKKds..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That’d be a nice challenge for a sky writer, and would certainly be an amazing thing to see in the sky while you were out walking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And as a coda, there was quite a bit of wind high up in the sky on the day the pilot wrote OBDAY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The letters started to drift and smudge as soon as they’d been done, and after the message was written, and after the wind had done it’s work you were left with a configuration that I think would have perplexed even the keenest cloudspotter.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5bULwtnzK..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5bULwtnzK..." width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on July 04, 2016 14:58

WALKING WITH OTHERS

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Geneva; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 0 0 0 147 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If you go to the Goodreads quotation site, you’ll find this: </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Words inscribe a text in the same way that a walk inscribes space. Writing is one way of making the world our own, and . . . walking is another.” </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">– Geoff Nicholson</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’ll gladly stand by this, though I’m actually more or less paraphrasing </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Michel de Certeau in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Practice of Everyday Life</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It's hard to </span></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">find a good picture of de Certeau walking, but here he is apparently standing about in field, and I suppose he must have done at least some walking to get there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But are you really sure about that scarf, Mike?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1pFb__Sxg1..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1pFb__Sxg1..." width="418" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Meanwhile a correspondent, Jane Freeman – she’s an artist, you could check her out - draws my attention to a quotation form Coleridge’s <i>Biographia Literaria</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">, in which he’s actually talking about essay-writing, but I think it has a wider application</span>: “The reader should be carried forward, not merely, or chiefly, by the mechanical impulse of curiosity, or by a restless desire to arrive at the final solution; but by the pleasurable activity of mind, excited by the attractions of the journey itself. Like the motion of a serpent, which the Egyptians made the emblem of intellectual power; or like the path of sound through the air; at every step he pauses, and half recedes, and, from the retrogressive movement, collects the force which again carries him onward.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ln61PkjXRN..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ln61PkjXRN..." width="280" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">No walking there, obviously, although we know Coleridge was quite the pedestrian – check out “The Devil’s Walk” – written with Robert Southey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ps9Baih0y4..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ps9Baih0y4..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And did you know that Kate Moss now lives in Coleridge’s old house in Highgate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, neither did I.</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r60JO3RgQG..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r60JO3RgQG..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Coleridge quotation corresponds somehow with a couple of paragraphs I recently found in John Berger’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Another Way of Telling</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The dog came out of the forest </i>is a simple statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that story is followed by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The man left the door open, </i>the possibility of a narrative has begun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the tense of the second sentence is changed into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The man had left the door open,</i> the possibility becomes almost a promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every narrative proposes an agreement about the unstated but assumed connections existing between events …</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“No story is like a wheeled vehicle whose contact with the road is continuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stories walk, like animals and men. And their steps are not only between narrated events but between each sentence, sometimes each word. Every step is a stride over something not said.”</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This is Berger walking with Tilda Swinton in Quincy, the town where he lives, in France.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lw3onFNeSr..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lw3onFNeSr..." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Photo: Sandro Kopp/Berlinale</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on June 29, 2016 12:04