ten things twenty one
1. The only thing that separates a mess of seemingly disparate
observations and a song is a moment of excessive confidence. As time
goes on words and ideas begin to catch and gather around the original
suspiciously arbitrary seeds of inspiration. There are times when I
must admit that all the verse has in common with the chorus is that
they both came out of my imagination, but isn’t that enough?
-Andrew bird uses coded language too talk about art, especially, i think, installation art.
2. "the wind is made of wolves"
-the crack-addled woman who lives in the park behind my house is fond of shouting this around dusk. i'm beginning to think she might know what she's ranting about.
3.
4. Excerpt: On climbing Table Mountain
-Andrew bird uses coded language too talk about art, especially, i think, installation art.
2. "the wind is made of wolves"
-the crack-addled woman who lives in the park behind my house is fond of shouting this around dusk. i'm beginning to think she might know what she's ranting about.
3.
i don't dust.
4. Excerpt: On climbing Table Mountain
“The view is worth the work” they said. “You’ll be so proud of yourself when you make it to the top and gaze down on the ocean with the city sprawled out below.” No one mentioned the cloud that would descend on the mountain just as we reached the torturous vertical switchbacks. No one mentioned the cloying moisture that would lick my cheeks and heavy my underwear, causing me to confuse cloud water with sweat - water that dehydrates; the ocean on top of a mountain. Did I wet myself? No one mentioned the cloud. I couldn’t even see anything. Just the cloud that no one mentioned. Then I stumbled over the peak, having ascended something close to a million feet somewhat against my will. Where was the theme from Rocky? Where was the cooler of neon-colored sports drink? Where were the adoring fans, the tickertape, that wide ribbon that they stretch across finish lines that attractive specimens burst in slow motion with their torsos, arms akimbo and faces gorgeously anguished? As I groped about in the everywhere whiteness, exhausted and panting, the cable car that stretches from the base of the mountain to the peak (accomplishing in four minutes what took me three hours) lurched up over the cliff. Then a fatty in a fanny pack rolled out of the cable car, wiped some ding dong crumbs from one of her chins, and exclaimed “That was exhilarating!”
5.
the greatest view in all of southern africa
6. - 10.
monument to Cecil J. Rhodes, architect of apartheid
"Your Hinterland is There"
can't wait to get the package.
wish you could be here.
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