New Cities/New Soviets

November 24, 2003

Scanning Pattern

holes in a computer punch-card, stops on a flute
a door to a room
it is the openings that make things useful

/observation is partial, that's its fucking point/

My scanning pattern is jarringly out of whack.

Which frequencies am I trying to tune in?

People wake up, go to sleep. Lights go on and off.

When I first came to New York, I left my apartment every day completely open -- sending and recieving on all available wavelengths. I was searching for the strongest signal, the brightest signal, to home in on. the voice of the city, the big voice -- ALL OF US HERE TOGETHER = WHAT DO WE SAY?

I figured out how to tune in this voice: in the silence before dawn / go to the roof / eyes find the middle distance / listen. See the city / wait for the sweet sound: a perfect high note.

But so what? Are we going to settle for that plaintive bullshit? High-pitched whine from a gagged city? It provides no direction -- the broadcast is non-localizable, non-actionable. It is only a calibration frequency, a horizon of activity.

Finding another freqency -- another scanning pattern. Like the head on a VCR playing a video tape -- home to store and back, to a bar, to a park, on a visit, on a random walk. Where do we go to, what is the frequency, and how do we process it? For me Stanton and Ludlow every Friday and Saturday night, and I'm not sure what I'm hearing.

Manhattan is not a closed city -- how can we use its openings?


Posted by Sam at November 24, 2003 08:49 AM

very strong turn
after the openning waltz
comes
like a sudden take down

i heard the back of my mind slap the matt

Posted by: meat me at November 26, 2003 06:58 PM

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