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 on 08:49 AM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2003

'tis the season

I don't really think New York is designed for this season. It just doesn't have the right kind of spaces to resonate with the mood, the right spaces to fulfil the necessary social functions. So everyone walks around in muted daze, even on beautiful days like today.

It gets dark really freakin' early, and there's no-where to go. You don't want to be deep indoors, like in the winter, but you sure as hell don't want to just wander around the dim streets. The shopping frenzy christmas cheer isn't really kicking in yet, so it's all just kinda...glum.

We could be setting the stage for a good winter, setting up jobs for the small days of December and January. Instead, a lot of people end up just getting depressed; even troopers like me and Mol struggle.

Posted by Sam on 06:49 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2003

Bring the Paine

If you ain't checked out pinky's place yet, do so post haste. Here's the most recent post, which excellently explodes this bullshit paddycakes between Republidon'ts and Democan'ts over any possible Iraqan extraction. (ahh...and his style is giddy and infectious).

Posted by Sam on 08:55 PM | Comments (1)