Walk

28 November 2007

I went down the stairs and out the front door. Susan and Ellen were in the office talking. I didn’t say anything to them. I walked out the door and turned right.

What did you do then?

I walked to the corner. I thought about going straight down as usual, but instead crossed the street. I began walking up a slight hill to the Brown Quadrangle. I passed two people as I turned into the Quadrangle. I took a diagonal left, which would leave me out between two libraries.

Wait, I remember crossing the first intersection. I think there was little or no traffic.

After writing my slightly hysterical airport/journey post the other day, I checked mail and came across this piece by Alan Sondheim titled Memory of a Walk, quoted above. I don’t know Alan’s work that well, largely from his postings on Nettime some of which have been amazing. I really loved the blankness and calm of this recent piece –  mundane and enigmatic at the same time.

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Bennun - Newspaper Stand Image

Had mail from Neil Bennun following brief previous entries here on Fénéon, the three line novel and newspaper sign-boards. Neil sent a bunch of images from his collection of newspaper sign-board pictures, including the one above. Writing to him reminded me of the book Suitcase Body Is Missing Woman by Eva Weinmayr (Bookworks, 2005) which presents a fantastic archive of Evening Standard newsstand posters arranged in alphabetical sequence.