Aeolian Ride - San Francisco
Jessica is on her way now from NY to LA where she will be holding another Aeolian Ride! If you’re around la-la land go check it out.
September 10th, 6:17 pm, @ Santa Monica + Vermont in front of the Red Line Station
the caltrans site has a great photo gallery - it hits me high full of longing… there are some great images… like the st. vincent thomas bridge - which is also visible from the view at my grandmother’s house (but obviously from quite a bit more distance than in the photo) and the harbor freeway. one of my favorites - the famous four-level interchange in downtown.
“there is nothing to match flying over los angeles at night. a sort of luminous, geometric, incandescent immensity, stretching out as far as the eye can see, bursting out from the cracks in the clouds. only hieronymus bosch’s hell can match this inferno effect.”
– jean baudrillard
hehe… amazingly real photo-scenery for your flight simulator! i must say their screen shots of los angeles and san diego are pretty amazing. there’s even a shot of palos verdes. the night shots though, are really the best. i remember ending many transcontinental flights that way.
A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image. - Joan Didion
back at home i spent quite a bit of time in the local library - haha… yeah, the library i used to go to while in high school. found some pretty interesting books i would otherwise not come across in dublin.
this one by david brodsly: L.A. Freeway: An Appreciative Essay, 0-520-04068-6 was particularly moving. for me, native southern californian and resident of the satellite sprawl of los angeles, some things about this book rang so true. with references to joan didion, los angeles history, and plenty of striking photos of soaring freeway interchanges, it perfectly captured the best and worst of los angeles, and how the freeway is central to any discussion of life there. (more…)
went to UCSB yesterday to give a talk in lisa jevbratt’s class - george legrady and his students also sat in. my talk centered on social fashioning: or how i use social protocol and social infrastructure in deploying artistic wearable ad-hoc network applications. it seemed to go over well, or at least so i was told… anyhow the MAT and art programs seem to be doing some interesting stuff… lisa’s class is actually on protocols, where students are supposed to write their own to submit to the RFC - one student from her last class actually submitted his, but was alas, turned down. met some very interesting europeans also visiting and had a nice lunch with people at an ocean-side cafe.
i’ve been back at home in los angeles county for five days now. today i was in the fashion district and the california flower market. i had actually never been down there before (though i’ve driven through a few times). my mother’s good friend took us around, having a longstanding insider’s knowledge of the area from his many years as a southern california florist. santee alley was pretty overwhelming - with copious merchandise and bargain deals everywhere - the open market stalls reminded me of mexico city, my mother’s friend commented on how it reminded him of hong kong, and it was also a lot like canal street in nyc… but with sunshine and salsa music playing in the background and the great blue cloudless california sky overhead.
living outside of the united states for the last year or so i’ve missed all the action surrounding the telelvision show The O.C. but apparently it’s coming to dublin and the adverts have been running for a few weeks now. i finally checked out a couple of episodes and visited the website… haha… in short: it’s beverly hills 90210 repackaged and displaced just a further bit south.
Been browsing the L.A. Times. Looks like there’s an interesting class on Los Angeles myths at Pasadena City College… Sounds like something I would actually enjoy. The title of the course is “Los Angeles: Transition and Erasure” and is meant to reveal “the tragic qualities of Southen California life.”
Beautiful SoCal, with perpetual amnesia, so full of small cracks and fissures that only reveal themselves with a closer look. I describe my home region as deeply dysfunctional, with a schizoid pathology and contrariness that extends to all aspects of life. And yet I revel in it all - the vast emptiness, the alienation, the forgetfulness. I feel like I’m constantly looking for the California that gets swept away along with all the rubble from the latest earthquake or ashes from forest fire. I never find it, only careless traces. It’s what keeps me coming back.
