Phoenix's blog

Phoenix

MLord

Play in the City 028

Sunday, September 15th

The Art of Wandering

The article which most particularly resonates with our trip into Philadelphia is Cass Sunstein’s article, “So Much for Serendipity in Personalized News.” This is not perhaps particularly original, since everyone on the trip most likely found themselves released into a world of serendipity. However, I tried particularly hard to play in the city, to open myself to any and all possibilities for play, and found them delightful.

Upon being freed into the city, my group, consisting of myself, Marcia, Thea, and Agatha, agreed to visit the sculpture garden. There we discovered, among other things, a door decorated with many small figures. Although I rushed past the door at first, Thea pointed out that a large sculpture of three men entitled The Fades was reproduced in miniature on the door, which prompted me to look more closely and find that another large sculpture, apparently a replica of the famous Thinker, was also miniaturized on the door.

Something has been niggling at me ever since I started taking the newspaper electronically.

At my mother's request that I keep up-to-date with the state of national and international affairs, I set up an account with the New York Times and began having an email sent to me every day with the headlines. When I open one of these emails, I can see the titles of the headline articles, as well as a short, one-sentence description of the article. The Times sends me Top News, Editors' Picks, World, U.S., Politics, Business, Technology, Sports, Arts, N.Y./Region, Obituaries, Dining & Wine, Today's Video, Editorials, and Op-Ed. I click on the articles in Top News, World, U.S., and Politics that look interesting or important; skim Business, Videos, Dining & Wine, and N.Y./Region; and skip Sports and Obituaries entirely. My favorites, though, are Editorials and Op-Ed, where NY Times writers are allowed to dispense entirely with any attempt to sound neutral, and state their opinions boldly.

Phoenix

MLord

Play in the City 028

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Spider-Art

            The subject of this photograph is a picture titled Spiderman, by Sigmar Polke, which can be found at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, New York. It cannot truly be called a painting, because it is composed of “cut-and-pasted painted papers on canvas” (MOMA). However, I will refer to it as such to more clearly distinguish it from my photograph.

            Spiderman’s title character is a seemingly emblematic feature of New York. Like many superheroes, Spider-Man fights evil in a big city, but unlike DC Comics characters Batman and Superman, he baldly claims his city to be one of our own. On the same trip on which I took this photograph, I passed a street performer dressed as the famous webslinger. On another, I watched the Broadway production Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. My habit is to buy a T-shirt to commemorate every place I visit, and for my New York memento, I bought one of the shirts available for purchase in the lobby of the theater.

My avatar is a picture of the most distinguishing landmark of the other place I call home: San Francisco, CA. Although I hail from Virginia, where I have lived for the past 16 years, I spent the first few weeks of my life in The City. These few weeks were the end of three years in which my parents lived there, rent paid for by the US Army. The stories they told of it enthralled me, and, three years ago, they took me back to visit. I felt an instant kinship with the place, with its colors, unusual architecture and landscaping, and sheer sense that the inhabitants are whoever they want to be, no restrictions imposed.

Once, I caught myself remembering the beauty of San Francisco, and told myself that it was just my memory making it seem more beautiful than it actually was, as has happened with other places. I returned to my photo album, and discovered that no, in fact, my memory was actually dimming the beauty.

Without the help of the military, I will not be able to live in San Francisco again unless I find a very well-paying job--the cost of living there is greater than in London. However, I have not given up hope that I will find a way to return.