cold rain slips from the grey sky.
November is here, finally, and I am enjoying the simple pleasure involved in figuring out how many layers to put on my body...
November is here, utterly, and I stop by this space, this not down here place, to say it is a good thing.
11.15.2009
11.12.2009
overripe, not quite, feels right but stuck in time so slow
underlit, fondly sit, reels shit and sticks and stones some more
I push actively against the fibrous membrane
and the same slow feeling filters down
like so many dying leaves
and sleeping trees
littering the stillborn landscape.
I push harder against the ardous casings
and the enveloping heart comes through
like so many twinkling lights
and waking dreams
enclosing the sublime fancy
I push no more against the wraith-like nothing
and I exist suddenly throughout
like so many budding trees
and bumbling bees
dizzying the latent sunrise
underlit, fondly sit, reels shit and sticks and stones some more
I push actively against the fibrous membrane
and the same slow feeling filters down
like so many dying leaves
and sleeping trees
littering the stillborn landscape.
I push harder against the ardous casings
and the enveloping heart comes through
like so many twinkling lights
and waking dreams
enclosing the sublime fancy
I push no more against the wraith-like nothing
and I exist suddenly throughout
like so many budding trees
and bumbling bees
dizzying the latent sunrise
11.10.2009
a continuation of old things
I thought I'd share a couple of relics from the files...
This is the old Gillham Theatre, which was owned by Tony DiPardo of Chiefs bandleader fame and was being renovated in 2001 into the "Monaco", a special events place. It burned down during renovation - you can find the empty lot just east of 31st and Gillham, to the north of El Torreon.
A link to an article about the fire...
This is part of the Warner Plaza complex that was located at the SE corner of Linwood and Main. The apartment complex and associated commercial buildings were demolished in the mid 90s, along with another 6 blocks of typical midtown housing and apartment buildings. Warner Plaza was known as a pretty terrible place, but it only accounted for approximately 1/6th of the land area demolished for the Home Depot and Costco that are there now. Even though Costco is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, it demonstrates land planning at its absolute worst and shows Kansas City's complete lack of interest in anything besides a quick, cheap, incongruous fix when it has the opportunity to do something right.
Here is a map indicating the buildings that were extant in 1991 and were subsequently removed for the pleasure of ample parking and large undeveloped swaths of green.
Warner Plaza only occupies the upper corner of the demo'd site, essentially what is west of Warwick Boulevard and north of 32nd Terrace... or McDonalds, for anyone familiar with the area.
This is the old Gillham Theatre, which was owned by Tony DiPardo of Chiefs bandleader fame and was being renovated in 2001 into the "Monaco", a special events place. It burned down during renovation - you can find the empty lot just east of 31st and Gillham, to the north of El Torreon.
A link to an article about the fire...
This is part of the Warner Plaza complex that was located at the SE corner of Linwood and Main. The apartment complex and associated commercial buildings were demolished in the mid 90s, along with another 6 blocks of typical midtown housing and apartment buildings. Warner Plaza was known as a pretty terrible place, but it only accounted for approximately 1/6th of the land area demolished for the Home Depot and Costco that are there now. Even though Costco is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, it demonstrates land planning at its absolute worst and shows Kansas City's complete lack of interest in anything besides a quick, cheap, incongruous fix when it has the opportunity to do something right.
Here is a map indicating the buildings that were extant in 1991 and were subsequently removed for the pleasure of ample parking and large undeveloped swaths of green.
Warner Plaza only occupies the upper corner of the demo'd site, essentially what is west of Warwick Boulevard and north of 32nd Terrace... or McDonalds, for anyone familiar with the area.
11.02.2009
of animation and social space, told from the perspective of me over my lunch break
Today the dominant social space for me has been a linear block of buildings situated on a passageway known as Massachusetts Avenue.
After eating a simple, swift lunch of beef tacos at La Parilla I slowly walked to the north, stopping for a time outside of Sunflower Bicycle. Carefully walking out of the worn shop door was a long haired, soft orange cat named Stanley. I stopped and spent a few silent minutes with Stanley, and a very complete peace settled over my stormy monday bones.
This cat didn't seem to notice or care for my attention, but he also didn't shy away. I walked on to the corner of 8th and Massachusetts and sat on a concrete wall for a few minutes regarding Stanley in the animated silence of the crisp early november early afternoon. Eventually he walked inside his shop, and I continued north.
On a whim I decided to stop in The Dusty Bookshelf and I spent the better part of a half hour wandering around the decayed paper smell of the used bookstore, picking up idle conversation from the clerk and a customers, and generally losing myself in odd titles on gardening and philosophy and cities.
I selected a Ray Bradbury book I have never read, The Martian Chronicles, and a book about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses in New York City named Wrestling With Moses. After paying, I deliberately walked up the stairs to the office, outside of the lineal space of Massachusetts Avenue and back into the specific programmed use of an architectural office.
And here I'll be for some time.
After eating a simple, swift lunch of beef tacos at La Parilla I slowly walked to the north, stopping for a time outside of Sunflower Bicycle. Carefully walking out of the worn shop door was a long haired, soft orange cat named Stanley. I stopped and spent a few silent minutes with Stanley, and a very complete peace settled over my stormy monday bones.
This cat didn't seem to notice or care for my attention, but he also didn't shy away. I walked on to the corner of 8th and Massachusetts and sat on a concrete wall for a few minutes regarding Stanley in the animated silence of the crisp early november early afternoon. Eventually he walked inside his shop, and I continued north.
On a whim I decided to stop in The Dusty Bookshelf and I spent the better part of a half hour wandering around the decayed paper smell of the used bookstore, picking up idle conversation from the clerk and a customers, and generally losing myself in odd titles on gardening and philosophy and cities.
I selected a Ray Bradbury book I have never read, The Martian Chronicles, and a book about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses in New York City named Wrestling With Moses. After paying, I deliberately walked up the stairs to the office, outside of the lineal space of Massachusetts Avenue and back into the specific programmed use of an architectural office.
And here I'll be for some time.
10.30.2009
fasting for the feast
i deprive myself to make myself hungry.
i give to you to make you full.
That just popped into my head! What does it mean? I have no idea... but I like alliteration, sometimes (typically on fridays) and I especially like being vague.
Put that on your sandwich and smoke it!
i give to you to make you full.
That just popped into my head! What does it mean? I have no idea... but I like alliteration, sometimes (typically on fridays) and I especially like being vague.
Put that on your sandwich and smoke it!
10.29.2009
this is where i have ended
this is another old poem, possibly from early 2002...
its content may not be applicable, but i like its simplicity. enjoy.
this is where i have ended
this is where i have ended.
on the brown side of the river,
washing scratch rust along my calves,
my forearms.
no warning,
no time to think.
dirt compounding itself,
like so many chords,
haphazardly strung in a minor key.
like dirty rain
bottled in the spring
for each pale yellow lighting streak
calling the lover to mate.
its content may not be applicable, but i like its simplicity. enjoy.
this is where i have ended
this is where i have ended.
on the brown side of the river,
washing scratch rust along my calves,
my forearms.
no warning,
no time to think.
dirt compounding itself,
like so many chords,
haphazardly strung in a minor key.
like dirty rain
bottled in the spring
for each pale yellow lighting streak
calling the lover to mate.
10.23.2009
all we ever wanted was everything
i am reminded of a song on this cold, brittle, and silent friday.
the song is "all we ever wanted was everything", by bauhaus.
it is appropriate as the seasons change and self-reflection is warmed by the inner fires of winter.
the lyrics:
All we ever wanted was everything
All we ever got was cold
Get up, eat jelly
Sandwich bars, and barbed wire
Squash every week into a day
The sound of drums is calling
The sound of the drum has called
Flash of youth shoot out of darkness
Factorytown
Oh to be the cream
the song is "all we ever wanted was everything", by bauhaus.
it is appropriate as the seasons change and self-reflection is warmed by the inner fires of winter.
the lyrics:
All we ever wanted was everything
All we ever got was cold
Get up, eat jelly
Sandwich bars, and barbed wire
Squash every week into a day
The sound of drums is calling
The sound of the drum has called
Flash of youth shoot out of darkness
Factorytown
Oh to be the cream
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