wayback machine: the gates, 2005

The snowman expresses how I felt today:



That's Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gatesin the background there. I was living in New Jersey at the time, and I had to make a special trip in to town to see them. In addition to being snowy, it was raw and cold and slippery, and a goo many pictures from the set are blurry and strange, probably because my hands were shaking.



I really did like the Gates, even though they were kind of ridiculous. Perhaps because they were ridiculous. They were just such a beautiful burst of color in the snow.



After tottering around Central Park I took myself out to lunch at Alice's Tea Cup, which at the time was a significant extravagance. I was already kind of sick, and I think it was after this that I came down with the world's worst case of bronchitis.

It was worth it, though.

not gonna be your fall-back crush anymore

View from the Santa Monica Pier, April 2003

After C9 I spent a few days in Los Angeles, the first time I can remember going to California. I had a number of adventures; one of them was That Time I Went To Santa Monica By Accident. Basically, I got on the right bus going the wrong way, and wasn't really sure what had happened until the ocean hove into view. The next day I went back on purpose, to walk on the pier and wade in the Pacific, and hum Watch the World Die to myself.


Walk On L.A. By Carl Cheng, April 2003

This remains one of my favorite pieces of totally random public sculpture in L.A. Do people ever try and move it, to press the patterns into the sand??


Santa Monica in Santa Monica

. . . live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers, watch the world die . . .