My bio is finally up.
The lead singer leaned out over the packed crowd and shouted "Who here is in love?" The crowd paused.
"Okay four of you, that's great!" he answered.
Ah, Pittsburgh.
I watched a man carry a silver serving tray of crystal goblets through a black alleyway full of mud and trash cans and empty bottles. He sat down on a broken plastic lawn chair and told a story about South Africa, of the tulips and moths and the night sky. His acquaintances laughed raucously and you held your head. The wine warmed the back of my skull and I felt oddly downcast. I recalled fumbling around in the dark and finding a light switch, turning it on to see a man's life a shambles, clothes and household items strewn everywhere, upturned, disarray. I stood in the middle of his living room, holding my elbows and peering into the other rooms, all lamentable disasters. His upheaval could not have been conveyed in fewer words.
It's amazing how the sky can fall on a person, in all shades of blue and gray, and that person can still glow faintly from under the clouds and shadow to humor us, and to smile. I felt uncomfortable leaving him behind last night, but only as uncomfortable as I had been to see him in that condition. The disposition that I saw seeping through the weather would lead him out of the rain.
"Okay four of you, that's great!" he answered.
Ah, Pittsburgh.
I watched a man carry a silver serving tray of crystal goblets through a black alleyway full of mud and trash cans and empty bottles. He sat down on a broken plastic lawn chair and told a story about South Africa, of the tulips and moths and the night sky. His acquaintances laughed raucously and you held your head. The wine warmed the back of my skull and I felt oddly downcast. I recalled fumbling around in the dark and finding a light switch, turning it on to see a man's life a shambles, clothes and household items strewn everywhere, upturned, disarray. I stood in the middle of his living room, holding my elbows and peering into the other rooms, all lamentable disasters. His upheaval could not have been conveyed in fewer words.
It's amazing how the sky can fall on a person, in all shades of blue and gray, and that person can still glow faintly from under the clouds and shadow to humor us, and to smile. I felt uncomfortable leaving him behind last night, but only as uncomfortable as I had been to see him in that condition. The disposition that I saw seeping through the weather would lead him out of the rain.
Have you ever done something you knew you weren't supposed to but that would only hurt yourself? I did that today.
Summer is halfway over -- at least in terms of school semesters. It just now feels like summer. Last night on the balcony at Doc's the air was stagnant, full, heavy. You looked exhausted. People talked of sad things in the oppressive heat, necks and foreheads glinting with sweat under the harsh lighting. Careers, relationships, academics, what's not suffering a downturn? Even the pizza burned my tongue. You remain optimistic and I draw from that. There was relief, there was melancholy, there was a general fatigue.
As I drove through the city today, my recollections of both the shimmering snow and the mountains of ice and sludge walling in the parked cars seemed like false memories. Did the snow ever exist? I miss skating in the dark at Schenley. I hear people say that winter is depressing but the summer has been harder for me. In every season though, the city manages to become strangely beautiful. Now green and sultry, it sits in a haze of heat, waiting for the buzz of the cicadas to return. Uncertainty is pervasive.
As I drove through the city today, my recollections of both the shimmering snow and the mountains of ice and sludge walling in the parked cars seemed like false memories. Did the snow ever exist? I miss skating in the dark at Schenley. I hear people say that winter is depressing but the summer has been harder for me. In every season though, the city manages to become strangely beautiful. Now green and sultry, it sits in a haze of heat, waiting for the buzz of the cicadas to return. Uncertainty is pervasive.
Well the new site is finally up. I'm not sure I like this blog template I've created, and the archives aren't working yet, and well, frankly, lots of stuff is missing, but I forced myself to upload it all today anyway. Improvements continue. Stay tuned. By the way, I need an index page, what was I thinking?
