I'm a researcher at the Uni of Salford, UK running a project allowing
members of the public to record and document their soundscapes using
their mobile phones.

We are currently into our pilot/beta stage so im looking for interested
people to take part!

If anyone likes the sound of what we are doing our site is @
http://www.soundaroundyou.com <http://www.soundaroundyou.com> and any
discussion is on our Facebook group (linked from the site)

Cheers!

C

Hi
My documentary about deep topographer Nick Papadimitriou and the edgelands he
venerates, the London Perambulator, is now finished and will be screening as
part of the East End Film Festival at the Whitechapel Gallery Wed 29th April at
7pm. After the screening I'll be doing a panel discussion Will Self, Iain
Sinclair, Andrea Philips - although I'll probably end up just listening to those
three.

As well as footage from walks I've done with Nick over the past year the film
features fantastic interviews with Russell Brand, Will Self and Iain Sinclair.

The film has also been nominated for the International Film Guide Inspiration
award for Best Documentary Feature.
There's some more info about the film and the panel here - hope you can make it
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/product/category_id/25/product_id/163?ses\
sion_id=1239578048704d58b7ee27acf35f6e9888e64bd5a4

Cheers
John
http://londonperambulator.wordpress.com/

Does everyone know about this website?

http://www.walkscore.com/

It's a wonderful resource!

MinnesotaMichael

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ralph Borland <ralph@...>
Date: 2008/6/9
Subject: Call for worldwide participation, Joyce Walks on Bloomsday
To: Julian Jonker <julianjonker@...>, Brendon Bussy
<br@...>, julia rosa clark <juliarosaclark@...>, James
Beckett <jamesbeckett73@...>, Paul Edmonds <heapau@...>


Hi cats,

A friend in Dublin is doing a psychogeography project based around James
Joyce, he does a lot of work with online maps, check it out:

http://www.stunned.org/walks/

He asked me if I'd disseminate the project, there's a global call for
submissions for 16 June (Bloomsday).

http://www.stunned.org/walks/bloomsday.html

Perhaps you could circulate to interested parties?

Cheers!

Ralph

The final version of "The Last Time I Saw..." is now available on the
project's website, http://timdevin.com/providence.html . The stories
can be accessed either as a free PDF book, or as an interactive map.

"The Last Time I Saw..." is a Providence RI-specific book/art project
that documents:

1. the last time area residents saw someone who means something to
them, but who they no longer speak to; and
2. the exact locations where these meetings or sightings took place.

The project has gathered 30 or so stories by 20 or so residents.
During 2007, we also led people on a story-telling walking tour of
Providence, and distributed 300 free copies of the book.

(Please note: we still have some copies of the book available. If
you'd like a free copy in exchange for postage, please email Tim at
lasttimeisaw@... . Thanks!)

1. the "Boston-area interact-with-Tim" version ( http://timdevin.com/exchange-boston.html ); and
2. the "anywhere do-it-yourself" version ( http://timdevin.com/exchange-anywhere.html ).

Also this inspiring website that is connected to the "Stalker idea".

http://digilander.libero.it/stalkerlab/tarkowsky/transbord/index.html


greets,
Riet




--- In pedestrianculture@yahoogroups.com, "riet.bongaerts"
<riet.bongaerts@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>  hello everyone
>
> I am new here in the group.
> my name is Riet, and I live in Belgium.
> I study Social Pedagogy in the university of Leuven.
> I am currently finishing my master course with my thesis on walking,
> titel "The educational meaning of walking and wandering".
>
> For those who are interested
> I am reading books such as
> - Walking as an artistic practice (Careri, 2002)
> - Eloge de la marche (Le Breton, 2000)
> - On Foot (Amato, 2004)
> - The education of a wandering man (L'Amour, 1989)
>
> Also, I recently saw the film "Stalker" by A.Tarkovski.
> I am really intreged by this movie and wondered if anyone of you have
> seen it and would like to share their oppinion on it.
>
> This film moves on an existential level with its poetry and alienating
> visions. Walking is the main activity of the three main figures, but
> important, this is not a regular walking. These three men are on a
> quest for the Room which is located in the Zone. The Zone is an
> desserted area in the former USSR which has a life of its own.  The
> Zone makes traps that change every minute, it can take people, and
> they will never return. It takes great skill and attention to walk in
> the Zone. That is why there is a Stalker who knows the ways of the
> Zone. This Stalker guides the two other men, a scientist and a writer,
> to the Room.
> Finally, after a tiring journey on foot through the Zone, the Stalker
> and the 2 other men arrive at the Room. In this Room your deepest wish
> will be fullfilled. Yet, standing on the doorstep, the two men don't
> want to set foot in the Room, they say that it's not true. The film
> ends then when the Stalker is back home, devestated and almost
> insanely desillusioned by the disbeleive of the two men.
>
> The film is mainly a walking, sneeking, dangerous journey on foot by
> the three men through the Zone. And as we all know, the journey
> becomes more meaningfull than the arrival itself.
>
> I am curious for your reactions.
> Till then.
>
> best greetings,
> Riet
>

hello everyone

I am new here in the group.
my name is Riet, and I live in Belgium.
I study Social Pedagogy in the university of Leuven.
I am currently finishing my master course with my thesis on walking,
titel "The educational meaning of walking and wandering".

For those who are interested
I am reading books such as
- Walking as an artistic practice (Careri, 2002)
- Eloge de la marche (Le Breton, 2000)
- On Foot (Amato, 2004)
- The education of a wandering man (L'Amour, 1989)

Also, I recently saw the film "Stalker" by A.Tarkovski.
I am really intreged by this movie and wondered if anyone of you have
seen it and would like to share their oppinion on it.

This film moves on an existential level with its poetry and alienating
visions. Walking is the main activity of the three main figures, but
important, this is not a regular walking. These three men are on a
quest for the Room which is located in the Zone. The Zone is an
desserted area in the former USSR which has a life of its own.  The
Zone makes traps that change every minute, it can take people, and
they will never return. It takes great skill and attention to walk in
the Zone. That is why there is a Stalker who knows the ways of the
Zone. This Stalker guides the two other men, a scientist and a writer,
to the Room.
Finally, after a tiring journey on foot through the Zone, the Stalker
and the 2 other men arrive at the Room. In this Room your deepest wish
will be fullfilled. Yet, standing on the doorstep, the two men don't
want to set foot in the Room, they say that it's not true. The film
ends then when the Stalker is back home, devestated and almost
insanely desillusioned by the disbeleive of the two men.

The film is mainly a walking, sneeking, dangerous journey on foot by
the three men through the Zone. And as we all know, the journey
becomes more meaningfull than the arrival itself.

I am curious for your reactions.
Till then.

best greetings,
Riet

Check out the new Pedestrian Rules of the Road created by my friends at the
Center for
Neighborhood Technology and the Illinois Dept. of Transportation.

http://www.cnt.org/repository/PedestrianRules.pdf

1. Tool Spotlight: Illinois Pedestrian Guide
Often overlooked, walking is the most common, healthy and affordable way to get
around.
Did you know that for about 30% of Americans are either too young, do not have
access to a
car, choose not to drive or have a condition that precludes them from driving?

This guide explains what both pedestrians and drivers need to do to keep
Illinois walking
safely. Download this convenient pocket/wallet guide at
http://www.cnt.org/repository/PedestrianRules.pdf and learn some rules of the
road and tips
you may have not known.

Glenn, thanks for your welcome.

   I assume you wrote the Description of this group; if so, may I ask to
ellaborate on "on places and landscapes experienced mostly (but not
exclusively) via walking."?

   I am asking because I am very interested in what is called "landscape
experience" and I'd like to exchange views on the subject.


--- In pedestrianculture@yahoogroups.com, Glenn Bach <bachg@...> wrote:
>
> Welcome, Jorge.
>
> Thanks for the comments and the poem. I appreciate your interest in
the
> group. It's been pretty quiet lately, except for some occasional spam
> that pops up (I try to quickly remove both message and sender).
>
> What a remarkable word, "caminar." And the image of foam trails on the
> sea is particularly strong.
>
> Best,
>
> G.
>
> jorgeg34 wrote:
> >
> > Hello, everyone, I'm new here. My interest in this group was aroused
> > on reading the introductory foreword describing topics for
discussion.
> > My congratulations to the fellow that wrote it; sort of a program of
> > enquiry into the so many ramifications of pedestrian culture; never
> > realized there were so many. Of course, walking, in the sense
> > described in said foreword, is no menial pastime; only when our
> > awareness is turned off, walking becomes merely a way of going from
> > one spot to another. No wonder we use so many metaphors like
> > "/walking/ through life" or "/walking/ the Path", as in taoism, or
> > "life's but a /walking/ shadow" , as in Macbeth.
> >
> > Talking about metaphors�there is a remarkable poem which has
very much
> > to do with walking and 'walking through life'. It was written by a
> > Spanish poet, Antonio Machado and called "Caminante no hay camino".
In
> > Spanish 'to walk' is /caminar/ and from there /camino/ (the road)
and
> > /caminante /(one that walks). Quite a number of translations have
been
> > attempted; the one, I think, that captures better the original sense
> > is that of Prof. C. Kagan in her lecture "Making the road by walking
it":
> >
> > /Wayfarer, the only way /
> >
> > /is your footsteps, there is no other. /
> >
> > /Wayfarer, there is no way, /
> >
> > /you make the way by walking. /
> >
> > /As you go, you make the way, /
> >
> > /And, stopping to look behind, /
> >
> > /You see the path that your feet /
> >
> > /will never travel again./
> >
> > /Wayfarer there is no way /
> >
> > /Only foam trails to the sea. /
> >
> > ( the last line should be really "only foam trails on the sea") .
Here
> > '/caminante/' has been translated as wayfarer (one that goes from
> > place to place) A more proper translation would be 'walker' or 'the
> > one that walks' or even better 'saunterer', as used by Thoreau in
> > "Walking"� but then you couldn't make it rhyme in English.
> >
> > (For other translations off the poem see here :
> > http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1018770#2459716
> > <http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1018770#2459716> )
> >
> >
>
> --
> Glenn Bach, Adjunct Assistant Professor
> UWM Department of Film
> Mitchell Hall B-60
> 3203 N. Downer Avenue
> Milwaukee, WI 53211
>

Welcome, Jorge.

Thanks for the comments and the poem. I appreciate your interest in the
group. It's been pretty quiet lately, except for some occasional spam
that pops up (I try to quickly remove both message and sender).

What a remarkable word, "caminar." And the image of foam trails on the
sea is particularly strong.

Best,

G.

jorgeg34 wrote:
>
> Hello, everyone, I'm new here. My interest in this group was aroused
> on reading the introductory foreword describing topics for discussion.
> My congratulations to the fellow that wrote it; sort of a program of
> enquiry into the so many ramifications of pedestrian culture; never
> realized there were so many. Of course, walking, in the sense
> described in said foreword, is no menial pastime; only when our
> awareness is turned off, walking becomes merely a way of going from
> one spot to another. No wonder we use so many metaphors like
> "/walking/ through life" or "/walking/ the Path", as in taoism, or
> "life's but a /walking/ shadow" , as in Macbeth.
>
> Talking about metaphors�there is a remarkable poem which has very much
> to do with walking and 'walking through life'. It was written by a
> Spanish poet, Antonio Machado and called "Caminante no hay camino". In
> Spanish 'to walk' is /caminar/ and from there /camino/ (the road) and
> /caminante /(one that walks). Quite a number of translations have been
> attempted; the one, I think, that captures better the original sense
> is that of Prof. C. Kagan in her lecture "Making the road by walking it":
>
> /Wayfarer, the only way /
>
> /is your footsteps, there is no other. /
>
> /Wayfarer, there is no way, /
>
> /you make the way by walking. /
>
> /As you go, you make the way, /
>
> /And, stopping to look behind, /
>
> /You see the path that your feet /
>
> /will never travel again./
>
> /Wayfarer there is no way /
>
> /Only foam trails to the sea. /
>
> ( the last line should be really "only foam trails on the sea") . Here
> '/caminante/' has been translated as wayfarer (one that goes from
> place to place) A more proper translation would be 'walker' or 'the
> one that walks' or even better 'saunterer', as used by Thoreau in
> "Walking"� but then you couldn't make it rhyme in English.
>
> (For other translations off the poem see here :
> http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1018770#2459716
> <http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1018770#2459716> )
>
>

--
Glenn Bach, Adjunct Assistant Professor
UWM Department of Film
Mitchell Hall B-60
3203 N. Downer Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53211

 Hello, everyone,  I'm new here. My interest in this group was aroused on reading the introductory foreword describing topics for discussion. My congratulations to the fellow that wrote it; sort of a program of enquiry into the so many ramifications of pedestrian culture; never realized there were so many. Of course, walking, in the sense described in said foreword, is no menial pastime; only when our awareness is turned off, walking  becomes merely a way of going from one spot to another.  No wonder we use so many metaphors like "walking through life" or "walking the Path", as in taoism, or "life's but a walking shadow" , as in Macbeth.

      Talking about metaphors�there is a remarkable poem which has very much to do with walking and 'walking through life'. It was written by a Spanish poet, Antonio Machado and called "Caminante no hay camino". In Spanish 'to walk' is caminar and from there camino (the road) and caminante (one that walks). Quite a number of  translations have been attempted; the one, I think, that captures better the original sense is that of Prof. C. Kagan in her lecture "Making the road by walking it":

  Wayfarer, the only way

is your footsteps, there is no other.

Wayfarer, there is no way,

you make the way by walking.

As you go, you make the way,

And, stopping to look behind,

You see the path that your feet

will never travel again.

Wayfarer there is no way

Only foam trails to the sea.

( the last line should be really "only foam trails on the sea") . Here 'caminante'  has been translated as wayfarer (one that goes from place to place) A more proper translation would be 'walker' or 'the one that walks' or even better 'saunterer', as used by  Thoreau in "Walking"� but then you couldn't make it rhyme in English.

 (For other translations off the poem see here : http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1018770#2459716 )

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07307/830913-85.stm

Pedestrians 3 times more likely to be killed when clocks change, study says
Saturday, November 03, 2007
By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two Carnegie Mellon University scientists are warning people that
there's much more to daylight-saving time than just setting your clocks
back an hour tonight.

You need to get your mind right.

Professors Paul Fischbeck and David Gerard have made a study of traffic
fatalities that shows pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour
are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars in
the weeks after the fall time change.

The problem, they suspect, is that pedestrians and drivers have gotten
used to more than six months of visibility during those hours and are
slow to adapt to the danger of the darkness.

"The change that's going to occur on Sunday is going to have some
pronounced effects on your risks of walking between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.,"
Dr. Gerard said last night. "Basically, these are the hours when it's
just getting dark. Next week at this time, it will be pitch black. But
people walking and people driving won't have adjusted. The baseline risk
for getting killed is almost tripled."

Their study of pedestrian fatalities from 1999-2005 shows that there is
an average of 37 more U.S. pedestrian deaths around 6 p.m. in November
compared to October. That amounts to an increase of 186 percent.

No such jump was seen for drivers or passengers in cars.

"It's astonishing," Dr. Gerard said of the data. "It's particularly
worse right at the switch date, [when the average increases] two people
a day for the next couple weeks, until the adjustment is made."

Dr. Fischbeck, of Oakland, regularly walks with his 4-year-old twins
around 6 p.m. He said he is worried enough that he'll be more cautious
starting Monday.

"A three times increase in the risk is really dramatic, and because of
that we're carrying a flashlight," he said.

"I cross the street at Beechwood over to Frick Park twice a day," said
Dr. Gerard of Squirrel Hill, "and I really think people don't adjust.
That's just my observation."

But the statistics back it up.

"There's no significant difference at noon, but there is at 6 p.m.," Dr.
Gerard said.

After spiking sharply in November, the number of pedestrian deaths at 6
p.m. begins to drop in December. The danger declines each month.

Once everyone "springs forward" to daylight-saving time in April, there
is a 78 percent drop in risk at 6 p.m., they said.

"Our goal of the project is to educate people about things so they can
act to reduce their own risk," Dr. Gerard said. "We want people who are
now walking at dusk or driving at dusk to keep this in mind and make
adjustments and think about what they're doing. It might save somebody's
life.

"You can't go about your business in the same way when people can't see."

This isn't the first study of pedestrian deaths during the switch from
daylight-saving time to standard time. Research by The Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety of Arlington, Va., has calculated that
going to a year-round daylight-saving time would save about 200 deaths a
year, spokesman Russ Rader said.

"Benjamin Franklin conceived of daylight-saving time as a way of saving
candles," Mr. Rader said yesterday. "Today we know it saves lives."

The risk at 6 p.m. in November, after daylight-saving time ends, is 11
times higher than the risk for the same hour in April, when
daylight-saving begins, according to the Carnegie Mellon researchers.

Pedestrians also appear to be safer when walking in the morning.

Dr. Fischbeck and Dr. Gerard used federal traffic fatality data that
they've incorporated into a searchable database for different risk
factors. Their analysis was not peer-reviewed and is not being published
in a scientific journal.

But it does jibe with other peer-reviewed studies that looked at raw
fatalities.

A 2001 study by John M. Sullivan at the University of Michigan looked at
national traffic statistics from 1987 to 1997 and found that there were
65 crashes killing pedestrians in the week before the clocks fell back
and 227 in the week after.

But overall for the evening rush hour, turning the clock back is a
killer. In seven years there have been 250 more deaths in the fall and
139 fewer deaths in the spring.

"This clearly shows that both drivers and pedestrians should think about
this daylight-saving adjustment," Dr. Gerard said. "There are lives at
stake."


--
Glenn Bach, Lecturer
UWM Department of Film
Peck School of the Arts
Mitchell Hall Room B-60
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413

http://tinyurl.com/33qkky

'Psychogeography' by Will Self
Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place
By Karrie Higgins

Los Angeles Times
November 4, 2007

In 1950s and 1960s Paris, amid Le Corbusier-style modernism and urban
renewal, the Situationist International attacked city planning as an
ideology of organized social isolation, concerned primarily with the
smooth flow of automobile traffic. Cities, the group charged, offered
nothing more than capitalist spectacle -- "air-conditioned
kindergartens" that educated people into prescribed patterns of movement
and behavior.

Liberation required a radical rethinking of cities and space. One of the
most prominent Situationists, Guy Debord, called for an investigation
into the effects of the environment (both constructed and natural) on
emotions and behavior. He called this area of study psychogeography.
Psychogeographers set out on d�rives (literally, driftings), forgoing
all the usual motivations for movement, instead allowing themselves to
be attracted or repelled by the world around them or through some
element of chance. It is this sensibility that novelist Will Self and
artist Ralph Steadman have taken up in a new collection of essays and
illustrations titled "Psychogeography." (Much of this material first
appeared in a column Self writes, also called "Psychogeography," for the
British newspaper the Independent.)

Self begins "Psychogeography" with a long "introduction" describing a
walk he took from London to New York. That such a thing is impossible is
part of the point entirely: The idea is to walk from his London home to
Heathrow Airport before flying to JFK, where he will set out again, on
foot, for Manhattan. Here, Self sets up the strategy of his book by
giving a nod to Debord while at the same time mapping out his own
psychogeographic territory.

His long walks neither emulate nor resemble the d�rives of the
Situationists, in part because he carries his usual purposes and
motivations -- promoting a book, say, or attending a meeting. He has no
intention to "outfox prescribed folkways," but he also delights in
exploring true "Empty Quarters," those zones that lie outside urban
boundaries and off the paved paths. For him, these are the true
frontiers, the last places left to discover and explore. Strangely, he
never reflects on what may be his most dramatic deviation from the
Situationists -- the tendency to head directly for a tourist attraction,
whether it be the John Hancock Center in Chicago or Rome's "obligatory
round" of monuments: "the Colosseum, the Pantheon, St Peter's, the Trevi
Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Prada, Bulgari."

On the one hand, such differences seem to betray a misunderstanding of
psychogeography, which finds direction in indirection; on the other,
Self reveals a profound truth about place and our contemporary psyche.
Some 50 years after the Situationists set out on their first d�rives, we
live more isolated -- and yet more surrounded by spectacle -- than ever.
At the same time, in the wake of Sept. 11, no corner seems free from the
reach of surveillance. Can any place be new? Can any place be liberated?
So perhaps a radical re-imagining of psychogeography is in order.

Self prefers purposeful walks to random ones for a truly radical reason:
He wants to "drag other people" into his "oetechnical worldview." In
"South Downs Way," Self takes 10 hours to walk to a meeting, something
he confesses to his host. The effect is profound: "My interlocutor
goggles at me; if he took ten hours to get here, they're undoubtedly
thinking, will the meeting have to go on for twenty?" Cars and bullet
trains may speed up our transit time, but they do nothing to enrich the
quality or depth of our interactions. On the contrary, because we arrive
so fast, we have no reason to make occasions of anything. By nudging
others into this consciousness, Self acts as "an insurgent against the
contemporary world."

Even when Self seems to commit outright psychogeographic treason, he has
radical motivations. After an afternoon of overload at a local mall, he
escapes to the suburbs with his kids, where he reflects on how
interzones -- those places where "country and city do battle for the
soul of a place" -- excite him. This suburban expedition is Self's way
of dragging his children into their own consciousness of place. He wants
to yank them "out of all this intense urbanity" and expose them to the
suffocating pressure of "the sheer orderliness of all the neat verges
and linseed-oiled garage doors" -- just like the teenage Self once felt.
Once again, the insurgency: Self watches as his son tenses on his way
into the suburbs and relaxes on his way home to the city, his psyche
penetrated.

This book's vision is also very much post-Sept. 11, as Self meditates
not only on space, but also on our desire to wander off the margins of
the map -- to occupy no space at all. We watch in awe as the world's
greatest superpower fails to locate the world's most wanted terrorist.
For Self, this is an object lesson, showing us that as "long as there
are fugitives in the world there remains a certain mystery at its
margins; all has not been discovered, snooped into, X-rayed by the CIA."

Self, of course, becomes a fugitive every time he enters an Empty
Quarter. And as a dual British-American citizen, he can't help but
reflect on being a man without a country as well. In one walk to his
mother's childhood neighborhood in Queens, he discovers she was a
fugitive also: She never told him that her childhood neighborhood looked
exactly like his in the United Kingdom -- nor that, in moving across the
Atlantic, she had effectively created her own Empty Quarter in which to
hide.

Of course, one cannot ignore some of the failures here, such as Self's
"digression" that no female psychogeographers exist because women
supposedly lack men's special infatuation with "orientation." This is
demonstrably false (there are female psychogeographers, yours truly
among them), and one wonders why he even includes it; after all, place
pierces the psyches of all genders. More to the heart of the matter, the
point of psychogeography is not orientation; it is investigation.

In addition, some of the essays and illustrations, most notably the
account of a trip to Iowa, are, quite simply, too easy. Does it take
psychogeography to call Iowans fat?

Steadman's illustration of Iowa outdoes the essay: Malls appear like
distant mountains on the horizon, natural features of the landscape,
conveying perfectly the vastness and isolation of the Midwestern vista.

Throughout, Steadman's illustrations dazzle in their imagination, wit
and fancy. His vision of the Vatican relocated to a naval fort on the
sea, � la Sealand, makes literal the absurd isolation and smallness of
Vatican City. Likewise, his image of a future city in which
"cantilevered decks" protrude dangerously from "multi-storey blocks"
because the concepts of up and down are merely "contingent facts"
fulfills perfectly the Situationist call for a radical revolution of space.

Ultimately, "Psychogeography" is most profound when Self and Steadman
turn away from the Empty Quarters and, instead, reflect on the
tractor-beam pull familiar places exert.

Self's trip to Gaud�'s La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona unveils the
architect's feminine vision -- how he taps into everyone's desire "to be
a pink, fluffy girl in her pink, fluffy bedroom." Steadman's
illustration deftly portrays the feminine wave that overtakes visitors.
Suddenly, this familiar site seems new again.

And so, much like when Self drags his kids to the suburbs or announces
how long a walking journey has taken him, "Psychogeography" nudges
readers into a new consciousness, turning us toward a different worldview.

Perhaps we can make even those "prescribed" movements into something
meaningful. After all, we transform every place into a frontier simply
by paying attention. *

Karrie Higgins is a writer based in Portland, Ore.

Psychogeography

Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place

Will Self

Illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Bloomsbury: 256 pp., $34.95


--
Glenn Bach, Adjunct Assistant Professor
UWM Department of Film
Mitchell Hall B-60
3203 N. Downer Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Bard's dreams channel poetry

Joe Plum, whom some call a little-known state treasure, rambles through
the woods of southern Iowa, memorizing his words.

By MIKE KILEN
Des Moines Register

http://tinyurl.com/yp4rss

Joe Plum lives in the wooded hills of rural Monroe County in a home
built from scraps without electricity or plumbing.

It's no environmental statement. Plum, 55, has never had indoor
plumbing. A man asked him once if he lived "off the grid." Plum didn't
know what that meant.

He wakes from dreams and walks into the woods, sometimes for hours,
reciting and memorizing the poems that come to him in his sleep.

Between the place of dying / and the place of living / I have been
walking ...

Plum is a bardic poet. He doesn't write the words but stores them in his
mind, four volumes of poetry and more than 35 years of dreaming, recited
at the drop of a hat, a rhythmic, meditative verse.

Searching among / armies of wind / for a breath of still air / in which
to begin / gathering a storm of words to send / to wash out the mouths
of mortal men / that they might speak with the force of nature again ...

It is hard enough for a poet to sell his written words. For poets of the
oral tradition, it is nearly impossible.

After a lifetime of home building and freelance carpentry, Plum badly
ripped a muscle in his arm two years ago and can no longer do strenuous
work.

So he hunts, fishes and gardens. He gathers water from a spring, runs it
through a strainer to get out the bugs and leaves, and pours it over his
head while standing on a rock.

That's his shower. Even in the dead of winter.

Harder for him is sharing his poetry somewhere. If he even has the gas
money to get there.

Some call Plum a little-known state treasure. They wonder how Iowans can
nurture this talent.

"He just knocks me out," said Dave Moore, a well-known Iowa City
musician. "It's so easy to be skeptical, but he's tapped into a deep
connection that very few people have. He will talk about Tibetan images
in his dreams. Yet you feel like he's not running some kind of guru trip
on you or anything."

Unless you hit a poetry slam; attend the consecration of a Buddhist
temple in Boulder, Colo., where he said his poems and met the Dalai
Lama; or run down to Louisiana, where he appeared at the request of
famous beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, you may think he is simply an
unusual person, living outside the margins.

Though it might be easy / to make a mistake / and think me blind, broken
and feeble / when in truth / I'm simply stopping / to contemplate / the
ways of returning / to an unspoken center / where gravity will balance
my spinning weight ...



Lessons learned by listening

At the ends of several increasingly narrow gravel roads, the lane to
Plum's house is nestled between trees.

Large boulders he collects are scattered about the place. A chicken barn
and a shed with firewood flank the small, simple home.

"Keeping my butt in the timber allows me to move to a conscious self,"
said Plum, a tall and athletic man with long, curly hair.

He has lived on this 16 acres since 1994, but over his entire life he
has walked the hills near the ghost town of Weller, between Knoxville
and Chariton.

His grandfather was a bardic poet from Wales. Welsh immigrants settled
in the timber of southern Iowa to work in the coal mines.

"In the Welsh tradition, someone like Joe would have held a very high
status in society," said Keith Yanner, a Central College professor who
helped Plum secure a $7,600 Iowa Arts Council grant in 2002.

But the oral poetry tradition holds little stature in the United States,
and the grant was declined the following years. Plum says the only role
for the bard in the United States is to give eulogies.

"So he is out in the woods by himself, trying to remain true to
himself," Yanner said. "He's out there in the shadows, in the margins,
and no one is out there."

Poems started to come to Plum at age 3. He said them over toads in his
toad cemetery.

He ignored his poetic voice for years while maintaining a D- average in
high school. By age 16 he was helping his father build homes in the area.

"I know every roof around here," he said. "For years I've built homes.
They started with a field and ended with rows of houses. All these big,
expensive homes for two people."

By age 18 he moved out on his own, living in a fruit cellar. The dreams
started then. Dreams with poetry.

"I was reading it in my dreams," he said. "The world speaks volumes if
you listen to it."

It began with a dream in the mountains overlooking an ocean. He leaped
to the rocks below and waited to hit the rocks. When he did, it was
extremely painful and his body scattered to pieces that floated out to
sea, only to slowly merge together. A man appeared at a big burgundy
table and told him he came from his unconscious state in a hospital to
this other world. Plum began reciting a poem to him about his internal
being, his center.

Listening to Plum can be challenging.

"If you say poetry, you're mind is in a different realm," he said. "If I
write it down, it doesn't feel right. In written language, you are in
someone else's landscape. It is imposed upon you.

"In the oral tradition, the lessons you need to live are learned by
listening.

"Suddenly you have your own thoughts and you are not reacting to others'
thoughts."



Primordial mist and night wandering

Plum's goal is to buy nothing new, although he bought a telephone three
years ago at the request of his partner, Jennifer Hall. She says Plum
doesn't like to talk to people much, including his eight brothers and
sisters.

He has two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. His daughter
Emily Plum, a published poet from Ames, says she also lives without
running water and learned poetry at her father's knee in the TV-free
evenings, full of language and awareness of the world. She has helped
him reach out with his poetry.

Yanner met Plum through Emily.

"Joe and I became friends to the extent that it's possible to be a
friend of Joe's because he is so reclusive," he said. "He's an
incredibly bright and gifted man, a tremendous athlete, a great piano
player and great with numbers. You hang out with him, and the guy can do
all this stuff at a very high level. On top of that, he's got this high
facility with language and tremendous memory to store it all."

Plum acknowledges that he's "not a good circle joiner. I pierce the veil
with my poems."

So what do his poems communicate? "The point where human nature and
nature come together," he said.

His poetry is straight from the primordial mist. It's as if he has
traveled to the core of the Earth in his night wanderings.

Hall will hear him rise at night and let him go. "I try not to talk to
him." From the window she will see him walking to the woods.

"When I get hit with a poem, that's it," he said. "I can't keep a job
because I can't say, 'I can't be there today because I've got a poem.'

"Once I was stuck on one word for eight hours."

Between hauling water and chopping wood, which Hall increasingly does
because of Plum's injured arm, between the gardening and maintenance of
his place, his partner will read to him.

"We just finished the whole 'Little House on the Prairie' series," Hall
said.

Plum is asked to perform at colleges and conferences where many of the
people are vegetarian. He doesn't join trends, movements or politics. He
grows hungry at the conferences.

"We have created this illusion of safety. Freedom is more important than
safety," he said.

He prepares for hunting season.

Out in the woods, he also hunts words.

He put them on CDs with his state grant, but few people have them. At
times he wishes he were a painter and could sell his wares at a market.

Instead, he gathers his art in sleep, where ego fades to an inner core.

He whispers a thanks for letting him say the poems out loud - for the
first time in several months.

"I'm trying to get people to feel more," he said.

Look to the landscape / for a view in the morning / gaze into the eyes /
of this earth at your feet / carry the moment / like a child who is
hungry / alive with the feeling / so that tomorrow can be...

How do you put a price on that?

--
Glenn Bach, Adjunct Assistant Professor
UWM Department of Film
Mitchell Hall B-60
3203 N. Downer Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Hi everyone-

The first edition of "The Last Time I Saw..." is now available on the
project's website, http://timdevin.com/providence.html . The stories
can be accessed either as a free PDF book, or as an interactive map.

"The Last Time I Saw..." is a Providence RI-specific book/art project
that documents:

1. the last time area residents saw someone who means something to
them, but who they no longer speak to; and
2. the exact locations where these meetings or sightings took place.

Free copies of the book will also be left in public places around
Providence. During Providence RI's ProvFlux Arts Festivall, I will
also give a free walking tour.

Please note: I'm still looking for stories. If you
have one that you'd like to share (or if you know someone who does),
please email me at lasttimeisaw at yahoo.com , or visit the project's
website.

Thanks!

Tim Devin
www.timdevin.com
www.rise-ind.com

--- In pedestrianculture@yahoogroups.com, Glenn Bach <gbach@...>
wrote:
>
> I'm forwarding this from Stephen Vincent.  Wish I could be there!
>
> G.
>
>
> Two WALKING related events at POETS HOUSE in Manhattan. One a
Friday
> evening Panel, and one, a late Saturday morning, early afternoon
walk.
> If you are anywhere near the neighborhood, you are invited to come
join us:
>
> Friday, May 4, 7:00pm
> The Poetics of Walking: Baudelaire and Beyond with Brenda Coultas,
Lytle
> Shaw, Jonathan Skinner & Stephen Vincent
>
> At Poets House, 72 Spring Street, Second Floor, Manhattan, New York
>
> In this foray into the flaneur tradition, panelists address the
poetry
> that emerges from the fundamental act of walking, with insights
from
> such immortal amblers as Whitman, Baudelaire, O'Hara and other
> peripatetic poets.
>
> In conjunction with the panel, Poets House will sponsor a series
of
> weekend poetry walks in Manhattan on Saturday, May 5th at 11:00am.
>
> Brenda Coultas is the author of A Handmade Museum. Lytle Shaw's
books
> include A Side of Closure and Frank O'Hara: The Poetics of
Coterie.
> Jonathan Skinner is the editor of ecopoetics and teaches
Environmental
> Studies at Bates College. Stephen Vincent's most recent poetry
books
> include Walking and, soon forthcoming, Walking Theory (Junction
Press).
>
> Saturday, May 5, 11:00am - 1:00pm
> The Poetics of Walking: Weekend Poetry Walk
>
> In conjunction with "The Poetics of Walking" panel (on May 4),
Poets
> House will sponsor a series of urban poetry strolls for writers
and
> artists. Each walking tour will be led by a "Poetics of Walking"
> panelist and will feature illuminating historical information and
a
> series of creative exercises enroute.
>
> Participants are encouraged to bring writing and/or drawing
materials.
> Meetup locations will be specified upon registration.
>
> $25/ $15 for students. Pre-registration is required. To register,
call
> (212) 431-7920 or email classes@... Registered participants
> will also receive free admission to the May 4th panel discussion.
>
> Walking the Bowery
> Guide: Brenda Coultas
>
> Brenda Coultas, the author of A Handmade Museum, leads a writing
tour
> from Cooper Union to Chinatown, with stops along the way to
observe
> signage, graffiti, people, nature and the changing demographics of
the
> Bowery.
>
> Listening Walk in Central Park
> Guide: Jonathan Skinner
> Jonathan Skinner, the editor of ecopoetics, leads an acoustical
tour
> through Olmstead's oasis with exercises that focus on sounds both
> natural and human.
>
> Canal Street & Tribeca: The Street vs. Architecture
> Guide: Stephen Vincent
>
> Stephen Vincent, the author of the poetry collection Walking and
the
> forthcoming, Walking Theory, explores walking as "immersion and
> revelation" and invites participants to take note of voices,
sounds,
> signage, colors and architectural shapes in the cityscape. The
walk will
> culminate in a gathering and discussion at Walkers, a restaurant.
>
> Dutch Manhattan : Controversial Terrain
> Guides: Lytle Shaw with Jimbo Blachly
>
> Lytle Shaw, the author of Frank O'Hara: The Poetics of Coterie,
and
> visual artist Jimbo Blachly introduce participants to the Chadwick
> Family, who will offer a rare perspective on Manhattan's past,
revealing
> several 17th Century sites that pertain to their family's
misunderstood
> and maligned history.
>
> @ Poets House
> $7, Free to Poets House Members
>

I'm forwarding this from Stephen Vincent.  Wish I could be there!

G.


Two WALKING related events at POETS HOUSE in Manhattan. One a Friday
evening Panel, and one, a late Saturday morning, early afternoon walk.
If you are anywhere near the neighborhood, you are invited to come join us:

Friday, May 4, 7:00pm
The Poetics of Walking: Baudelaire and Beyond with Brenda Coultas, Lytle
Shaw, Jonathan Skinner & Stephen Vincent

At Poets House, 72 Spring Street, Second Floor, Manhattan, New York

In this foray into the flaneur tradition, panelists address the poetry
that emerges from the fundamental act of walking, with insights from
such immortal amblers as Whitman, Baudelaire, O'Hara and other
peripatetic poets.

In conjunction with the panel, Poets House will sponsor a series of
weekend poetry walks in Manhattan on Saturday, May 5th at 11:00am.

Brenda Coultas is the author of A Handmade Museum. Lytle Shaw's books
include A Side of Closure and Frank O'Hara: The Poetics of Coterie.
Jonathan Skinner is the editor of ecopoetics and teaches Environmental
Studies at Bates College. Stephen Vincent's most recent poetry books
include Walking and, soon forthcoming, Walking Theory (Junction Press).

Saturday, May 5, 11:00am - 1:00pm
The Poetics of Walking: Weekend Poetry Walk

In conjunction with "The Poetics of Walking" panel (on May 4), Poets
House will sponsor a series of urban poetry strolls for writers and
artists. Each walking tour will be led by a "Poetics of Walking"
panelist and will feature illuminating historical information and a
series of creative exercises enroute.

Participants are encouraged to bring writing and/or drawing materials.
Meetup locations will be specified upon registration.

$25/ $15 for students. Pre-registration is required. To register, call
(212) 431-7920 or email classes@.... Registered participants
will also receive free admission to the May 4th panel discussion.

Walking the Bowery
Guide: Brenda Coultas

Brenda Coultas, the author of A Handmade Museum, leads a writing tour
from Cooper Union to Chinatown, with stops along the way to observe
signage, graffiti, people, nature and the changing demographics of the
Bowery.

Listening Walk in Central Park
Guide: Jonathan Skinner
Jonathan Skinner, the editor of ecopoetics, leads an acoustical tour
through Olmstead's oasis with exercises that focus on sounds both
natural and human.

Canal Street & Tribeca: The Street vs. Architecture
Guide: Stephen Vincent

Stephen Vincent, the author of the poetry collection Walking and the
forthcoming, Walking Theory, explores walking as "immersion and
revelation" and invites participants to take note of voices, sounds,
signage, colors and architectural shapes in the cityscape. The walk will
culminate in a gathering and discussion at Walkers, a restaurant.

Dutch Manhattan : Controversial Terrain
Guides: Lytle Shaw with Jimbo Blachly

Lytle Shaw, the author of Frank O'Hara: The Poetics of Coterie, and
visual artist Jimbo Blachly introduce participants to the Chadwick
Family, who will offer a rare perspective on Manhattan's past, revealing
several 17th Century sites that pertain to their family's misunderstood
and maligned history.

@ Poets House
$7, Free to Poets House Members

[A footnote for those unfamiliar with Southern California
lore: the person who mentions "909ers" refers to folks who
live in Riverside County (area code 909) which is located
inland, often looked down upon by those who live nearer
the beach.]

A carefree, (car-free?) Surf City
Huntington Beach's big civic experiment, closing
two-blocks of Main Street to automobiles once a week,
seems popular, but not all the evidence is in.
By Ashley Powers
Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times, 9 April 2007
http://tinyurl.com/38ezer

Main Street in Huntington Beach has long stood as a mirror
in which the city modeled various personas � booming when
the town was flooded with oil wealth, dotted with
blue-collar bars when times were tougher.

With the city in recent years on an ambitious marketing
campaign to lure tourists, it seemed inevitable that
officials would push for Main Street to pretty up, which
it largely has. Think Santa Monica's Third Street
Promenade, only farther south on Pacific Coast Highway.

For the last few weeks, the city has carried out its most
radical experiment yet: designating two blocks as a
pedestrian mall one night a week.

Shutting down car traffic has so far led to crowds packing
downtown each Tuesday, causing some city officials to more
seriously consider whether to close at least part of Main
Street permanently.

"Cars don't shop. They don't stop and eat at restaurants.
That's why we need to focus on the pedestrian," said Mayor
Pro Tem Debbie Cook, who envisions a walkable downtown to
distinguish Huntington Beach from neighboring cities along
PCH.

The city's decades-long path to this point illustrates its
bumpy transition from surfer crash pad to tourist
destination.

The debate � somewhat quaint for one of California's 20
largest cities � underscores how tough it is to revamp an
oceanfront while keeping most residents happy. And Surf
City's Main Street offers a particular challenge: a
historic reputation for bawdiness that hardly squares with
the families-first atmosphere that tourism boosters are
pushing.

"People freak out when things change, period," said Andrew
Kirby, whose Rock and Roll Emporium in the 200 block of
Main Street sells Airline guitars and AC/DC-logo clothing
for kids. "People around here freak out that all the
909ers will come downtown. Or they think if we turn into
Santa Monica, we'll become everything Santa Monica is and
everything Santa Monica doesn't want to be � all the
riffraff and crowds."

For more than a century, Huntington Beach's golden sand
has been seen as a moneymaker. The town was initially
named Pacific City, with investors hoping it would blossom
into California's own Atlantic City. The community did
flourish � but from oil, not high rollers.

As Huntington Beach thrived, so did Main Street. The 1920s
oil spurt more than doubled the city's population in a
month, according to local historians. The town's main
drag, whose grocers' and clothiers' shops were full of new
customers, saw its rowdiest imbibers dragged to a nearby
holding tank, now boarded up.

By the 1960s, the city was bulging after annexation helped
add about 100,000 residents. Amid the sprawl, "people look
to Main Street to figure out what the city's all about,"
said historian and author Chris Epting. There was a
kick-back vibe, cheap apartments packed with surfers and
numerous working-class watering holes.

No sign was needed: Huntington Beach and Surf City were
one and the same.

But during the 1980s, Main Street deteriorated. City
leaders embarked on an aggressive redevelopment effort to
swap worn brick for stucco and upscale retailers and
restaurants. The endeavor marked the city's return to its
resort roots and came just before wealthier people began
to move to the city, raising its median income.

The town sees its eight miles of uninterrupted sand as an
economic savior, replacing trailer parks along PCH with
luxury hotels near lots that once were given away with
encyclopedia sets. Main Street is home to retail chains
found in any upscale town: American Apparel, Starbucks,
Color Me Mine.

"The whole Southern California mystique is Huntington
Beach," said Councilman Don Hansen, "and we want downtown
to reflect that."

There have been speed bumps. Surfers bristled over the
numerous competitive surfing events that kept them out of
the water. Other residents got miffed when the city began
hosting a national paintball tournament near its signature
pier, fearing it would draw inland hoi polloi.

The Strand and Pacific City, massive new retail and
entertainment developments, are expected to lure folks
from the nearby Hilton and Hyatt resorts. The projects,
under construction, have also triggered some residents'
traffic worries and fears about how the town has become
tamer.

Amid all this, officials were regularly discussing making
over Main Street. In the city's Conference and Visitors
Bureau surveys, downtown repeatedly ranks with its beaches
and pier at the top of visitor to-do lists. A strong
centerpiece could tempt tourists to linger, officials
believed, and perhaps kicking out cars would help.

The City Council considered the plan seriously in 2001.
And again in 2004. And revived it in 2006 with a field
trip to Santa Monica, during which members swooned over
the packed promenade.

Main Street restaurateurs and bar owners recoiled. The
plan could cost profits, they said. Parking would vanish;
smaller streets would clog up; the homeless would
congregate.

Since 1970, 240 U.S. cities have tried to close their main
thoroughfares, and all but 30 have reopened, according to
a report from Downtown Solutions, a consulting firm that
Main Street merchants hired.

"We are not ogres who don't want to see change and growth
in our downtown," Downtown Business Assn. President
Stephen Daniel wrote in a recent letter. "If for one
minute we thought closing Main Street on a permanent basis
is what would bring people to our street, of course we
would be the first in line to make sure it happened."

The chasm between the merchants and the council so widened
that one business owner, Joe Shaw, unsuccessfully ran for
City Council and launched a blog, Greetings From Downtown
Huntington Beach, to protest the closure plan.

Last fall, the City Council and the merchants reached a
detente: a trial run called Surf City Nights, in which two
blocks, between Walnut and Orange avenues, close each
Tuesday through May 22 and for several weekend events.

While some owners haven't fully embraced a permanent
promenade � and the council has not decided on its next
step � the once-skeptical Shaw says he's sold on Surf City
Nights as a weekly event, and is still considering whether
it should be expanded.

After the second Tuesday, he blogged that the event had
turned "the slowest night of the week into a bonanza."

As the sun dipped into the Pacific on a recent evening,
merchants lugged their T-shirts and dresses outside near
farmers market booths overflowing with organic
strawberries and eggplant.

City-approved street entertainers dotted the street. One
young girl belted Whitney Houston ballads. Kids whooshed
down a bouncy slide and twirled balloon monkeys, and the
Rock and Roll Emporium promoted "stud muffin" tank tops
for dogs. Teenagers passed by on inline skates while
surfers crossed PCH, pausing to see how Main Street looked
all gussied up with its festival atmosphere.