At 5:20 p.m., my speakers come to life with music. A streaming radio station from Minneapolis, my hometown. It’s an alarm I set three or four years ago, timed for a brief segment of banter between the empathetic DJ and a charming curmudgeon of a newsman I’d known from Twitter. The newsman has since retired, […]
Construction, Stillness and Caffeine Withdrawal 2 p.m. // The construction site outside my window begins to quiet down in the 2 p.m. hour (construction is considered “essential” under Mayor Bowser’s stay-at-home order). The crew shows up between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., so anyone on site much later than 2:30 or 3 p.m. is likely due […]
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One Year Ago Today
10 a.m. // By random lot the next hour in my posting queue happens to include this day one year ago, November 13. And so, please remember that one year ago today the alley reeked of garbage and stale beer. It doesn’t always. Today — the first sustained sub-freezing morning of the winter of 2019 […]
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Watching the Detectives
3 a.m. // Often while observing my neighborhood for these writings, I can’t help but observe the cops. They of course also observe, though much more conspicuously. At times I felt an urge to erase these stories from the Half/Life project, to walk to another part of the block, to tell a different story. But […]
3 p.m. // Caring starts with noticing and acknowledging those around you. This was a big theme of these walks — noticing and acknowledging people and details easily missed. 9 1/2 Street is often a backdrop for photo shoots. Girls change outfits in cars and shoot photo after photo that end up where? On Instagram? […]
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What Are You In To?
4 a.m. // Four a.m. is the hour I am least likely to be up and out and observing sharply. It is an hour for sleepwalking and hazy minds. To engage the residents of four a.m. with a clear-eyed 10 a.m. voice is to speak nonsense. Better to let the dream state unfold. The sun […]
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Life Support
6 a.m. // I’m up and outside more often during the 6 a.m. hour than most people. I like to get a quick walk or a run in early. But I tend to follow familiar routes, tend to be focused internally rather than on the world around me. On my usual early walks, I would […]
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Talk About the Weather
11 p.m. // Often when we were due to step outside for Half/Life the weather was terrible. Many of the randomly appointed hours last winter were wet. A few were absurdly cold. Slowing down and taking notes on the mundane feels especially foolish at times like these. Is it possible to write while holding an […]