Tag: reading

by jad

Invisible Cities, and Building the Raised Fist

I just finished reading Calvino’s Invisible Cities, that postmodern novel I’ve seen cited and quoted and gestured at for decades in the books about human geography and urban politics I tend to reach for first, and it was only near the very end that I felt a strong resemblance between one of his imagined destinations and Seattle: “Also in Raissa, city of sadness, there runs an invisible thread that binds one living being to another for a moment, then unravels, then is stretched again between moving points as it draws new and rapid patterns so that at every second the … Continue reading “Invisible Cities, and Building the Raised Fist” →

by jad

Two Wolves at the Arundhati Roy Lecture

We went out to see the formidable Arundhati Roy speak at the opening night of @seattleartsandlectures yesterday. This was thanks to a generous gift of two tickets and two books from a dear friend and colleague whom we only realized once we walked in is an SAL patron. So, the seats were pretty good. She’d offered me the tickets after hearing me wax passionately about how Roy’s famous speech on “the other 9/11” had become a pillar I built my worldview on since I first read it in college. I think I’ve paraphrased her comments about Palestine in that piece … Continue reading “Two Wolves at the Arundhati Roy Lecture” →

by jad

You’ll Never Do That

When do you know when something’s shifting? I feel like any time I’m consciously working on a change, it slips into a new normal that doesn’t feel like much of anything—it’s the unexpected and unanticipated that actually makes a difference. So when do you know that it’s actually happening? And if it’s not, how do you know it’s time for something new? It’s so easy to get stuck in a routine out of force of habit and even easier to forget it’s a routine at all when it’s like water to a goldfish or a strong sense of self to … Continue reading “You’ll Never Do That” →

by jad

Total Being

I read an article today that introduced me to the notion of “total being.” It seemed like the sort of thing I should read on a day like today. The piece even opened with an image I know too well: that of a taxi weaving through the chaos of city traffic. I know this image because I’ve taken interest in the politics of urban mobility and spent many formative years of my life invested heavily in their pursuit, but I also know it more viscerally than that. It evokes a nightmare that would recur for the longest time. It doesn’t … Continue reading “Total Being” →

by jad

The Red Thread

The other day, I shared a post I’d made 5 years ago as part of a writing challenge I’d given myself in 2020 called Twenty Weeks of Gratitude. It was a memory of project I worked on in 2015, which had roots in prior work I’d started 5 years before that, so you can imagine how everything might feel like a lifetime ago. Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream, or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream, etc. I recorded these videos when these threads unexpectedly came together while I was in Lebanon … Continue reading “The Red Thread” →

by jad

Lebanon: Day 2

Weaving through the “Sunday Souk” (also open on Saturdays) isn’t exactly a “shock” to the senses (I’m not an orientalist writing paeans to the grand bazaar), but it certainly is a vibe. There’s one surreal sensory dimension to this Souk that I could never handle for more than a couple of minutes: multiple pre-recorded messages on tiny squawk-boxes and megaphones repeating the latest deals over and over and over and over in the same deadpan monotone. They made me laugh but I could easily see my sanity slip away if I had to endure that for a whole day. I … Continue reading “Lebanon: Day 2” →

by jad

My Brain’s War Correspondent

People’s reactions to my trip to Lebanon have been thematically consistent. Most tell me that they’re thinking of me and praying for me; some say that they’ll miss me; even those who don’t know my reasons for travel have responded with a mix of investment and alarm. That’s a product of Lebanon’s place in the headlines since my last trip, I suppose. It’s been sweet to receive these sentiments, but the cumulative effect of it all is a mild sense of foreboding. Do people know something I don’t? Will I not make it back? What’s going on? That sense is … Continue reading “My Brain’s War Correspondent” →

by jad

“Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture

I’ve been interested in the history of the atom bomb and nuclear technology ever since I read about Hanford in a book on the Columbia River called “The Organic Machine” almost two years ago. This book inspired me to visit the region last summer for my first serious foray into film photography, and soon after, I would fortuitously meet a photographer at the PCNW fair who had published a whole book on that area I had just been to. I was hooked and I kept telling myself I’d visit again. I immersed myself in the history of that godawful decision … Continue reading ““Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture” →

by jad

Montréal: Cohen & Kateri

On our first night in Montreal, we tried to watch a documentary called “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen,” but we were so tired that we started drifting off a few minutes into it. That was enough time, however, to catch a Leonard Cohen refrain from an old interview from his youth that would play in my head as we huddled under the world’s smallest umbrella in the world’s most terrifying sneak-attack thunderstorm. After asking Cohen what concerns him, and after Cohen laughed and demurred, insisting that he hasn’t the faintest concern, the interviewer pressed the poet to share what … Continue reading “Montréal: Cohen & Kateri” →

by jad

Luigi Ghirri

“I’ve always approached the ‘scene I was looking to represent’ directly, standing squarely in front of my subject to avoid any kind of slants or vanishing points, cuts or leaks.” (Luigi Ghirri: The Complete Essays, 1973-1991) That’s the thing about Luigi Ghirri’s work that struck me instantly when I saw someone sharing his work a few weeks ago; that, followed immediately by an eerie sense of familiarity: ‘I could have taken this very shot.’ This spooky feeling of déjà vu made me want to read what this man had to say, after having started this journey with Sontag, Benjamin, and … Continue reading “Luigi Ghirri” →