And I'm talking, but not chewing gum

Continued from last post, below.

I wondered if my romantic notion of walking had become perverse, and obsessive - walking 20 blocks at the end of a long day, in opposite direction of home, blisters formed on feet from the day before, to find the Spider House, where the Stalkers were to play a night during the weekend, but mostly to prove to myself that it was not this night - this is certainly not normal, but is it unhealthy? Perverse?

Conclusion: no, it's fine. I bought a bus pass this month for when I need it, and for the rest of the time, it's good and pleasurable to walk, no matter how skewered and contrived the justification is. Health, exercise, environment, smells, sounds, creativity, people, energy, etc., blah blah, it's all good.

3/9/09 - way back
A sticker on a post - a play on the popular slogan, "Keep Austin weird" - reads, "Make Austin weirder." Absolutely, I concur. Smell of french toast and fries is great in dining rooms of restaurants, but even better in the open air of the streets. Why the hell do people litter? Cans and trash on pavement is one thing, but dropped on green space, like the BBQ sauce that stains my white T-shirt, is much worse. A mesmeric attraction to stone buildings has developed, starting with the at-once primitive, ancient-looking, and beautiful flat-and-sharp stone design of the old church on West Mary and South 3rd; and continuing when I reach the stone exterior of Austin Pizza on West Mary and South Lamar. I should eat here.

Listening to music while walking some times seems to improve both acts simultaneously. The Mountain Goats song ("No Children") gives me chills as I walk past Ego's (the bar that's inside a parking garage - why don't you see that more often?). I usually like chills, but this fit is almost too intense - like all the short hairs on the back of my head pulled with extreme force toward some impossible ponytail. The intensity of the chills moves momentarily beyond pleasure into slight pain, and accordingly, back to pleasure.

Walk toward the dusk of that magical sky, with cascading pink and orange ridges... I'm like an animal that only sees certain colors. Due west. Red at night, Adam's delight. I want to feel this city - and keep in mind, it could be any city - with the pavement or grass beneath my feet, and nothing in between. There is an electricity, a direct connection, that can only be accessed by one foot and then the other, placed purposefully upon pavement or grass, testing the water....

Before it goes any further, I'll end this collection of thoughts on walking with an example of theory put into practice. Enrique Penalosa is the one person - more than any politician, lawmaker, or head of state - who makes me think that reform can actually work - when it's focused not on economic issues, but on transforming the quality of life, for everyone. As mayor of Bogota, he installed a mass transit bus system, put in hundreds of pedestrian-only streets and parks, planted lots of trees, and instituted a city-wide "Car-free Day." He recently spoke in Boston and Austin, and I missed him both places, but I did come across this quote of his that nicely illustrates a sound attitude toward city life and urban planning:

"We need to walk, just as birds need to fly. We need to be around other people. We need beauty. We need contact with nature. And most of all, we need not to be excluded."