I'm a modern man

Oh I had a dream I was dreaming
And I feel I'm losing the feeling
Makes me feel like
Like something don't feel right
[...]

In my dream I was almost there
Then you pulled me aside and said you're going nowhere
I know we are the chosen few
But we're wasted
And that's why we're still waiting

-Arcade Fire, "Modern Man"

Friday's Soundtrack

Like drinking poison, like eating glass...

Photo Cred

Ambient, adj. and n

Pronunciation: /ˈæmbɪənt/

Etymology: < Latin ambientem present participle of ambīre to go about, < amb- on both sides, round, about + ī-re to go. Compare Italian ambientebefore 1600.

A. adj.

1. Turning round, revolving. Obs. rare.

2. Moving round, circling about (something). rare.

3. Lying round, surrounding, encircling, encompassing, environing.

4. esp. Surrounding as a fluid; circumfused.

5. Rounded like a solid body. rare.

6. Ambitious, aspiring. (A Latinism.) Obs. rare.

7. As an epithet of the air, often ignorantly put for ‘limpid,’ or otherwise misused.

B. n. [The adj. used absol.]

1. A canvasser, suitor, or aspirant. Obs. rare.

2. An encompassing circle or sphere.

3. Astrol. The ambient air or sky.                                                  (OED)

American Flâneurism

"The Flâneur"

He considers the boulevards ideal for thinking,
so he takes the air on a weekday evening
to best appreciate the crisis of modern life.

I thought I would try this for a while,
but instead of being in Paris, I was in Florida,
so the time-honored sights were not available to me
despite my regimen of aimless strolling—

no kiosks or glass-roofed arcades,
no beggar with a kerchief covering her hair,
no woman holding her hat down as she crossed a street,
no Victor Hugo look-alike scowling in a greatcoat,

no girls selling fruit or sweets from a cart,
no prostitutes circled under a streetlamp,
no solitude of the moving crowd
where I could find the dream of refuge.

I did notice a man looking at his watch
and I reflected briefly on the passage of time,

then I saw two ladies dressed in lime-green and pink
and I pondered the fate of the sister arts,
as they stepped into the street arm in arm.

Who needs Europe? I muttered into my scarf
as a boy flew by on a skateboard
and I fell into a reverie on the folly of youth
and the tender, distressing estrangement of my life.  (9-10)

Melancholic

And this is the house where I
I feel alone
Feel alone now

And this is the house where I
Could be unknown
Be alone now

Soon the waves and I found the rolling tide
Soon the waves and I found the rip tide

"This means something. This is important." -Roy Neary

I wish that I was just alluding to a cool 80's sci-fi movie with the borrowed title of this post, but rather, I am strongly suggesting that you read this article:

Ghosts Riding Paris

On a bike blog that I read, I came across this funky mix of ghosts, fixed-gear cycling culture, and techno. The description of the project can be read below the video (Caution, lots of pretension ahead). Kind of cool if you like bikes. If you don't, it might look kind of dumb. If you need some help enjoying it, just think about how cool the idea of an intimidating, night-riding peloton of ghost riders haunting Paris. Oh, and one of them has a wicked beard. That's kinda cool isn't it? Well, that is, at least until someone decides to make it into a feature-length film.



Here is a description of the "project" taken from the youtube page of the video:

Project "Ghostrider" was born form the desire of two fixed gear passionates who decided to film their night strolling in the french capital city.

Fond of images (the first one is a film director, the one a photgrpaher) (Editor's note: It's obvious the neither one of them is a writer) and fixies, Jérémy and Anto, aka //Les Darons//, catch the adrenalin spirit of the discipline inside their cameras. The first opus "Ghostrider" is soon massively shared (Editors note: I haven't seen the first video, and I couldn't find it after a brief search, so take the use of "massively" with a grain of salt). A year later, it's time for "Ghostrider II", with only one leitmotiv  the search for danger that brings out the filthiest instincts  (Editor's note: Okay, these guys take themselves way too seriously...seriously...serious, man.)

As a result, they created a mind blowing video you cannot look away from (Editor's note: Seriously...), since the mastered elegance of the black & white contrasts with the frightening visual reality, increases bu the oppressive beats of Gesaffelsetin, the new prodigy of the techno scene.

The producer's atmosphere seduced the riders and the idea of a collaboration naturally grew up. "Viol" (from his upcoming "Conspiracy Pt. 2" EP, out July 19th on Turbo Recordings , full of howling and heady sirens, was obviously the right track to illustrate this out-of-time night ride. (Editor's note: Have these guys considered a career in academia? They are just vague enough that I'm sure they could publish frequently. They would be especially successful in a Visual Studies program.)

The crew is now chock-full of ideas and carious projects so watch out ! [sic] (Editor's note: Okay, maybe they could use some lessons in punctuation.) You might run into them at dawn...