I met with my Couchsurfing hosts in Ipswich, after palling around all day; from the train to the cafe, to the bar, then I went to a park. I noticed the spaciousness of the park, it seemed British.
I’d read Strunk’s Elements of Style before embarking on this trip. Each sentence I try to end with a strong word, a word of emphasis. The first word is of near equal importance, but I have screwed the pooch two for two on this one. I am now stalling, as I’m realizing my beginnings are consistently weak. The edition of The Elements I had had illustrations from Maria Kahlman, and this Park in Ipswich, I’m happy to have seen without knowledge of the prejudice, looked like a Kahlman painting, and for that matter looked to me like the elements outlined in the Elements book. How thrilled I was to see in living time before me simple relations between things. Style is not beating you over the head, I’m paraphrasing, it is clear and gets to the point. If something is funny, it is supported by a rational cast, and good lighting. The antithesis reminds me of a joke from Paul F. Tompkins about jazz as five musicians soloing all at once. In the British Garden the space defines the form, as with painting if I might reach.
The problem with writing is that is follows experience only, and having to relay everything through the closest lens available, while following a chronology is ripe for a banal platitude like, ‘and now I’m sitting in a bar and writing in my journal’, alleviating only the writer, but I digress.
I spent a lot of money on that Ipswich adventure, about 100 pounds, but it wasn’t really my money anyway, it was from the scholarship. Nevertheless, I have to stop doing that, jutting way out into the landscape on an expensive train, only to come back on a just-as-pricey ticket.
I stayed with a couple. I met them at 6 in the evening, after drawing in the park. I drew toward the organization of the park, then turned around 180 to capture what was directly behind me. Haunted by a quote from Ken Kewley in which he encourages the painter to ‘always look behind him, as it’s more likely to be interesting’. I’ve found it to be true, but it could likewise be the effort of looking employed, as in confirmation bias, that yields the effect. Another bias I hold is the first photo bias, in which the sooner I take a photo, the more impactful, and diminishing therefrom. A combination of the two phenomena occurred yesterday, and I realized upon reviewing my pictures on my phone. I’d found a good vista, took out my phone to capture it, then remembering the 180 idiom, turned around to get that shot at least. I then forgot all about the photo I was initially interested in taking, and put the phone back in my pocket. What a fucking shame for my superstition!
Morning came quickly...
long intermission in writing- drinks with friends in a London bar.
I took a train back to London, and a brief bus ride to the Imperial War Museum. I would meet Shana, who worked at the IWM selling guidebooks. I caught Shana on her lunch break. She and I chatted a bit, having only spoken on the phone once before; we were introduced by a mutual friend, Aaron Garvey. Shana splits the goalposts, same with Aaron, the career path looks more like a staircase than a fun house. She has a photographic memory, and would be celebrating her birthday that night at a nearby bar with her IWM Colleagues.
I drank a handful of beers, wrote a ton of notes that seemed useful at the time but were really just a bunch of mind gunk- bars in Edinburgh, ‘West Highlands’, and the like.
I’m kicking myself slightly for still being in London, but I feel I need the time. I don’t like being around people that much currently. Feeling a lot of that Salinger-type hypocrisy, looking forward to the alone time.
The IPad has got to go. I knew it before I came, but couldn’t help but bring it. It’s been a godsend for these typing sessions, and I still have some more business to attend to before shipping it back home. It will not be a good backpack item if I’m just in a bivy bag; Ill crush it.
I checked into another hostel for the night. I’m basically just spending this residency in cafe’s and pubs so far, my secret preference. A few walks a day is enough to sustain my curiosities, to fuel my practice. I’m taking small batches of photos on these walks for points of departure, and some for ends of themselves.
