“Maps, they don’t love you like I love you”
When I first heard the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs sing this line as I drove down the Jersey Turnpike out of NYC early this June I thought, ”damn straight.” Without the map, I would have ended up in Perth Amboy like the time before. No need to repay the visit, thanks. Even if Einstein showed that space is curved, I take a deep pleasure in surveying the two dimesions of space all layed out in mulit-colored and broken lines. I do believe there is such as thing as an intimacy to geography, and I've always had a excellent sense of physical direction; maybe that's the left-handedness throwing me a bone.
...
And maps have insinuated themselves in every corner of my consciousness this week, one almost every day. Thursday I saw a huge aviation map of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee taped across an acquaintance's dining room wall, lifting and falling by the propellered breeze of the fan on the table. All these altitudinal routes traced out among the radio towers and taller hills on the landscape. Headings of determination.
If I could fly, would I bother with a map? Probably not. The sensation almost always strikes me when my eyes are closed, so really no need.
...
This morning this fellow Jim and I were given Mapquest maps of a Durham neighborhood, with the names and addresses of potential swing voters for Kerry/Edwards. We both actually knew that particular neighborhood, and that really was the only saving grace given that few of any of these maps coincided with the addresses. Deterrence not, slowly we decoded misinformation and found our way to the 30 or so houses we were supposed to call on. Even then, nothing is guaranteed. L. Barlett doesn’t live at 6B Carson Circle anymore, K. Libby apparently is in the Philippines right now. And Old Post Road? Well, that doesn’t even exist… a development paved that one over, come to find.
Technology sometimes does get it right, in peculiar ways. Now you can find out about the distribution of campaign contributions on the internet – in some cases block by single block (FundRace). For example, in Boston we see that indeed the Democratic causes have the Donkey’s share of contributions (blue dots), bleeding heart liberals they are -- God bless them.
And what about that one conspicuous red circle at 55 Hayden Ave. in the Suburbs? Seems like the Watkins’ household has some change to spare this election year. Must have been that tax cut. Should I know this? Do they want me to know this? Is it worth knowing? Probably not $76,500 worth, but if me and Mrs. Watkins ever have lunch together I think I’ll let her pick up the check.
The city-by-city map of the FundRace site has a thing of local interest: A lonely blue patch in the center of North Carolina amidst the predominance of red: the city of (Old Bull) Durham.
...
And The Magnetic Fields are playing in the background and there is this lyric I can’t get out of my head these last couple of days--
And your eyes are the Mesa Verde,
- big and brown and far away,
and your eyes are Kansas City,
- in Kansas and in Missouri…
And if the eyes don’t tell?
Well a map always might.
...
And maps have insinuated themselves in every corner of my consciousness this week, one almost every day. Thursday I saw a huge aviation map of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee taped across an acquaintance's dining room wall, lifting and falling by the propellered breeze of the fan on the table. All these altitudinal routes traced out among the radio towers and taller hills on the landscape. Headings of determination.
If I could fly, would I bother with a map? Probably not. The sensation almost always strikes me when my eyes are closed, so really no need.
...
This morning this fellow Jim and I were given Mapquest maps of a Durham neighborhood, with the names and addresses of potential swing voters for Kerry/Edwards. We both actually knew that particular neighborhood, and that really was the only saving grace given that few of any of these maps coincided with the addresses. Deterrence not, slowly we decoded misinformation and found our way to the 30 or so houses we were supposed to call on. Even then, nothing is guaranteed. L. Barlett doesn’t live at 6B Carson Circle anymore, K. Libby apparently is in the Philippines right now. And Old Post Road? Well, that doesn’t even exist… a development paved that one over, come to find.
Technology sometimes does get it right, in peculiar ways. Now you can find out about the distribution of campaign contributions on the internet – in some cases block by single block (FundRace). For example, in Boston we see that indeed the Democratic causes have the Donkey’s share of contributions (blue dots), bleeding heart liberals they are -- God bless them.
And what about that one conspicuous red circle at 55 Hayden Ave. in the Suburbs? Seems like the Watkins’ household has some change to spare this election year. Must have been that tax cut. Should I know this? Do they want me to know this? Is it worth knowing? Probably not $76,500 worth, but if me and Mrs. Watkins ever have lunch together I think I’ll let her pick up the check.
The city-by-city map of the FundRace site has a thing of local interest: A lonely blue patch in the center of North Carolina amidst the predominance of red: the city of (Old Bull) Durham.
...
And The Magnetic Fields are playing in the background and there is this lyric I can’t get out of my head these last couple of days--
And your eyes are the Mesa Verde,
- big and brown and far away,
and your eyes are Kansas City,
- in Kansas and in Missouri…
And if the eyes don’t tell?
Well a map always might.
posted by andrew s.yang at Sunday, September 26, 2004
1 Comments:
hi - i like your blog. im designing an underwater seal enclosure like a subterranean gaudi forest - lots of colored glass seals and penguins - came across your site.... i agree - gaudi was a crayfish.
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