observations of the real world
based on an assignment by poet marie howe
we saw some people on neocities (vashti, sarah, chey) doing this and decided to jump on the bandwagon! the goal is to document 10 observations of the real world per week, without using metaphor or abstraction.
week 2:
- (10/9/24) following the 48 hour artist challenge, we've been incredibly sleepy. i know it's our body and mind recovering from the days of intense creativity, but i want to make stuff now too!
- (10/9/24) i keep seeing unexpected rainbows. first on the wet asphalt, fanning out from a little oil spill. next, in the reflective sides of the cds we had as props at photography group.
- (11/9/24) as i wait for the bus, the chimneys of the houses in the distance are illuminated by the golden light of the sun. today's sun is going to set soon, but for now the sky is blue and clear, piercing and gentle. it's cold now. i need to start wearing my fleece again.
- (12/9/24) our warm bed is a nice place to try to stabilise ourselves, but the cool night air on our arms and legs, and the golden moon in its first quarter, and the rain on the hedges, and the glistening asphalt, and the swinging weight of the shopping bag in our hands are so much more beautiful.
week 1:
- (2/9/24) the juice charlize bought yesterday really does taste like liquid jolly ranchers. it's bright pink too, which makes me wonder how much of this stuff is natural. unfortunately, i can't investigate because the label is written entirely in polish.
- (2/9/24) my best friend is so stylish! when i met them at the train station, they were wearing a denim jacket with loads of enamel pins, a short-sleeved shirt with hibiscus flowers on it, and orange corduroy trousers.
- (3/9/24) last night, i made cookies with my best friend, but we put them too close together on the baking tray so they conglomerated into a massive blob. the cookies also have no structural integrity and are held together by the chocolate chunks inside of them. all this being said, they are extremely tasty!
- (5/9/24) the rain was pouring down ceaselessly in huge drops that smacked against our housemate’s umbrella (which we borrowed for the day). there were about equal amounts of puddle and walkable sidewalk, so we should have worn waterproof shoes.
- (5/9/24) the leaves on the great big conker trees in the city centre are already turning shades of golden yellow, coppery orange, and deep red. some trees are further along changing colour than others - on the most colourful one, the colours seemed to progress like a gradient through each leaf, with yellow at their bases and near-burgundy at their tips.
- (6/9/24) the painting i made with my best friend is dry now, so all the colours have deepened. the higher contrast makes our impossible dual skyscape look much more dramatic.
- (8/9/24) though it was raining already, a bumblebee was hovering around me because i probably looked like a flower, or a whole field of them, in my neon florals dress.
- (8/9/24) my waterproof shoes squeak horribly loud in the well-polished hallways of the theatre. luckily, they don't do that when i'm on stage, because the floor is a different material.
- (9/9/24) right before the performances started, an older woman fell over as she was getting to her seat, and managed to seriously injure her leg on a metal part of the seating arrangements. the stage technician said she could see bone. luckily, the injured woman was in good spirits as they called an ambulance.
- (9/9/24) the rainy weekend has brought the autumn chill to our city. it's no longer summer - it feels like a departure.