RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,218
(philadelphia?) part one
What should I talk about when
I talk about Philadelphia? I
don't know. Philadelphia came
in two stages for me - the
first was older Philadelphia,
and the second one was that
same Philadelphia in the early
2000's. A difference of some
30 years, and worlds apart
too. I've said before the time
has no context; it's an empty
idea of 'something' until WE
ourselves give it its context.
Which is why it's different
for everyone and why it goes
sometimes fast and sometimes
slow. If I was next up at the
local Marvella's Bordello in
New Orleans, that time would
seem to go forever; while, (at
the same time!) if I was next
in line at some Taliban tribunal
to have my hand cut off, it
would seem to be racing. The
context that Philadelphia gave
to my time is extraordinary.
-
Somewhere down in 'Old City'
Philadelphia (that's what they call
the old, early 'colonial' section)
there's a place where Benjamin
Franklin's home was. The thing
about it - seen by me as strangely
enchanting and something I'd
never before seen - is that it's
some odd sort of conceptual idea
only - a framed out reconstruction
that amounts to but a reconstructed
outline of the house that once was
there. Franklin's last years in the
city, until his death - and he is
buried nearby, at Christ Church.
The approximation of his 'house'
and grounds is, to me, startling,
in that its a tactile 'representation'
which people are happy and willing
to believe. How much of the rest
of life as that? We get presented
with the broadest of outlines of
a concept around which then a
wholesome story is woven, and
we accept it all and work the rest
of our ways and operations from
it. Examples abound: The entire
Health Industry is constructed
around that idea, as is most of
chemistry and biology. I also
should add religion and physics.
And Economics too, which is
but an operative fiction from
which societies are pieces together
around a centered-core idea of
value and worth, and of those
who have get more and those in
need get taken from. A truly fictive
commerce based on meaningless
nothings.
-
How easy is it to get an entire
nation, in subservience to some
weirdly mythological underpinning
which is now abused, long-gone,
disavowed, under-assault, and long
forgotten, to believe in these forms
of conceptual image-adherence.
Like the America of today, the only
reality has become the super-skeletal
'remembrance' of some ghost image.
Mainly - as well - it's usually
manned by idiots. Historic forms
of representation to fit ideals, not
reality (Franklin, that crazy rebel
with his loaf of bread, hitting the
streets of oldest Philadelphia, and
living just down the street from
Betsey Ross!). Just up the street
from there, also, is an entire area,
adjacent to Liberty Hall, made up
as a ghost street of old, foundations
(bricks and stones), along the
cobble-stoned stretch, with each
spot labled and it's area delineated:
'John Stone, Baker; Henry Randolph,
Stonemason; Ezra Means, and family,
Milliners and Clothiers...." Sort of
just more of the same, a stretch of
imagined, conceptual fantasy built
around a concept with its tiny foot
in a resultant reality. In the case of
Franklin's house, previously made
mention of, there is, under thick
plexiglass, for viewing, not walking
on, a cutaway view of what is
described as Franklins cellar. You
can figure it out with careful study
too - kind of like America.
-
At least in Philadelphia all of this
is dedicated to historical space, in
a form of its own context. The only
real 'embellishment; is in the push
and pull of what the viewer brings
to bear. That purifies and locates all
of this in the scenery provided. A
notch better? You think? Try today's
America on for size.
-
I used to return to Philadelphia just
to re-imagine and experience anew
any part of these legacy moments
that were presented to me. Not in
these silly-patterned places, set up
for goons , and followers and
Government fellow-travelers with
woven badges on their shoulders,
but in the air and free-space provided.
Try that now, anywhere.
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