RUDIMENTS, pt. 1251
(Bidentia, at large)
It's funny how things stay,
at one remove present, and
at another level lagging
behind. Deep within my
own brain are the recesses
in which I store the passing
facades of Life as it's passed
by me. Sorting through all
of that becomes the late-life
game that keeps me occupied.
Shadows and half-images come
back to being.
-
In my days, I was always torn
between New York City and
Philadelphia, keeping an odd
reverence for both. There was
a dynamic balance, through
and past the 1960's and beyond,
by which high-flying NYC
began to seriously deteriorate
while, at the same time, once
seriously-deteriorated Philadelphia
took on its own form of renewal
and upswing. There was a book,
back in those days, by architects
Denise Scott Brown and Robert
Venturi. It was called 'Learning
From Las Vegas', and it began
a 'school' of architecture which
the media soon labelled with
the dumb term 'colloquial.'
Colloquial Architecture then
became a sort of despised arm
of 'everyman architecture.' The
link shown below is nice
documentary about aspects
of Philadelphia, and I was
surprised, in it, to see Denise
Scott Brown, much older here,
yes, but still wise and sharp.
The two of them (Venturi/Brown)
have a building they designed, in
their style, on Spring Garden St.,
which has a funny story attached
to it. Called 'Guild House', it
caused quite a stir when it was
built. The idea with 'colloquial'
architecture (there are a few of
his examples in Philadelphia), is
that the basic building is fairly
plain, unadorned, of brick or
some other basic construction,
in a quiet, boxy style, with (a la
Las Vegas style) signage being
the major component of identifying
use - a boxy building that says
simple 'Firehouse' or 'Post Office'
on the front and as part of the
construction. (See 'Guild House').
The funny thing was that Guild
House was to be a senior-citizens'
residential building. The Council
folks in Philadelphia were outraged
when, in its final form - and used
by Robert Venturi as the 'signifier'
of the building's use 'because that's
all they did anyway' was a overly
large, in fact huge, TV antenna
atop the building. It was, of course,
removed. Venturi's crack about
seniors (all they do is sit around
and watch TV) didn't go over
very well.
-
What used to be called senescence,
later became dementia, and now,
in the 2020's era, can just as well
be called 'Bidentia' - because we
are somehow (and by some definition)
being 'led' by a aged, befuddled, and
somewhat already-in-the-haze leader
who holds few distinctive positions
except straddling people with the
yoke of Government. Be any of
that as it may, the dangerous part
of it is that it is accepted and
considered acceptable. We have
lost all heart. We say 'thank you'
to a bitchy Government that has,
in a crafty manner, learned how
to be seen as a 'giver' while actually
being a 'taker' and a usurper of our
rights and premises as Americans,
instead changing us into dependents
and wards of an over-weening and
deadening (like Biden's brain). Were
Robert Venturi alive today, he'd be
quite able to express the quality of
American life very well - by some
sort of building with today's equivalent
of a TV antenna, in its smartphone
or wireless equivalent. Or perhaps
just an empty box!
-
The problem is, what comes next?
What further evolutions of vacuity
and zombie-like fealty will soon
be developed to replace and supplant
the sorts of life-presence and memory
I, for example, still hold on to in my
purview of the life I've just lived.
("Face it, Gar, that shit's all over...')?
In my view, it's the end of the line.
We've allowed ourselves to be shot,
and we can't even lift a finger, except
for the Bidentia-manner actions of
slapping the money-wrists of rich
Russians, to shoot back. We have an
enormous standing army, and billions
of wasted money by which, in essence
much of the populace of the USA
could be aided and advanced (if any
of that is going to be happening), all
being pissed away in, instead, fawnish
paper-war actions of little consequence.
Ruining lives and spirits. Creating
enormous veterans' benefits, pensions,
and medical consequences paid for
by the Government, which, in the end,
only increases slavish dependency and
gets the Government-control job done
in a nice-appearance manner. Sometimes
Satan comes in the name of the Lord.
-
I'd much rather tunnel backward, far
backward, into a land and a place
and a mental-state I knew well, and
one for which I am far better equipped
to handle than the dastardly and foul
mental-ward of a nation now presented
to us as a fait-accompli. A hospital filled
with Bidentia patients who think they
are where they are not. And amen
to all that, thank you.
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