Last month, I took an afternoon class at Richard Hugo House with Shin Yu Pai called “Maps for a Narrative Atlas” to, as it were, tickle my psychogeographic fancy. After some discussion of Denis Wood’s Everything Sings and Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City, Shin sent us out into Capitol Hill to map some specific, observable aspect of the neighborhood and then try to transcribe what we found into text. I decided to focus on everything visible between parking signs and power lines, plus any sounds. I ended up with a catalogue of mostly tags and graffiti animals, an “urban bestiary” as one of the workshop participants noted (incidentally, this is a topic for another post I’ve been meaning to write as well as the title of a fascinating forthcoming book).
Here’s that catalogue.
E. Olive Street, from 11th Avenue to 12th Avenue
shoes
crows
propeller affixed to pole, swaying
crows
parking sign: Hellawasted, Action for Animals, sad ghost
bright yellow bits of a torn flier
crows
fuzzy green tree buds
Z overlaying U
Nasty Nate Comfy
faded blue outline of a skeleton
Lost Cat: Adult Male Mostly Black with a White Belly. Will Give Generous Reward if Found and Returned to Owner. Contact Arlene.
bright yellow flier, intact: Our Neighborhoods Under Attack! scary black towers descending upon single family homes with crash-pow comic book bursts
Notice of Public Meeting
fuzzy green tree buds
police car siren
12th Avenue
shoes
crows
guttural other-bird song; rattle and click
11th Avenue from Howell Street to E Olive
crows
parking sign: Hello My Name Is Nick Nack Records
4 hour parking sing: No Big Deal, smiling prehistoric fish with wings, Nasty Nate Comfy, Blink
children squealing
stick man with a briefcase and devil horns apparently going to hell
4 hour parking Valid Here: love birds
night owl with steaming cup of something
shoes
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