090306. Police

When I came home, I saw that my front door was open, about a foot. I was nervous about going inside, so I shouted into the hallway. I said: Hello! When I didn’t hear anyone answer me I went back outside. I called some people on my cell phone, mostly the people I live with. No one answered. I went back into the hallway and shouted again and no one answered. I went back outside. I called some of the same people and some new people. I shut my front door. I went to my friend’s house, who is also my neighbor. He told me he’d come with me to my house but he also told me to call the police and ask what they thought I should do. When I asked the police for advice on the phone, the woman I talked to said they were sending someone to my house. I said something like: Thanks so much it’s probably nothing. She told me to go wait in front of my house. My friend/neighbor put on his shoes and came with me. Two policemen showed up very quickly, on motorbikes. They had on leather pants (trousers). I said something like: Thanks so much it’s probably nothing, someone I live with probably didn’t shut the door properly. They tried to go inside, but I had the key so I had to let them in first. They went inside and said: Hello it’s the police. My friend/neighbor saw a light on the third floor. The police said again: It’s the police. Then they came downstairs and said: Jen is home. Then they checked the rest of the rooms. They said: Everything is ok. I told Jen I was sorry to cause such a big thing and she told me not to worry. My friend/neighbor and I agreed that the police were understanding and hot.

090223. Shape

I looked into the gap between my bed and the wall and I saw something dead-mouse-shaped. I thought: There is a dead mouse behind my bed. I got some courage and I pulled the bed back from the wall and I saw the dead-mouse-shaped thing shift and fall to the ground. I made a weird noise and sat in the corner of my room. I wanted to call someone just to tell them what was happening but it was really late at night. I sat in the corner for a while longer. Then I got a cardboard box and I got more courage and I pulled the bed back really far from the wall and I saw that the shape was actually a sock.

090219. Nineteen

The temperature is so nice right now. There is something that I say pretty often when the temperature is nice. I say: This is the temperature humans should be stored at. About every 19th time I say it, someone laughs.

090215. Title

I thought: Hotel for Dogs is such a good movie title.

090213. Wail

This cat wailed in the backyard last night and woke me up.

090208. Hackney Vance

For approximately the three-hundredth time, I was on the bus on Lower Clapton Road, and a recorded voice announced the name of the stop. Like every other time, it sounded like ‘Hackney Vance’, even though I know it said: ‘Hackney Baths’.

090205. Pineapple

I was on the District Line and a group five people sat next to me and across from me. I think they must have been students at Queen Mary. I think they were probably 20 or 21 years old. They all had bags and they were going on a trip together. I really liked them. One girl had a shaved head and was charismatic. Everyone was looking at her and they all wanted her attention. Another girl was really pretty, and the girl sitting next to her smiled a lot and had a pair of headphones around her neck like an accessory. The two girls next to them were more nondescript, and there was one boy, who seemed like a boyfriend, but not alienated. One of the nondescript girls had organized an album for the charismatic girl, with photos and writing in it. They were all talking about it. They all seemed super-happy about it, and super-happy to be going on a trip with this super-charismatic girl. I was really careful not to make eye contact, because I didn’t want the perfect group feeling that was surrounding me to in any way involve me at all. I got very nervous that one of them would look at me, especially the charismatic girl. She had a pineapple in addition to her bags, for some reason.

When I got off the train I looked back at them, ordinary outside the circle of charisma.

090221. Klatch (w/ 090115. Shout)

Klatch is a poetry thing organized by Openned. It is awesome. I thought it would be funny if I advertised this blog at the one in February.

I passed around a picture of many entries lined up on my laptop, like a look behind the scenes. And I explained – like a director’s commentary – how I write the entries many weeks before I post them. Then I read an entry, like a preview of coming attractions:

090115. Shout

090115. Doors/Galleries/Films

Yesterday, to get into the Wilkinson Gallery, I pressed a call button. There was a crackle on the intercom and for a second I thought I would talk to somebody. Then I heard a buzz. I held one long door handle and pulled and then pushed. The doors were really big – bigger than any other doors I can think to compare them to right now.

Inside, the invigilator said Renzo Martens’s film was about to start upstairs.

Today, to get to the Cubbitt Gallery, I walked into Angel Mews in Islington, which looked to me like an alley. A woman finished smoking while I walked to the door, and even though I was far enough away that it wouldn’t have been impolite for her to go inside, she held the door open for me.

I didn’t pay anything to see the Renzo Martens’s Episode III or Harun Farocki’s Between Two Wars. I don’t know right now what financial arrangements either artist has with his gallery.

090105. Hateful

There are two bus-stop ads that I often notice.

The first one targets people who take advantage of government benefits. It says: We’re closing in. There are a couple different versions, and all of them have a big photo of a person in the center of the ad. The photos are harsh and racially charged.

The second one asks: Do you know someone who is looking after someone else’s child? If that person has been looking after that child for more than twenty-eight days, the council has to be notified. It is a criminal act not to notify the council after twenty-eight days.

In an invasive tone, the second ad recommends that the reader of the ad report this criminal act, if the reader notices it.