2008-08-11 - 3:38 p.m.
You know how lots of people profess a love or at least a strong affinity for walking? Tony Hoagland writes all kinds of stuff about walking. One of his essays is about how, once a year, he walks the length of Broadway in New York, up and back. I even mentioned this fact in an interview once and maybe that's why I didn't get the job. Poets seem to particularly like walking. This memoirist Sven Birkerts, he'd walk all the time, to clear his head and to have something to do when he could find nothing else to do. That makes sense. When all else fails, you can always just put one foot in front of the other for a while and see what happens. Victorian English poets, weren't they all about The Walk? Yes, I think so. I remember reading something in grad school about one particular English poet and the Lake District, about his daily, hours-long walks.
Point is, I'm not one of those people. Try as I might, I can't seem to be an enjoyer of walks. I've tried to take long, low-stress, eyes-open walks: when visiting my parents in the mountains, when alone on a Saturday in the city. I realized this the other day, when I had to run some errands: get the mail from the mailbox place four blocks away and deposit a check at the bank, nine or ten blocks away. Leaving the apartment, I had to make a simple choice: bike or walk. And it wasn't even close, even though biking in the city can be difficult (opening driver's-side doors on parked cars, cars making sudden right turns, old trolley tracks that grab your tire and won't let go). I figured, I can bike this in a quarter of the time.
But, I wish I could enjoy walks more. Maybe they're better when you're with someone. They're definitely better with a camera. I should ask a poet.
Saw that movie Once last night. I'd seen the main actor at Fletchers in Fells Point about five years ago, as part of his band The Frames. They were a lot of fun and he's pretty good in this movie. The Czech girl is very likable, too. It made me sad, though, the movie. Unrequited and all of that.
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