anti:freeze

sculptures in the window of a local gallery, 4:00 AM, shot with the Lomo

Abandoned cart, 4:00 AM, Pearl

More abandoned carts have appeared in the Pearl lately, left behind in front of posh galleries and boutiques, or parked next to city meters in front of the Rite Aid. To me, they seem significant far beyond the surface connections - harried shoppers who fail to return carts to the store, or homeless people forced to abandon them in the pouring rain. I look at them, and I wonder what it means to leave behind the thing that carried your burdens for you - to simply stop pushing it and walk away.

And maybe because of the time of year - with everyone I know frazzled and broke from holiday shopping - I cannot help but think of the emptiness of that particular burden. We could simply stop pushing it around. Leave it behind.

But that is not quite it, either. With the value of the dollar falling, and with families facing foreclosure, I cannot help but shudder at the image of the empty, abandoned cart. While it is wonderful to imagine leaving a burden behind, it is equally terrifying to think of all that emptiness -- all those carts left unfilled, no apparent purpose left for them. I do not mean this in the sense of feeling sad about lost opportunities to charge junk on credit. I mean something else entirely - the loss of that sense of abundance and hope, prosperity.

But then I see a cart like this, glimmering like a jewel in the morning rain, parked in front of a neighborhood gallery:

And how can I not see this as beautiful?

photos taken with Lomo, long exposure, no flash

You can read my review of Psychogeographyby Will Self (illustrated by Ralph Steadman) in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Books section for November 4th. It published a day early online. Enjoy!

Read the review here!

Some of my audiobook reviews are now up at emusic.com!

You can check them out here:

Review of the audiobook version of The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem
and
Review of the audiobook version of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

I recommend both audiobooks highly. And BTW, downloading makes it possible to add these to iTunes, transfer them to your iPod and listen to *amazing* literature while you work out, ride the bus, or relax on your couch.

Here is my latest book review for the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-higgins2sep02,0,5788030.story?coll=la-books-center

What I wanted to add, but could not in my 350-word space:

Koestenbaum started writing Hotel Theory in January 2002 - only a few months after September 11th. In the opening dossier, he says he was "broken." He checked into "Hotel Heidegger" for "one cold, difficult month" and "thought nonstop about hotels." With the two books inside this volume - "Hotel Theory" and "Hotel Women" - running in columns side-by-side, I cannot help but see the Twin Towers. Their very absence in the text evokes them more strongly, just as "not-being-at-home," in Koestenbaum's explication of Heidegger, is more primordial than "being-at-home." And at the end, when "Hotel Women" ends first - not long after Lana Turner and Liberace visit their hotel bomb shelter in preparation for the apocalypse - I cannot help but think of tower one as it falls. When "Hotel Theory" dissolves into fragments and disappears, I see the slow-motion collapse of tower two. And then only blankness - being "in hotel," as Koestenbaum was. And we are now.

This time of year, my thoughts always turn to Tammy Zywicki. On August 23, 1992, she went missing after her car broke down on Interstate 80. Her body was found nine days later, wrapped in a blanket and dumped along Interstate 44 in Missouri. She had been stabbed eight times.

Her killer has never faced justice.

Over the years, various suspects have been investigated, but the leads never led to resolution.

Now, there is a new possible break in the case.

Here is another story about the lead.

After so many fruitless leads, it is hard to feel optimistic. But I hope this finally brings justice - and answers - to the Zywicki family.

My essay about Tammy can be read here.

Here is my latest LA Times book review:

"Piercing" by Ryu Murakami

This book was a bitter pill to swallow but absolutely engrossing and moving all the same. Be sure and read more Murakami, especially "Coin Locker Babies," which has become one of my favorites.

On a side note, I love the art that accompanies my review - kudos to Noma Bliss.

Be well,
Karrie

In recent weeks, I have thought long and hard about reconnecting with my blog (and my creative work in general). Teaching occupies most every moment of every day. If I am not answering emails or responding to complaints about grades, I am grading. If I am not grading, I am responding to student discussion posts. I love it (except the grade complaints), but I desperately need time to connect with photography, essays, poetry, and psychogeographic experiments. So here I am. Consider this a first step in my recommitment process.

I had another book review in the LA Times last Sunday. I reviewed a wickedly funny little satiric novel called "The Little Girl and the Cigarette." Check it out:

"The Little Girl and the Cigarette"

That link should work for about a month or so.

More very soon. I have plans to steal much more time for myself.

riding on the bus, oversized hardbound book spread across lap, messenger bag squeezed between feet on the dirty floor, listening in as a woman with an asymmetrical bob haircut (one side trimmed so short it barely caresses the top of her ear, the other side swept to her chin, all of it tangled and growing out a burgundy dye job), glass lamp bead earrings, and sports sandals points out Tri-Met stops to her aging mother who stares straight ahead and nods her head patiently even though the woman with the asymmetrical bob speaks in babytalk to her - as if she will not understand - and folds and unfolds her map, each time listing off all the sites she plans to show her in downtown Portland, her personal docent

I glance out the window at a construction tractor, a long, pencil-shaped tool attached at the front that says breaker in a sligtly tilted font, suspended just above the shoulder of the street and twenty feet behind, a piece of the tracker removed, left behind - the bucket attachment (or is it a shovel?), the one with teeth on the end, sitting in the center of an intersection, surrounded by caution tape, like a crime scene - a grisly severed hand with dirty fingernails

two stops later, the woman with the asymmetrical bob led her mother off the bus, repeating the list of Tri-Met stops and pointing pointing pointing at everything - the bank towers, the streets on her map, the bus as it pulls away

littlemotors.org moved to a new web host over the weekend, so this is just a test ....

Today the fall quarter begins at PSU as well, so expect some reflections on restorative justice, white collar crime, and other issues soon.