Stories from the city, stories from the sea

While titling this post, I accidentally typed "form," both times.

I love the idea stories forming the city and the sea.

Stories do form cities.  

Here is a story playing out across cities all over the country right nw.

But there are other stories, too.

The above story represents a different kind of defiance. The nanny state fascist city decided in to prevent people from skating "for our health," so they filled in the skatepark in Venice with sand. The skaters dealt with this for a month and then said "the hell with this," and painstakingly removed the sand with a shovel and wheelbarrow.

This morning, I heard someone talking to a friend who said "If any of these fucking democrats or republicans come down here to our park and try to take credit for reopening it, fuck them. THEY didn't reopen. WE did."

Also note that everyone for the most part was practicing social distancing.

This was the aftermath of a wipeout. Two skaters knocked into each other. The other was winded and stayed like this for a few minutes before he got up, shaken but not stirred.

Then there is the story that forms the sea. Five minutes before this photo the sky and the sea were grey thanks to the June Gloom that happens every summer here. But then the fog burned off and the sky opened up and the blue of the sky and the sea came in waves, like a gradient.

In front of me, the sea was calm. To the left, just off frame, the ocean told another story of rough waves, crashing on rocks and sand, scaring off even the surfers. We ran into a friend of ours who was there to check the waves. He's been surfing for decades and took one look and stayed put.

So much ocean violence, reflecting the state of the world.

And yet you wouldn't know it from looking at this photo.

Because there are always other stories if you know where to look.

And since I referenced good old Peej Harvey I should share a track off the album of the same name. When it came out I remember resenting Thom Yorke's appearance  because it felt like he was guesting on everyone's album at this period and it was getting tiresome.

This album is 20 years old now.