The Park Is Still a Dream World

10/01/2023

The Park Is Still a Dream World

After dealing with a string of running injuries over the past few months, I finally made it back to the park.

As always, it looked familiar and different. And as always, and particularly after the flooding, I entered a dream state in which the city, state, and federal governments taxed a small percentage of the wealth in this country to improve existing infrastructure (namely, the antiquated sewer system, which overflows into the rivers in heavy rains) and to create new infrastructure to alleviate the impact of global warming. I'm not thinking about sea walls or similar types of projects that require no changes in the behavior of the city's (and non-city) residents, I'm thinking about ripping out a lane of parking (aka free storage for privately owned cars) and having strips of land for gardens and small parks that would cross the city (and give the water a place to drain). The other lane of parking can be reserved for delivery vehicles and bikes.

Every year, I think about how much I love these Japanese anemones.

The UN recently convened in New York City to discuss global warming and as far as I could tell, all of its representatives were shuttled around in limousines.

There were no limousines in the park, however.

There was no flooding in the park, either.

Coincidence or connection?

Someday, a parklike landscape could be almost endless, and endlessly helpful.

It was nice to be back in the park, living in a dream world.

Posted at 04:13 PM in Expression, Science Projects | Permalink

Comments

Beautiful. Were it only so.

Posted by: Robert | 10/01/2023 at 05:18 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

#gods

ORDER HERE

A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE

A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.

In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.

Praise for #gods

“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal

“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch

“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America

“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World

The Metropolis Case

'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'

-- The New York Times

Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine

Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.

Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past

Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.

Video: The Chaos Detective

The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.

Subscribe to this blog's feed

Search

Matthew Gallaway

Expression//Reaction//ScienceProjects

10/01/2023