The Glass Hidden in the Grass

[commonpeople1]

Banks are collapsing left, right and centre and I don't know how this affects me; I have no money in them, after all. My rent went up because my landlady had to re-mortgage the apartment, but the apartment was a deal beforehand and now it's just its own real price. Whatever is more expensive now, I can live without it. I don't need gas or electricity; I can burn stuff on my balcony to keep me warm - it's not like the housing association that runs this derelict slab of concrete will give a toss.

The United Kingdom is facing an impending great recession, they say. If push came to shove, could I face a McDees counter, a garbage truck, a tower block reception desk? Yes I could, and the line ups for them too. I'd treat them like audition lines for Big Brother. But push won't come to shove for me because I leave my medieval tower under bleak weather these days and by the time I reach London Fields' soggy autumn leaves the sun is cloudbusting. And I have my mom's farm in Brasil, which I could easily turn into a commune if all hell broke loose. (Hopefully it won't be too hard catching an escape flight out of this country.) I'd help most of you travel across the oceans and seven seas to reach me; I'd teach you Portuguese; I'd tell you ghost stories in the Winter when the temperature drops so low in the mountains that we have to keep the fireplace going all night long. (Sausage dogs that nestle against your leg underneath the blanket come in handy on these frightening nights.)

There's a two-storey warehouse east of London Fields that houses a Christian organisation and a modest clothes manufacturer. A truck was parked outside it today, its back doors open. A wire ran from its interior to an open window on the top floor. A head popped out of the warehouse window and soon there was a plastic-wrapped blue dress wizzing down the wire, into the truck. Franz Schubert's "Octet D 803 F major Op. 166 for two Violins, Viola, Cello, Double-Bass, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon: Andante con variazioni" was the perfect soundtrack to this tiny tableau. (Go see if you can download it from iTunes.) Another blue dress wizzed down; a man inside the truck, collecting the dresses and stacking them, gave me evils cause I stopped to watch the flying dresses. Someone will wear those garments one day and never know the journey they took to reach their body. They'll be too busy worrying about... stuff.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

My strategy of spending all my money on booze is looking pretty smart now I'd say!

Sausage dogs that nestle against your leg underneath the blanket come in handy on these frightening nights.

Unless you're frightened of dogs I guess -- or of sausages.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

If you want to improve that strategy, you should start spending it on booze for me!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Fair enough! What're you drinking? Come out to the pub with us tomorrow.

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Take 'im up on it, Ol! Never pass up free booze.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What if it's rubbing alcohol free booze?

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

That's not real booze and you don't have to accept.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What's the plan? I just had in mind having a quiet night, but if it's any nearby I can show up in my slippers and bathrobe, count me in.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Drinks then food in Bloomsbury with a few people -- drop me a line if you fancy it.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm going to pass on it, but thank you for the invite! Hopefully will see you soon.

[canudiglett]

I just wish the banks I owe money to would all go bust.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You should move your debt around to the most promising bank to go bust.

[meemeedarling.livejournal.com]

Yes! I just read that Americans have lost 2 trillion dollars in retirement funds. I guess this is a day to be thankful I don't have anything saved.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I thought 2 trillion was the amount Americans owed to the Chinese? Jeez... our problems pale in comparison to your country's!

[meemeedarling.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. That is also the number we owe. Go us!

[blu-bear.livejournal.com]

Can we go now?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Save me a seat in Economy.

[fisticuff-s.livejournal.com]

the beauty and optimism of this entry is empowering and i appreciate hearing it from someone besides my own head.

this will be okay, no matter what.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You, K and B definitely have space guaranteed in the commune. :-)

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

I'd go back to Corrego but we must get more going than is going there. Shall I change my dollars to euros now or what? The next few months will tell for sure.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

If Obama continues to do well, the dollar might get a little stronger. If McCain starts gaining, I expect it will start tumbling against the euro.

We'll put together a little gang in Corrego and oust Marlene as the leading drinking troublemaker in town. ;-)

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA!!! True! Beer at 11 a.m.? Psh, child's play! We never stop drinking!

And yes, I'm watching the polls and the euro both, trust me. Gold, too, actually, though I don't know what I'll do with that info.

How are your brother's wedding plans going? Is it going to be a simple affair?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I hear it's going to be a simple affair - just a civil union and a lunch/dinner for the family - but other than that I have no clue! He's not exactly the best email correspondent in the world...

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

That is very true. Will you be able to attend it?

[foucaultonacid.livejournal.com]

can i give lessons at the commune on the greeks, walt whitman, pessoa and lorca and the gay origins of the tango?

[idioticpoet.livejournal.com]

gay origins of the tango? what?

[foucaultonacid.livejournal.com]

that's why i need to give lessons - http://www.orangelifemagazine.com/tango-for-two-origins-of-the-gay-milongas/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jun/27/gayrights.argentina

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

We'd be honoured. And it would be especially great for us to keep the classics alive as the world crashes on our ears. Don't want no return to medieval thinking, no, no, no.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

If the worst comes to the worst, I'm sure some of us could club together to employ you as a part-time houseboy.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'd make the worse houseboy in the world. I'd go through people's drawers rather than do the work.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Is that "drawers" in the furniture or underwear sense?

[idioticpoet.livejournal.com]

knowing ollie, he's probably an "equal oppurtunity drawer lookee-lou".

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Only if they are the frilly kind!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's the place to be when the apocalypse hits.

[rag-and-bone.livejournal.com]

yes, please, brasil!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Tick. Next!

[phyrephly.livejournal.com]

I don't even have a bank account. How's that for living in a medieval tower?

I love your new icon idea. What are they from?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Many years ago I went to a photo exhibition by this young photographer called Oliver Sieber. They were protraits of young people belonging to subcultures - teddy boys, punks, skinheads, hiphop kids... I just fell in love with them. I promised myself that the day I had more icon space in my account, I'd have as many of them as possible as icons. And so the day arrived. :-)

Dodgy Times and Dodgier Bankers

[(Anonymous)]

Well we can thank all the bankers who did their jobs badly and got paid a small fortune for doing that.
http://www.squidoo.com/destination_france_the_purchase

[kinnikinnick.livejournal.com]

A bit late to the party, though it is usual for me...
Is it really so scary and hard for people in the UK to go through this crisis? Well, I don't want to be misunderstood... but from here where I am, Europe in general and England in particular seems to be very reliable, constant and rather safe place in terms of government policy on protecting people from the effects of the crisis. I mean its not going to be like in Argentina in 2001 when people shot each other and ate dogs, or as we had it here in Russia when people had no money, no job, no support from the government.
Excuse my terribly long introduction, I'm coming to the point now. Years ago I was hitchhiking around the wild parts of Siberia and talking to local people and... me and friends had a really strong idea of moving altogether to some distant place and establishing a kind of commune to live there with a minimum communication to the rest of the world. This dream comes and goes through minds and years. And now, when I read to your post, it makes me feel that this idea is kind of poetically dissolved in the air, and I believe, the Brazilian farm and the Siberian nowhere village would differ not much (temperature, fruits, beasts and (professional issue) diseases).
And I just had news that sort of bring the idea to the new level: some friends of my friends are going to buy property and establish a ...farm?village?whatever in the middle of Siberia and as they are programmers, the first thing they are going to do there is to provide some kind of the Internet access.
Anyway, I'm going to renew the experience of wildlife, spending the New Year holidays in Siberian taiga several hundred km from the nearest city. Probably just make myself ready for upcoming crisis :))).
Sorry for being wordy and probably for my English. Your poetic post stired up so many emotions in me...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

No need to apologise! Thank you for the post - you have given me a lot to think about.

You are absolutely right about countries like England not having as much to worry about in the crisis as countries, for example, in Africa. I think people here will be fine if something happens - they'll just have to learn to live without their cars, or video games, etc.

If you do decide to join the commune in Siberia, I wish you good luck! I've heard of friends in Brasil who wish to buy land together and do something similar - leave the rat race in the big cities and try a gentler and quieter life in the countryside. It's a romantic plan, but who's to say it's not possible?