Street with Stairs and Shopping Bag by Chipka
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Description
In my younger years, I’d developed an abiding fondness for the music of Peter Gabriel.
I’ve always been a soundtrack collector, though since my departure to Prague and from the toxic familial relationships that Chicago has come to signify for me, most of my music collection is now gone. Perhaps for good. I don’t know. Suffice it to say, however, that I will replace the music that I’ve lost, while simultaneously erasing the useless and supposedly-human relationships that have only worked in allowing me to discover that “home” and “Chicago” are two different places.
Though I no longer possess the copious number of obscure CDs I once possessed. I remember them. I will re-acquire them. The soundtrack to the film Birdy will be one such re-acquisition. It is by Peter Gabriel, and it marks a transition in his career. Known as a pop/rock musician, Mr. Gabriel began his into a World Music genius. Birdy is the first step in a process that led to what I consider the pinnacle of Peter Gabriel’s artistic vision: the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ. I’d always found modern Christianity to be culturally biased and needlessly Eurocentric. (Middle Eastern people with straight, blond hair? Isn’t blond hair a more northern trait?) Peter Gabriel’s music to the then-controversial film probably added to its dogma-zapping zing due to its valiant attempt at ethnic accuracy. The Last Temptation of Christ restricted to the confines of a soundtrack, recalled the subtle, somewhat dark beauty of “Sketchpad for Trumpet and Voice” which appeared on the Birdy soundtrack. Beauty wasn’t a children’s choir singing “La-la-la,” it was a single man, howling to the accompaniment of droning, alien instrumentation. “Sketchpad” sounded (to me) like a modern Native American prayer. (In many Native American traditions, prayers are often sung in an improvised and artificial language that marks a personal connection between the prayer and the divinity who receives it. Vocables, as these prayers are known, are as distinct from one another as fingerprints, and they never sound the same way twice. They are pure emotion—beautifully-modulated primal screams, which—I suspect—is the language of God. Self-invented and always changing.)
As I walked with Corey last summer, capturing as much of Chicago warmth as I could with my camera, I found myself listening to “Sketchpad with Trumpet and Voice” with my internal and non-physical ear. In ways, Chicago’s mass-transit underside recalls the haunting, howling, and pure beauty of Peter Gabriel’s composition. It’s hollow in a sense…and not exactly what you’d expect. There are no words to describe it, no feelings to pinpoint despite the very real presence of feelings. “Sketchpad” is the sound of a tiny grain of sand, contemplating the vast (and indifferent) scope of the entire universe. The underside of Chicago’s elevated rail system is indifferent and unyielding. It is like a piece of music that I cherish.
I have no love for Chicago. There are better cities…more authentic places to live, but I respect what Chicago once was. Now, Chicago is like a drag queen in the midst of an identity crisis. It lacks definition. It lacks unity between what exists and what is desired, and as such, it utterly fails to define either of those things. It is not itself. But once, Chicago was a place where a Robin Hood gangster stole from the rich and gave to charity, and for as ugly as such a thing may have been, it was honest. I have no love for Chicago now, because Chicago has no love of honesty. But as I walked with Corey on a hot and sunny day, I caught glimpses of that vanished candor in the rust of metal and the flake of paint, and in an empty shopping bag, abandoned in the shadow of buildings and a precarious stairway.
***
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and my 2010 be a rich and rewarding year
Comments (19)
M2A
Never been in Chicago but i think i understand the disapointment a city could leave after a time of charm, which made the city better at our eyes. I like the sunny and dark mix in your snap.
bmac62
Hi Chip. OK, are you ready to laugh at my interpretation of what I think I just read in part...??? By the way, whether I get it tonight or not I'll come back for a reread tomorrow...I promise:) And love the image presented by this probably ancient and often painted staircase. (We had 'em in New York too) At the risk of missing your main point altogether, I have fastened for some reason onto your lines, “Sketchpad' is the sound of a tiny grain of sand, contemplating the vast (and indifferent) scope of the entire universe. The underside of Chicago’s elevated rail system is indifferent and unyielding. It is like a piece of music that I cherish." (great sweep of writing...love it...music to my ears) But now I am working at making a semi intelligent connection between the underside of the old metal staircase in your photo and my thought processes which seem to have wound down tonight as 2009 is dying away. LOL. I think my difficulty is I've probably mis-merged two thought tracks into one. The staircase reminds of the good old Chicago. The honest Chicago. And the Gabriel music parallels the discordant sounds of all the moving parts of Chicago today. Metal wheels on metal tracks, engines, horns honking, etc. Now, what I'll have to leave for tomorrow is how do I put that all together? It isn't your writing...it is my thinking! Great read. But if you think it will keep me awake tonight, I don't think so...when I lift my feet off the floor, my eyelids automatically snap shut after 3-5 breaths:-))) I'll get better at this Chip. I just need more practice. Happy New Year. Loved your comments on my upload from today...you got it!!!
blinkings
I LOVE Birdy! Especially when Matthew Modine jumps over the edge to seemingly certain death. Then we all get the surprise! Great stuff.
koosievantutte
very fine image - love the light and the colour. to me big cities are a disappointment mostly nowadays. as always i had to print out the story, somehow i can't read a lot of electronic text, i need it on paper. maybe that also explains my disappointment in big cities :-) have a good new year in 1 hour.
beachzz
Now I have to go find "Birdy", Peter Gabriel, and put this all together. I feel kind of like that shopping bag, left out in the cold. Great city shot, nonetheless, even if I didn't get the whole message.
faroutsider
I have almost everything that Peter gabriel has produced, including the haunting soundtrack for "Long Walk Home", Lovetown from "Philadelphia", and the theme song from "Wall-E", as well as much of his World Music. He has a way of creating "texture" in his music in much the same way you do with your photography and prose. Great shot of ascent from underneath, with overhang....
helanker
I may have become paranoia, but that bag...Oh well. :-) I read it all, Chip. I did, but it is not all I understood, but I really tried :-D This image shows, that not all is what it seems to be on the surface.. or on the front. Funny, It reminds me of the 60th, when my friends, the girls had puffed up their hair to dimentions, so their heads looked double the size and they put on a spider thin tiny scarf on the hair and tied it on the edge of the chin, but when you looked at the backside of the hair, it always seemed as they forgot they had a backside. What a mess. LOL !
durleybeachbum
Reading a Chipka musing with my morning coffee sure beats the newspaper that I don't take because of it's banality. I intend to whip through my ebots and then spend at least 20 minutes in your company, sometimes challenging, often amusing, always richly fascinating. I obviously need to update my acquaintance with Peter Gabriel!
jac204
I've only been to Chicago twice, once to really visit, years ago. I remember an area called "Old Town", I think, that was kind of a hippy area. Now I'm curious and want to visit again. Thanks for sharing this and all your travel experiences.
ladyraven23452
thanks for all you share with us its a honor to see and read your art and it is art.
MagikUnicorn
Cool shot pal :) HAPPY NEW YEAR
hipps13
Happy New Year wonderful capture warm hugs, Linda
Meisiekind
I am afraid my head is way too full of rubbish at the moment to really appreciate and "get" what you are saying! When I am at a better place, I would like to return to this image! For now - let me just stick to - wonderful moody capture telling a hundred stories! :))
kgb224
Superb capture my friend.
auntietk
I love this shot, and thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts. I had to go find some Gabriel to listen to ... I'm only familiar with his pop stuff. Outstanding!
SIGMAWORLD Online Now!
Excellent capture! Happy New Year!
MrsRatbag
Chip, you've touched a very deep chord with me here. Peter Gabriel is without a doubt my favorite musician of all time. I have a pretty good collection of some of his obscurities, and know people who have all of them. His music is not like anything else, and I lack the words to describe it, save that to me it seems real while all the rest of the commercial stuff out there has no substance. I have traveled to England twice just to go to PG concerts. Don't get me started, I could go on all day!
anahata.c
first, I read all the comments & it's wonderful to see how you once again inspire people to engage deeply. Second, I know Gabriel's music, and he's one of a small group of musicians who has openly embraced many world styles, mixed it with classical styles (western, middle eastern, asian-indian) and done so with depth & total originality. (World music also spawns musicians who've made a saccharine pulp out of many styles---Gabriel is the opposite.) When you study world forms, you get giddy after a while, realizing you're walking through whole worlds very rapidly. But a melange happens in your head, and you begin to hear that these many styles truly do speak to each other. Gabriel is one of a small number of musicians who understand that language, and his work reflects it with constant variations. I can see why you like his work so much. (The modern synthesizer--if you get one that has settings beyond rock & pop--brings the world's sounds to your fingertips. And if you have facility with the little monster, you can understand the urge to soar the world over in your own living room. Gabriel has the resources to use actual instruments & musicians; but at least the rest of us can go where he goes in ersatz style, if we can afford one of those instruments...Just an aside, since you're speaking about a great world musician.) As for chicago...well...you are right; I'd only add that it's true of other big american cities as well. The metamorphosis is american, which I found in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. I grew up in Chicago in the 50s, and it was sweeter I suppose, but the same contradictions were underneath; they just got more blatant as chicago got more blatant. I've never disagreed with your criticisms of the city, I've just felt that they applied elsewhere too. Europe had centuries to develop its cities into the old & stunningly aged gathering places they've become. We're still young at that, and our big cities---for all their glitter---are still back in the middle ages, battling & warring & handing out inequities like water out of a waterfall. I find much depth here, but with huge primal oppressions. India's cities have that split too; only India's have millennia of history woven inside them. Maybe in time we'll get that patina too, who knows... As for the visual: I have no idea how you do it. I mean, I saw you photograph, and the act is innocent enough: You, like everyone else here in that weekend, were quiet; you looked, snap snap snap, and you all came back to Marilyn & Tara's hotel room and rushed through your shots and uploaded. I had no camera then, and I just couldn't believe how amazing it was to see this process unfold. (And I'll still never get over how fast Corey rushed through his pics--in his camera yet--saying "nope, nope, YES, nope, this one's good," etc. He must know his art very well in order to do it that fast in the camera!) But you get these monumental shots, where we sweep from top into a chasm; or we plunge into a journey to the back of the shot; and your detail is scintillating, and the light & shade play out amazingly, and you reveal whole chunks of city-life through it. This image is another example of that, with stark shadows and saturated whites; wonderful car glare and a sense of the underside of this city of elevated and rusted out stairwells. And there's harsh light and harsh emptiness, and a hope---through the chasms---of life that will rise again. Very fine work once more. These urban photos---chicago & Prague---are truly wonderful work, Chip.
EBSPhotographic
Nice lines everywhere! IMHO, this would look equally well in black and white.