Lomo Suburbia

November 6, 2005 - This is the very northern end of Johnson Avenue on the north side of town. It's as big and busy as a residential road gets in this town. It doesn't go anywhere, it just loops around to other roads, comprising what my high school track/cross-country teams called the "Johnson loop". I ride this loop sometimes to extend my rides, and I must say it is easily the most boring portion of any ride I've ever done. The words "soul-sucking suburban wasteland" comes to mind.


November 10, 2005 - This is Cambridge Place, the street I grew up on. I stopped to shoot because the light was so pleasant. The entire street is not a half mile long. This is looking south towards the southern end.

Then I turned around and shot north:

This is the block I grew up on, although you can't see my old house in this shot. If you enlarge it, on the right hand side of the road you can see the sun reflecting off a house. That was our neighbor, our house was the next one down. The fisheye makes it look farther away than it is.

On this stretch of road:
- In Autumn, we raked leaves and piled them on the roadside. Before they got sucked up in trucks, we would play in the leaves, wade through the leaves, take running jumps into the pile of leaves.

- In Winter, snow plows would push snow into huge piles along the side of the road (well, huge for a kid), and after shoveling snow from the driveway, we would play and dig tunnels through the piles until we could feel our socks getting wet. Then we would go into the warmth of the house, leaving our boots and gloves on a mat to let the snow melt off and dry.

They got the mothers worked into a panic
Sledding down hills into oncoming traffic
And parents layered clothes until the children couldn't move
And left them outside until their noses were blue
And I got left there, too
- I Was a Kaleidoscope (Death Cab for Cutie)

- In Summer, we had this game where some kids would ride back and forth along the street, while others standing along the sides would try to skip a frisbee between the wheels of the moving bikes. If the person got hit with a frisbee, too bad. I don't think there was any point to the game.

- In Spring, Daylight Savings brought expansive evenings with glorious twilight sunsets, streetlamps turning on, and catching fireflies with our bare hands.

current sounds (last 10 songs shuffled on iTunes):
1. Dead End Street (live) (The Kinks)
2. Young Americans (David Bowie)
3. Moonchild (Cibo Matto)
4. Stutter Steps (764-HERO)
5. Romance (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
6. The Rhythm Method (drum solo) (Rush)
7. #1 Must Have (Sleater-Kinney)
8. Nothing As It Seems (Pearl Jam)
9. Goodbye Cruel World (live) (Pink Floyd)
10. Low Light (Peter Gabriel)