Restricted Frequency #195
Travel without the parentheses
Travel exposes you to other ways of being and makes you rethink some of the ways you’ve been being for a while. At least it does for me. Cairo and Berlin are worlds apart, one chaotic and the other orderly (Germans outside of Berlin may laugh at my description of Berlin as such given it is the wildest city Germany has to offer), one nonsensical and the other entrenched in logic, restrictive versus unrepressed, intrusive versus indifferent, warm versus cold. I found myself maneuvering between various degrees of familiarity and alienation in both cities, but oddly enough it was Cairo where I felt most alienated and recurringly frustrated. Berlin embraced me in a way I did not expect. Don’t get me wrong, Cairo had its share of exquisite pleasantries, but it was all in spite of the city’s dominant current. Back in Houston now, which is way way removed from either of those cities. I’m still processing my experiences and what I might be able to take away from it all and how I might incorporate said takeaways into my “usual” way of being. I loathe relegating my travels to the vicinity of parentheses.
For one, I’m pretty sure I ought to do some more field doodling, which I got to do quite a bit of this summer (one example above) after years of hiatus. But then again, I noticed that 99% of the time, a patio in this city is likely to look onto a goddamn parking lot. Why, America, Why?
New art for new album from Ramy Essam: متغربين / Outsiders which is all about feels of alienation and strangeness.
There’s still time to pre-order the first two issues of THE CURSE OF I, my new “reluctant autobio” series, issue #2 of which includes the award-winning MOUTHFAIL. Ships signed in September. Will only be printing according to orders that come in due to limitations in available storage space thanks in no small part to my terrible book problem which clearly has no cure.
For one week only, you can snatch a hand-stamped RIOT DANCE PATTERN and get a free hand-drawn RIOT DANCE along with it. Here’s how: During checkout, just mention in the “notes” field (at the very bottom of the page) which RIOT DANCE version you’d like to add: Charcoal, Marker, or India Ink.
That is all for this edition of RESTRICTED FREQUENCY, folks. I’m back on THE SOLAR GRID, attempting to weave together the grand finale with grace, which is to say: I’m neck deep in some pretty dreadful problem-solving right now.
Take care and hope whatever problems lay ahead of you may be addressed with ease and relative delight,
Ganzeer
Houston, TX