November Canalside

November Canalside

One year ago, late November, I was riding my beloved bike route along the Naviglio Pavese, one of the several canals radiating from the center of Milano. In the near-14-months that I rode this paved path, I couldn’t guess how many times I covered part of these 33 kilometers between Milano and Pavia, to the south.

Some days I went only as far as the roundabout joining two highways near Binasco, and turned back, not having the guts that day to do that dangerous circle on two wheels. Other days I veered off west into the farm land, and wound the one-lane roads amidst the rice paddies and corn fields on my way to buy fresh ricotta cheese at Cascina Femegro. There were times I talked to and raced with the lycra-clad jock cyclists on their training rides and I surprised them by keeping up with their pace.

In the course of my long year, I witnessed the full cycle of seasons along the canal. I rode in the humid heat of summer under a blazing sky, and continued riding in the cold, hazy gray of the long, Milanese winter. I was intrigued by the dull hues and disrepair of the backside facades overlooking the canal. Along this route, I saw the frostburnt remnants of summer gardens, moss and algae, stucco and tile begging for repair and persimmons left to hang.

The canalside is more often left untended; it is the non-public face of the home or business, unlike the streetside front that presents a more polished view, (akin to a beautiful woman ironing only the front of her blouse). But there’s something very direct and appealing about the canalside facade, even quaint, and certainly without pretense. It called for a sleepy, early-winter portrait from the water’s edge.

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Among the many, here are a few other stories I’ve written about the canal:

Canalside Afternoon

Rapeseed & Red Poppies

Kitty Fix on a Ricotta Day

The Rolling “Ciao”

History Buff on Wheels

Fish on a Sunny Day

The Canal’s End of Summer

Head Wind

Buy More Stuff

Buy More Stuff

“Black Friday”. THE day upon which retailers place their hopes and base their projections for their year’s sales and their holiday “retail success”. The day after Thanksgiving, when much of the country is turkey-drugged, stuffed with carbs, off-from-work and feeling the pressure of the looming Christmas gift list. The thing to do? Join the frenzy. Get in line at 4:00 a.m. and shop!

Some friends and I met in downtown Seattle this evening at Westlake Center, the closest place this city has to a central cathedral’s main plaza. (I guess it IS a cathedral of sorts…) The streets were barricaded and filled with people awaiting the lighting of the tall Christmas Tree out in front of Macy’s department store.

What caught my attention most, were the simple, stark, white-on-black signs carried by smartly-dressed, friendly men and women. “Buy More Stuff”, the signs said. And “Hurry!”.

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Some people were sure that these folks had been hired by the retailers to ramp up sales. Others understood the facetiousness of the message. It turns out that there’s a group named “BuyMoreStuff.Org” who states its foundation as: “We’re here to encourage people to buy more stuff. If you don’t hurry, they’ll run out of stuff or you’ll run out of time.”

“It’s interesting: Americans in particular are hyper-attuned to advertising and marketing, which all comes down to Buy More Stuff, and when you reduce it down to its primary thing it becomes very weird. When the message is pared down to its essence is when it confuses people the most.” said Michael Holden, who founded Buy More Stuff with fellow performance artist Cody Strauss.

Yes. There’s been plenty written about our having been hoodwinked into feeling compelled to buy, buy, buy. But one thing I mused over, having recently returned from Italy, was “WOULD this be allowed in Italy, and if so, would anyone actually DO this there?” These simple signs are a clean, inoffensive, provoke-thought-and-get-under-the-skin manifestation of “Freedom of Speech”. Bravo!

I like that they can walk around town with bold signs. I like that they did (and do). I like their message. (And I like their graphics.)

Here’s a Huffington Post blurb from last year’s “performance”.

To twist your head around, read a bit of the Buy More Stuff mailbag here“Hurry!”