Missing Cat

 

The Seat As Cage

Once upon a time, long before you were born, to be seated was a form of punishment. Like transportation, sitting someone down was a penance. Because it meant that you were in a cage, and that you couldn't stand up, and that you couldn't walk. Nowadays however, such is the state of our memory - history being a luxury that most people cannot afford - we have no idea that the very foundations of modern society - transport and sedentariness - are steeped in torture methods of old. Who would've thunk it?

Don Peyote

 

My sacred plant - are not all plants sacred? - arrived today from down south. I had initially thought them illegal in UK but they're not. 

“Hallucinogenic cacti are not illegal in the UK, unless prepared for consumption as a hallucinogen. This could include drying them, or cutting them into edible ‘buttons’

At any rate, I had tried germinating some seeds I bought online from Germany but not only were they terribly expensive but even with my grow lights and tents I found them difficult to get going. And so, I bought one that was already mature (about 5 years old). So, here's hoping it's not too stressed after 5 days in a box (the chap sent it second class!). Next year, all things being equal, it should flower and produce seeds. And then we'll really be cooking with gas.

Exit-ability: Ease of Exit

Exitability, not to be confused with excitability, is one's capacity to exit and leave a city's confines as effortlessly and smoothly as possible. The parameters are simple: no car, and bicycle (no electric bikes) and trains are allowed. So, the question then becomes: How quickly can you get into the hills, into the unpeopled realm, into the unpolluted and undomesticated dimension? I have an idea of attempting a project which sees me being dropped into the centre of a major city and then having to root my way out of it. In Glasgow, I can do it in 30minutes. Do you think you could trump that? And no racing and rushing. And what about New York or Tokyo? How fast do you think you get into the outside from these places? What about London? I imagine we're talking hours here not minutes. And so, exitability is a craft, a skill that the wild cyclist attains and finetunes simply through the regularity by which he leaves the city. He knows the train stations, the different lines and timetables, the rat-runs through residential areas, and of course the location of the pot of gold. And with this local knowledge (is there any other kind?) he exits the city, and by doing so, enters something else.