http://www.equivocality.net the world is a complex and beautiful place Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:26:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've come to the conclusion that most pieces of writing are far longer than they need to be. This is partially about style, but no one likes long-windedness. http://www.equivocality.net/simplicity-in-writing I think about that man with the AK 47 that little man with the only gun in his village his little mountain he feels pretty important we mock him for his grand feuds over sheep well i feel pretty important too but no one is mocking me nor can I see past those mountains http://www.equivocality.net/man-with-an-ak-47 Rope, clip, harness, 70 feet above the ground. In the moment after the jump my body relaxes, opens, and one arm flings back in flight. Finally. The Earth is to my back, the sky is a huge blue audience. Then the moon gravity of the cliff pulls me in. When my feet ... http://www.equivocality.net/faith-on-the-end-of-a-rope I was recently pointed to the most amazing thing, a music / fire / street performance called Glissendo, conceived by one "Ulik, the Machanical Clown" and executed by French art group Le Snob.  They're playing "Lightning" by Phillip Glass on a Dixieland band, riding Segways under the robes, and of ... http://www.equivocality.net/the-glissendo-performance-and-machine-assisted-circus Leatherman multi-tool tumbled from pocket in Taghazout one night on Moroccan hash. Lonely Planet India in the ticket office of a train three days coming I packed my motorcycle with such focus I forgot the book nail clippers what the hell happened to you yesterday morning? nylon quick-dry travel pants fell carelessly from me to a mosqito coil your hidden zippered ... http://www.equivocality.net/things-lost After ascending and descending the tower of the Jama Masjid (attendant wanted backsheesh as I was 5 minutes after closing, damn him) I wandered into the Muslim quarter of the city, tight noisy always as usual, and here I was rewarded. Because it was a neighborhood. People sitting in their shops ... http://www.equivocality.net/muslim-quarter-new-delhi (an old piece, newly exhumed) I am in Dubai and it is a strange tropical paradise. Russia was killing me, with its winter and its winter people. Here I stepped off the plane and was immediately assailed by warmth and the smell of the ocean. And later, other smells: cooking food, diesel exhaust, the ... http://www.equivocality.net/out-of-the-west We made the world. Humans did. We abandoned the wilderness, left the forest or the savannah or whatever it used to be-- I don't even know. I can recognize more types of shoes than trees. There is another ecosystem now, of man-made things. I began to realize this when I flew ... http://www.equivocality.net/the-african-spoon I'm writing this from a cave. There is wifi in the cave. I am sitting on a pink Hannah Montana bedspread. All of the beds are pink. This is a dorm in a cave. That's Capadocia tourism for you. The view out the little front lounge of this "pensian" is ... http://www.equivocality.net/odd-eyed-cat This is San Francisco International Airport and I can’t understand a single word the people ahead of me are saying. It's very reassuring. I'm tired of living in a monoculture. White Americans end up all looking the same. Compared to everyone else. I think the ones in front of me are ... http://www.equivocality.net/air-portal