Apr 27, 2011
I’ve got a thing for ominous clouds. This view is from behind one of SCAD’s buildings in Midtown Atlanta. All day yesterday, clouds were hanging about, tempting and taunting. Out with it already!
Weather like this reminds me of the scenes in novels and movies when a stranger comes to town, or somebody is about to die, or some Clint Eastwood/Bruce Willis-type is about to kick some ass. Oh man, I haven’t thought about Bruce Willis in a good minute. It’s crazy when you think about it — Bruce Willis has been in at least one film every year since his career took off in the 1980s, but I still only think of him as starring in a handful of films: Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element and of course, the Die Hard series, which refuses to die.
Mar 07, 2011
Human beings are strange. I know this because I love the fog (so does Tony Bennett). This is odd, because I spent most of my life bemoaning its presence.
Growing up in the Bay Area as a small child, the fog meant doomsday. Growing up in the Bay Area, this meant you were doomed a lot of the time. It meant the sun may or may not show itself before it was time for it to go down. It meant all the adults around you were going to complain about how it was foggy (again). It meant that having a birthday in July was not going to guarantee you jubilant celebration outdoors with your friends. Fog meant a precursor to inside days and inside voices.
So it’s strange that now I love the fog, precisely because it reminds me of living in the Bay Area. See what I mean?
We’ve had a lot of foggy days around intown Atlanta over the past few weeks. And I can’t even pinpoint why it strikes me, or what memory is triggered. I’ve stood out on my balcony some recent mornings, half-dressed and half-freezing in my pajamas, looking at the fog and trying to figure it out. I just get a sense that something I forgot is letting me know it’s still around, ready and waiting whenever I need it, no matter when that may be.
