Contribution to the Now. Here. This by P.F.
Image of car burned, with aftermath.
And a narrative.
Long ago…
Text 1
Now and here:
I’m thinking, should I really abide by the constraints of the project. And why. I’m also wondering how I could not include this image even though it’s, what, Thursday, 5:15 pm, a whole 23 hours before the slated time. And yet… It fits, so well, the
Now: as I’m walking on 51st St on Thursday April 17, while that dude is visiting from we know where, right around
Here: midtown, right around work, a scene you never see, coinciding (is it really a coincidence) with the historic (ehem) visit: but the dude has never been around here after all, and here, on 51st St, there is
This: a burnt-out cab, the result of, what… Is it chance, is it a message, a protest, a cry, a howl, a scream of, what: with all the tourists assembled around, snapping pictures: with all the cops checking out the surroundings: with the smoke and the stink spreading all around: what: a purposeful act, or a random accident, just like this, here, now…
Wondering if we’ll know what this was about, and wondering if
This image, here, today, is not so damn right for Now:Here:This even though it’s taken one day too early…
(Wondering even, if this is much of a ‘thought’ that’s going through my mind…)
Text 2
Emblematic.
A burnt-out cab in midtown with its doors open and its lights out with tourists hanging around smiling and snapping pictures.
The incidental nature of the sighting. The unusual nature of the event. Not what you really see on midtown streets in late afternoon. Which prompts the very exclamation: now and here, this! Nothing special photographically, but emblematic…
Flames and smoke and throngs and smiles and the absurdity of it all. Here, now…
This.
Text 3
Cars, lanes, parking lots, traffic flow: I’ve thought this before. I’ve written this before. This scene I mean. And this event. Had thought it before ever seeing it. That’s also what I’m thinking now… Although…
Which also prompts my thinking about thoughts.
And how it’s not one thought that comes to mind but multiple networks of words and images somehow coagulating into thoughts racing around.
Same image, endless directions for the many thoughts.
Thinking about that too: the notion of the thought, the thought of thought, before this image, here and now.
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