Yes, I would say that's what I am, a bit of a
Flaneur. Even as a teen I would spend hours strolling around the cities or towns I lived. In
Washington DC I just walked, 6 hours one day and 7 the next day.
The Arcades Project points out a "
flâneur" is completely at home in this cross between interior-exterior because his own personal interior-exterior boundaries are also ambiguous".
"To him the shiny, enameled signs of businesses are at least as good a wall ornament as an oil painting is to a bourgeois in his salon. The walls are the desk against which he presses his notebooks; news-stands are his libraries and the terraces of cafés are the balconies from which he looks down on his household after his work is done. "(Baudelaire 37)Yes, yes! I love signs, wall ornaments, nature's art in its bounty, cracks in a wall, architecture, unexpected art forms.
Edge of the Women's park on the bike trail between Yellow Springs and Xenia.It's a bit harder to be a Flaneur in the middle of Ohio and in a tiny village but I manage.
I do miss the old stone walls, the architecture of England, the pub signs,
indoor markets, street art, victorian ironwork,
graveyards and street scenes of
Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Groat Market, Newcastledescription of the pub from
Newcastle PubsHistory of Pub NamesInn Sign Society with examples and history of signs
Grainger Market Newcastle Upon Tyne
all photographs by Jafabrit
Edge of the Women's park on the bike trail between Yellow Springs and Xenia.
Groat Market, Newcastle
Grainger Market Newcastle Upon Tyne
4 comments:
Jaf, you are from Newcastle?? I did my graduate work there, your post brought back a lot of memories, it was the MOST difficult year of my life... oh too much to say here
really deb, wow. Well Geordie culture and the dialect is a different kettle of fish, so I know that had to be a challenge in itself. Sorry it was such a difficult year :(
Greetings from another flaneur (and Walter Benjamin devotee). I think YS is a wonderful space for flânerie, even if it hasn’t the scope of Washington or Paris. I pursue flânerie on the Internet as much as on the street, so I’m pleased to have chanced upon your blog. I look forward to following your art.
What a beautiful photo of the women's park!
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