solitary walking

so as i left the house today i listened to a couple of mark murphy tracks which i was checking out, but the main thing was to make sure i got on a bus by 1.00 listening to eternal rhythm by don cherry, a bus journey being the only way today (i thought) i could listen to my shuffle for the whole length of that album uninterupted...

it turned out to be a largely freely improvised album... not quite what i was expecting... but glad to have the experience as the number 17 bus took me from holloway road to st pauls cathedral, on this beautiful sunny day, as i crossed over the river on the millenium bridge dark side of the moon kicked in, the first few tracks got me from there to work, a couple of workshops and a telephone marking meeting the rest of the album got me back to the river, with lakshmi shankars wonderful voice accompanying me as i stooged about, taking pictures of more steps going into the thames... the tide was going out as i moved west along the thames going down to the (dropping) waters edge whenever i could...

i loved the look on one man's face as i came up from the water, undid the gate and crossed over into where everyone else was walking... like i'd walked out of the river...

lakshmi turned to L. as i wended my way ever west, stopping in the NFT for a cup of tea and some cake, finishing the book i was reading, the very interesting the mandate of heaven by s j marshall, pseudonym of my friednly neighbourhood yijing authority... i eventually crossed over to the north side of the river on the west hungerford bridge (or maybe it's south, the thames having turned a corner by then) - opened as the hungerford bridges and then reopened a few months later (i think) in 2003 as the golden jubilee bridges...

always the hungerford bridges to me...

i walked into town, eventually finding my way into foyles bookshop where i bought on the natural history of destruction by w g sebald, the last one i haven't read by him, well, the last full book, dribs and drabs come out now he's dead...

then, still listening, L. shankar turning into the band he used to be in, shakti, took me home... and i'm just stopping by before i go out to jai's to eat some great, great food... i had a look on itunes and i worked out that i'd listened to 3.9 hours of music today on my shuffle... that's alot of solitary walking, reminds me of a pablo neruda poem... can't remember which one, i will curl myself up like a cat, having spoken to noone...

x