Kentridge mural along th Tiber (click for hi rez)

19 June 2016 > entering nomadic mode, dear Inurnet .. not quite like last year where ∑um 48 Δiffrent beds we slept in 4 months, but 2day b'gins th 1° leg (or th 2° if u consider our fortnite in Burma last munth as th 1°) .. now we cummence a 5+ week euro-tour starting in Rome then up to France + th UK .. as usual our rout dictated by where our better-½'s got meetings, etc. .. but we figgerd rather than fly back + fro we'd string her together w/ train- + road-trips .... now @ Natl airport DC reading Swann's Way by Proust [th new Lydia Davis xlation] .. managed to put off Proust til now but giving @ least th 1° book a shot .. yeh, we know, perhaps better to wait til France to read her, but we wanted to @ least start b'for we lug'd her ∀ll th way there only t' find we aint into her .. so (80+ pgs in) definitely long-winded + dry + we almost gave up til we got to th part where he obsesses over gitting a goodnite kiss from his mama + then th revelation over eating th shell-shaped spongecake dip'd in lime-blossum tea .. piqued our intrest plenty to hump her a'long in our carryon .. gots a nice dreaminess to her so far .. th kind of thawts going thru yo hed on sleepless nites .. ¿how much time of our lives spent in such a state? .. or in dreaming .. a state of mind Proust captures well .. a wistful nostalgia .. + good descriptions of French provincial life, the architecture + food, finer details, vivid colors (especially pink) ..

> spent 45 minutes on th ground in DC taxiing then 45 min flying (∫um of that in a holding pattern) to spend another 15 taxiing on th grnd @ JFK .. then plane late taking off .. but finely in th air now .. read more of Swann's Way .. got about 200+ pgs into her b'fore we startid losing intrest + skim-reading .. too burgzwahzee .. th petty dramas of hi sosighity aristocrat types .. Proust also rites in ridicklessly long run-on sentences w/ flowery langage dificile to dijest .. insted we watch'd that movie about The National singer's loser brother who follows them around on tour .. kind of brilliant we think or maybe not hard to tell .. like watching a train wreck .. funny th part where they used to play Mercury Lounge or Bowery Ballroom + nobody wd show up .. we've seen th National a few times like that i think 1 of th 5 in th audience of th footage they show'd .. a running joke how they used to always open up for bands we saw circa 2001-2002 .. always so serious + seemingly angry having to play to an empty room .. but hey now they bigtime good 4 them ..

leaving DC

20 June | Rome> back in th eturnal city .. our home away from home .. feels mo familiare ± homey than DC .. staying on th Aventino .. Remo's hill .. landid late mattina went + got Carbonara @ Da Enzo .. giro'd round in th rain in our ol' stompin grounds .. thru Trastevere .. down alungo th river .. nada rilly ever changes in Rome .. guess why they call her la città eterna .. xcept down alungo th Tevere a new series of murals by William Kentridge .. steamwash'd into th grime (so only a matter of time b4 they fade) .... took a nap then went back out to Monti .. poi sea urchin pasta @ osteria Gensalo ..

(hiyher rez shot of Kentridge mural)

21 June> 2:53 am .. speaking of sleepless nuits (th mindset form wich Proust's In Search of Lost Time got escrit) .. sleepless now cuz of jetlag, but even still weave spent a good partie de notre vie laying dans la dark thinking .. ¿better to git up + scrive our thawts down? ¿o just lay there + maybe endorm à nouveau but risk forgitting ce que vous penser? .. comme Proust, la plupart de ce que nous écrivons est dans le passé .. mining memarys + nostalgia .... 5cense mo' about living in th here + now .. not what we did but what we doing as we speak .. even yesterday = passé .. mais comme Proust, l'expérience builds up in our hed begging 4 release .. post-processing .... ¿why do we never rêver bout ℝeel places ± things going on dans le présent? .. usually estrangely familar juxtapositions of places + more often than not dead peepole populate our dreams .. en particulier, notre frère Chaulky, co-auteur de 'SSES" 'SSES" ^"SSEY' + also ½ author to A Raft Manifest (th Rom ½) .. derived from th ROMulus that lived on th Palantino while we roost now on the Aventino where dwell'd REMus .... during qwesto nomadic phase we aims to spend mo time riding A Raft Manifest then ici on 5¢ense .. but hard to work on longr pieces in such a state .. ∆iffrent mindset everytime u set pen-2-paper/fingertips-2-keys .... hence th need to overlay a Huck Finnegan's Wake structure .. th 4-volt ciclio non solo di Vico but ∫um of th same 1s that drove The Becoming .. + wile then we menshun'd th 4 states of Buddhism .. we niglected to menshun th 4-noble truths .. also on our mind lately .. not just in going to Burma + reading Nietzsche but in coping w/ our sholder pain .. th 4 noble-truths as we understand them (w/ suffering mo generuley sted of pain):

1. suffering ∃xists
2. understand suffering
3. find a cure for suffering
4. prescription of the cure

> our sholder pain plagued us during stage 1 in riding of A Raft Manifest .. not that she manifested as such .. + now we in stage 2 .. our sholder ∀ll better rilly (riding bout her in that blog post help'd, thank u dear Inurnet) but now we thinking mo' generuley about suffering (of ever riving born) .. not that we gonna shave our head + don a saffron robe .. but anudder intresting layer to overlay to help guide our thawts in riding A Raft Manifest .. ℝeeleysing where we stand not just in Raft but in th overarching quadrilogy West of Kingdom Come (of wich Raft = book 2) ± even generuley in life or th cycle thereof .. + how to brake this cycle individually ± collecively as a sivillyzation (paralleling Vico's 4-fold cycle that drove Finnegans) .... @ th root of suffring (in understanding her) = sensitivity to th senses .. ∫umping we grapple w/ mo + mo as we git older .. not suffring so much as generule annoyants w/ humanity .. not that we aims to have answears now, but on our mind ova th corso of qwesto viaggio forse.

monument to hay days past

> oggi we giro'd round Roma + quickly rememberd ∀ll th things that botherd us about living here .. i turisti .. o how u cant even walk senza paura of gitting hit by motorini, etc. but we forgot just how resigned + tragickly pessimisstic th Italian mindset beecombs (d'rived from an empire that fell 2000 anni fa) .. si può dire, «che fantastico bout th young new woman mayor Rome elected ieri (Virginia Raggi)» + dicono sempre «sì, ma ..» .. «yeah, but ..» .. or u kin comment how Italy's doing great in th Eurocup + they say «sì, ma ..» .. nulla cambia mai, Italia will lose, people promise change but nothing ever does .. like we 1s to call th kettle black .. but we not nearly so dismissive or doom'd from th getgo dont think ..

circo massimo (1° time weave seen th hole thing w/o th ugly wooden fence cutting thru her)

21 June> woke up ran along th Tiber (far cry from th Anacostia .. th river we now run habitually) .. downriver cuz of ∀ll th trashy tents they set up in summer .. down to th gasometro + th new pedestrian bridge .. but they havent xtended th path sints .. no 1 used to run or bike on that path when we lived here .. now tons mo bikers + runners + ppl walking dogs w/ no leash of corse bikes almost hitting dogs ± pedestrians + no 1 wanting to obey L/R common sense or put dogs on leash so ppl almost hitting eachother + yelling stronzo! .. degenerates forever stuck in Vico's stage 4 (chaos/anarchy) .... then we metro'd downtown to see th Tyrant .. th NY Tyrant reclaim'd th tyrannical Roman throne .. squatting in ∫um run-down shabby-baroque pad plenty big to put a skateboard ramp ± throw dope parties .. then briefly met Barzini in Trastevere for a book xchange .. walk'd back along th river + ate in Testaccio ..

before cars + tourists

22 June> woke up try'd to run out to Appia Antica (route iv of our Rome running routes) but the rode over th catacombs = chiuso so retredded back + trovato un modo nuovo to git back tward Ostiense from Cristoforo Colombo .. th fancy new bridge sopra i binari del treno/blocchi di appartamenti abbandonati vicino Garbatella (that a taxi driver denounced as a bridge che va da nessuna parte, but in fact @ least for runners + bikers makes her a lot easyer to git b'tween those hoods .. th same guy that complain'd that th (now ex) mayor tryd to make Rome like Amsterdam by creating bike lanes (th nerve!) making life hard for cars ..) .. eating @ Da Teo tonite + domani @ th crack of dawn we train to Sanremo ..