Mon, 25 Oct 1999
october in pictures

our first of several stories today concerns the gradual evolution of alewife. or rather the alewife of the mind. alewife is a region of cambridge, massachusetts. it's the last stop on the red line. i've lived near it for five years now and i'm still not sure whether to call it another sketchy neighborhood or a darkly humorous repository of natural beauty. you'll see what i mean.

back when i was a freshman five years ago, during the first week, before classes even started, my whole entryway went to this presentation in the science center by some kind of sociology professor. he gave this preternaturally appealing talk about how we should make sure to get out and see boston during our time there and not just hole up in our dorm rooms. it was so inspiring that akil, susan and i walked outside, got straight onto the subway and took it to the wrong end. we got out at alewife and saw a sketchy-looking chinese restaurant called "aku aku" and three housing projects so big they looked like they were about to be launched into space. "this isn't boston," we said, and went home. the next day our proctor (knowing nothing of our adventure) warned us never to go to alewife at night.

i went there now and then for the next few years. there's a movie theater there, and the only half-decent strip mall in the area. the worst thing that happened was one night last year while i was riding my ridiculously small bicycle to fresh pond and this black girl and her two small companions chased me on foot screaming "YAH! YAH! YAH!". i think they were playing "scare the white guy". i just kept going.

this year hodge rented an apartment over there. i was skeptical at first. "so you're finally moving to the 'hood," i told her. "shut up," she said.

chez hodge is across rindge ave from the place where i had my little race-relations summit the previous year. the area seems quiet. but to get to the subway you have to cross a large, deserted athletic field named russell. hodge kept half-expecting to be waylaid, or at least have to take the long way home.

for weeks, nothing happened.

then, one night, after letting herself be lulled into a false sense of security, she encountered a small, fuzzy bunny while crossing the field. it was eating grass.

she told me about this. "it sounds like some art student's parody of dark, deserted fields," i said. "yeah," she said, "so far."


at the hodge end of russell field, there's an enormous willow tree. the first week hodge moved in, we passed under the tree one night at about ten. it had to be seventy or eighty feet tall, and the branches reached the ground; there was a slight breeze, and standing in among the leaves in the absence of all other sound - the only way i can think to describe this is, it was like being on stage. we just stood and appreciated it for a few minutes, and then went on our way.

i was looking forward to passing under the tree every now and then, but the next week the city came by and cut off every branch within fifty feet of the ground, some of which must have been older than i am, so that was the end of the love affair.


weeks later we got off the subway and saw the rabbit again. it was eating grass. i got as close as i could. wild bunny!

i felt immediate kinship, because like me, he had extremely small ears (for our respective species). "i hear you," i said to him. "i hear you."


the next day i was trying to get into the subway station on the subway end of russell field, but the blank white cards deck in my pants pocket got trapped underneath the arm of the turnstile on its way down. i was nearly thrown to the floor. as it was i suddenly bent in half and screamed for no visible reason. then i walked ten feet and tried to go down the up escalator. i paused for a really long time at the top, trying to time my step, and almost started to cry before i realized what was going on. i wasn't drunk or anything, i was just on a cognitive losing streak.

i'm not sure what the moral of all this is. maybe that i'm an idiot.

*

two weeks ago i started to notice one particular building on the way home from work. the baseball playoffs were going on, and again it was dark - everything noteworthy happens in the dark - and i started looking up at buildings. and one monday i noticed the third through sixth floors of this building. all i could really see from the sidewalk was the ceiling, but the ceiling was really appealing for some reason. it was totally unfinished, a mess of dark pipes. you could also tell that there were no internal walls, each entire floor was one big room. the lights were a warm shade of yellow. and i started to finish the place off with my imagination - TV and couches in the middle of the room with the red sox on, dark polished concrete floor, drafting tables or something around the edges of the room but a lot of space in the middle, people just hanging out, playing soccer around the room or whatever. and it seemed really nice. just nice.

i don't know why i got so attached to a random ceiling. but i did. i started looking up there every day on the way home, and feeling wistful. finally on thursday i looked at the signs at the intersection and noticed that it was exeter street. first of all, that was the same intersection as the incident with the glasses from a few weeks ago. but it had been familiar even then. i forgot why.

i finally realized that i've been up there. it's the office of the temp agency i work for.

the moral of the story is that i am an idiot.

*

one time during sophomore year i was drifting off to sleep in the back of a pretty large lecture hall when the professor suddenly said something about "the Stewart kings of england." i jumped about a foot.

same moral.

*

saturday night i went to the magnetic fields concert at the middle east in central. it was okay, although not as good as the smith show. after they finished and people were filtering out, this girl came up to me.

"i think i know you from somewhere - is your name stewart?"
"uh, yeah."
"yeah, i saw your picture on this web zine, medianstrip."
holy shit.
"i didn't think anyone read that."
"it's pretty popular down at MIT."
"uh... thanks."

<she leaves>

me, to chloe: "i don't know if i handled that very well."
chloe: "you did okay."

the moral to this one is maybe we should bother to update after all.

*

From: Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation

To: Theater Missile Defense System Exerciser (TMDSE)

The TELINT boys are kidding themselves if they think they can get away with it. I heard they were going to get a shipment of fissionable plutonium across the border and up to Las Vegas just as everybodys sitting down for thanksgiving. Additionally, The TELINT boys are kidding themselves if they think they can get away with it. I heard they were going to Secret/Defense Research and Engineering Network (S/DREN) Fort Meade when you least expect it. Further to that, The defector inside ASIO cabled us this morning. Apparently he wants to make contact with an ASIO agent in the United Nations building just as everybodys sitting down for Christmas dinner. Finally, Ussama bin Laden made a broadcast this morning. We just got translation back and they're claiming that they will transfer classified material to a North Korean agent in Auckland when you least expect it.