antennahead's blog

I’ll keep it short. I’m back to the grind. Got into the City Saturday night and back to work Monday morning. The trip for now is on hold. I’m going to continue to post videos over the next couple of weeks however. Stay tuned.

A lot of driving in those final days. No beautifully romantic sleep spots although

Hard to believe that it’s only been a day since I last posted. I’ve been driving a lot. Each stop feels like a separate day. Unfortunately Texas peaked my interest but left me empty handed as far as interviews. I did videotape a number of things however. I think I lost my stride a bit in TX and hit an introspective spot.

I’ve torn the stretch between Dallas and Fort Worth. The highway ramps coming through Dallas along I-30 are pretty amazing. I made a video which I’ll put up some day.
So I hauled it to Austen (changed of plans at the last minute – figured it was on the way to SoHo). Thought about stopping in Waco then I thought again. I made it to town in time to catch the Monday night scene, which was actually quite happening. I took my bike out and wandered the city. This is a lovely place for bicycling. The air was still up in the hills and it had that comfortable smell: first of college then of warmth. Fucking great weather. Great sleeping temperature.

Well, I had an unexpected holiday hiatus with family. It’s taken me a couple days to regroup, but with only a week left I’m running pretty fast.
After three weeks of driving on small highways I finally stumbled onto some hitchhikers. I picked up the three of ‘em and head to England. I camped with them for the night. They were pretty much alcoholics so we stopped at a store to pick up enough beer for the night, the morning and the dreaded dry-Arkansas-Sunday. We found a field with enough brush to keep us out of sight and we drank and talked and ate and slept under the stars.

I have mixed feelings today. I wandered into Jonestown, MS. I had heard that it was a pretty impoverished area and it turned out to be so. Some of these places are true blasts from the past (often times not in the most positive sense). I went into a little burger place and beyond being wholly old school from the floor to the wooden grill vent the woman cook had a 1950s movie on the TV. Nice lady though.

So I've got two weeks left of this initial trip. I've made it to Mississippi. I spent yesterday wandering around Paulder on my bike. It was a beautiful day and I had gotten a great sleep at a nearby campground. I chatted with the ranger about the area and our lives, and I felt all warmed up to hit the streets. So I just started riding up to people doing various things outside their homes and asking if they'd be willing to talk on camera for a while. It was really great.

I don’t know if I’ve been quite frank up until this point. So I’d like to begin to relate more closely my experience. I’m living in a van by myself. I’m searching for something of interest. Something of which I’m not quite sure. I sleep. I wake at varying hours, usually several times throughout the morning if not during the wee hours of the night. I dream a lot about various people in my life, that is my constant life of school friends, home friends and family. Usually though it is clearly these people enacting my own misgivings and self-disapprovals. People telling me that the work I am doing is invalid, that it’s basically a waste of time. Or when I’m in a good mood while asleep I will have dreams of approval and comradery. This is a lonely trip, but not depressingly so.

OK, so the technology of this operation is having some difficulties - namely it can't quite keep up. I'm waiting for a video export here in a cafe where I've already been editing for around 3 hours... maybe more. I don't want to buy any over priced sandwich and I had a large coffee that was about 30 ounces... I can't handle any more.

So I hightailed it out of Virginia. I ran into the Cumberland Gap. A friendly visitor center lady told me about the hot showers in the campsites, she also gave me free cornbread, and I was surrounded by people dressed like Indians and Explorers - it was a Lewis and Clarke reenactment, and I was sold. I figured it'd be like taking the day off in a place where I could legally park and cook, maybe I'd even sleep in. I stayed up reading Gravity's Rainbow by flashlight and drinking tea. I was hoping I could spend the following day editing video.

I went to a Veterans’ Day breakfast at the local VFW this morning. A guy invited me while I was speaking to that vet, Will, yesterday.

It was a pretty amazing experience. I had a great home cooked meal, including biscuits and gravy, and about 5 cups of coffee (best placebo for cigarettes and alcohol I’ve got). I spoke with a WWII guy for a while. He was definitely something – wearing his purple heart on his gold necklace.