The dog’s leg went south of cheese – the paw swelled up like a lobster claw – red and oozing pus. This sent the girlfriend into what can only be called a maternal panic. We were calling anyone we knew with even a hint of a medical degree. “Vetinary science, fuck it. You’re a dentist? I see. What do we do with a lobster claw paw?” Suddenly in an Altman movie, I had to cut off the preassure bandage and long story short, she’s doing fine. There’s nothing like the threat of gangrene, however, to make you want a long walk…what better place than (Gang) Green-Wood Cemetary…? Brooklyn’s most beautiful place to be dead in…
And all the dead of Brooklyn lay out before me in a blanket of pure untrammeled snow. I had been talking with a guy name Chirstian at the Christofest (he’s a guy who spent the last year kicking a soccer ball literally around the world). Somehow I got on the subject of Victorians and how cemeteries used to be the only public park spaces. People used to have picnics – stroll hand in hand – woo eachother amongst the dead of Green-Wood. As the gates come down in Central park, it put me in mind to visit the cemetary in the snow. No one but the grounds crew and one funeral party had the same idea. It was one big sculpture garden…all for me. The anti-gates.
It is a bit odd that no one has mentioned “The Gates of Heaven” in all the gates hoopla. In the post 911 New York vibe, you’d think that would be the first thing out of every tourist’s lips: “They’re like little gates to heaven for everyone who died…..blah blah.” Cynicism asside, the contrast between granite and saffron cloth struck me. I was sent back in time to a sunrise film shoot for my old pal Colin Waters’ final project for the legendary Giles Milhaven’s Religeous Studies class at Brown University. Colin had the bright idea to play a round of golf through a Marblehead Mass. Cemetary in Winter (don’t ask me….something to do with life being a game….I don’t know…I just shot it and it looked pretty good as I remember…last google revealed about Colin, he was teaching at a Buddhist meditation center in Berkeley….four!). The grounds keepers (we called them cemetary thugs) nearly hauled us before the man, but we got the shot. It seems odd to me now, that we didn’t realize how disrespectful driving golf balls in a cemetary is….fucking kids! It was an bizarre image though and goes back to my thoughts about “Open Spaces” in an urban world. Cemetary, Park, Sculpture Garden, Golf Course: What’s the difference? A little lawn and a little landscaping. I suppose like all things, it is intent. Colin was a soccer player before he was a Buddhist and Christian kicked a ball around the world. Todays question is: Intent?
Me? I like walking.