Hidden Monuments

The time? About 11pm. The place? In the parking lot of a Carrefour supermarket somewhere near Liege, Belgium. It’s a weird place to begin the story of my recent road trip with Winchester, Statler, Tigger, Rivermonkey and Furtle but the urge to do so was prompted by something Winchester said.

As we were unpacking/repacking the vehicles for what seemed like the 20^th time in a day, pulling out bags of clothes, sleeping gear, food, a pith helmet, Mary Poppins DVDs and a stuffed squawking bird, preparing for our second night sleeping in an abandoned place, Winch says ‘this is like urban camping.’

I have to agree. I have only had one such experience, a few months ago when I slept in the Paris catacombs with Marc and Hydra, but I have come to conclude, as did Winch, that this sort of camping (primarily prompted by the fact that we are all poor as dirt) surely puts ‘wilderness’ camping in a new light. I later asked the group what they thought camping in a place ‘added’ to the explore and although everyone had different ideas about this, everyone agreed that it definitely changed the nature of the explore, heightened it to some extent.

Camping with ghosts

A recently received a new book called Interior Wilderness, a nice little collection of photographs from a guy called Ed Roppo (rustyjaw). On the back of the book, Ed writes that “abandoned buildings are a kind of wilderness turned inside-out. He also notes that “the most beautiful sites in abandonments are the result of natural processes left to operate on man-made materials”.

I wonder if part of our fascination as urbanites living in areas where nature in sometimes not readily accessible is that we can feel it in ruins. It humbles us, it reminds us of our place in the world, it reminds us that Mother Nature can take back what she has given at any time. Any small vine can collapse a concrete wall within years, sometime months, and in a few hundred, or a few thousand, as Alan Weisman so poignantly points out in his book The World Without Us, the great remnants of human civilization would be buried in the matrix of memory, almost invisible to the world, useful to the plants and animal left behind in ways we can never imagine.

I once saw a deer drinking fro a mortar hole in a large rock in Lake Elsinore, California.

Older stuff

I thought of the Luiseno Indian who sat there for years grinding out that hole with a pestle and wondered if they were ever curious about the possibility that this grinding slap might one day becoming a drinking hole for deer no longer hunted.

Climbing up

Crawling down

Urban camping is about adventure, yes, but it also about reminding ourselves what are place is in the world. A night in a ruin puts you in touch with reality, with homelessness, with decay, with nature, and over a few sips off good whiskey and some photograph sharing, with our friends.

Old or new?

I have fond childhood memories of camping, backpacking and road tripping. For me, these activities were always something done in solitude, something done alone to give one time to reflect. But this new camping that I am doing is an echo of my life in London. Social, active, full of encounter, danger, inspiration and intrigue. My research is building a piece of work (now my new solitude), but it is also building a new self, an identity that I never knew I loved. And perhaps, after all is said and done, urban camping is not about camping at all, it is about finding meaning in life.

IKEA Catalog anno 1965

Colonel McQueen Vs Chiggy Von Richthofen

overdose

urban camping gear

lastnightsparty.com obamariots

lego bubble bobble

delete scene from The Inglorious Bastards

Meet the hot Pikachu Girl from Comic Con

unreality mag: The Endings to the 15 Toughest NES Games of All Time

extrem schräge ikea werbung

Jeg fandt et link til dette fantastisk urban camping setup på twitter tidligere i dag:

Må være den ultimative Roskilde løsning! Og nu vi taler Roskilde, fik jeg hentet mit armbånd i går, og regner med at smutter afsted hurtigst muligt for at få noget sol, nyde nogle kolde øl og noget fantastisk musik.

Skulle du have lyst til at læse mere om “Urban camping”, kan du gøre det på iea.be under UC I/II

Project: Urban Camping at the ARENA Festival in Erlangen

The following camping kits were offered to participants who wanted to take a short break and do a spot of urban camping during the festival:

Camping kit #1

A map
A compass
A rain cape
A guidebook to wild mushrooms
A bird whistle
A pack of playing cards
A postcard
A set of colouring pencils
A small pad

.

Camping kit #2

A map
A camping cooker
Fuel for the camping cooker
A lighter
Cup-a-soup
A bottle of water
Two plastic cups and two spoons
A packet of marshmellows (added by two of our campers)
Toothpaste and a toothbrush
A small pad
A postcard
A set of colouring pencils
A pack of playing cards
A book (‘The green tent’)
A hopping frog (found in the street)
A mini frisbee
Two soft hats

A few random videos that I have been kicking around. Enjoy!

The McLaughlin Group edited to two minutes. “On a doomsday scale of zero to ten, zero meaning zero doom, ten meaning absolute metaphysical doom, a total wipe-out, annihilation, nothing remaining. How much doom does Hilary face in the November election?”

That’s what she said.

Be sure to watch through the commercial in the beginning.

Rabbi Mordechai Friedman: The Angriest Jew in Showbusiness.

♣ May 9th, 2008, Cork Bus Depot, Cork, Ireland

Packed Day. I woke up all damp, bivy sack works best if you don’t face up in the middle of the night. I opened my bivy and mist filled my face. It was bitter cold to the touch and it was then that i got a small taste of what Ireland is really like. We wandered down to town, drenched like muskrats, looking for coffee or tea to warm us up. We wondered into the train station to buy a cup of coffee. We started walking out of town to catch my first real hitchhiking ride. I think we must have walked for four miles with full packs and it was literally up hill the whole way… about 35 degrees up hill the whole way.

We reached the on ramp to the south. We had waited about 5 min. before a nice lady who worked at a nursing center picked us up after her long night shift. She was a lady maybe in her 50’s or so. She was a good talker and enjoyed pestering us with some good political questions. After her gab-full skill ceased we were left on the hight way with a fog. The same one we woke up with on the edge of the cliff. I love fog. Something about it calms my soul and makes me feel at ease. However this fog became a hindrance when trying to hitch a ride. When the fog finally did lift we were forced to move on. The Guarda, local police, forced us to leave the place we were hitching from. So we made our way into Arklow. We stopped at the Internet cafe for a spell and then pushed on to the next on ramp 2 miles down the way, hoping the Guarda would leave us in peace. They did but was no good. We waited a long long time. 3 hours we were waiting and throwing up our sign. It was after this wait we got a sympathy pick up from a pair of lovely mothers who explained how we would be hard pressed in these parts to pick up hitchers because apparently some women were kill in this area from hitchers. So we ended up catching the next bus from Gorey to Waterford. We waited around for 3 more hours for the next bus. While waiting we met a local skateshop owner and swapped stickers and stories. It was a great time. We talked till we had to catch the bus. Both Ian and I miss the stop at Waterford, we slept most of the way, but actually we really didn’t miss the bus, we got on the wrong bus. The buses were running so far behind that we ended up on the wrong bus. We ended up in Wexford. We were upset to say the least. But we soon came to realize that we could still catch the last bus out to Waterford, it was a wonderful bus ride of relief. We arrived late and began looking at where we were going to urban camp tonight when we noticed a bus left for cork in a short while. We caught the bus and we were on our way to Cork. Half dazed and groggy we arrived in Cork about 12- 12:30 at night and so we started to look for hostels. With no luck so late at night and in a city we never had been. We searched for a place to urban camp or squat. No luck… We readied ourselves for an overnight at the bus station.

Urban Camping is a reoccurring look into the products, services and experiences that enhance the city living adventure.

If you live anywhere outside of New York City your car provides you with everything from secure storage space to a mobile charging station, something city dwellers could only dream of. Recently the problem of on-the-go recharging of mobile devices has posed a significant annoyance. There is nothing worse than being embroiled in a heated SMS exchange and going dark or having a raucous night out on the town and not being able to fully document your debauchery.

It is no surprise that the Japanese are one step ahead of the game when it comes to mobile refueling. One of the best options (and a current obsession of mine) are the public cellphone charging stations that can be found all over Japan. These genius little machines are the size of an ATM and are placed in train stations, shopping centers etc., allowing you to lock up and recharge your phone while you shop. Why these aren’t in every bar, bodega and coffee shop in New York City is beyond me. Put this on my list of companies to start.

Below: the genius that is the Japanese mobile phone charging station. Why is America so far behind on these things?

Another version of a Japanese mobile phone charging station.

Other options for cell phone battery boost are the small portable chargers that are constantly being featured on tech websites. My biggest problem with these gadgets is that I will never have one on hand when I need one. Later this summer, Sony is releasing its Energy Link, a USB backup power supply that looks promising, but again would only be useful if I plan ahead and keep one on hand at all times which is as annoying as running out of battery. Also, if you are carrying a basic cell phone the Energizer to go battery chargers are pretty handy, but they are pretty goofy looking and expensive at $20. There are a whole host of products out there that can charge your iPod or iPhone. If the forecast is sunny, Flight 001 sells its reusable PowerMonkey solar charger for cell phones, MP3 players etc. Not that that it is really going to be of any use at night and $140 is pretty steep —but it would be awesome if you were stranded in the desert or something. Natch.

Another cool and newish service offering a Wi-Fi and a fully powered experience is BoltBus. The company provides free wireless internet and electrical outlets in every seat. The new service runs between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. BoltBus is definitely on to something there.

Additionally, Amtrak’s first class and business class seats, along with travelers on the upper-class Acela trains, are all equipped with 110 volt power outlets.

Why is it so hard for companies to figure it out. The two most valuable things for travelers are power outlets and Wi-Fi. Below, BoltBus is paving the way.

If you aren’t a member of an airport club, the NYC airports are becoming more power outlet friendly with the installation of new Samsung sponsored “power poles” at JFK and LGA airports. “Providing some dignity to electricity-hungry road warriors” according to The New York Times City Room blog.

And finally, Virgin America has taken the Jet Blue revolution to the next level with their semi-new domestic service. Each seat has its own power source and USB plug, paving the way for uninterrupted self entertainment. Thank god.

Below: the Virgin America power options.

Further reading:

Time Out New York — Best places for free Wi-Fi and power