RUDIMENTS

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,068 (as vividly boring as hell might be - pt. 1) Scintillating. Yet Myopic. Self-focused, yet shooting all over the place. Heretofore fairly silent, not making a lot of noise. Disjointed. And abstracted, stolen, honed, and polished to a point : 'In the midst of a continual program of demolition and reconstruction, we noticed, one summer, that our city had begun to replicate, via its infrastructure, the prohibitions of the mind. There were roadworks constricting almost every thoroughfare. Buses were regularly terminated sort of their destination, or treated passengers halfway through their journey to the wearying and ominous automated announcement, 'This bus is on diversion.' Yes, then, how mind-like were the closed streets and clogged and shuttered by-ways; where none could go, where all commerce ceased. The matter all became what only was as good as what was allowed. Hollow. Infractions....'On

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1067 (the envelope had too many folds) I became interested in architecture mostly from being right near Cooper Union, where there was a lot of free-course stuff available - courses and talks and sessions, most about engineering and stress-distribution and all that. Those were things that little interested me, in fact not at all, but in 1967 it was all a different world and anyone could mostly walk into anywhere - which I did a lot - and partake. Everything was wide open; I know that for a fact about NYU and about Cooper Union, which usually were more than enough for me. There was so much turmoil underway, and so many things right then were undergoing really rigorous societal change, that it was as if people were simply afraid to challenge others - like me - in these cases, for fear of starting a problem. Everyone in authority was basically walking on ice, in fear of organized shut-down, or demonstrations or riots or sit-ins or strikes