Steve Michel's Journal of
Lateral Modernism********************** Vol. IX No.4-5 April/May 2008
Before blogs there were journals: excerpt from mine circa 1994
Some interesting facts about Cairo:
-It's a city of twelve million with room for only four million. People live in mausoleums.
-There's a legend about a man pushing a baby carriage containing a large wrapped fish.
-Middle East cities are very dusty.
-In Cairo it's possible to live in centuries old two story dwellings close to the market.
I was reading an interesting article about Monaco: pure glitz the kind I like full of tasty details: sexy oneliners between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly during a picnic, scads of Lamborginis and something about standing atop a promontory, the city spread out below like a 3-D sculpture....
I dont know why but ... I recalled a book I had read years ago titled 'Heaven can Wait' about a football star health fanatic who gets killed by accident and because of a foul up in Heaven gets sent back to earth in the body of an abusive millionaire...
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fiction dept.:
Soil Mechanics: PART 7
by Steve Michel
Then Lector Frig jovially stepped forward in the pause. Rotund with a balding pate, he was known as the friendliest of the Lectors like everyone’s' grandfather. "To all gathered here today for that grand test of grace and skill- the capoeira teams this year have been diligent for the Equinox. Ladies please honor us with your first choice. The two rows of nuns raised colored cards, yellow, violet and green flashing in the sun.
In all their time at the orphanage, this event existed solely as rumor. Juniors were barred from witnessing the Equinox games. Capoeira was the test of prowess for which formed the physical aspect of their regimen. The Cargias crew would be first challenger. Har Cargias without hesitation stepped forward and pointed to Timo.
'This is it' thought Timo. He felt cold sweat wet his armpits. Around him stood his compadre equally nervous. He and his compadre then stepped to the roda circle and so did the Cargias in their yellow scrubs. Their banners behind swayed like brightly marked snakes with 'Pwisans Sensayon' inscribed in red. The teams gathered round in a semi circle open to the spectators and the berimba band struck up a heart pounding rid dim tinkled with metallic percussions. Timo and Har, the leaders entered, the circle.
Har's eyes drilled into Timo's they circled each other with their stares a taut tension between them. Har exuded feral aggressivity and did not waste time. Har leaned in of him with an esquiva. Har was shorter than Timo but outweighed Timo by a stone. Timo did not flinch at his opening tactic of presence and intimidation. Instead he engaged an A-oo lateral cartwheel in a flawless flexible gymnastic response. The pace was languid at first each feeling the other's blank spots and intent. They were equally matched each could land no blow. Har in time to the berimba rhythm twisted his body into vertical spin deploying a roundhouse kick that met air. Timo had dropped into a crouching foot sweeping that sent Har back defensively. In the stands five of the nuns raised flashing purple cards. Timo had scored points. The tempo quickened with each passing refrain of the berimbe band. Har blocked two of Timo's bencaos frontal attack with the graceful fluidity of motion of an armada roundhouse kick. Yellow cards flashed in the stands. The dance quickened yet again becoming a spiraling, cart wheeling blur of motion. Timo kept his timing. Then fainting an A-oo, he flew into a head down seven-finger spin armada high kick that deployed with the sinister grace like a deadly snake. Har stumbled trying to catch himself with a cocorinha crouch. Too late. The slightest stumble was complete demerit from the event. The music stopped leaving hush through the dais and a stricken look on Har's face. The Cargias team was out. This put Purple to automatically to semi-finals.
The music stopped, but the mad rush of his heart pounding continued in Timo's ears. A cheer went up from the dais as he walked back to his compadre.
"Excellent Timo. We're in for the next rounds." Fid tossed him a towel. "Phyto bring him water!" Fid hissed to Phyto still in meditation.
"Huh? Am I next?" Phyto stood up flexing his broad shoulders. The music had resumed, the next card drawn: Red, 'Kare Fò' challenged Violet, 'Baraka Bem' said its crimson banner in calligraphic scrawl.
"Not yet." Timo said through ragged breath. He mopped his sweating face. Looking out over the field. Red was loosing badly to Violet. The nuns under their silk canopy sat immobile, their long legs shining in sun, their expressions inscrutable in the distance. The afternoon wore on. Green challenged Blue. A cheer went up for Blue later defeated by Violet. Then it was Purple fronted by Fid whose jester style prevailed on Red. Thus went the round robin. Then in the finals, Purple led until Phyto's clumsiness eliminated them to Blue challenging. Until in a final round Green succumbed to Violet.
By evening a banquet on the lawns had become lively with music and talk. Brothers and the Lectors were entertaining the contingent of nuns in a cordoned off area. The juniors and the 'prentices were stationed, earshot distance away, at their tables. Varicolored carnival ribbons decked the compadre tables. The Cargias were at their table looking grim. At intervals, the nuns' laughter caressed the air like silk. "I bet Brethren Tos will walk off with her in five." Said Fid through a mouthful of fried yams.
"You wrong Fid. A brick is smoother than Brother Tos." Replied Phyto emptying a stein of brew. Before him lay the remains of a prodigious meal of roasted cashews, zebull, rinds piled high were once sat a plate of boiled breadfruit.
"Quiet, will you. The Lectors might lip read you.” said Timo. He felt apprehensive about something. A nagging feeling of a loose end untied sawing at his nerves.
"Don't worry. Lector Frig is drunker than a frog in a barrel and busy besides. Look at the way he's pawing her braids" said Fid with a clownish mien that sent Phyto bursting out laughing...
The evening became night and louder. Soon loud music wafted over the grounds in pulsing rhythms. Timo got up excusing himself to walk about feeling indigestion. Only a few strollers and some juniors milled around. 'Indigestion' Timo thought more psychosomatic of an anxiety he could not trace. He went through the fence of willows at the grounds perimeter to the more private area near the irrigation pump sub station. A full moon up bathed the grassy knolls and trees of the experiment field beyond with silver light. Although he felt ill at ease, Timo felt that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Equinox was past. The capoeira formalities were done. He headed towards his quadrangle. In a few days he would submit his thesis. His lab results were compiled there was only his quarter hectare inspection remaining. ...to be continued next month
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