Paterson Photos, Part II?

Forgive me for a moment, I must talk shop, and I'm leaning heavily on the first person here because Schwitters has not been consulted:

As we've said repeatedly, and as recently as the second to last post, this project started as a joke and turned into something that we actually care about. Because of this, I'm not going to post the pictures I took in Paterson here. Check out ulmlls for that. I can't reconcile it in my head because Paterson the city is not Paterson the poem. Nor should it be. The poem doesn't need the "real" city, mainly because the poem is real with or without it.

Nonetheless, I did take--and willingly and excitedly--a trip to Paterson as a kind of pilgrimage. I teared up a little the night we entered. I saw some really totally awesome stuff--an incredible waterfall, a wacky castle, a wackier watchtower, and some cool, crumbling factories (from which I stole a brick). It was an exciting and awesome trip. But I did not find Williams's Paterson; his was in my backpack the whole time, and at no point did I dig it out. There was no reason to--Paterson and Paterson are not the same. Art is not ever accurate mimetic representation, but it is art and that's why it's important.

I don't know what this has to do with our project, other than to say that the city itself, at least for the few poems I've written, isn't what what I'm writing about. I'm not sure it's the poem either, though. And I mostly don't care.

Photos from Paterson Trip

Paterson Trip 3-4-07

Follow the link above to view my album from the Paterson trip this past weekend. I'll post a full report on the goings-on in the next day or so, but for now, feast your voyeuristic eyes on all of the above. Briefly: Paterson is one awesome, inspirational, slummy town. Signing off, T. Az.

On the Road

Conversely and I are leaving today for Baltimore, and by extension, Paterson, New Jersey. I know we're both excited about hitting the road, but I will say that, personally, this trip feels like a validation of this project for me. As we've said before, this whole thing came out of a joke after a class presentation - and now, looking back at what we've put out in the past four(?) months, I'm actually pretty proud. I think the Paterson Project is turning out to be pretty damn interesting, and I'm excited to see the town and the Passaic Falls and Garrett Mountain and all that, but I'm even more excited to see where this project takes us in the months to come (don't forget, we still have about twenty songs to write!). Anyway, if you're out there reading this, thanks for the interest so far, and we'll do our best not to disappoint in the future. Full report on Monday, I think. Signing off, T. Az.