“Stay Close To Anything That Makes You Glad You Are Alive.”

“Light and radiations.” Modern-Life Science. 1942. 

Internet Archive

where does a body end? (1/?)

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

Attila Ataner

Leptis Magna, Libya (1986)

running on a different operating system

to brush most people's probing aside

is effortless, deflecting blows so they never see you - I've had to catch myself noticing people in weak moments. they make you feel like some unfathomable pillar

created by something ancient or alien, or maybe just yourself.

I despise the predatory element,

a weakness seen

that could blend in better -

now it’s something kind,

learning what makes people tick. I wonder if other people like me exist

building fortresses of knowledge

no one suspects we possess -

I catch myself studying people,

watching from outside the circle

of normal human interaction.

it’s not malicious,

just different -

a compulsion maybe, or just curiosity distilled into methodical observation.

it started as survival,

now I notice the pause before a practiced lie,

the subtle shift in posture when someone feels threatened -

all these blaring, bright neon signs I used to try to mimic.

sometimes I wonder if they can tell

I’m building libraries of their expressions,

cataloging their reactions

and how they signal belonging - it’s exhausting work.

sometimes I catch someone watching me,

an eye-meet, wonder-if they’re like me moment, or if they just sense something off

and wrong -

we were constellations once,

maybe now there’s just a slight delay

in recognition,

while I wonder if they’re like me

collecting a moment for too long.

Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? How can it be that… who I am didn’t exist before I came to be, and that, someday… who I am will no longer be…?

WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) — dir. Wim Wenders

Einstürzende Neubauten by Brigitte Engl (2000)

For now without watermarks. Love the first photo, very appealing.

Two women conduct marksmanship training at Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles, 1942.

Hemingway × Aresti ꩜ Straps against darkness (feat. @chrstnmny)

“A Future City From The Past” by Clemens Gritl: Echoes of Brutalism in a Silent Metropolis.