"The sky over Chiba City"

[f4f3]

"was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel", is the first line of William Gibson's "Neuromancer", and it clicked instantly for me. Maybe it was growing up in a city, where yellow street-lights tent the night, but part of me responds to sodium skies.

I've always had a thing for cityscapes, especially by night, and in particular for traffic, and in particular for traffic on bridges, at night. There's a line from one of my own stories, written about 15 years ago, which talks about "traffic shuttling across the Kingston Bridge, red and white beads on a zero-sum abacus".

I went through a period of seriously thinking about buying a corner flat of the old co-op building overlooking the bridge.

The first time I saw Koyaanisqatsi, I sat with my jaw dropped for around two hours. No drugs required.

There's an image from an early Judge Dredd strip, possibly the first, which has stayed with me since child-hood, of the Empire State building dwarfed by mega-city flyovers .

Which is kind of a long winded way of saying thank you very much to psychochicken for my marvelous birthday present.

I've tagged the work-in-progress post he made in every_day_art, but I'm not sure if that's friends only,

So here is an image that doesn't do it justice.

Comments

[psychochicken.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it =)

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous work!

[psychochicken.livejournal.com]

Thanks! If f4f3 will permit me to put a blatent plug in his LJ, you can see more at my website (link on my profile page)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Not only forgive, but encourage

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

That's lovely. I love night cityscapes.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'm hugely chuffed with it.
Not sure if the wall I have it on now is the right place for it, but will fiddle about with it later...

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a fantastic painting.

And isn't it funny to think that in another year (at least in the US) there won't be any more broadcast TV as we know it, so the "tuned to a dead channel" metaphor is no longer available to the actual residents of Chiba City (not that I know what the actual date of that story's setting is supposed to be). Might be time for a re-read.

And I adore Koyaanisqatsi for all the wrong reasons. I saw it at an outdoor film festival on a double bill with the Giogio Moroder version of Metropolis. It was a sultry summer night at EUR, Mussolini's ideal city on the southern edge of Rome. Watching it in the shadow of The Square Colosseum was surreal and amazing. Thank you for bringing back that memory for me.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

There's something about watching movies outdoors.
July the 4th, 1992, I watched 2001 in Ann Arbor, and half way through the moon rose over the screen... An amazing memory.

If you pop over to every_day_art you can see Psychockicken's latest project, the planets of the Solar System.

[fugney.livejournal.com]

Pssst... try this

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Have done - loved it :)

[fugney.livejournal.com]

You should read the book. It's wonderful:)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant I've read the book - and loved it :)

Have you read his "Desolation Road"?

[fugney.livejournal.com]

>>Sorry, I meant I've read the book - and loved it :)<<

Yay, another fan!

(Actually, I was half-wondering if you had meant that).

I haven't been able to get hold of any McDonald besides RoG, something I am very sorry about.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Desolation Road is early stuff - and I think closest in tone to what he was doing in RoG.