I make maps to understand what it means to be blind, and a flaneur . Those ideas are elusive destinations. Think of them as streets you can wander along with me. Start with the first post, ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. 
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September 19, 2023 at 3:00pm
by Mark Willis I was enchanted by the voice of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, an Australian aboriginal singer who is blind, when I heard a profile about him on PRI’s The World:
Gurrumul… sings in his native language - Yolngu Matha. And his songs aren’t about the sad fate of the aborigines or the hard life of the outback. They’re about what aborigines call the dreamtime. Stories that have been handed down through thousands of generations, about ancestors and origins and creation animals.”
“He has been brought up with his own understanding of the connection with the land. And the ancestors and the spirits and that spirituality is something that he doesn’t think of as spirituality, it’s a normal part of his totems and the ancestors and the land,” says Michael Hohner, Gurumul’s producer at Skinnyfish Records in Darwin, Australia.
Djarimirri, a song about the Rainbow Serpent, was recorded at the Darwin Festival in 2006. Gurumul was an opening act for an Elton John concert there in May 2008. His eponymous album is available here as an exorbitantly priced import, but you can hear more of his music on MySpace.
Gurumul reminded me of another angelic voice from the Pacific islands, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known lovingly as IZ. More than a decade after his untimely death, his medley of Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World remains a classic of world music. It comes from the album Facing Future.
Encore: Listen to Eva Cassidy sing Over the Rainbow at Blues Alley in Georgetown. She breaks my heart every time I hear it.
Café Mouffe opens evry Friday ’round 3 p.m. Please drop by for a listen and a chat. Sometimes the embedded videos don’t work here due to bandwidth constraints, but you’ll always find links to video sources in the notes. Try them. If you’re curious about the Mouffe, here’s the original idea behind it’s creation.
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