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About the Flaneur

A Blind Flaneur: I walk through my blindness the way I saunter down streets in Paris: unfettered and alive, ever delighted by the raw material of the senses. Come along with me. Just don’t try to take my arm unless I ask. What’s a flaneur? Read the first post, Return of the Flaneur to Galerie Vivienne. After that, try Foot Rage and the Blind Flaneur. If you don’t find me on the street, take a look in the Fair Use Lab. Or browse the archives.
Not This Pig

If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in Not This Pig (2003).
Brendan the Navigator

"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. Read more.
Re-Imagining Accessibility

Mark Willis will present Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab at the Media in Transition 6 (MiT6) conference at M.I.T. on April 26, 2009. If you’re in Cambridge then, please come to the session! See – and listen to – Accessible Innis 2.0: The Bias of Communication.
Blind Photographers

Curiosity & The Blind Photographer, M.I.T. 2007.
Photographers
Lost Poem for a Princess

When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. Read more. What was it Delacroix said? “To be a poet and twenty is to be twenty. To be a poet and forty is to be a poet.” Delacroix didn’t take the trope beyond fifty, so he’s no guide in guessing my next state of being. For now, a red dress takes me back to the poetry of my misspent youth.
Café Mouffe
Imaging Paris: Dada Muse

The legendary Kiki of Montparnasse posed for Man Ray’s Le violin de Ingres (1924). See more from Imaging Paris.
France 24 Headlines
- Smith, Kallis hit fifties in second England Test
- Police searches in London after US plane attack
- Shiite pilgrims pour into Iraqi city for Ashura
- Brits brave winter chill for Christmas dip
- Tehran police, protesters clash during Shiite ritual
Miss Tic/Ethics of Love

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. Read more. See Ethics of Love for a video montage of Miss Tic's provacative poetry. More Paris Street Art.
Other Blogs

Fair Use Lab
Bottomfeeder
- “Ecology of News”
- While I Was at NIH on May 8
- Jammin’ in the White House
- Barack O’Spock?
- Henry Jenkins: “Geeking Out” For Democracy
Archives