Friday, January 28, 2011

On: underworlds.

I would like now to introduce two things; my underground obsession and a short film. I’m not sure anymore how it happened; it is likely that Nickolias brought it on me with Infiltration zines and tales of tunnel running, or that the caves at my kids camp and the bat cave exhibit at the ROM started it. Whatever it was it has led me into storm drains and underground rivers, subways and abandoned subways, a handful of small caves and the creepy hole in the basement wall of my parents’ house that leads to a space under the kitchen. This obsession- and for those who don’t know me let it be known that I am a very obsessive person- has recently been revived by an article I found while researching mass property abandonment in Detroit. The article was about homeless people living in storm drains under Las Vegas. I ordered the book, “Beneath the Neon” detailing a reporters experience in those tunnels. Don’t buy this book. It may be the worst piece of shit I will force myself to read since Hausers’ Introduction to Rhetorical Theory. Book review/detailed rant to come?

To feed my fires I’ve been hunting down maps, articles, fiction and videos that include subterranean settings. I’m going to begin posting bits of what I find here, beginning with Andrew Wonder’s spectacular account of urbex in New York.

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

4 comments:

  1. cool video, I've never thought about what under the streets.Now caves, that's a different story. Iowa has some nice ones. Love the photos of old abandon buildings and houses.

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  2. hey purl, i was reading an story on NPR's website and i thought of you. here is the link.
    http://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133308592/parisunderground?sc=fb&cc=fp
    see if you can find it. cathie

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  3. Oh, wow, thank you! I'm a national geographic subscriber (I was darn pleased when I got this months issue in the mail) but I didn't think to check the website for more pictures/etc- fantastic!

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  4. Wasn't sure people still lived down there. Neat.

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