Walking in Oakland, Issue #2
Welcome, walkers. I'm Nat Bennett, apocalypse thought-leader and occasional software-maker, and this is the 2nd of 31 issues of Walking in Oakland. Every day in October I'll send out an e-mail with a picture and no more than 500 words about walking, Oakland, or walking in Oakland.
If you missed on the first issue, you can catch up here.
I took this shot while I was trying to get another one, waiting by the window for someone to walk past. Too clever. I liked this picture better.
It’s a self-portrait, of sorts, so this is a good opportunity to tell you a little bit about myself, however you got here.
(Right now there are about twenty of you reading this. Most of you have already met me, in person or otherwise, but a few of you I'm "meeting" here for the first time. Hi! Thank you. Welcome.)
- I’m not really “from” anywhere.
- If I have to say I’m from somewhere, it’s from Northern Virginia — the part of it filled with the big grey boxes the internet lives in.
- I’m also from the upper peninsula of Michigan, because my father was a Coast Guard officer and that’s where he was stationed when I was born.
- I like orbs.
- Every time I get together with my parents, me and my mom and my partner go to a crystal shop, or a magic shop, or a rock shop, because we all like rocks and we believe that they have powers.
- The rose quartz sphere in the upper left hand corner of this photograph was a gift from my partner, several years ago, before we lived together. My mom will deny this, because she has a careful policy of not having opinions about my lovers, but I’m pretty sure that this gift was the first time she thought that he was serious about me, because he’d given me something _romantic._
- I spent most of the first 24 years of my life in various flavors of suburb. Very little walking.
- I lived in New York City for a year in my early twenties, in between Virginia and California.
- I learned to walk in New York City. I don’t mean “get around on two legs.”
- My first memory of New York City is my mother explaining to me, as a child of about five, that we did not need to wait for the light to change to cross the street. We were going to go while it was still red, because this was New York.
Hi, I’m a creator
This is the 5th of 31 issues of Walking in Oakland, a daily newsletter by Nat Bennett. It's also the last one that's going to get posted up publicly, so if you've found these missives worth reading, take a moment to forward this e-mail to a friend, and share the home page on your social media of choice. Yesterday I took my first long walk for this project. I mean, not a long walk, not by the standards of long walks, but a substantial walk. The first walk I wouldn't have done if I hadn't...
This little guy again. Edgar on his way to the park Onward! If you're just joining us, I'm Nat Bennett, this is Edgar Friendly, and you're reading Walking in Oakland, Issue #4 of 31. The big walk every day is to and from the park. At the park, there is romping. Between here and the park: Road. Cars. Busses. Edgar fears and loathes a bus. As a puppy, he would scurry away, tail tucked under his body, whenever he heard one coming. Now he's braver. A little older, a little wiser, a little more...
Hey there, walkers. I'm Nat Bennett, photographer and sometimes-dog-walker, and you're reading the 3rd of 31 daily issues of Walking in Oakland. This is our local corner store. Williams Liquor Market and Deli, on the corner of 59th and Telegraph. We go there a couple times a week, to buy Yerba mate and ice cream sandwiches. Occasionally, when we run out, we buy eggs. They also sell incense, in big fat sticks. We’ve never bought incense there. I’m kind of prissy about incense. I use Japanese...