cameo

[cameo]

Picking cuffs five different ways with Gwen at The Armory – View on Path.

[cameo]

Request: How do I pack like a rockstar?

You might say I'm fairly expert travel packer. Things are rarely forgotten, needs are met, and emergencies are handled.

You can have this too.  I think my system is fairly simple.  I always have two bags - one large bucket purse for my hand-carry, and a roller bag.

First, the roller bag:

I use the Hideo Wakamatsu Tarpaulin Carry-On Red.  A constant delight, nipping my ankles across airports and fields with equal ease like a tiny red nylon puppy; One must agree this bag is ruggedly handsome, Mostly water resistant, exceptionally sturdy (I’ve taken on four years worth of monthly trips, and it is in near-perfect condition functionally), and versatile. 

Alright, now that we have the perfect bag, how do we pack it?  The folks at Flight001 came up with their SpacePak line.  It is amazing, and I highly recommend it to anyone that does any traveling.  It’s changed my life.  I’ve used it religiously for the last five years or so.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.

With SpacePak (or even just separate bags you already have or make) you will now have separately labelled bags for the entire contents of your suitcase.  These bags are made of nylon, are impervious to my occasional hair dye, perfume, or other disastrous spills, and don't smell awful after weeks of outdoor camping. One of the best features of the bags is that they  have openings on the front and the back, so that as your clothes get dirty, you put them back into the same bag, but on the opposite side from the clean clothes. The two sides are divided by a nylon wall, so that your dirty clothes do not touch your clean ones.  

For my carryon purposes, I have the following containers :

Toiletries -four compartments, makeup, general care, perfume, and first aid.

General clothing bag - with a reversed section for dirty clothes and a couple packets of detergent

Lingerie - I keep panties, bras, nylons, and fragile stuff in here.  The reverse side has a little delicates wash bag and I keep woolite in here for hand washing.

Shoes - one bag per shoes, - I usually wear boots to the airport and pack heels and flats.

Jewelry - Two complete sets of rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. And then I wear the biggest to the airport.

Souvenir Bag - A compact bag that folds out and can fit nearly the contents of my bag.

SheMergency Kit - A bag of fashion emergency fixes.

The reason for the individual bag system is simple and assists with remembering essentials, ease in packing and unpacking, as well as keeping your bag sorted during security checks.

I always keep my carryon suitcase filled with the empty (or pre packed) bags you see in the above photo.  When I am ready to leave on a trip, I already have all my bags ready to be packed and placed back into the bag, so all I need to do is choose my clothes, jewelry, and shoes, and I am ready to go.  This is how the system allows me to make sure I always pack everything I need.  My toiletries bag and Shemergency kit are always restocked after every trip and returned to my suitcase directly after a trip, so I never have to fuss with it while packing.

With this system of pre-chosen empty bags, it is easy to see that if a bag is empty, then you haven't yet packed it.  When it is full, it is easy to place into your suitcase.  The brightly colored fabric assures you that it isn't lost amongst your other belongings in your home while packing.  The shoe bag keeps my shoes separate from my nice clean bag, The clothing bag is easy to unpack back into my closet at home or my hamper, as well as ito unpack into my hotel closet. The lingerie is nice to keep fragile things separate, and makes late morning underwear hunting fashionably simple.  The jewelry bag keeps my things nice and organized.

Once you've arrived to your destination, you can either unpack the bags and put them back into the suitcase awaiting repacking, or just live out of your suitcase.  Both work for me depending on the length of the trip. 

Once you've arrived home, it is easy to place all the dirty clothes into the bin from the 'dirty' side of your lingerie and clothing bags, and then put your clean clothes back into your closet, and your jewelry back into their boxes.  Simple unpacking!  Throw all the bags and your toiletry bag into your carryon and store in the closet until your next trip.  Easy!

I leave my toiletry bag always filled and ready to go.  I make a note if I’ve used something and it needs to be refilled or replaced. I have a full skincare regimen, tooth care, eye care, first aid, and mostly makeup samples.  It is simple and works for me.  I found that my toiletry bag needed too many things for me to reliably repack into a small bag every trip, so now my bag is a set of completely separate items.

Inside my carry-on bag pockets, I always pack a folding bag in case I need to bring back something large while I am traveling, and I find that I use it quite often.  I also pack and maintain a Shemergency kit in my roller bag for any types of fashion disasters, and it has been invaluable. 

I always make sure I pack clothes that are not wrinkle or static prone, so that I don’t look silly when I arrive.  No need to buy anything special - many fashion brands have styles that tolerate packing and folding.  The rolling up method is bullshit.  I did it for years until I found spacepak.  Now I just pack smarter.  

Now, my bucket bag contents:

My in-flight bag (I’ll go over this later)

a small pinch emergency bag

sunglasses

small jewelry case

Passport

USB fast-charging brick

A charged mophie juice pack with two usb ports

A charged solar usb battery

headphones

Evernote moleskine with pen

makeup bag and brush

small bag with cash and can hold passport, phone, and wallet

change purse

wallet

vitamins

ipads and iphone.

These are all pretty easy to figure out.  I carry my devices (I never travel with a laptop, so I am serious about charging things) and chargers with me in case there is no in-seat power on my flight.  

This is the basic set of things I carry with me, the things I’d be hosed if I lost somehow.  Occasionally on puddle jumpers you are forced to check your roller bag, so in case of this, I make sure I have my valuable essentials with me.  This is also the bag I’ll carry around for a day out on the town.

Now.. for the real magic.  The thing that has changed in-flight travel for me forever.  If you listen to any of my advice, this is the thing to listen to.  Get the Seat Pak from Flight001 and pack it well.  It will make every flight and landing into a thing of magic.  

It features four pockets, and this is how I currently have it packed after four years of heavy regular use:

Comfort pocket:

compression socks - for long flights, these can keep toes warm and reduce swollen feet and ankles while on an long-haul coach flight. 

Eyemask

Kava tea

Hair tie

deodorant

A bunch of eye creams, serums, lotions, and hand creams

hand mirror

sewing kit

nail file

hair spray

nail polish (works to stop runs in nylons!)

breath drops

eye drops

tweezers

teeth whitening strips

cleansing wipes

extra contacts

tampons

face cleaning wipes

girl part wipes

toothpaste and toothbrush

eye wipe

bandaid and Neosporin

Advil and ibuprofen

chewing gum (helps equalize ears)

Peter Thomas Roth VIZ-1000™ 75 percent Hyaluronic Acid Complex

ID pocket:

Passport

Global Entry Card (in RFID Blocking pocket)

Clear Card (in RFID Blocking pocket)

Priority Pass

Pastport (just for fun!)

Tiny pen for forms

Tech pocket:

noise canceling headphones with adapters and extra batteries

Aerostuff pocket:

A sample of major currencies - generally enough for a snack and a cab if I can’t find an ATM at the airport

Including Berkshares, because they are gorgeous!

So!  This is what I pack in my carryon.  I hope you've found this useful. If so, leave me a note and tell your friends! Am I missing anything that you think is spectacular and should be included?  Tell me that too!

[cameo]

Dancing upon my world stage, to the beat of your heart only

A careful thoughtlessness has possessed me. Quietness here, a silence. Like a blue gem, the colour of water secluded. I speak to the gathering crowd so gently, never specifically. I see their prayers of hope and I throw them into the ceremonial fire, imagining that they will beseech someone with power for the answers, but feeling in my heart that they will not.

There is a separation of self here, a question of the reality of what exists and what could not possibly. While I indulge in the most beautiful souls I have been able to find, I find that I line my pockets with only dreams, and I have little of substance to offer. For some, my pieces of fantastica are enough, others leave without satisfaction.

All that was once valued has been left behind. As a child, I have advanced, perhaps walking and crawling backward. This seemingly unnatural progression has left me full of dismay of my own choices, and has given me doubt about what I have never questioned before.

My deepest voice tells me that this longing only echoes what is inside. I dare not listen to the music in my mind, as there are some things that have been whispered that I have carefully ignored for quite some time… those oubliettes that Giordano once taught me to create. 

I long to have more to offer, my money has no soul, my clothes are of ill make, my possessions so few. Even my talents have withered away to nearly nothing, lost in disuse. I have only my dreams now, and there does not seem to be a great demand for them.

Perhaps I’ll have to create a niche of my very own.

[cameo]

Geolocation data for biannual events of nominal import

Annual Birth Rite Holiday Festival Locations

1: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

2: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

3: San Diego, California USA

4: Lima, Peru 

5: Los Angeles, California USA

6: Atlanta, Georgia USA

7: San Diego, California USA

8-12: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

13-18: West Stockbridge, Massachusetts USA

19: Hackensack, New Jersey, USA

20: Reston, Virginia USA

21: Toronto, Ontario Canada

22: Copenhagen, Denmark

23: Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

24: Stockholm, Sweden

25: Machynlleth, Wales UK

26: Bennington, Vermont USA

27: Housatonic, Massachusetts USA

28-29: San Francisco, California USA

30: Santa Cruz, California USA

31: Point Reyes, California USA

32: Prague, Czech

33: Krakow, Poland

34: San Francisco, California USA

35: New York, New York USA

Wintry Holidays 

1: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

2: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

3: San Diego, California USA

4: Lima, Peru 

5: Los Angeles, California USA

6: Atlanta, Georgia USA

7: San Diego, California USA

8-12: Pittsfield, Massachusetts USA

13-17: West Stockbridge, Massachusetts USA

18: Floral Park, Long Island, New York USA

19: Hackensack, New Jersey, USA

20: Reston, Virginia USA

21: Chicago, Illinois USA

22: Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

23: Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

24: Lenox, Massachusetts USA

25: Nishikoiwa, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo Japan

26: Beijing, China

27: Housatonic, Massachusetts USA

28: San Francisco, California USA

30-34: Denver, Colorado USA

[cameo]

Giordano Bruno’s system of signification interpreted through the Chemical Marriage

It is the close of the sixteenth century; Giordano Bruno travels from city to city all over Europe, hunted by the Inquisition for his heretical system of memory and signification. In less than one year, the inquisition will burn him alive for his Ideas.

"You, Egypt, brought forth as sacred the hidden signs, 

Famed before in song and story, of gods and people; 

With them, with nature as our guide, what we perceive can be more scrupulously noted

Than by our shifting sense, experiences, and ordering of these same things.

Through these very sins the ancient mysteries remain in plain view, 

While Nature unfolds herself in her numbers; through signs, oracles of the gods have come before mens’ eyes.

Therefore, when a thing stands signified by its own figure

A chariot is admitted for a chariot, a fire for a fire,

But when an image not invisible in itself is signed,

Let a better sense, a better skill step forth."

Alchemy is the most divine art, given to mankind by God as the ability to create gold from lead, as God created the world by naming it. God has ordained that only the most pure of heart, mind, body and soul can complete this work. We call this divine work the “idea.” The idea is God; the idea is a divine act of mind and of divine will commanded. It is a holy work that alchemists do, but in our time, when old widows are burned at the stake as witches for their petty neighbours, they must work in secret unless they are friendly with the crown. 

Therefore, a work of signification is useful. When using images or words, one must keep in mind the audience. Images do not receive their names from the explanations of the things they signify, but rather from the condition of those things that do the signifying. When communicating Alchemy to the wider audience, the imagery and wording chosen will make two separate impressions. One will see a series illustrating the evolution of a strange marriage, filled with hermaphrodites and wild animals. The Alchemist, however, will see the metallic elements joined and the divine work completed.

When contemplating the creation of an alchemical allegory in order to hide its true meaning, one begins to have the trace [vestigium] of the idea of the chemical marriage. A trace is given to us only a subtle form, only the hint of an idea. The trace is something that hints at us that there is some form of substance, but will not allow it to be made manifest. The trace the way we see God, we see nature and contemplate god through its traces. We cannot truly understand God, but we can begin to contemplate him as we contemplate his trace through nature. 

When one is given the divine will of god to begin to commit to the chemical marriage in his name, he has been communicated the divine will of God, and must accept the Idea. 

The theory of the documentation of the chemical marriage begins to be understood, now. How could one possibly corrupt the divine will of God to paper, or through furtive discussion in alleyways? They only way we have found to communicate the divine alchemical ideals to one another is through the creation of a species, a shadow [umbra] of the Idea. The shadow is all art, being only a shadow of the trace. It is only the most crude manifestation of the form or the Idea. For this reason, we must always contemplate all early acts as mere shadow of the inspired divine. This world we live in, outside heaven, is the artificial world, where men strive to understand earth and heaven through rationalisation. The rational world is an artificial world, only a construct, a shadow of the idea, a mutant of the form. Therefore, when creating a way of communicating on this earthly plane, one must accept it will be a shadow of the Idea, and not as the Idea itself. 

I believe that ideas, concepts and objects are all symbols, and if they can be remembered, they can be understood. One cannot understand anything when still contemplating oneself. Signs are understood by composition, combination, plurality of terms, by means of discourse and reflection. So those different words, that when seen by the grammarian’s eye are synonymous, for us signify one thing at one time and another at another. For example, "Luna," "Sol" and "Mercury" are not the same things as "our Silver," "our Gold" and "our Mercury." The chemical marriage, however, could not and should not be represented differently. The Analogy of the Idea of the chemical marriage is required in understanding- these are not mere Indications of a Sign or a Shadow, but are a way of understanding the Divine embodied in chemical change that must be first established in the mind before it will occur within the Philosopher’s Egg. 

There are three principles that must be understood in order to contemplate Signification. This trinity is a natural system seen everywhere in nature, and so we follow nature’s form. 

The first is the concept of the initial composition of all things as being God, nature, or art. Nothing can be more than one of these. The divine, the natural and the artificial can be applied to all things. The Trace is always a natural thing, a distillation of the Divine into something Natural. It becomes a trace of the Idea. The Shadow, or the rational world is the place of the Shadow of Ideas. The only purity is the Idea, which man cannot wholly contemplate without revelations. The Shadows are divided into primary, secondary etc. These Ideas are the cause of things before the things exist, the vestiges of the idea are the things themselves or what vestiges are in things, the shadows of the things are from the things themselves, or exist after the things which are said to exist. Beings are distinguished into those which are things, and into those things which are their signs or indications. The Image of a thing is separate and different from its substance. 

One must also not forget the inherent limitations of the senses. In order to understand the divine Idea, one should use the sense of sight, as it is the most spiritual. I will explain more about this later. Touch conceives only those things that linger, surrendering themselves to our skin. We can only perceive the sense of smell from the body of things conspicuously placed near us, in time or distance. We can hear those things from near through distance places within our time, but the quality of hearing is such that it is only in the now.

Only sight comprehends the most remotes things and associates them with other things apprehended by that sense, and also retain them more effectively than by the other senses. Therefore, it is wise to signify the objects of all the appetites and the cognitive facilities in the same way that we describe and reveal all things by means of visible letters and shapes, the Mark. 

Alchemical symbols follow historical fact or precedent. The most common method of communicating the chemical marriage is the “marriage” Signification. Based on these Signs from the historical precedent, we infer "Sol" with copper, "Luna" with silver and the character Hermes or “Mercury” with the metallic element, mercury. When something is composed sensibly, this nonsensical division arises. Certain allusion we intuit to which allusion is made; denotations of the roles of the various characters are signified in other ways via Shadow. From the tool, we perceive the skill, as for example the astrologer by the astrolabe or sphere in his hand. 

When the chemical marriage is committed to a painting, to a concrete image, it becomes a sign [nota]. When a Form or an Idea is committed as a Shadow into the shape of a Sign, it does not receive its name from the explanation of the things it signifies, but rather from the condition of those things that do the signifying. The only reason a man would have to commit an Idea to a Shadow is to communicate it, and in this commitment, perhaps he would allow other men that have not received the Idea from God, to contemplate his great work. The Sign therefore has many meanings beyond the primary Idea; it denotes everything which in any way displays or indicates another thing either its primary, secondary proximate or remote, immediate or mediate reason or meaning. The alchemical painting becomes a way to communicate a trace of the Idea through a shadow. 

The painting therefore is a Sign, signifying the elements of the Idea of the chemical marriage. It signifies through a fixed drawing of lines committed to paper, or the stroke of a brush- this is called the Character. The Character denotes a signification through the fixed lines, or a setting of points in order to intentionally point at one thing. However, the art of the Alchemist must be hidden, as not all men are worthy of the Idea. Therefore, the Sign’s primary, and secondary meanings shall have a Character that signifies on levels other than the intended primary. When considering the imagery of the chemical marriage, there are many different forms of imagery that are generally used to communicate the Idea, while leading the uninitiated to believe this is a story involving the actual players depicted. In the rosarium philosophorum (Rosary of the Philosophers), we see a story that to those only able to see the Shadow, therefore the secondary Sign, and therefore, a completely different character of a king and a queen marrying and indulging on sexual acts that modern scholarship doesn’t appreciate being educated about. The man in possession of the Idea, however, sees beyond the Shadow and to the primary Sign as the chemical marriage of Mercury being added as a solvent for gold and silver; thereby creating the Elixir of Life, as God has granted, and with the second part of the process, the Philosopher’s Stone, the realisation of the Idea of the Form. 

The Mark [signum] of the chemical marriage is then understood as a part of its genus, the common attribute portrayed that has signification, either as an Idea or Trace or Shadow or otherwise. The person that understands the secondary or proximate Sign of the Character would then have a different interpretation of the Mark of the image. Someone recognising the primary Sign would understand the Mark as the recipe of the chemical marriage; the Mark understood by one with only a proximate Sign would see the chemical marriage as a record of actual people and events. 

The Seal [sigillum] is the diminutive of Mark, and signifies the more notable part of the sign or the sign as it is generally accepted, as for example, when we signify a person or his action by his head alone or only by his hand. In the chemical marriage, a Seal is from the primary Sign could be a specific act, such as the act of copulation signifying the combining of mercury and gold together. In the Seal of copulation, the Seal signifies the diminutive of just the practise of alchemy, but distils something specific from the whole enterprise. The Seal is a specificity of the essence of images, and the power they have to effect change. Change and movement are a sign of life, and nothing in the world, least of all the world itself is inanimate. 

The Indication [indicium], like Mark and Seal, of the chemical marriage is extant in the image’s existence and elicits internal or external contemplation of what it signifies. Just as one who points does not pre se signify the thing that is being indicated, but rather he invites or summons it to his inner or outer contemplation. The Indication of the chemical marriage is the understanding of the Sign via the Shadow, a fable of sexuality, death and resurrection for one man is the Philosopher’s Stone for another.

Different from all preceding terms, Figure [figura] are composed of Ideas, Traces and Shadows, as much related to the intrinsic as to the extrinsic aspect of things; “Figure” however pertains only to the extrinsic. The Figure of the alchemical imagery exists only of the initial impression, of the basic form without any inner contemplation of the deeper meaning; the Figure of a thing is only the superficial. Those that only see the secondary or tertiary meanings of the Sign related would only be sensing a Figure, and not the deeper meaning. 

With the chemical marriage, the Analogy [similitudo] is well utilised. When a person is signified in letters and characters as well as in marks, indications and signs, less will be signified than with a simile or a likeness, as in a painting or a statue or its appearance as received by the senses and presented in the imagination. The analogy is a translation from one’s Idea into a kind of Shadow Sign. The quality of the Analogy is determined by the kind of Signification used. While in some cases, as in a philosophy, the message is best served with letters and characters in order to relate the message as fully as possible. With the alchemical Analogy, the exact likeness of the work is not related with intention, and images are made so that they can be synthesised and understood only by the initiated. The analogy presents the solemn and serious Godly work that Alchemists do, and clearly state the method of the science, while those that can see only the Figure will see only gross copulation and death. 

The Proportion [proportio] is father from the Idea than the trace, and is the understanding of Proportion between more than two terminal points. Where a simple connection of Sign and the Trace, Idea or Shadow would be a connection between two terminal points, the Proportion is the connection between three or more. Just as Aleph is for the Hebrews, so is Alpha to the Greeks. Here we have four terminal points of Proportion, 1. Aleph, 2. Hebrew, 3. Alpha, 4. Greeks. Just as Sol is to Luna, so too is Luna to Mercury, which is three terminal points, Sol, Luna, Mercury. This is the understanding of the Proportion of an Idea’s being. 

The Image [imago] embraces a greater energy, emphasis and universality, for there is more being for Image than for Analogy. Image tends more to unequivocally than does Analogy, and it is the same for things not only when they are in the same genus, but also when they are outside their own genus. Just as one artifice is said to be similar to a certain artifice, nonetheless it is not called an Analogy in relation to its Image or in its Image unless it is in a very close genus or the same species. The Image of the King swimming in the ocean for his bath is not an Image, but an Analogy. An Image is a visual representation that is almost an exact likeness

[cameo]

Fleeing before the warriors of a Jewish amazon named Judith The Fire

By the tenth century the Falashas were so powerful and their leader so fanatical that they went on the rampage and devastated Ethiopia. In 975 the king of Ethiopia wrote the king of Nubia imploring him to send help. The Ethiopian monarch was forced to scuttle about from one hiding place to the next in a most un-regal fashion, fleeing before the warriors of a Jewish amazon named Judith on Fire. She literally overran the country and practically destroyed Christianity in the land, burning churches, enslaving Christians, killing priests, looting and plundering. The king sent another desperate plea, this time to the Patriarch in Alexandria, asking for a new abuna (Ethiopian bishop). This time he received a quick and favourable response and, according the the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, shortly after the abuna's arrival the tide turned. Judith was defeated, The Fire was quenched and her followers suppressed. - Great Civilizations of Ancient Africa, page 222:

[cameo]

The London Thirteen Club

It appears that organised skepticism has a long history in the United Kingdom. For example, Abracadabra, a recent exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London included a small exhibit made up of a cracked mirror and a plaster model of a coffin. According to the exhibition catalogue (Arnold, Baldwin and Mack, 1996: 50):

"The coffin is inscribed 'to the memory of many senseless superstitions killed by the London Thirteen Club. 1894'. The club, based in Southwark, London, was active in combating magic. A founding member was a local councillor, R W Bowers. For some, ridding the world of magic turned into something of a moral crusade."

[cameo]

voices

Some here speak of a street they walked down, or a store they visited today. I've been to some of those places, but all of them are hours and plane rides and boat trips and long trains away.

I forget who lives where, and which Canal street? which North Street? Which Main Street? Which Paris? Which Oxford?

America mirrors the world that her people left behind, mirrored them wherever they came to rest.

I feel like I am in a wonderland where all places are represented. 

"what did you do today?"

"I went to Oxford and had a love lunch of sushi in the mountains where I saw a amphitheatre that I'd love to get married in some day. Then I went to Canal street and got art supplies and got my cats some wasabi coloured bowls. I listened to people talk on the cellphones in order to justify their inner/outer narrative. I was in Portland and longed for the other half of my heart which was in Miami. I looked with awe at the trees outside Blackfriar's, and was swept back to the time of Bruno and Dee and Cardano, when the ceilings were painted with Plato, Aristotle and Hermes. Dallas is so familiar, I have leaved here longer than anywhere else, I am stifled. The thought of the shooter that killed all those people keeps me up at night. They are smoking cigars, black men, ballers. my cat joe sits in my lap purring, i should tell him about the future of the tuna we will share together." - The voices I hear.

"I am in wonder of you (all)"

[cameo]

Someone put this note on my door in 2002

10/14 Cameo gave me a grainy, black and white picture of me and her standing next to a mysterious figure (I remember nothing more about him). She told me it was a picture of Death and us. She then commented how attractive I was standing next to him -- more attractive than she'd ever seen me. I mumbled something like I usually do. "But," she said, "you look even better in this picture." She flipped the photograph over. It was another - even more grainy - picture of Death, but this time, I was the only one accompanying him. I wore a fedora, which Cameo liked. I felt ill.

[cameo]

The man says

He says to me,  "I left her to build pyramids. I never fulfilled that dream. I wouldn't blame her if she still hates me. I still want to build pyramids."

He says, "I went to the sahara desert. I lived in Cairo. I wanted to test myself; I wanted to live like Lawrence of Arabia."

He says, "I nearly died in Kathmandu, I didn't go to a safer country, though. I wanted to see if I could survive Napal. I barely left with my life, nevermind any worthwhile experience outside of realisation of adolescent folly."

He tells me, "Please come over whenever you desire."

He mades me smokey tea that he aquired in Bombay.

He says, "I can seduce anyone with my tales, but then they realise I am actually quite boring."

He gives me a CD of his off-tone singing. He knows he doesn't have a pleasant voice, but is proud of the effort anyway.

[cameo]

I forget which city I am in. I rely on Oppidan navigation. Headphones in, city aural spore silenced. Now I navigate the streetscape by steel table mountains and cacuminous concrete profiles, my face upturned to the glassy metropeaks of the urbanapelago.

[cameo]

Ravel me senseless

To unravel is redundant. It can be understood as an unwinding, to undo a weaving, to unmake an ordered and stitched item. How do we ravel? To dance with unravel and ravel, antonym and synonym, we reconcile the word by the root of its origins in weaving and sewing: as threads become unwoven, then get tangled.

Till, by their own perplexities involved, They ravel more, still less resolved. --Milton. 

Ravel begins to represent complex infinite forms. It is an untwisting, an unweaving. To become disentangled; to be relieved of intricacy.  By the ritual of ravel, I become simple, I become complex, I become unordered, I become chaos. I fall into perplexity and confusion. We make investigation or search, as by picking out the threads of a woven pattern.

The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters. --Sir W. Temple.