All the different themes on this site connect to an underground urban concept that, among other things, is call Urban Nomadology. Here are a (very) few places to start exploring the concepts of urban nomadism:

Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus is an amazing book. It connects the punk music explosion from late ’70’s Britain back to the situationists of Paris, the Dadaists, and much further back than that. This, from my perspective, is essential reading to understand the cultural component of Urban Nomadism here at the start of the 21st century.

 

Nomadology.com is an interesting introduction to the topic. Not a “linear” or narrative one though.

 

Of course, nomadism has no urban component in most people’s minds. When they hear “nomad” they usually think of Pastoral Nomadism , if anything. Mongolia presents a good example of pastoral nomadism. This U.S. Country Studies article might help. Although, there is, apparently, more to it.

So, here’s an extremely brief Urban Nomad Primer:

Despite the prevalence of Situationists throughout the 20th century (as examined in the aforementioned Lipstick Traces), the idea that this is connected to a kind of nomadism is a reasonably new idea.  It’s, to me, the logical next phase of the Digital Cobbler concept. I think this embodies a kind of urban nomadism that is economic, cultural, and social.

 

However, it’s also important to acknowledge right away that this is an urban component of digital geography that may have eqivalents in the exurban and rural communities. Or, using the names used in Joel Kotkin’sThe New Geography the book, the blog, in the Nerdistans and Valhallas of North America. It may be the case that these different types of communities are all so much inter-twined and are consequences of the same digital geography to the extent that I can’t discuss the urban component without dealing with the others.

 

More about Urban Nomads in a while when I organize my readings and so on.

I know I’m a curmudgeon about the snow. I just don’t like it on the ground down here where I live. But, I’ve gotta say, the dog sure likes it. That’s a picture of Shea, our 10-year-old dog, and she loves the snow and the cold weather. She plays in it like a pup. It’s almost enough to soften my grumbling. Almost.

It usually doesn't look like this.

The fact of the matter is, despite the global perspective about our country (that it’s the “frozen north”; that it’s the source of storms dumping snow on the U.S.; that we have 8 months of winter, blah blah), Vancouver very seldom actuallly looks like this. Oh, sure, it snows once a year, usually. Sometimes it snows twice a year. But you usually can’t get a picture like this because many snowfalls are followed by rain (and rain and more rain) or the bright sun that might follow a snowfall doesn’t last long enough to get a picture like this.

So, here’s a picture to contribute to the myth. What can I say.

Here’s an old picture I’ve posted before. I still don’t know what this place is who it belongs to. For some reason, I have a suspicion it’s owned by the Vancouver School Board.  Does anybody know?

Just mining a theme. But really, it’s all that you need.

Okay. It should be obvious that nomads don’t need so much stuff. But I find that the “lose the clutter and set yourself free ”  or “organize the clutter (and still set yourself free)” kind of advice you can get is extremely uneven. And I come from a long line of packrats (and I’ve fathered another packrat but that’s another story) so I know something about trying to get rid of the clutter. 

Take the case of these two examples of set-yourself-free-and-lose-the-clutter guides: 

1. When Organizing isn’t Enough: SHED your stuff, change your life by Julie Morgentstern  is one of those execrable self-help books that takes 250 pages to say what could be said in one well-written 20 page pamphlet.

But, there is a kernel of usefulness here:

There’s three parts to the process: 1. SHED 2. Find your theme 3. Pick your point of Entry.

SHED means: Separate the treasures, Heave the trash, Embrace your identity Drive yourself forward. The first two parts are obvious, the third part is understandable (a bit more about that below). The fourth part is a bit rah-rah contrived but if that’s what works for some people, fine. 

What is interesting is that it the shedding isn’t necessarily of physical things. It can just as easily be things you do or think you have to do. And the “embrace your identity” part is to use this process to figure out what you are (or, more accurately, what you want to do ) so you know what it is you should shed (I think).

The Find your theme part is about finding the theme of the shedding so you have a focus for why you’re doing what you do. I’m not sure how this differs from the “embrace your identity” part but there you are. I’ll read a bit more and see if I can figure that out. The third phase (Pick your point of Entry) seems to be a kind of “name the moment” idea but I will read a bit more of that just to see if it goes anywhere useful. 

That said, there’s no way I can read this whole thing. Like I said, it’s 250 pages to say 20 pages worth. 

2. The second example of lose-the-clutter advice is the complete opposite of the first: smart, quick, brief, and inspiring. So, I won’t bother going on about it, just go read The Last Viridian Note  by Bruce Sterling. 

An awful lot of artists in the Vancouver Eastside Culture Crawl were producing an awful lot of art.

Beyond the obvious “culture high” one gets from wandering around and among so much creativity, I’m starting to wonder about a few things:

1.  Do most North American cities of 2.5million people have this size of art community? Or is this an example of Vancouver’s prodigious wealth in the “creative class”.  We tend to like to think we’re special, but maybe we’re kidding ourselves. I don’t know.  
    
2.  What’s the attraction of that artistic, studio-scene? Both K & I remarked about how attractive the artistic life seemed from this superficial level. That said, after a while, I started to wonder how many of these artists were really making a living from their art, how many have to have second jobs or alternate incomes to support themselves, and how many are essentially dilletantes who are using some other source of income to support their artistic lifestyles but don’t really have a chance of ever supporting themselves with this stuff. Furhter, there’s two kinds of people in this latter category: those who’s art isn’t commercial and who don’t feel inclined to change it to make it so (and there’s nothing wrong with that); and those who’s art is, let’s face it, not very good!
    
3. A studio (which seems necessarily to have to be in a fixed location) doesn’t seem very nomadic. Perhaps it’s not,  but there do seem to be people there who can and do create their art in various settings and use their studio for only particular parts of their process. 
    
4. There’s a whole ‘nuther thing about the artistic community being urban pioneers and making a place for a next wave of urban dwellers (who then make a place attractive to a third wave, and so on). The huge trap with this cycle (and one Vancouver is caught tight in) is that the second (and third) waves of urbanists cause real estate prices to go up and price the artists complete out of the district. In Vancouver this is hugely exacerbated by our crazy-high land prices which are just now beginning to subside (but not nearly enough for the average (starving) artist). 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Wait. A couple of them just went past. But there’s more appearing up ahead. Try that again: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten! And that’s just the ones coming towards me. “What am I doing,” you ask? I’m counting cars. Actually, I’m just counting their headlights. I’m riding along Ontario St. at 29th Ave. in Vancouver at 5:30 on a rainy Tuesday night. And I’m counting the unbelievable number so SOV commuters I can see between here and 38th avenue where the road goes over a hill. Pretty severe for a side-street, you have to admit. But wait, it gets worse. This isn’t an ordinary sidestreet. This is a “Bikeway”. This is one of only about two dozen designated bike routes in Vancouver. What’s worse than that? Ontario is one of only a few that run right across the city and into downtown. Remember, we have well over 200 streets in Vancouver. So, when I have to navigate among dozens of cars on a bikeway each trip home from work, there’s something wrong with this.

If I was a motorist  Read more »