postmodern flânuer

I think I've been a bit depressed lately. I've been going to sleep early, waking up several times in the night, and sleeping a lot more than eight hours. This is at a time when I really need to be productive, which is a problem. Since I spent most of the morning sleeping, I really needed to do something to kick my butt into gear. So I decided to sit outside, have a coffee (I need the caffeine), and read a book for the paper I'm writing on the disappearance of public sex spaces for gay men.

Yes, I am seriously writing a paper on that. Gay men and how they use urban space continues to fascinate me. I don't understand my interest fully, but I have some ideas. I'm known to say that I should have been a gay man. In fact, I said it this morning after remarking how I couldn't believe John Cameron Mitchell turns 43 today. All men over 40 should look so good!

Sitting outside on Sunset Blvd. in front of Tsunami was the perfect place to read Backward Glances which wrestles with the difference between a cruiser and a flânuer and the ultimate ambiguity of the modern city. Naturally, I wanted to sit some place where I might be able to observe people as well, though the number of people who passed on foot was pretty small. I only left my perch when it became too cold to sit, the wind blowing pretty strongly for L.A. and the hiding of the sun behind some bizarre clouds. But it gave me an opportunity to watch (and contemplate if the business-looking grey-haired man who left his car with a black bag was indeed returning something to Rough Trade) and be seen, which is what a flânuer desires.

And now I'm really feeling the effects of two substances I try to avoid: caffeine and sunlight. I'm all jittery and better return to my reading.