An American in Stroud

So, will this fog be gone by mid-day? No, I wouldn’t think so. Won’t the sun burn the fog off? Not really. No.

Off we go.

Cows, pastures, more cows, and a few sheep later. I’ve enjoyed yet another day of rainy-day walking in the local area. My guests apologize again for the bad weather but I point out that no weather is bad weather when you’re from Boston, and it’s January. Actually I’m from north of Boston. North enough of Boston to think that fog, rain and temperatures above freezing are considered nice weather. I am talking REALLY enjoyable. There’s no ice underfoot and I can feel my face. To me that’s nice weather for January.

So, will this fog be gone by mid-day? No, I wouldn't think so. Won't the sun burn the fog off? Not really. No.

Off we go.

Cows, pastures, more cows, and a few sheep later. I've enjoyed yet another day of rainy-day walking in the local area. My guests apologize again for the bad weather but I point out that no weather is bad weather when you're from Boston, and it's January. Actually I'm from north of Boston. North enough of Boston to think that fog, rain and temperatures above freezing are considered nice weather. I am talking REALLY enjoyable. There's no ice underfoot and I can feel my face. To me that's nice weather for January. read more

Keeping the Unreal Real: Practical Psychogeography for Stroud

Theory:
Detournement, as in to detour, to hijack, to lead astray, to appropriate … Detournement sifts through the material remnants of past and present culture for materials whose untimeliness can be utilized against bourgeois culture …’
(Mackenzie Wark)

So, Detournement: multimedia responses to the Derivee process of losing oneself in place and time through the discovery of multiple meanings of place; Psychogeography – imaginative relationships to space and place, looking for the liminal.
Potlatch: the collective production and sharing of creative responses.

Proposal:
A collective rewriting of the official heritage of Stroud …
Collective walking, recording, inventing and writing –
Reworking psychogeography’s urban outlook,
By wandering through both town and five valleys:
“ Imaginative reworking … otherworldly sense of spirit of place,
the unexpected insights and juxtapositions created by aimless drifting, the new ways of experiencing familiar surroundings…”

In and around a mill town in the Cotswolds …

Practice:
Possible Walks:

1. Any seemingly mediocre, nondescript suburban red brick walk; for example, down Rodborough Hill and into Stroud:
Posting and link to follow in the future

2. A walk along the Slad Brook to its edgelands in Stroud:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/may-day-walk-from-source-of-slad-brook.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/edgelands-slad-brook-in-stroud.html

3. A Captain Swing walk from the Hog in Horsley:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/captain-swing-and-stroud-valleys.html

4. A walk from the workhouse to Stroud cemetery and to the Ale House:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-ale-house-in-stroud-strouds.html

5. A walk from the Woolpack to Bull’s Cross and on to Sheepscombe:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/sheepscombe-to-slad-november-walk.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/death-after-night-at-woolpack.html

6. A walk from Purgatory to Paradise:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/walking-metaphor_10.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cotswold-tales-from-purgatory-to.html

7. A walk across Rodborough Fields to Rodborough Common
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/rodborough-fields-and-john-clare-day.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/rodborough-fields-curse.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/john-clare-150th-anniversary-of-his.html

8. A walk from the Ram at Woodchester to Selsley Common:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/selsley-hill-august-2nd-2013-and-may.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013_08_01_archive.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/these-are-my-memories-of-what-i-saw-and.html

9. A Randwick walk
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/randwick-1832.html

10. A Painswick walk
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/walking-through-17th-century-around.html

11. A WW1 walk:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/archibald-knee-and-dorothy-beard.html

12. A Reverend Awdry Rodborough walk:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/thomas-tank-engine-rodborough-railway.html

13. A Home guard walk:
Posting and link to follow in the future

14. A Uley Walk:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/class-conflict-in-uley-1795.html

15. A Slavery Walk:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/stroud-and-black-atlantic.html
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/stroud-scarlet.html

16. A Brimpsfield walk
Posting and link to follow in the future

17. A Nocturnal walk:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/walking-five-valleys-at-night.html

18. A Bike ride:
http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-clarion-club.html


Future Proposal:
A collective walk and re-imagining of Stroud’s heritage boards