still-sound 15. Chemtrails

I'm going to attribute most things to cold air today.

A few days ago I brought home some vases and bowls that had been glaze-fired over the weekend.  I placed two pieces on the bookcase in the bedroom.  Throughout the night they made pinging noises - as though someone struck them with a spoon to silence a hall before giving a toast to the bride and groom.  Except not rhythmic tapping, just a single PING.  It happened at least three times the other night - and at least once last night.  I checked the pieces to see if any of them developed cracks (they didn't).  I don't know which pieces are pinging, maybe all?  I decided that it was the shifting temperatures that caused the sounds.  Only a few days ago they were subject to terrific glass-melting heat.  Now they settle into the cold evening November air.

This morning I noticed that the sky was absolutely criss-crossed with chemtrails.  Some were sharp white lines, others had softened into puffier linear clouds. I've had many conversations with people about chemtrails.  On Tuesday my barber (Ian) showed me a picture he had taken on his phone of a massive X formed by chemtrails, hovering directly above his house.  It freaked him out.

I had a conversation a little while ago with a meteorologist.  She seemed to anticipate my eventual shift in conversation towards conspiracy theories.  She claimed that contrails were simply vapor left by aircraft as they cut through certain atmospheric conditions.  She assured me that there was no conspiracy at all and in fact, expressed doubt that the government would 'even be organized enough to control a population through chemical mists.'  I listened to her theory but lost trust in her credibility when she proclaimed that 'climate change is a myth' and that 'most scientists would agree'.  I didn't really want to pursue the point so I politely nodded.

While I walked Rosie this morning and noticed the unusually high incidence of chemtrails I decided that they could be attributed to the cold air.  I didn't notice them so much during the summer.  Today was the first day that truly felt like autumn to me.  The skies were the deep blue that you only really see this time of year.  I don't know if the chemtrails were more pronounced today because of the crisp air or if the government was simply more organized and managed to mist the skies of Los Angeles with population-controlling chemicals.

Olafur Eliasson at Tate Modern

When I got home I listened to Beck's superbly unsettling song called Chemtrails.  This has always been my favorite track on Modern Guilt.  The sound of it makes me think of a post-apocalyptic Beach Boys. I used to listen to it nearly every time I went running on the ocean path in Long Beach as the sun began to set.  I think of a hazy orange sun over a bleak terrain dotted with dazed people, like the one Olafur Eliasson created in an installation hosted in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern several years ago. 

'So many people, so many people.  Where do they go?