6/20/23 : we set up a separate mailing list for 5cense, 4 those that want 2 B notified of new posts. We'll maintain this separate from the Ↄalamari list which will be strictly Ↄalamari news + far less freakwind. It also enables 5cense 2 B a bit interactive, U can respond 2 the email + we'll inkloot your 2 ¢ents hear, if U want, or U can just say hey 2 say hey.

6/21 : summer solstice. Nice day so figured we'd hit the beach, especially 5in¢e our bedder-½ is technically on vacation b4 they start @ Columbia. Also 2 extend our "remapping the Maphattan Project" to the ouroboros of outer boroughs. B train was D-layed so took C to Q, which involved that long underground walk @ Times Square during the morning rush. On the subway read Kinderkrankenhaus by Jesi Bender (who had a piece recently in Sleepingfish). Kinderkrankenhaus is the text from a play that will be performed @ Brick Theater in Brooklyn @ the end of September... interested to see how that will transL8 as there's a lot of litterule wordplay that seams hard 2 pool off spoken (as opposed 2 reading the visual text). A short + appropriate read 4 the subway since it deals w/ antisocial behavior + a gnome that doesn't no the difference. This past weakend, there were 4 stabbings in NYC subways, all separate incidence... lots of cray crays.

far cry from U street in DC where we were living a month ago

Got off @ Brighton Beach + went to Kashkar Cafe to get some manti dumplings... where else but aNYCity can U get Uzbek/Uygur food where they don't even speak english (they had to get the bicycle deliverer 2 transL8)?

Lots of Soviet/former-Soviet influence in Brighton + according to Wikipedia, "of the estimated 55,000 Holocaust survivors living in New York City as of 2011, most live in Brighton Beach." Wiki also says Brighton Beach/Coney Island was purchased from the Native Americans in 1645 for a gun, a blanket and a kettle. Not to be mistaken for Brighton, England, for which it's named. The only person we know (or knew) that lives (or lived) in Brighton Beach is Josh Cohen.

Belly full of halal dumplings (sheep, 4 the 1st time in a decade or 2), we set off 2 explore parts around the semi-detached island comprising Brighton Beach + Coney Island, following this route (the strip of beach between Coney + Brighton weave walked plenty of times b4).

At some point walking along Neptune or Mermaid Ave we heard a bunch of firecrackers or gun shots coming from a block away... everyone stopped to gawk, including a bike deliverer who claimed there were 3 guns involved, as if they could tell just by the sound. A few minutes later there were a lot of sirens (police, not mermaids). There were also 100s if not 1000s of kids in cap + gown attending some mass graduation in the stadium on the waterfront.

Manhattan Beach

Sheepshead Bay

there's a "rouse" + "arouse" in carousel

under the trax

Cosmic Surf Punk

Suppose we should of hit Coney Island last weekend for the Mermaid Parade, but we didn't want to taint our memory + be annoyed by all the tiktokers + instagrammers... even in 2007 it was a sanitized version of what it used 2 B.

+ in 1 of our 1st posts on 5cense 20 yrs ago we documented (in comic sans font, no less!) the Siren Music Festival... while the "freak show" is still there, it probly has also been cleaned up 2 B P.C. Coney Island is also an appropriate 1st "remapping Maphattan" outing, as it's also the last stop on the B/D, the line we live off, where The Warriors had 2 get back 2, all the way from the Bronx where Cyrus was shot (+ the Warriors blamed 4 it), avoiding all the other gangs on the way that were out 2 get them.

On the way back (on the D) we got off + walked another mile to Cobble Hill to get a beer + talk to the folks at Bar Great Harry 2 reserve the back room 4 a Ↄalamari "return to NYC/book launch" party (tentatively July 9th, 5–8 pm). When we got home we 8 lasagna + watched Little Odessa, which the DP Tom Richmond had told us about ages ago (when we were working on Mr Stitch together) but had never had a chance 2 see + then forgot about it. Most of the action revolves around Russian mafia types in Brighton (a.k.a. Little Odessa). Suppose Requiem for a Dream might have been appropriate, but don't know if we can stomach that hole in the arm scene again, though we did figure it was a good time of year to rewatch Jaws a few days ago, and also saw God Land the other night, which had some great footage of Iceland.

6/22 : Posted an excerpt from "Little Bee’s Kindergarten" by Yuxin Zhao on Sleepingfish. This will bee the last of this online issue 2020+ ≠ 404. Now we're going 2 start reading 4 a final 20th anniversary print issue, after which we're thinking of starting a new journal altogether dealing w/ posthumanities, stay tooned.

We also had a piece from U/X published in Oyez Review months ago that we didn't realize until now (it will also soon bee in print), which remineds us, we need 2 get back 2 working on U/X (after the hiatus of sectioning off 1/ 4 i am ĐNA as a stopgap.