Concrete mountains and rivers of ashphalt

I have always loved the melded images of folk/traditional/aboriginal characters surviving in urban settings. I think it must be a suitable mythical character for me - giving hope to the survival of tribal mentality while living in what seems a confining urban fabric.

I just started reading deLint again and he has always been good at returning me to this place on the spiral.

I think that Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" echos the call of the "wild" to me when the planets are properly aligned. This is a feeling that always relates to Seattle. When I was there, I bought a comic (graphic novel for you people who care) from a vendor which depicts mythic beings and people in traditional/tribal/folk dress from around the world in the streets and alleys of Seattle. I will post the name when I have to book in front of me. It all fit together very well. While there I distinctly felt like there was a tension between the tamed and untamed. I can imagine a werewolf or Sasquatch or some such beast walking the streets at night and locals simply accepting them as a externality of building a city in a place so charged with feral energy.

But my wondering about this concept in other parts of the world have been relieved by this photo from the Smithsonian magazine's photo contest:

That is what I am talking about!

Labels: myth, photo, Seattle, spiral, the city