me and the food around me. i like to eat, so listen up.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

i jumped the transcontinental railroad to protest the absence of any photograph of the chinese laborers at the golden spike monument

so maggot and i decided to take a day trip up to the spiral jetty. i had never seen it before and neither had maggot. so we hopped in the coop and rolled out. we were both pretty hungry and wanted to eat at este pizza in salt lake, but those assholes decided to be closed. so we went to curry in a hurry. i have to admit, it was a let down. i usually really like their food, but today it was really spicy and pretty bland. there was a latino woman working when there areusually indians or pakistanis there. i think she may have been the culprit. all the food we got was watery and super spicy with no other real flavor. lame. i'm gonna give that place one more try. we headed up north to find the jetty. to get there you have to pass salt lake, ogden, brigham city, and then turn off at a little town called corinne. then you have to drive like a million miles into nowhere, past the golden spike monument and onto 34761457862487620876 miles of gravel road, all the while dodging point rocks and cows. lets just say those box elder county class-d roads weren't maintained with a mini cooper in mind. we finally made our way there and picked through the lava field down to the shore of the great slut lake and onto the jetty. its great to see a totally useless piece of environmental art. i'm being serious. it took a lot of work to get that thing there. i'm not sure if machines were used or if each stone was carried by smithson and his wife, but it was a pain in the ass for me to get there. whats interesting to me is the constant flux the piece goes through. it isn't a static piece of gallery art, like a painting. the spiral jetty i saw today will be a different spiral jetty next time i happen to go see it. and whats more, my experience of the piece is completely irrelevant to the piece itself. there will be a point in time when the jetty becomes a giant spiral salt lick for deer. then it may turn back in to a jetty. or jesus will make all the polar ice caps melt and it will become a nesting spot for fish to lay eggs. after we were done taking photos (see maggots blog for the photos) we started the trek back. we stopped at a broken down dodge and found a duchamp readymade out in a field then spotted a horse carcass and became one with it. we then stopped at the golden spike monument. that place pisses me right the hell off. fuck utah, and fuck the united states of america. there isn't a single mention of the chinese laborers in any of the photos placed outside near the railroad. the only thing mentioning the chinese laborers is a plaque made in honor of the workers by a group of chinese american citizens in san francisco over 100 years later. in a strange way, frank chin is right. the chinese laborers only get the recognition they deserve in their dreams. i spit on the golden spike monument. it represents a total flattening of history of the most racist kind, and we're all more than happy to ignore it. after we got back into civilization, we realized we were hungry again. nothing was open. so we stopped at betos. bad choice. don't go to the one on fourth south in salt lake. they screwed up my texano. maggots bean'n'cheese wasn't that good either. bums. we finally got home without much problem except for some jerkoff trucker who was weaving in and out of traffic on i-15. he kept riding up on people. when he did it to maggot she tapped her brakes (like you're supposed to do when someone tailgates you) and he flashed his brights at her. what a dick. i turned around and gave him the bird, at which point he flashed his lights again and i nodded, to let him know that i knew that he knew that i knew he was a pedophile.

3 comments:

The Gorbott said...

we were just at the spiral jetty a couple of weeks back. we skipped the golden spike because it seemed too boring. i'm glad we passed it up.

deadcityrebel said...

its worth seeing if for no other reason than to see how completely the chinese laborers are blacked out of one of the most essential pieces of american history.

Jasie said...

I will never be able to justify spending an entire day just to see the (kinda stupid) spiral jetty. You should see the movie Smithson made about it. it cracked me up and gave me an annoying headache all at the same time. He apparently hired out a contracting company to move the dirt around while he watched. An artistic genius, what can I say?