I will not do the whole rant here, but I find the new security measures to be intrusive, obstructive, and cause travel to be MUCH less pleasant than earlier, and I don't feel any safer. I just feel that I am living in a totalitarian state, not America anymore.
In spite of airport security invasions, I LIKE airports. I like the long corridors, the shops, and often good coffee, sometimes good food. Detroit is notable for the stores in its big concourse, a museum store, several art/designer boutiques, unique shops. Mineapolis is like a mall, with many standard mall chain stores with regular mall prices. Chicago’s has Chicago pizza, including frozen ones in insulated bags you can fly home with an cook in your own oven. Phoenix has decent southwestern food and good margeritas.
I like the atmosphere of airports, the sense of both hurry and waiting. I like the thoughts of travel to distant places. I like being alone in a crowd. One can people watch, or settle with a good cup of coffee and a good book, or do work with a laptop.
I like the design of many airports and the expanses of windows looking out at sky and planes. I like the long concourses and vaulted spaces.. I really like that many airports have doubled as galleries often for modern art, sometimes for science and technology.
In Atlanta I discovered it wasn't necessary to take the tram to get out. You can, in fact, walk through long underground corridors. I could stand to walk, having gained an alarming amount of weight over the 3 week break. It was a fairly long ways, and most of the tunnel was odd, fluorescent lights hanging at angles from the ceiling, loosely held by cables. Red tags hung from them with text assuring that they were in fact affixed and not going to fall.
The reward for the walk was in the last corridor, between terminal A and the main entrance and baggage claim. It was a gallery of contemporary Africa sculpture. Most of it was in stone.
What struck me was the creative use of the stone. In most case it was a dark stone used, that when polished was deep black or dark gray. When left rough it was lighter, the finishing of the stone provided color contrast of smooth dark skin, pattern cloth, and the roughness of nappy hair sometimes indicated by entirely unfinished stone.
The pieces were often inward looking and contemplative, several depicted the support of community or family, a group of friends, a protective father, a cluster of children.
Others held joy, dance, flight. I liked them.
It is too bad that most people take the tram and do not get to see these.
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We used to have family daytrips to Gatwick Airport. There were the planes to look at, the arcade games to play with, the shops to spend money in... but mostly I just loved watching the people. Everyone was rushing somewhere else. I adored effectiveness of it, the coherent way everyone worked together without even noticing anyone else. It felt like a hive mind.
Of course when you are in it, you don't often have the time to appreciate it...
Speaking of security measures, no one pounced on you when you took out your camera in an airport?
When you fly out, do you leave from the airport with the giant paper airplanes?
I take pictures in airports often enough, so far I have not had any problems. I fly mainly in and out of Pittsburgh which has a wonderful skeleton of a whale ancestor with flippered legs, but I have not noticed any giant paper airplanes... I have seen some in some airport though
Giant paper airplane is at the Cleveland airport, as you go up the stairs toward D Concourse.
Beautiful sculptures.
I like airports too. There's something about that collectiveness of all going somewhere. Nearly everybody in the place is experiencing the same thing, to one degree or another. Yes, they can be hectic and awful too, but most of the time they're fascinating places with an unparalleled atmosphere, I think.
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