High Anxiety

Hi gang. Scintilla here. Against their better judgement, Blipcentral has asked me to put together this week's roundup of assignment blips. Those of you who do not care to suffer through my ramblings can just scroll down to the bottom for links to the blips that I arbitrarily deemed as worth a second look. That said, Blipcentral is not responsible in any way for my selections or my musings other than their dubious decision to ask me to do it and the fact that they do indeed have ultimate editorial authority.

Taking my task at hand as seriously as possible, I looked up "Urban" and "Texture" in the American Heritage Dictionary. Urban is fairly uncomplicated defined as "Of, relating to, or located in a city". Texture is a little more interesting. The first entry was ?A structure of interwoven fibers or other elements?. The idea of interwoven elements intrigued me with regards to our relationship with cities which is at best complex.

Cities are emblematic of the social nature of humans. Our tendency to congregate and function in a community is hardwired and is at the core of our ability to survive in and indeed dominate the world in which we live. There are those of us (myself included) that tend to shy away from cities, but our current existence is still greatly influenced by our cities. They are our centers of commerce, wealth, education, culture, entertainment, and cuisine. Our grandest edifices and architectural masterpieces are there. Their skylines are often easily recognizable and in some cases are even a symbol of national identity.

Our cities are projections of our greatness, but unfortunately are at times are biggest disgrace. Wealth disparities are typically greatest or are more visible in cities. Displays of conspicuous consumption are often in close quarters with abject poverty.

Although some feel that a retreat to the country and wilderness is the way live and is in some way the original state of grace. That "luxury" is typically an avenue available only to those who have made their fortune or skill set in an environment that our cities and their infrastructure provides. So we may fool ourselves into thinking we can live in the country farmhouse and raise some chickens, but if you're reading this, you're plugged into the city with the rest of us.

That said, this weeks assignment celebrates our "urban textures". I'm not clever enough to write a poem, song, or story to illustrate the notable assignment blips of the week. I did feel they kind of distilled out into the following categories. So here they are in no particular order.

Urban Art
Urban Art - A Canterbury Tail
Untitled - Life with Gaia
Urban collage - Everyday Sfinx
Urban Texture - Pania's Photo Parade
Alaska Urban Texture ~ Ziggy Style - chaos

Urban Colors
Urban Textures - lynncus2gether

Urban Decay
A little B&E - Spatial Relations Expert
Men in Suits - lynncus2gether
Decaying Building - Richies Photo Journal
Blue peeling - Dublin Shooter
Smash and Grab - Brooksie's World

Urban Footwear
Urban Texture - Chick Flick
Urban Hip Hop Clothing - lynncus2gether
urban shoes go country - hope
Desert boots... - Airborne Skygod

Urban Frustration
Friday, 5.15pm. - The Life of Bri
Urban Torture - dark|adapted

Urban Gore
Grounded - benek
Flat as a Pancake - Sugar Magnolia

Urban Lines
decorativemankiness - wingpig
Convention Center - Dreamy Andrea's Journal
Ventanas - la la love you
More urban texture - Brooksie's World
Untitled - wingpig
Wolf Style - Simply The Hesse

Urban Map
ARLÖV - HERR KLANTZ MINDS MAP

Urban Nature
Autumn - michielh
urban texture - (three)56

Urban Night
The Long Walk - dark|adapted
Crystal Trains - Mark Mayo, photographer
brick - britni
Life passes you by - Mark Mayo, photographer

Urban People
the taste of human flesh - wingpig
Viejos - la la love you
Urban Textures, Cartagena, Colombia. - Rab
urban texture - britni

Urban Blipfoto Cards
Com - Somethings Missing
Dripfoto - archangel

Urban Pun
erb an' text Yours - FortyTwo

Urban Skyline
Hartlepool sunset - Tone
Skyline - FortyTwo
grey day - Field of View - My personal favorite
An Edinburgh Sunrise... - Tractor Factory Photos
The View From Work - Dreamy Andrea's Journal
Urban Texture 2 - Kiwidino

Urban Trash
Rubber and rubbish... - Ba®ker
Crash - Somethings Missing
This Photo is Rubbish! - My Angle
Urban Texture - ~kdoes : 365 project
More Urban Texture - dark|adapted

Urban Travel
Urban Textures - Daily Post
Urban Driving - lynncus2gether

I don't know what this falls under, but I like it.
A Matter of Convenience - benek

These are not tagged as assignment blips, but they should be.
Taxi No 1 - Trigger Happy Fi
Old engine - Everyday Sfinx
The Lesser Shot - Chick Flick
Later, by The Shore - Red

Finally - Urban Madness
Urban Texture - Kiwidino

I put up Kiwidino's up last, because it is the inspiration for the next assignment. I know many of you were anticipating a rural theme next, but that's too predictable. So the next assignment is "Blip Madness". This week you will do something "mad", idiotic, or crazy in the name of Blip.

May I remind our more enthusiastic participants that such madness should not include any activities that would pose a danger to the blipper or his/her subjects, nor should it be illegal or particularly immoral. No animals should be harmed in any way in the performance of mad blips.

Tag your entries assignment18 and by all means have fun.

Scintilla