Islands of LA (ILA)

Since 2007 Ari Kletzky has been claiming Los Angeles traffic islands in the name of the community.

This year ILA has hosted daylong activities at intersections that stitch together the criss-crossing neighborhoods of Los Angeles, organizing concerts, tetherball games, picnics, birthday parties and public discussions. They aim to redefine expectations of what an island can be used for (mainly that it can be used for a lot more than traffic signals, poor landscaping and trash). They ask, Why don’t we all meet up in public spaces that are free and open, instead of at expensive bars and restaurants? Why do we hang out on beaches and in parks during the day but not at night?” “Is it legal to assemble on a traffic island?”

They’ve only recently had a run-in with the law, which they documented on the project’s blog.

Recreation at highway speeds

More than 100 years ago, [the] Hudson River made the sport of ice yachting famous. Now, as the river freezes less frequently, a small but dedicated group of enthusiasts sail to keep history alive.

This collection of photographs from the Times’ Nathaniel Brooks also includes some plans for building your own ice yacht, excerpted from an article in the September 1881 issue of Scribners Monthly.

Unlike the folks who reenact Gettsyburg each July, the ice yachting reenactors feel the same emotions—the fear of crashing at highway speeds, for one—as their historical counterparts. It’s easy to replicate the same uniforms and equipment, impossible to simulate the same fear.

What was the last major war involving the United States that still elicits serious reenactment? World War II? Vietnam?

One-hundred and fifty years from now, will middle-aged men gather outside Fallujah in antique humvees? Will War on Terror buffs waterboard one another in suburban basements? (Are they already?) And if they do, will military reenactment have finally found a way to simulate the same fear as felt by historical participants?

What happens when we recreate war at highway speeds?