I Need a Spectacle
something to root for
In July of 2019 Chicago was blessed with ‘Gator Watch.’ No, an alligator is not native to the prairie state, but somehow an adolescent little gator was released in the lagoon of Humboldt Park. I’m not going to fact check1 the next bits of this story and instead attempt to recall them from lived experience. Class, these are the motifs of today: enjoying the community spectacle, subjective experience, and the lore. (We do it for the lore now.)
I remember our buddy Jim, who is a field photographer, was living near the park and would often have his police scanner on in the evenings to be the first on the scene to get the shots. To our friend group at a minimum, Jim broke the story and posted photos from that first day. It was mostly of the infamous figure “Gator Bob” (I cannot make this up). Jim also added that Gator Bob was a rigid man who was outwardly annoyed with the on-site press because he believed there was no gator. (More like gaslightin’ bob immirite?)
What still vibrates in my bones is the fanfare of the entire ordeal. The internet was a-memeing, a local button company made pins, and other local artists sold stickers and t-shirts to commemorate this event. Throughout the day, we’d be buzzing with excitement to hear if anyone could even snap2 a picture of the little guy. After work we’d jaunt down to the park, picking up our curious friends along the way. We arrived to a watery perimeter lined by gapers to watch Gator Bob in his little canoe paddling around doing…something. We were all spectating his methodology. And you’ll notice I say “we” a lot during this story — this doesn’t necessarily mean me and my friends, this is the royal Chicago we. Everyone was a part of this.
I miss these feelings of togetherness that a non-consequential occurrence can bring. A more consequential example that more people probably recall is the missing Titantic submarine from last summer. I think the elements of this recipe are all still here: one-part collective anticipation, a spoonful of mystery, a hearty pour of suddenly becoming an armchair expert on a new topic, don’t forget to add your supposed villain, and garnish with plenty of jokes on the internet. It also might have to take place during the summer months.
Maybe it’s also because I’m an advocate of gossip that I crave another hoopla. I find that whispering in private can be a safe, low stakes way to process people’s actions and reflect on my own. These events could crack open some really interesting conversations too. With the missing submarine, it surely exposed the business of everyone on board to the public, for better or worse. We scrutinized class and privilege within this underwater framework, discussions that had already been bubbling3 at the surface.
This is the nature and history of the spectacle, which is Latin for “public show” (thank you first year art history class), something ‘worth’ watching. There’s merit there — we all flood to our group chats or online spaces to dictate exactly why we feel about this incident and if it was ‘worth’ observing. We talk about for what reasons and we justify the this or that of it all. I think I’m craving talks about how to paint the world more gray, when lately everything seems to divide itself into shades of black and white.
My musical parting gift — I’ve been listening to a lot of songs lately!
A few favorites right now have been …
Take Care of,
Andy
I’m working on trusting my subjective experience. If you know me, I’m a wanna-be judge sometimes the way I describe stories and events sometimes.
pun intended
shoot pun was not intended, but caught it on the edit read