So haunting, and so so much more compelling that you’d think it might be. Were I to describe it as being shut in a mall overnight when the stores had closed, would you want to listen to it? Yet it’s impossible for me to turn off or turn away from. It’s not just background noise. I am sitting here in it. I’m listening. Background music has forced itself into the foreground. Was I trapped by the image? Is my mind occupied looking for the story within an abandoned playroom? Is there even a story or has the mall just shut for the night? Or shut for good? Malls have fallen out of favor. The North American landscape it littered with shuttered shopping malls. We are moving on from an era. What the kids call the “late 1900s” is becoming a distant memory and we are deep into late capitalism. Driving twenty miles to a mall and shopping used to seem like instant gratification. Now we buy online to have it delivered the next day because we are too busy consuming other things from the comfort of home. Binge-watching television shows that often aren’t on television at all, but on some device.

That’s the story behind the image, if there is a story at all. The malls are closing for good. The music is still playing though.

I don’t want to go into the office today, but I don’t want to stay here either. I’m not quite sure what I want to do or where I want to be. I think I want to be alone, but that’s not going to happen today.

So…