Stalking America

Stalking America blends an interior/exterior assemblage of a young person on a train riding cross-county where everything is subtext and suspicion. Here events are presented in a glassy contemplation of travel and transition. Stilted and strange dialogue description minor reality stars historical influences lists architecture movements and mundane pop culture observations of a misinformed but well-meaning observer montage into an internal and external reverie. In America nothing is seen or spoken directly. Conversations and thoughts wander in from around a corner-a deleted browser history of experience-ripple into the cliché of a coming of age. In this sense America is half-baked like a teenager. The protagonist obsesses over historical references to nude bathers anarchist colonies reality television communes volcanic eruptions and songs in a playlist trying to understand a certain aspect of America through observations and false epiphanies. A vacated puzzle attempts to undo itself while each piece ploddingly re-assembles with the assurance of the train ride as elements come into proximity. To understand America to really appreciate it is to fundamentally misunderstand it at the deepest levels-to read into its flattening out and image as the ultimate subtext and that is where the story lies.