At the truckstop restaurant, the air-conditioner works, and the chicken is decent. In my bag is a review of Walter Benjamin's recently published Arcades Project--

Who was Walter Benjamin? For highbrow city lovers, he was the Man of the 20th Century. His essays on Berlin and Paris have long been required reading in art and architecture schools around the world. They are among the seminal texts in the field of cultural studies and the ethnographic approach it has fostered toward art.

Surreal here, I note, as the desert darkens outside, while tentative conversations flow and ebb to a backdrop of Country music. After this, there is the anonymous motel room, and the seamless programs on its cable T.V.