Ep 01: The Brentwood Spiral
“I want to walk there”
Oct 2022. After moving to Brentwood, I had this strange and powerful urge to walk up the hill right next to the Brentwood Town Center.
Initially, I ignored this instinct and went on with my life: eating, sleeping and causing bugs in production. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the hill; it just didn’t make any sense! This strange urge reminded me of the characters in Junji Ito’s “The Enigma of Amigara Fault”, who felt compelled to fit themselves into human-shaped holes in a mysterious mountain. This hill, it compelled me.
I pulled up a map to check it out, and its road network shape looked very exciting! The network spirals up and around the hill, peaking at the Brentwood Park.
I bit the bullet one Thursday after work. Packed some CLIF bars, a water bottle and jacket to brave the 11° weather. The plan was simple: I’d walk in a spiral about the mountain till I got to the lonely top (Brentwood Park) or till the sun set. Asake had released his hit debut album, Mr. Money With The Vibe, at the time and that was going to be this journey’s soundtrack.
Walking through suburbia of Brentwood in the Fall was serene, cold and beautiful. A look around combined yellowing lawns of pretty houses with the gigantic Brentwood Towers, very cool!
12km of walking up and down the spiral was challenging, but Asake’s uptempo songs really powered me through (I’m talking Joha, etc). I remember feeling that strange urge dissipate once I saw the park’s tennis court’s fence. Organise came on and was an excellent outro for this adventure.
I had so much fun on this walk and the final route on the map looked fantastic! I opened up Felt, and traced my walks for scrapbook reasons.
It’s quaint how I obsessively spiralled over a spiral.