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a cool place

2020-06-16 (said on 2020-06-07 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 9 days later) · documentary visit · John · 3:30 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, community lore

John kayaks down Indianapolis's White River to Wallet Island, his favorite place, and calls it a place of contradictions and beauty: useful to him because useless to others, pristine-looking because the river is filthy, natural-seeming but shaped by invasive plants, floods and trash.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Kayaking the White River to a cool place; river islands belong to no one

  • ★★ From the White River in Indianapolis, John kayaks to a cool place almost nobody knows about, to show it to Hank. — 00:00:00 · Indianapolis
  • ★★ River islands fascinate John: they don't really belong to anyone and have little human use, being land only part of the time. — 00:00:00

00:00:24 — The river's paradoxes: useless island, filthy but pristine-looking water; the paddle back

  • ★★★ One paradox of the White River: the island's uselessness to others is precisely what makes it useful to John, who loves it because nobody goes there. — 00:00:24
  • ★★★ Another paradox: the river looks pristine partly because it is so filthy; raw sewage dumps into it many times a year, a main reason nobody comes there. — 00:00:24
  • ★★ John finds the river not that bad: as long as you don't swim in it or expose open wounds, you're mostly fine. — 00:00:24
  • ★ John quips 'Giardia twice' right after saying you're mostly fine in the river. (playful) — 00:00:54
  • ★ Having gone downstream all along, John expects the way back to take about three times as long and be about a fifth as much fun, though still some fun. (playful) — 00:00:54

00:01:21 — Welcome to Wallet Island: contradictions, invasive plants, floods that remake it, a place to write offline

  • ★★★ Wallet Island, John's favorite place, is both very loud and very quiet, very private, with nobody else there, and also very public. — 00:01:21
  • ★★ John says the island is in the center of the 12th largest city in the United States. — 00:01:21 · United States
  • ★★★ The island feels natural but isn't: most of its plants are invasive, and it is deeply shaped by the phenomenally dirty floodwater rolling over it. — 00:01:21
  • ★★ John named it Wallet Island because he once found a wallet there; it is not its official name, and he doesn't know if it has one. — 00:01:21
  • ★★ The island has many trees, mostly sycamores and some oaks, and floods every few weeks, becoming a completely new island with new driftwood and trash. — 00:01:50
  • ★★ Each visit John feels he is discovering a new place; he can sit there for hours and write on his computer, but critically can't get online. — 00:01:50
  • ★★★ John calls Wallet Island a place of contradictions but also of beauty. — 00:01:50

00:02:20 — Tour: trash, flood debris, a bench, a monoblock chair, an expired Budweiser can; paddling home

  • ★ Finding a Bud Light Seltzer can, John says drinking it is bad enough, but throwing it in the river is classless. (playful) — 00:02:20
  • ★★ When the river floods, debris is pressed against the trees, making weird beaver-dam-like piles that are half natural; some collections of fallen wood are wildly beautiful. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ John is fond of a chair that has been on the island a year: a monoblock chair, one of the most common chairs in the world, seen all over the world. — 00:02:49
  • ★ A straw left by the side of the road, John notes, ends up in the river. (playful) — 00:02:49
  • ★ John finds an unopened can of Budweiser good until June 5, 2020, two days earlier. (playful) — 00:02:49
  • ★ John leaves a bottle with pee in it, packs up some trash and begins a two-hour paddle upstream. — 00:03:18

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment John says the river is where he got some Turtles All the Way Down ideas: north of Wallet Island Aza and Daisy visit Davis Pickett's property, and their river island is one he calls Aza Island. — creator comment · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ In a comment John says his contamination anxieties are very specific and don't include river water; he follows experts' advice calmly, isn't afraid of flying thanks to exposure therapy, and calls pathological thinking definitionally irrational. — creator comment · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ In a comment John says the White River is safe for kayaking and viewers should try it, ideally with a friend if inexperienced, but not past the dock south of 29th Street because of a deadly dam. — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • Right after assuring Hank that the sewage-laced river is mostly fine if you don't swim in it, John adds his own record. — 00:00:54

    “Giardia twice.”

  • John finds a wrecked bench pressed into the flood debris, tries it out, and declares an upgrade. — 00:02:20

    “wallet island now has a seating area”

  • Spotting a can thrown in the river, John faults the litterer's taste as well as their manners. — 00:02:20

    “it's bad enough to drink bud light seltzer but to throw it in the river it's just classless”

  • John holds up an unopened can of Budweiser found on the island and reads out its best-by date of June 5th, 2020. — 00:03:18

    “two days ago.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Wallet Island · White River (Indiana)

Also: Bud Light Seltzer · Budweiser · giardiasis · Indianapolis · invasive species · monoblock chair · sewage · United States

Only in the description or credits: All Star · anxiety disorder · Aza Holmes · Daisy Ramirez · Davis Pickett · exposure therapy · Turtles All the Way Down

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