A few months ago I started noticing this one short-term Brooklyn rental popping up over and over in different Craigslist ads. The description was generally the same in each of them, a long monologue about artistic freedom and the citizens of Planet Earth just getting along. The room was $475 if I recall, but I don’t remember if that was for a week (making it more of a vacation rental) or a month (artist’s retreat).
New ads were put up almost daily, always accompanied by a series of strangely conceived photographs of some guy’s back (though there were a few of some other guy’s back and side). Most of the photos were recycled from previous ads, but there were usually one or two new ones per post. I began obsessively collecting them, like a philatelist poring over the envelopes of grandma’s correspondence, looking for the next backwards-Lincoln-with-an-Indian-headdress.
The ads suddenly stopped one day, and I haven’t seen one since. Maybe they found a permanent resident, or maybe not enough people were into the idea of paying $475 to stare at a wall all day.
Posted by Matt Carman.
