Swimming pools

Monday night I went swimming. It was the first time I'd used the outdoor pool at the gym formerly known as the Carmine Rec Center. It's been renamed the Tony Dapolito Rec Center, which doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily. The pool was crowded and the clashing wakes made it feel like swimming in the ocean. I registered and asked how the pool worked. An attendant said I could go anywhere I fit in. Another attendant had to point out the unmarked lanes.

A few months ago I saw the Japanese film Starlit High Noon as part of the New Directors/New Films festival. Throughout there were scenes of the main character swimming alone in a large outdoor pool in Okinawa, and I was reminded of a similar pool in Thailand. In 2002, I visited a friend in Ubon Ratchatani. She wanted to take swimming lessons and so we and some of her friends drove to an olympic sized pool at the local college. We were the only ones in the pool, a vast blue rectangle reflecting the sky. My friend took lessons from the lifeguard as I swam slowly back and forth. I floated in the calm water and watched the sun set. The sky went from bright blue to shades of orange to black as the water deepened. We left as the lights came on.

In New York, I couldn't see much of the sky. Buildings surrounded the small pool. By the time I left the center was about to close. The sky was still lit, though darkening fast. As I walked home I felt the sometime narrowness of New York, and longed for open water.

And on the subject of swimming pools, I didn't much care for Ozon's film of the same name. Though I loved Under the Sand. Posted by eku at July 13, 2005 12:24 PM