i pulled back the drape thing on the tent, there was a crystal ball on a table

--from "The Flaneur" chapter of Benjamin's Arcades Project:

"For the perfect flaneur,...it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, among the ebb and flow...To be away from home, yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the center of the world, yet to remain hidden from the world--such are a few of the slightest pleasures of those independent, passionate, impartial [!!] natures which the tongue can but clumsily define. The spectator is a prince who everywhere rejoices in his incognito....The lover of universal life enters into the crowd as though it were an immense reservoir of electric energy."--Baudelaire

"The steam vapor so detested by writers allows them to divert their admiration....Instead of waiting to visit the Bay of Bengal to find objects to exclaim over, they might have a little curiosity about the objects they see in daily life. A porter at the Gare de l'Est is no less picturesque than a coolie in Colombo....To walk out your front door as if you've just arrived from a foreign country; to discover the world in which you already live; to begin the day as if you've just gotten off the boat from Singapore and have never seen your doormat or the people on the landing...--it is this that reveals the humanity before you, unknown until now."--Pierre Hamp

Slint, "Breadcrumb Trail"