“They installed a camera and uninstalled the charm of the place.”
Great line, Jimmy. From Orpheus in the Underworld to Subterranean Homesick Blues artists have toyed with the idea that going underground (I saw Paul Weller this year, he didn’t sing this one!) takes us into a nether world where somethings are different.
I love to take photos in grungy places like this, the limbo land between light and shade, the living and the dead. Is it charming? The smell of piss? The syringes? The vague sense of menace and impending violence? Whatever ambience and character will be killed by the cameras.
I could hear Weller singing it in my head anyway. I love hidden places. Oksana Mirzoyan, who directed me in the film Susanna, just posted a picture on her Instagram of a forgotten part of Detroit but I knew where it was immediately. One of my first ever short stories in high school was set in the neighborhood she photographed.
Our entire world is becoming gentrified - sold to the highest bidder.
I grew up near Modesto, CA (remember American Graffiti, where were you in '62?) when cruising was cool.
Eventually, it got to where the 'professional' police couldn't control the crazies and the city council banned it in exchange for a 'sanctioned' (translated = paid) event.
The fun and innocence disappeared.
When I lived in Tampa, and now in Chattanooga, it's so cool to see the old guys and their cars in some random lot on a sunny weekend.
My ex wife Donna who I believe to now be deceased and who was a MAGNIFICENT and UNKNOWN POET needed a kidney transplant and got one from some guy who died. I wish I could've been the one to give it to her. Her poetry was all about how beauty and ugliness are ALWAYS intertwined. Just like your story. The people who want an antiseptic world don't know shit! You can't bury the demons under billboards and the sign of the cross! The only thing demons love more than chaos is antiseptic order under unified and total control! Welcome to consumerist China... Er.. America...
“They installed a camera and uninstalled the charm of the place.”
Great line, Jimmy. From Orpheus in the Underworld to Subterranean Homesick Blues artists have toyed with the idea that going underground (I saw Paul Weller this year, he didn’t sing this one!) takes us into a nether world where somethings are different.
I love to take photos in grungy places like this, the limbo land between light and shade, the living and the dead. Is it charming? The smell of piss? The syringes? The vague sense of menace and impending violence? Whatever ambience and character will be killed by the cameras.
I could hear Weller singing it in my head anyway. I love hidden places. Oksana Mirzoyan, who directed me in the film Susanna, just posted a picture on her Instagram of a forgotten part of Detroit but I knew where it was immediately. One of my first ever short stories in high school was set in the neighborhood she photographed.
Personal vs impersonal. Money always wins
Layer by layer, history is stratified with the ethos strata of the times. Great story. Simply beautiful and beautifully simple.
What's anything worth?
Our entire world is becoming gentrified - sold to the highest bidder.
I grew up near Modesto, CA (remember American Graffiti, where were you in '62?) when cruising was cool.
Eventually, it got to where the 'professional' police couldn't control the crazies and the city council banned it in exchange for a 'sanctioned' (translated = paid) event.
The fun and innocence disappeared.
When I lived in Tampa, and now in Chattanooga, it's so cool to see the old guys and their cars in some random lot on a sunny weekend.
What have we got now for the kids?
There is no substitute for reality.
My ex wife Donna who I believe to now be deceased and who was a MAGNIFICENT and UNKNOWN POET needed a kidney transplant and got one from some guy who died. I wish I could've been the one to give it to her. Her poetry was all about how beauty and ugliness are ALWAYS intertwined. Just like your story. The people who want an antiseptic world don't know shit! You can't bury the demons under billboards and the sign of the cross! The only thing demons love more than chaos is antiseptic order under unified and total control! Welcome to consumerist China... Er.. America...
Where lies humanity. You captured the soul of the place.
Thanks. I feel like the work has generally been good lately.