Archive for the ‘New York’ Category
Down the street…
Monday, December 27th, 2010Death of a banana
Friday, December 17th, 2010
Election day….
Thursday, October 28th, 2010..October 2010.. ..New York..
Politicians are out…must be close to election day.
2nd Weekend of October….
Friday, October 15th, 2010..2nd weekend of October 2010 New York..
The sun surrenders to gray and the leaves fall. My season ended last night now I have nothing to do.
My friend will disappear for six months leaving me empty until the trees turn green again.
I sit and listen every night at 7PM for relief from reality. Now I stare at the cold choppy dark blue sea until the sun dominates the sky in the spring.
Waiting 150 days for my friend to return and occupy my mind seems like walking a long distance in the sand.
I can show you the nicest places in Hell….
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010..February 2006 Williamsburg..
I stood in the corner of a backstage area that resembled the back room of a meat packing plant. The air musky and damp. The floors ice cold with the elegance of an inch of dirt beneath my shoes. Two long legged psycho women wearing pink bob wigs, frilly pink short skirts, and neon green stockings talk squeamishly to themselves. Their kindergarten vocabulary made it a scene out of a nightmarish Alice In Wonderland.
The room filled with a freakish marching band. Men randomly blowing into trumpets and a kazoo with all their might. Some wearing green plaid kilts, a couple of long sloppy haired plaid shirt wearing boys who look like they came from grunge band practice. You name it, every freak in the city had converged into the room like a Las Vegas porn convention. The long legged psycho women rehearsed their act, Five..Six..Seven..Eight.. dancing, jumping out of a fake birthday cake waving pink pomp pomps.
The anarchy hits a crescendo when a bearded man wearing a sparkling bell bottom suit emerges from the stage door. With the flamboyance and charisma of a middle aged Elvis impersonator and used car salesman from Dallas, he scanned the room like it was his playpen. Gesturing to a man with stars and comets tattooed on his face. The tattooed man, Eak, wraps him in a hug. “Paule, this is The Great Ferdini, the fastest knife thrower in the world.” I think I’ve seen this man in a bad dream when I was 5. With a gleam in his eye and smirk on his face, grabs his shiny silver belt buckle with two hands. Looks me in the eye…”no blood on the stage tonight. It was a good night.”
The anarchy, the long legged psycho women, Five..Six..Seven..Eight, and the marching band blowing their trumpets and kazoo. How did I get here? What I am doing with my life, my sweetest friend? I desperately want to do something with my life.
9/11
Saturday, September 11th, 2010..September 2010 New York..
September 11th, 2001. On my way to photograph New York fashion week. Off the highway from Brooklyn towards the city. Taken from a fishing pier. You could hear the collapse of the buildings.
I live 3 miles from the World Trade Center. I smelt the debris burn until December from my home. The smell I will never forget. For months it constantly hoovered over everything. When the wind blew in our direction some ash would build up over time on cars.
Many fliers were put up around the city looking for missing people. A man who lived a few houses away, worked at the World Trade Center, never came home. A candle was lit in front of his building that night. It stay lite for many months.
September 11th, 2009. Taken from Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Bridge looking towards the World Trade Center.
New York Commemoration for Hiroshima and Nagasaki Victims
Friday, August 6th, 2010..August 2010.. ..New York to Hiroshima..
..New York to Hiroshima to Nagasaki..Shots from the commemoration ceremony held in New York for the victims who died in the atomic bombings.
A small bell is rung simultaneously as in Hiroshima at the time when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Statue from Hiroshima
Thursday, August 5th, 2010..August 2010.. ..New York..
Portrait of the bronze Shinran Shonin statue that survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, now located in New York.
Fragile
Saturday, July 31st, 2010..April 2006 New York..
My 7 pound eye lids open slowly in the morning. I’m sleeping in someone else’s bed, gripping a borrowed steering wheel, using laundry detergent that’s not mine, eating food that doesn’t belong to me. I’m a stranger in my own clothes.
Dear May Kasahara
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010..June 2006 New York and London..
Thanks for your beautiful description of the beach. Was a pleasure to read. I walked down the block and peered at the fog hover over the Atlantic after I read it. Was more of a view for reflection rather than a look of distance. Time does fly by. Last week I was 25. I just realized I was 32 tonight.
Paule
