Bailarinas (Fuck a Wheel Chair)

Better than drugs but just as addictive is something which gives you life and makes you move as a testament to the life you're trying / unwillingly / willingly / instinctively living.

Marinita / Vertical Jazz Hands

An English rose she is...managing to grow despite the 12 months of rain (Pop just lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvves the color grey. ab-so-looote-lee ah-dorrrres the colour grey.....). I wonder how she is and if she will be much different at 10. I bet she'll be married before me...OKAY OKAY, not a contest...I know...it's just that I'm psychic, that's all.

Marinita Rose Borja
Grows
Has her Mama's toes
chose
to love me
despite distance
in turn
we both grows...

damn...ROBERTA FROSTING OVER HEAH!!!!

behind every good elmo is a good man

...elmo has a face. here it is. so does bugs bunny, or doesssssssssssssssss he? for 6 months i've seen elmo handing out pamphlets in times square. last week i saw the man behind the elmo mask getting ready for work. bugs bunny was nice, too, but felt he was less photogenic, and stayed out of the frame as such...

today i realized i take photos of people in serious service, 'service' positions (nannies / bussboys / elmos) because it is my ultimate fear--fear--that i am not the princess i always thought i was (treated as / within our means / somehow / money comes...) and that someday (tomorrow) i will have to work very, very, very, very, very hard for something that i want monetarily and personally...i want to be proud about what i'm doing! but that is a luxury, of course. i'm sure a lot of people working in midtown, for starters, wish they had a mask / costume to jump into when they arrived at work in the morning...as a title often doesn't mean shit about the man, or the woman.

wanting and waiting is a dubious combo. i'm dumping both tonight.

la princesa

What We Saw (Me First, Then You) : For JJ

JJ and I went to Sunset Park this week for our first ever business meeting..."business meeting" i.e. we ate tacos and marveled at the shortcomings of the tomatillo sauce at Tacos Xochimilco. We drew up a list of places this girl could begin writing to and shooting for (hi) close to now...or graduation. Before the business meeting we walked through Sunset Park and down 5th Avenue. I realized then that walking with me and JJ is like hoping to swim laps in the ocean...not quite efficient...ambitious, but maybe fruitless / unrelated...nor do we strive to be! Anyway, between us there is a hypersensitivity to the world that delays any of our ambles anywhere...he 'discovered' food before I 'discovered' photography...but now we are both obsessed (read: PASSIONATE) people with our own FILTERS for life and our day to day...he sees a lot through food / history / tastes / words / chefs / high brow low brow / languages and I see a lot...I see a lot. Or I look a lot. Not sure which. Either way, looking proves antithetical to talking AND walking, let alone spending QT with a person AND A CAMERA...IT'S IMPOSSIBLE for me, which is why AMBLING is my favorite game and HAN SOLO is my favorite name...Anyway, it's JJ...I can talk and shoot, right? I can smell and sniff chillies with him and also take pictures, no? The lovely thing is that via our respective passions, each day holds the possibility of NEW / MORE...not in a greedy way, but in an optimistic (opportunistic?) way...i.e., every day we embrace the potential to create something (phrased most positively there).....................Long story short, no, long ramble longer: we walk down Sunset Hill (official name) and I see a white horse in the trees. I ask Jay Juh if that looks like a white horse...he says what? where? I point there! over there! He says no. I said ok, let me take a picture and we'll see if we can't make the bag turn into a little white horse. He says: "you're insane, Train." We continue on, finally settling down to our business meeting. We taste the tomatillo sauce. He says it should be fresher and tangier. I have nothing to measure this against. I am at the mercy of his word. I trust him. Is that insane?

Young Love #1: Belinda / James

If you were me, would you make the same joke that I did about his black eyes? Think about it for a second...if your answer is somewhere along the lines of "ohhhhhhh don't let your girl beat you like that..." or something equally inane, then you, too, are an old person: LIKE ME! I know this because he quickly exhaled "that's what every body's been saying!".... I am officially OUT THE LOOP...FREEZING COLD OUT ON THE STOOP...BANISHED TO THE POOP (DECK)!

My goodness I love these kids. They go to "City as High School," which is -- if it lives up to its name -- an amazing idea. By the same token, then, my high school should have been called "Uniformity as Desirable" or "Dickheads as Male Friends," or something...dunno...anyway, I have been seeing a lot of wonderful couples on the train lately. They are so beautiful. I can't wait for spring.

Vicki Smiles

We try to keep smiles at a minimum here on Looting and Preserving. The smile here, however, goes with the nails. They match, you see. Catch it. I saw Vicki's nails from Pluto I mean from 34th Street...It was a crowded train but I shoved my shit (sorry about the backpack!) over to her and I essentially stood above her staring at her nails as she read the book "Fashion of the 20th Century" (by Phaidon?) for a few stops. We got off at the same spot, and there you have it.