parece bonito, muy bonito

Finally made my way over to the Cherokee area, where there are many Latino markets and restaurants. Hit Los Catrachos, a Honduran restaurant. I haven't had such great platano since my Costa Rican days. I could have sat on my stool and watched people walk by the windows all day. The sound of Spanish television in the background and the smells of sweet, sweet food. Now that's a Saturday that I'd like to make a habit.

Recommendation: Horchata, a rice-based drink with canela y leche....muy, muy rico.

chatting over chocolate

Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers! From a wonderful night at the Chocolate Bar in Lafayette Square. I recommend the signature chocolate martini hot. It's a perfect fall dessert.

el royale

Gas is officially sold for below $2/gal. I don't even know if remember the last time I could say this.



La princesa de italia.

And her friend said to me, "Sweet night, good heart.". And I thought, yeah, it was a sweet night. And she sure does have a good heart.

Find her on Connect I Cut.

the road well traveled

Downtown Clayton from the top of Clayton on the Park

old journals

Came across an old journal today and thought I'd share a poem. This one in particular doesn't come with a title. I once had a friend who struggled with self-image, faith and smoking. She exercised more often than anyone I knew. She had a great faith, but didn't know what this faith was in. As for the smoking part, she always said she wanted to quit, but never did, maybe never even tried. A line in the poem brought back a memory, "Don't look down . You're still there." She would often look down at her stomach. Sometimes she'd even lift up her shirt. I wondered what was going through her mind. She is one of the most beautiful people I know. She is also one of the thinnest people I know.

Everyone loved this girl, and she deserved this, but because everyone wanted to spend time with her, that made her busy. So busy that sometimes she'd forget to return my phone calls and others' phone calls as well. I don't think she saw that she hurt us, and I never told her she did. I suddenly realize how much I miss her.

I wrote this while we were on a road trip.

Thru the blur the miles to reality lessen
Watch the beauty of the red glow you created
Brush the ash away
Don't look down . You're still there
Oblivion to others leaves deep wounds
Slow down but not to see yourself
Life is not a mirror for the vain

What are the chances
You find life
By forgetting your own
Chemical intoxication to stop the pain
You see the life in front of you
Hang your head in shame

Another thought from the old journal:
Mannequins are no longer the sole bearers of fake faces.

my church

"The world is my church. For every rule, there is a contradictory rule. There is no right or wrong, because my right is your wrong. There just is."

"Reality exists between you and me. It is not you or me. The closer you come to me, the closer I come to you, the closer we are to reality."

all office

Straight from this morning's news meeting ... "Horses sell newspapers."

Boss's quirky phrase of the day:
as slick as snot

i'm gray today

Went to my dear friend Lingbing's home in Morgantown, West Virginia back in June. She and her husband Toru had me take some studio shots of them. The couple was married last October. Toru is from Japan. Lingbing is from Shanghai, China. They are both wonderful cooks.

Life is better with string cheese.

Boss's quirky word of the day:
bluffy: used similarly to hilly, a land with many bluffs

public transportation

| warning: image has been oversharpened using Photoshop |

In light of recent photo scandals and ethical debates about how a photo should or should not be manipulated, I want to be transparent and let you all know that this photo, indeed, has been manipulated. I'm not a big fan of messing with photos in Photoshop. I rarely go into anything except basic toning and, occasionally, cropping. I sharpen my images a smidge for the Web. Tonight I accidently typed the sharpening amount wrong and sharpened this picture by 150 percent with a radius of 40. Yikes! Somehow, when I went back to the original image, I wasn't as happy with it as I was with the accident version. We'll just call this one art.

Lesson 4: Don't oversharpen images for editorial uses. You'll probably get fired. Oversharpen them for your blog, but let your viewers know what they are seeing.

As for the public transportation part, this photograph was shot en route from Smithsonian to Takoma Park Station on the Metro. I love riding public transportation. I love watching other people use public transportation. Sadly, I don't use it as often as I'd like to in St. Louis. If I had stops closer to home and work, you bet I'd use it. So I guess I'm one of those crummy, conditional public transport fans that loves public transportation when in cities where it is more integrated- BART in San Fran, Metro in D.C., MTA in New York, the T in Boston. Heck, the metro in L.A. is even better every time I visit. The first photo project I worked on as a freshman at the University of Missouri was called "Faces Going Places"- portraits of people who rode the Columbia buses. I never noticed how much I talked about public transportation until my brother-in-law called from L.A. to let me know he was riding the metro. For some reason, that made him think of me. That cracked me up.

Detroit's public transit wins the prize for coolest name I've heard: PeopleMover

chihuly

Visited the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens with my mom a few weeks ago. Allow me to play catch up with a couple of the images.

words, oh words!

I love words. One of my bosses says some funny things, so today I decided to keep track of some of the verbal hilarity that ensued.

What makes the list today:
groovy- frequently used
bless you- said to a coworker when he offered to help with something
crickey- the latest in his vocabulary
bingo- he wasn't talking about the game

i read too

Some favorite thoughts from a book I'm almost finished with, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

"First you get the feeling, then you figure out why."
... what's there to figure out if there is no feeling?

"How could I meet him at the top of the mountain when I'm already with him?"
... is it possible to "meet" someone you are already with? If you look at the definition of meet, I'd say you can. In fact, I think finding someone you are already with would be quite a reward.

meet:
1: to come upon: FIND
2: JOIN, INTERSECT
3: to be introduced to

"The sun of quality does not revolve around the subjects and objects of our existence. It does not just passively illuminate them. It is not subordinate to them in any way. It has created them. They are subordinate to it!"

"He's here but he's not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be 'here.' What he's looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn't want that because it is all around him. Every step's an effort, both physically and spiritually, because he imagines his goal to be external and distant."
... we all see this "he" everyday, everywhere. I try not to be this person, but sometimes it happens. Uggh.

"A photograph can show a physical image in which time is static, and a mirror can show a physical image in which time is dynamic, but I think what he saw on the mountain was another kind of image altogether which was not physical and did not exist in time at all."

Lesson 3: Sometimes it's a good thing to put down the camera and process.

in need of a solution

Everything I love in my fridge seems to go bad before I can finish it- lettuce, tortillas, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, milk.

john henry and the hat

Went to John Henry and the Engine at the Pageant to see an old college friend. I actually photographed John back when the band was called John Henry and the Big O. That was more than three years ago. The music was nice, but I more enjoyed watching all the high schoolers dance and look at the band members wide-eyed. This guy wearing the hat seemed to be alone. I wondered why he was there and if he was enjoying himself. He probably wondered why I took so many photos of the back of his head.

Lesson 2: Layer. Use the foreground and the background.

backward baseball blues

Busch Stadium from the last seat in the house. Section 361, Row 14, Seat 4. Not watching the game...watching the other direction at the sunset. Cards lost to the Pirates 1-0.

Lesson 1: Remember to look away from the action too.