two friends on the No. 6 train, N.Y.N.Y. May 31, 2010

It's actually very much like a television.

Helena Rubinstein, 1964, photo by Jean Mermet

"It all comes back. Even that recipe for sauerkraut: even that brings it back. I was on Fire Island when I first made that sauerkraut, and it was raining, and we drank a lot of bourbon and ate the sauerkraut and went to bed at ten, and I listened to the rain and the Atlantic and felt safe. I made the sauerkraut again last night and it did not make me feel any safer, but that is, as they say, another story."

-Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook, 1966

morning drawing, may 30, 2010

"I have now seen Orlando. It is, as I guessed, unabashed festival material and can never be shown to real people."

-Quentin Crisp, Resident Alien

Sandal, Fitzwater Street, Philadelphia, May 2010

He said that my tuna would be encrusted.

I'm hoping that I didn't understand what that means.

swallows, Philadelphia, spring 2010

licorice selection at Kadó, Berlin

I am still finding bits of him in my pockets.

"Next, a fifty-nine Dodge, black, mint condition, tries to parallel park in the Mercedes' spot (I'm not getting too much paperwork done today). The driver is one of the worst drivers I've ever seen under the age of eighty. Three pedestrians take turns waving him in, guiding him back out. I step to my window and hear one person yell, "No, left, sharp left. Clown." Disgusted, a last helper leaves.

When the driver stands and stretches, he hasn't really parked his car, just stopped it. I've noticed him around town. About twenty-five, he's handsome, but in the most awkward possible way. His clothes match the old Dodge. His belt's pulled up way too high. White socks are a mistake. I watch him comb his hair, getting presentable for downtown. He whips out a handkerchief and stoops to buff his shoes. Many coins and pens spill from a shirt pocket."

from Adult Art by Allan Gurganus

Jessie's wrists, philadelphia, spring 2010

"It was, as I recognized with some difficulty from a photograph in the family album, my Aunt Augusta, who had arrived late, dressed rather as the late Queen Mary of beloved memory might have dressed if she had still been with us and had adapted herself a little bit towards the present mode. I was surprised by her brilliant red hair, monumentally piled, and her two big front teeth which gave her a vital Neanderthal air."

-Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt

She herself remained completely unscathed, but she left a great deal of turmoil in her wake.

blue glove, spring 2010, Philadelphia

strawberries, spring 2010, philadelphia

It's the type of garment which should be buried in the earth for a while.

Breakfast in Philadelphia, Little Pete's on 17th Street, May 2010

Does it have a very sour taste?

She blackened the soles of her shoes. She had the maid iron her money.