very good butterfly pin, probably 1960's-70's

"Performance is all I cared about as a child and it's all I care about now. I don't go to see a play to see a great play. I go to see a great interpretation.

Everything is interpretation."

-Diana Vreeland

Saguaro National Park, Tucson AZ, July 2010

pins, Philadelphia PA, July 2010

They no longer shared a belief system.

look at the work of Andrea Modica if you want to see what Bruce Webber might have done if he was intelligent and/or brave.

http://www.andreamodica.com/minor-league/index.html

cement dots, Philadelphia PA. July 2010

ice trays, Brunswick, Maine. July 2010

The moon wouldn't come out and the air was very still.

interior, fruit ice stand, Tucson, Arizona. July 2010

fruit ice stand, Tucson, Arizona. July 2010

"The police said that while performing at Plaid, (Courtney Love) hit an audience member, identified by officials as Gregory Burgett, 23, of Kentucky, with a microphone stand. The owner of the nightclub said Mr. Burgett was cut on the brow and received three staples at Cabrini Medical Center."

"Several people who were at the Plaid concert said they had noticed nothing amiss. 'I was in the V.I.P. area, and Boy George was wearing a very big hat, and I couldn't see over him,' one person said."

excerpts from an article by Shaila K. Dewan,

NY Times, March 19, 2004

pile of cushions, Maine 2010

His little teeth are like needles.

Pegboard, Philadelphia 2010

tootsie roll POP wrapper, June 2010

"When we were introduced to Archie Bell, he said 'Hey, what's happening, ain't nothing to it' in one breath. Later, we learned that is his favorite way of greeting people. We focussed on Archie Bell, because the Drells deferred to him, and because, while the Drells wore a collection of patchwork-denim and polyester outfits, Archie Bell was wearing a smart-looking leisure suit. It was beige, with deep brown stripes running down the pants legs, and the jacket had darts and tucks that made it fit snugly. After telling us how glad he was to be in New York, he said, 'I would like to mention that we have one of the finest tailors in the country. He's from Houston, Texas, and his name is Johnny Burton. He made this suit I am wearing and he made the suits we are wearing on the album cover-the ones with the little bells all over them.' "

from Bells and Drells, by Jamaica Kincaid

a Talk of the Town story from The New Yorker, circa 1976

brickwork on Sansom St, Philadelphia

I don't know what I'm going to do without that button merchant.

sequin, June 2010

" 'This afternoon,' observed Mrs Smiling, leading the way to lunch, 'I think we will go to a flick. Give Sneller those; he will post them for you.'

'No...I think I will post them myself,' said Flora, jealously.'Did you get the brassiere, darling?'

A shadow fell on Mrs Smiling's face.

'No. It was no use to me. It was just a variation on the "Venus" design made by Waber Brothers in 1938; it had three elastic sections in front, instead of two, as I hoped, and I have it already in my collection. I only saw it from the car as I drove past, you know; I was mislead by the way it was folded as it hung in the window. The third section was folded back, so that it looked as though there were only two.'

'And would that have made it more rare?'

'But naturally, Flora. Two section brassieres are extremely rare: I intended to buy it- but, of course, it was useless.' "

from Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons

trimmings on 39th street, NYC 2010

Go to Queretaro and bring me back a fire opal.

buttons, 39th Street, NYC, 2010

sequins, studio of Candy DePew, Philadelphia 2010

candy slices, Philadelphia 2010

tu-tus in the window of Baum's Dancewear, 106 S.11th Street, Philadelphia

They got the angle all wrong and so her calves looked enormous.

The lozenge shape is very irritating.

curlers, Beauty Shop Café, philadelphia. June 2010

Let's just leave that part alone.

toy in the road, philadelphia, May 2010

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.