by jad

Until Next Time, Gorgeous

It’s almost September, which means it’s nearly time to put the summer behind me. One or two more hurrahs left for the closest thing we have to an eternal city on this continent. x It’s funny that I still haven’t done any of the most stereotypical things in NYC yet, but this time, I got real close. x It’s also funny how it was only after we got back from NYC that I started watching all these shows about its urban history. We’ve barely scratched the surface of this place, which is why I love it so much. It’s not … Continue reading “Until Next Time, Gorgeous” →

by jad

NYC Kodak Moments

We stumbled on a so-this-city scene when we found these FDNY firefighters training in the middle of the street. One of the older guys was encouraging a younger recruit (“it ain’t easy”), before a dude on a bike and two dogs strapped like babies showed up to chit chat. The very last slide isn’t from this street, but it seemed like it capped off the set nicely. x x x

by jad

Cat Power at CHOMP!

I’ve been listening to @catpowerofficial for years and years, ever since @aliciammmm first introduced her to me a lifetime ago, but I never got the chance to see her perform live—there’s a whole era of artists that shaped me from afar when I lived in places they never ventured, and I’d long resigned myself to keeping it that way. But when I heard that Chan was playing at @kingcountychomp this year, and for free (!!!), I knew I had to be there. What I didn’t expect, though, is how moved I’d be. From the first notes of ‘The Greatest,’ my … Continue reading “Cat Power at CHOMP!” →

by jad

St John the Divine

On the morning of my birthday, we went to visit the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine bright and early, so we were two of a handful of people there. I was amused when the very cool and very bored person at the counter asked what the nature of my visit was—this was early in our trip, and I wasn’t yet used to these buildings being seen as tourist traps, plus his question was giving “border control”—and even more amused when he tripped over my reply: prayer. After a beat, he made sure I knew that photography isn’t allowed if … Continue reading “St John the Divine” →

by jad

New York Aura

I’d planned to get an aura photo taken upon my solar return and was pleased to see that @magicjewelrynyc did that sort of thing in a convenient location in Chinatown. Drop-ins welcome too! Alas, the only woo-woo that was to ensue was our circling the block a dozen times in the scorching heat before realizing that the location had disappeared off the face of the earth. Grand rising! We had a good laugh about that and greatly enjoyed the insanity that is Canal Street and its Canal Street bling. We also seemed to stumble upon some police raid that was confiscating merchandise, … Continue reading “New York Aura” →

by jad

Far Away (Ground Zero)

The one place we prioritized once we found a coin locker for our suitcase and sat down for lunch at the station was @nyan_nyanji, the Cat Temple on the outskirts of town. As millennials from the internet, it just felt like that had to be the one religious site of the many religious sites in Kyoto we couldn’t miss, if we could only see one. It would be more than an hour by bus and back, and it did not disappoint. I’ll post a fever dream of a Reel about it shortly. #japanonfilm #streetphotography #nikonlitetouch #35mmphotography #analogphoto #kyotogram #kyotographie x … Continue reading “Far Away (Ground Zero)” →

by jad

Travel Spam and Transport Geographies

Back to our regularly scheduled programming with more travel spam that the same 10-15 people care about. I’d wanted to lean into the “nonlinear” in my bio by mixing up photos from the two visits to NYC that bookended our trip, but found it harder to find the plot than I expected. So, to get me back into the flow, here’s the quintessential New York experience: the Metro now OMNY. Twenty years ago, I was such a greenhorn to big cities shaped like grids that I had no concept of stations having many entrances or trains having different directions of … Continue reading “Travel Spam and Transport Geographies” →

by jad

Organic Intelligence at Slip Belltown

“OPERATION” by @benirito at ORGANIC INTELLIGENCE at @slip_belltown I made a friend on Monday. We’d first met at an art show, so it seemed fitting that we’d meet up again at another. But first, we pretended to be elsewhere for a while, somewhere far from this city we’ve both adopted. We sat at a sidewalk cafe, performing aperitivo under a Seattle sun turned a Mediterranean orange by the smoke of Spokane’s hellfires, and we talked about what it meant to think and feel and relate in this part of the world. Our backgrounds were vastly different, and yet, the resonances … Continue reading “Organic Intelligence at Slip Belltown” →

by jad

Rothko, Sontag, and a Book Called Fotografare

“The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.” That’s what Mark Rothko said in 1965 about the colorfield work he’s most famous for, an insistence on a “meaning” behind the “abstraction” that his son, Christopher, has reiterated in interviews about the major exhibit he co-curated in Florence this year: “He wanted those who looked at his paintings to experience the same religious experience that he had while creating them.” I’m no art historian and had no sense of his intentions when I encountered a Rothko in real life for … Continue reading “Rothko, Sontag, and a Book Called Fotografare” →