My break from the world

I've decided to go on an "information fast." I guess lots of people are suggesting it, and doing it...Not watching tv, not listening to news radio, not reading cnn.com or yahoo.com, "unplugging from the matrix" as my friend Dave likes to say. Allegedly you discover that you don't miss anything, and have a ton more time to do productive things. Wish me luck!

One thing I can't take a fast from, though, is art. And here's the next picture in the Yesterday series, which actually may have a little to do with my information fast. The people in my "dream retirement" blog, I'm guessing, don't spend a lot of time downloading NPR's Story of the Day podcast. And they don't seem all that worse off for it. And what about these people?





Again, the entire feel of this shop is irresistible to me. It's such a simple slogan, a simple idea, and everyone feels like they're a little famous for a simple second. It reminds me of something I was reading (before my information fast!) about a newspaper in a small town that decided not to show any of the normal national headlines - their focus was only on local people, local names. They said something like, if an atomic bomb falls on Boston, we won't print it unless the debris falls in Ourtown. And it was hugely successful - they had more subcriptions than households in the town. At the end of the day, I think people just like to see another human being, someone else small and drifting in this crazy universe. I just wish I could see this wall close up.

If you want to check out the entire "Yesterday" series (this is picture 5 of 9), click here.

My Dream Retirement

This is what I'd like to do when I retire.







I'd love to have a little shop, the kind where people are actually "regulars." Fill it with all my favorite knick knacks, memorabilia, and books, and then sit all day and look at them, while people come in wanting to talk about the stuff in the store, and maybe make a little money in the process. I like these two pictures because the guys are surrounded by what they love, and seem like they'd just be the nicest, most fun people in the world to talk to.

If you want to check out the entire "Yesterday" series (these are pictures 3 and 4 of 9), click here.

A little healthy competition

I think this picture is simply amazing, not only on its technical merits, but because of the meaning behind it.



Isn't it amazing how people will create such phenomenal statements without even realizing it? All the sports pennants, underneath newspapers detailing the events of World War II. I doubt the store owners meant to do it, but to me it makes a statement about how the two are really just points on the same spectrum. All kind of a big testosterone-y game. Of course, I'll take football over Nazis anytime...

If you want to check out the entire series (this is picture #2 of 9), click here.

New Photo Essays

Jason put up three new photo essays over the weekend, so I'm going to pick some of my favorites to put here. I also updated the right "breaking news" to tell about Jason's new photo zine, which he sends out for free.



Jason went to Chicago over the holidays, and he and his friends found this weird movie and comics store. It strikes me as one of those places that has been there forever, and probably has some rare edition of a 1959 Lil Abner comic worth millions buried on the bottom of a bookshelf.

I like this picture because it's like "Where's Waldo": the more I look at it, the more I find. I like the colored flags, which have either been up since the grand opening, or were someone's grand idea of how to spruce up the place. I've been looking at the "NO" sign trying to read it - I got the no Smoking or Food, but the last two I can't quite make out. And is that a covered wagon on the left of the Yesterday sign?

Then I try to make out some of the items in the window, and when I can't see them I just imagine all the fun possibilities. For movie and comic book nerds like me, this place seems like a little bit of heaven.

Happy New Year!

That last posting was delayed for three weeks...problems with the nameservers or something. But now I'm back and today Jason dropped off over 20 rolls of film that he shot over the holidays, so I have lots of new pictures to look forward to. He also tells me he has a bunch of new photo essays that he'll be posting to his website soon. I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve, and keep watching for new photos in the next few days!