Lavender Scented Ether Dreams

Spent the day in Brooklyn at Jody Ake's studio making big 8"x10" ambrotypes.  Wait 'till you see.  I am ready to begin when I get home--I think.  It is easier to do with Ake standing there, using his camera, props, lights, chemistry, glass, etc.  But I did the last ones on my own without help, so maybe. . . .

We breathed toxic fumes all day--ether, alcohol, lavender--and handled very dangerous chemicals.  Last night I did not sleep well.  Worst nightmares I've had in I can't tell you.  Terrible things.  Was it coincidental?  Monsters were released.  I can't seem to rid myself of the lavender.

Got home late, showered, and headed downstairs for dinner and drinks alone.  Afterwards, I walked over to midtown.  Jesus Christ, if you ever get to feeling ugly in Manhattan, if you feel your clothes aren't what they should be or if you feel as if you have let yourself go while mingling with the hometown yahoos, just mosey over towards Times Square.  You will be with "your kind."  It is "The People's New York."  Standing on the corner of 47th and Broadway, I watched the crowd go by for half an hour or so.  I don't know what masochistic impulse drove me.  Maybe I was looking for a relative.  I don't know.  I can't say for sure.  Perhaps it was the ether and lavender, or perhaps it was nothing more profound than a heavy fatigue.  I imagined that this was some visitor's New York.  That this was the image she took home.  Perhaps a teenager who has come to visit from Arkansas with her parents.  They've just come from the theater.

Which reminds me.  My friend was at my house and wanted to watch the Tony Awards.  I started to pitch a fit, but I gave in realizing that I needed to be a good host.  Something about it makes me crazy.  It is awful.  Before I came this trip, a woman I work with asked me what show I would see while I was here.  I told her none.  This stymied her.  How could I come to New York and not see a show?

Standing in Time's Square, I got my answer.  I realized in ten thousand blinks of an eye who the audience for those shows were.  Not me.  Broadway is the theater version of network prime time television.  Bingo!

So you can tell me I'm wrong.  I don't care.  You can love "Cats" and "Best Little House on the Prairie" or whatever it was called.  You can love the technicolored coat show.  Admit it if you will.

I will go back one night with my camera.

Apropos of my visit to NYC just now, the friendly people over at 591 have just put up eleven of my street photos from my last trip here.  Mine are just a small part of a very big series featuring about fifty photographers, so you may actually see some photos that are interesting and good if you take the time to look at the lot.

But now I must go.  Time is money in old Manhattan and the day will not wait for me.