Blog Archives
going up against chaos
Just before the railroad overpass, there’s an L-shaped building that’s painted bright green. You can’t miss it.
It used to be a restaurant, and fading lettering on the outside of the building lists some of the options – tortas, tacos, burritos, tripas*, lengua**, and so forth. The short side of the L, toward the back of the lot, has a missing window. If you look in, you can see a mysterious pile of unbroken piñatas. And a framed picture of a giraffe with a price tag that says $39.99. That’s a pretty good price for art and a shrewd bargainer could probably get a piñatas or two thrown in.
Plainview, Texas
photographed 4.18.2025
*tripe
**tongue
on the level
Why not take an ant’s-eye view photo?
Lorenzo’s not the kind of town that requires a long wait for a break in traffic there on the main street (which is actually Harrison Street), but still, that morning that I was there, it did seem like a statistically-unlikely number of people were out (and further, that they slowed down when they went by) on that Friday morning.
Lorenzo, Texas
photographed 4.18.2025
thin books
Quite a few years ago, I participated in a thing called National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write a 50,000 word manuscript during the month of November. I made an attempt to explain what I was doing to some family members who were – to put it as delicately as possible – not regular readers. That led to a conversation where I assured Party 1 that novels were fiction, that fiction was what made it a novel, that fiction and novels were the same, that fiction was “made up”, and on for a few more rounds. It did not go well. And just when I thought the conversation could not be more frustrating, Party 2 chimed in and said, “Yes [Party 1] – all novels are fiction. The other kind is autobiography.” So there you have it, you lovers of other so-called genres of writing – there are only two. Sort of a binary option, if you will.
I’m not sure how that impacts the veracity of this sign, which is also binary, only the categories here are “thin” and “thick.”
But the good news is that, per the sign, a thin book is priced at one-quarter of a cent, which is indeed a bargain. Or, rather, would have been a bargain except that the place is being torn down.
Lorenzo, Texas
photographed 4.18.2025
most of a chair
This? Oh, just part of a chair.
Part of a chair that’s suspended from a window.
Part of a chair that’s suspended from a window in the usual fashion.
Hardly even worth mentioning, really.
Monreale, Sicily
photographed 1.30.2025
the strongest remain
You know your guide and driver are reading the room when they make non-routine stops (without even being asked) – for important things like roadside ruins or newly blossoming almond trees or the light hitting a hillside town in just the right way – so the photographers could pile out and do our things.
near Enna, Sicily
photographed 2.3.2025
One Day | One Image 