Voting and Willard Suitcases
I like voting in my little town. Paper ballots, and it usually goes pretty smoothly. I asked if I could photograph in the booth but they said it was against the rules.
Just a note of welcome to all of you who read about my Willard suitcase project on the Collectors Weekly site. Those who haven’t seen the story can check it out here. Hunter did an amazing job and he asked great questions. I am very pleased. It even made it to Digg for a while yesterday. If you are new here and just want to see suitcase posts, check out October and work your way backwards. But I hope you will be interested in my other posts as well. Thanks, Jon
Utility Workers
As I drove up the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday on my way back from DC, I saw lots of FEMA trucks heading to the Jersey shore. There was a large group of workers in front of the Woodrow Wilson service area waiting to find out if they could get fuel for their trucks. I talked to these 3 guys for a bit. They are from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas, and have no idea how long they will be in Ocean Port, NJ getting utilities back up and running. The DOE has the huge task of coordinating crews from all over the country and it is great to see workers from so far away arriving to help out people who are really hurting.
Soccer (Football)
I have always liked soccer. As a kid I first played it at Camp Dudley and then in high school. My junior year at Kiski the JV coach was Ed Schuster and at the end of the season I didn’t travel to the last game. He told me that I was the only kid he ever coached that went from starting at the beginning of the season to being at the bottom of the roster at the end. And I honestly couldn’t figure out why. Another case of me not being able to understand some of the adults in my life. I didn’t play in college but continued to follow the professional game. / Jürgen Kracht was a (very cool) colleague of my fathers at Allegheny College and in the summer of 1968, he and some of his friends asked me to join them to go to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland to see Pele’s Brazilian club Santos play the Cleveland Stokers in a friendly. It think we went in his lovely little red Fiat 850 Special. It was a memorable game in that the Stokers won 2-1 in what seemed a massive upset. Looking it up on the net I found the exact date to be 10 July of that year. We sat quite high up in the stadium, and even though capacity was around 80,000, I seem to remember it being mostly sold out.
Peter is in DC doing an internship with DC United and he was able to get me a ticket for Saturday’s first round playoff match with the Red Bulls at RFK. It was a pretty good match; ended up 1-1 and the crowd at the stadium was really rockin’.
Salvatore is the “12th man” and moves around the ground beating on his drum. I just love the matador get-up. I was hoping to get a shot of him looking at the camera, but I think he was leery of a flash going off. The return match is scheduled for this Wednesday at 8 (NBC Sports Network) at Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, NJ. Go United!
Air Force Two
I had to take my iMac over to Dan to have the hard drive replaced (Apple warranty). Fortunately it hadn’t died yet so not much more than an inconvenience. I have been keeping my laptop open in order to skype with Cris in the West Bank and the screen saver went to a folder of postcards that I used to make and send out to friends. I really like some of these images and realized I could share them here on my wordpress site. It’s fun to think just how much of an impact the digital world has had on photography. I used to print 10 or 15 of these and mail them to friends and clients. Now I can post this and who knows how many people will see it./ This picture was taken at the airport in Elmira, NY. I spent a lot of time covering the 1984 presidential race, and I think this was the Bush VP plane. It reminded me of the election on Tuesday and thought it would be a good time to encourage everyone here in the States to get out and vote.
Japanese Maple
Last year our neighbor Ken decided to open up the front garden of his house and asked us if we would like to have his Japanese Maple. We were interested but since I know nothing about transplanting trees I was a bit leery. For quite some time Ken has had a lovely young man from Russia who is studying nursing at UMASS do yard work, and Andrei was willing to move the tree for us. So last autumn the job was done and I spent the winter worrying that it would die. When spring came it budded out nicely and has been a lovely addition to the front of the house. The leaves started out red and then by July turned green. This is how they look today.
I took Cris to the airport on Saturday, and yesterday she safely arrived at her hotel in Ramallah. She will be in the West Bank until Saturday and then into Gaza. I will be posting a bit more regularly to keep her up to date on what’s happening here.
Hadley, MA field
I don’t know if it makes sense to post this panorama at only 720 pixels (maximum wordpress size for this template), but I like this shot. If you are trying to look at it on your phones, I would forget about it. On a big screen it should look pretty nice. I took the three photos on Friday and stitched them together a few minutes ago. / All of on the east coast are in for a wild few days with hurricane Sandy starting to rile things up. Lots of rain and high winds beginning tomorrow.
1969 Ford Torino GT
I have been driving past this car for quite some time. Today was a good day to stop and take some photos. Torinos were based on the Fairlane platform and as I learned on wikipedia, the name Torino gradually replaced the Fairlane badge. The ones I really remember are the GT versions of which this is a 1969 example. When I first saw these cars, I thought they were quite ugly, but in time they have really grown on me.
This one is mostly covered in primer, but you can note from the pictures that the original color is still evident in some places.
This blue/green is the only color I can recall on this vintage of the GT model. / There are two Ford Torinos in my past. My college roommate Gail had one our Senior year. I am pretty sure it wasn’t a GT, but it could well have been. I remember her coming back to school from Ridgeway, PA where her family lived and telling me that her dad would give her a few extra dollars to put “a tank of Ethyl” in it. And my friend Paul who now lives in Arizona had a really nice GT that he has since sold. He did a lot of work on it himself and in fact one day he drove it out from Boston and tinkered around with it in my driveway.
So, this one is for sale. Paul? Gail?
Walk
The Pearl and I had a nice walk late this afternoon. It was, as they say “seasonably warm”. The cattails are starting to go to seed, or whatever it is they do.
As usual, she found some water on the way back to the car and I was happy to have an old towel to dry her off. She is a great dog.
Recorder
I’m in Princeton, NJ and just finished shooting for the evening. Last night I had a quick job at Smith College and saw this on a bulletin board. It really made me laugh out loud.
Friends and Thanks Alex
I was in Ithaca last week for a quick overnight before a shoot at Binghamton University. I met Tim and Brad at the Lincoln Street diner for breakfast and it was so great to see them both. At one point Tim said that he has started reading this blog and was wondering why I haven’t mentioned him (he was only half serious; just busting my balls a bit as friends are wont to do). I think this is Brad’s first mention as well. Both great friends of mine. I am so lucky.
Alex gets a special thanks. I won’t say why, but this photo of moss is all down to him. And I really love moss.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
4 comments