Boston Park Street Station
Cris and I drove into Boston last night for the World Education annual dinner. She had the board meeting today so I got the chance to wander around Boston. It was a beautiful Autumn day and there was a nice relaxed vibe about town. The Red Line was shut down between Park and Kendall so the T was running buses between the two stations.
There was fresh air coming into the crowded bus through the emergency exit. / Sometimes I don’t know why I take certain photographs. And then I don’t know why I post them here. But I end up shooting a lot of public transport images like the one on top, and I like the graphic nature of the emergency exit shot.
Andre Dubus III
I received my preview copy of the latest Poets & Writers in the mail today. They chose a really nice photo of Andre Dubus III for the article ↓. There is no online link to the story yet, but they will probably put one up once the magazine has been on the newsstands for a while. Check it out!
He is on a book tour to promote “Dirty Love”, and I was able to say hi last week when he gave a reading at Politics and Prose in DC.
DC From the Past (Update)
After I posted the shots of the capitol building yesterday, I found myself thinking about previous visits to the same location. I took the above picture sometime in 1985 (when this Studebaker Lark was already over 20 years old). It was this photo that popped into my mind as I was taking yesterday’s shot.
I took the above photograph on 19th January, 1985 the night before Reagan’s second inauguration. Stacy Dabney (and I am not sure of the exact spelling) was living under these very same steps. My friend Brad Edmondson and I were walking around the building the night before the ceremony and we were surprised to see this gentleman living there. He was happy to talk to us about his situation. He was a veteran and felt he was getting screwed by the VA. The Capitol Police didn’t bother him much, but Stacy was pretty sure they would kick him out by the next day. They did. I remember thinking at the time that this was a HUGE story that no one was covering. A homeless guy living under the capitol building.
Brad and I were back in DC that April working on a story about congressman Matt McHugh (D-NY 1975-1993). We went back to the capitol steps and sure enough Stacy was still in residence. We caught him late at night just as he was turning in. It still seems amazing that not only was he living there, but the police never really hassled him. This shot was taken on 24 April, 1985 and it was the last time I saw him. Do any of you out there remember meeting him or reading about him? I did a search for his name and nothing came up. (UPDATE. Thanks to reader DotRot for letting me know his real name.; Stacy Abner. Here is a link to an article that explains the situation. Still an amazing story.)
I really like this photo of Brad, taken that same evening just after we left Stacy.
DC Again
Cris and I are in DC for the long weekend visiting Peter. We have been walking quite a lot and eating well. Today was a visit to Tortilla Cafe near Eastern Market which was amazing and cheap. / I haven’t been inspired to shoot much, but the light was nice today and it is pleasant to see roses still blooming in October.
It is odd to see the public parts of the federal government closed up (not that you could get up these steps when there is no government shut-down). I used to spend quite a bit of time shooting here, and for a time anyone could walk right up to the top. Times change; what can you do?
Tom Schack / Outerstylie
My good bud Tom Schack just got the first pressing of his band Outerstylie’s new CD. He was kind enough to give me a copy (#2) which he is holding in his hand. He was totally stoked to finally have it. I’m listening to it now and it sounds great. Here he is at his “day job”.
Willard Suitcases / Charles F
I have started shooting two days a week at the museum in an attempt to get through all 400 cases. I have a long way to go. Last week Peg was not able to help out and I was only able to get through 4 empty cases in a day.. She was with me this Wednesday and Thursday and we really wailed. We were able to get through several empty cases and then started on Charles F’s collection; 2 small cases and a huge trunk with 4 archival boxes filled with his possessions. He was such an interesting fellow and had saved very interesting items. He was born in Russia in 1861, became a US citizen in 1896 and was admitted to Willard in 1946. He died there and is buried in Ithaca.
Amazing.
I have slowly been uploading more cases to the gallery on willardsuitcases.com. Check it out by clicking on “The Cases” in the tabs section at the top of the page.
Ithaca Suitcase Talk
I will be talking about the Willard Suitcases project at the Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca, NY on Thursday, 24th October. Craig Williams will also be there and it should be a fun evening. The event will take place in the Borg Warner room at 6.00 PM and is, of course, open to the public. It would be a good chance to meet those of you who live in central New York and can attend.
I like this photograph from John C’s case as it shows how carefully the staff at the New York State museum worked to preserve these delicate objects. I have just uploaded his suitcase to the willardsuitcases.com site, so you can now see what else John had with him at Willard.
willardsuitcases.com is now live!
Well, this took a while. I was feeling a bit low about the fact that it took me so long to have the suitcases site up and running. Steve Fox, who designed it and put it together was very sympathetic when I expressed this to him. He mentioned a great Chinese proverb that I had never heard. “The best time to plant a tree is 100 years ago. The second best time is right now”. So I guess it isn’t too late. He did such a beautiful job and I am so pleased with the results. So, just a few notes. It is going to take quite a while for me to upload all the cases, but once I have done so, each one will be available to see. As of this moment, there are only eight, but bear with me as I work on the images and upload them to the server. Photos will eventually be for sale for anyone interested. I will be offering two sizes and will print them myself. So check it out by clicking here.
Here is a case I shot on Tuesday.
It belonged to Delmar H.
It is one of my favorite suitcases.
It is very heavy and quite battered.
I found myself wishing that more of this label was intact. It is from a hotel in Bologna, Italy.
There were a few really nice features. The handle was very sturdy and the hasps were very well made.
None of Delmar’s possessions were inside; just a few scraps of paper and a piece of twine, along with a small portion of the original label from when she arrived at Willard.
I had been unable to shoot the suitcases for a bit, and it felt so great to be back.
And one more piece of news that totally blows me away. I got an email from Hunter Oatman-Stanford who wrote one of the best (and earliest) articles on the project for Collector’s Weekly. Get this…..his story has garnered over 1 million unique page views! Unreal. I’ll thank him again for blowing this whole thing wide open, as most of the interest the project has received is due to him.
End of a Week
Last Saturday I posted pictures from the Amherst Farmers’ Market. On Thursday I got an email from Casey at Old Friends Farm asking if he could use some of the photos in the farm’s weekly newsletter. I was more than happy to oblige and went into heavy negotiation mode. Pictures for flowers; quite a good deal for us both.
Earlier in the week I went to watch Cris teach an undergrad class in one of the UMASS School of Ed. buildings. The class meets in a now-closed elementary school auditorium. Down a hallway and behind a set of doors with a “NO ENTRY” sign was this school gymnasium. I can remember being a kid at the East End School in Meadville and being in a similar gym (they all look pretty much alike). I especially like the climbing ropes and the cargo net.
Today we drove to Williamstown to meet up with Peggy Ross, her husband Peter, and their friend Pierette who is visiting from France. We met at the Williams College Museum of Art and then walked into town for a beer. It is a lovely small New England town with 2 great museums (the other being the Clark, which is a gem).
Driving back along Route 2, I was compelled to stop and grab a few shots of the Deerfield River.
I hope to have the willardsuitcases.com site up and running tomorrow. I am so excited and will post an update as soon as it is online.
Fungi
We haven’t been walking up in the woods lately since in the summer the bugs are quite bad. This morning, Cris, our friend Kate, and I went for a stroll and were all interested in the number and variety of fungi that we saw. It has been a fairly wet summer, so I guess it is to be expected.
I have never seen these purple guys before.
They looked a bit slimy.
And this orange fellow appeared to be trailing some interesting goop.
I think this yellow one is some form of what my French friend Pol Corvez used to call “pets de nonne”.
After a while, I realized that I was shooting all of these mushrooms from above, so here is a side shot of this ↑one.
I have just enabled the url joncrispinposts. It should be working now, and I am hoping that there will be no problems. If you type in the old one (joncrispin.wordpress.com) it automatically redirects. If any of you have problems accessing the site, shoot me a note. And, as always, thanks for following.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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