block # 1: chinatown
February 9, 2009
broadway, from alpine to college. my first block for project # 1. and how lucky am i? it’s chinese new year.
the emely bear show
February 8, 2009
takes place nightly in front of the pink, princess mirror where she dances by herself: za za za … ya cooza ya cooza. she wants dresses made of cotton candy. shiny shoes with glitter, too. the other day at in-n-out she asked me for “a strawberry milkshake and a burger with the brown stuff and the green stuff, but no red stuff and no white stuff. ’cause that’s gross, nana. for reals.”
*photo: home. january 2008.
10,000 brainiacs
February 8, 2009
since when did being brainy become so cool? went to two academic decathlons and a spelling bee today. came away a bit inspired, a bit befuddled. back in the day, (circa 1993) scoring As only scored you jeers. they’d call out from across campus: “smack … smack! smack!” (this was the thing to call nerds at my junior high for some reason. not nerd. not geek. smack. ’till this day, i haven’t found someone familiar with its use.) one time, my picture (a photo i’m still lighting on fire in my mind) ended up taped to the flag pole outside the school — just in time for everyone to see on their way home.
there was a period (short-lived, but sweet) when my brainpower (and by brainpower i mostly mean literary stuff because math and science is like hieroglyphics to me) won me some cool points. i began writing poems. about boys and girls and crushes and heartbreaks. soon, people — people i’d never met — like other smacks and cheerleaders and goths and jocks and gangsters started to tell me their love problems and ask me to write poems for them. once, i wrote one for aja baruch, this tough, cherub-faced 13-year-old who had just learned she was pregnant. my poem was like:
i wanted to trust you
but i was so wrong
you made me cry
and now i’m gonna be a mom
genius, i know. (i was 13 and pubertal, people!) but somehow, for some reason, people dug it. and i dug it. i wrote more than 200 poems by year’s end. wrote a poem on behalf of our class for the yearbook, too. should have charged all those cool kids for my stanzas instead of wasting my time hawking all that cheap mexican candy out of my kerokerokeroppi lunch box.
* photo: usc. february 2009.
squealed with delight
February 7, 2009
when i found these pajaritos at the bookstore to start my super cool (like jem and the holograms, she-ra princess of power cool) #22. they remind me of ginny, my college roommate and travel buddy. she’s sweet and soft and tiny like a bird. i’m picturing her smiling as she finds the yellow envelope in her mailbox in madrid.
* photo: palacio real. madrid 2005.
first thing i see
February 6, 2009
when i turn the corner on my way home each night. it amazes me how much downtown la transformed while i was gone. there are art galleries and lofts and fancy restaurants and young professionals strolling on the sidewalk with their pups. blows my mind.
* photo: on 3rd looking toward broadway. february 2009.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
February 4, 2009
2) the love: portraits of family and friends. little stories, quotes, reflections of them and me and what we are.
3) up above: in portland i hardly looked at the sky. i didn’t want to. the grey taunted me day after day. here, i wake up and want to race toward the window and say HELLOOOOO! to the sun, tie a thank you note to a shiny red balloon and release it into the air. the blue, it is clear and vast and bright and loyal and it is screaming for my camera’s attention.
4) self-portrait: given how heavy my camera feels, how short my limbs are and how limited my upper-body strength is, this might be a tall order. but i’m going to try to experiment with different elements like light, wind, water and reflection.
5) words: that tickle my tongue and make me pucker my lips; that slip and linger and beg to be said again. photos of words because of the way they look, the way they sound, what they represent or how they make me feel.
* photo: bridge on the edge of a tiny town in sonora, mexico. march 2008.
** woo-hooo! this gets me launched on #10, #16 and #21 on the list of 29 things.
self-portrait # 1: shadows
February 4, 2009
it was a don quixote-sancho panza kind of day. sunny april afternoon skipping along the cobblestone paths of toledo, spain with ginny. past a row of bashful nuns draped in black and white, past the unchecked chatter of uniformed school kids, past shop windows displaying warm, baked bread and handmade silk shawls. every single thing i laid my eyes on that day was a new discovery.
* photos: toledo, spain. april 2005.
up above
February 2, 2009
a violet bluet.
*photo: la mirada. february 2009.
we saw the sun go down
February 2, 2009
in my favorite park today. my grandma fed the ducks. my aunt climbed a tree. we laughed and talked and walked around the lake.
this is my family’s park, la mirada park. there are silky, rolling hills that rise and fall as far as the eye can see — towering firs, winding paths, tennis courts and picnic tables. picnic tables that overflow with watermelon and tamales for our birthdays, graduations and warm, lazy saturdays. we pounce on piñatas, chase each other with water balloons and linger until grasshoppers begin to sing. aunts and uncles may be quarreling, but they still show up.
here is where i got my all-time favorite kiss (from a boy that died later that year). where my cousin, selenia, and i would arm ourselves with sticks and scour trash cans for aluminum cans. where my high school friends and i would sneak off to after the summer carnival. and where once, in fourth grade, as i ducked my head in the shallow end of the pool to hide from a friend, i sprung up with something green and slimy in my mouth. boogers, maybe.
* photo: la mirada. february 2009.
