I went out for coffee this weekend and noticed two white billboards on my block, which struck me as such a breath of fresh air. As I walked down the block I began to notice that several billboards around the neighborhood had been rolled over white. I spent the day walking around in search for the next one and by the afternoon some really amazing art started to pop up. Totally magical day for NYC. 
A week ago we had our first nice day, the afternoon hit eighty degrees and I went directly to Union Square to check out the inevitable spring fever freakout. Was good to see some familiar faces, hung around for a while, these guys had the best moves that afternoon.
I knew this girl once. She was really awesome and somehow our time together was often brutally intense. And then I went on an adventure. It was an unmitigated adventure, but still took pause to think about her while eating at a whole foods in Denver, or Austin or Phoenix or while trying to find one in Alamogordo, Park City or Winnemucca. And then I came back. And then she was gone. 
Two seasons later, while at the Senior Prom, I get a text from a number I had long since deleted, imagine my surprise when I figured out who it was from. Two scenes later, with a “gate’s good!” still echoing off the marble bank walls, I dashed out into the rain to meet her.
And now she’s back. Her hair is darker. I really really, really really like it. I didnt remember her eyes as big as they really are. It was the first time we walked under an umbrella together. I had never seen her in a winter jacket before.
In the twenty minutes of catch up you can do before you have to go back to work, it was revealed that she’s gone in five weeks. Graduating, moving, you know the routine.
Perhaps the best kind of merriment is that time capsule supercharged kind of madness that can only occur in limited engagements. These moments, its seems, are the best ones to remember, judging by the order I remember things in… The people involved in the limited engagement circus are the ones that always kinda enrich life in the most unique and delightful ways. I have some awesome people in my act, but its always sad when the circus leaves town…
with the weather finally starting to break here in NYC, Im looking forward to those endless afternoons in Union Square that seamlessly pass into the evening through the dark of night. Here’s some pictures from last year of my favorite drummer that sets up there and the crowd he usually draws…
Last week I posted this video on my facebook page:
Since then Ive watched it too many times. Today I popped it up again and quite randomly found the guy in purple hanging loose right as the plane got airborne oddly familiar. Turns out that I was out on the playa that afternoon taking pictures of peeps for a coffee table book project Im working on and purple hang loose guy landed right in front of me.
Tom was from Rotterdam, if memory serves correct. Im pretty sure he’s officially the first Dutch guy I had ever met at Burning Man.
As we chatted, pooh bear appointed David showed up in an art car and stopped to offer Tom a ride either back to his camp or possibly just around…
Before long, cruising in an art car got to be way cooler than standing in front of my summicron and they were both gone, just as fast as they showed up, one from the sky, one from the department of mutant vehicles, with just a few frames to document the moment.
A moment all but forgotten about until I started watching videos of people jumping out of planes. Ive shot about 500 people on two continents for this project so far and this serves as the first time I have randomly recognized a stranger I shot out there in the ether. Color me pleased with being able to offer everyone an epilogue to the youtube clip.