Category: Portraits

“Small Things” – Blah Day

So, I started out at a 10:00 movie which turned out to be Blah movie. Couldn’t hear most of the dialogue. Story did not live up to the reviews. Small Things…. Oh, look what I brought you for Christmas, a new family member. I wondered more about the town’s reaction to the last scene more than the movie itself, which was blah. So, the church takes in girls and works them in a laundry. A girl has become pregnant and is forced to sleep in the coal shed that the main character delivers coal to. He gets bribed to keep the story silent with a cash payment and semi promise that his daughters will be admitted to the Catholic school. In the meantime, he finds out he was raised by a protestant after his mother died unexpectedly. Blah. Blah. And he washed his hands a lot.

Movie give something to think about, but since I couldn’t hear all the dialogue, accents and bad sound, I had to fill in the blanks. Movie has great acting and good cinematography, but was not as suspenseful or exciting as I had hoped.

Then when I could not figure out what I wanted for lunch. Settled for Blah pizza.

Then I went to Doris. Got into a stupid argument with the owner over a $6.95 return of green olives. Picked up a lobster, drank complimentary sparkling and came home to get over the blahs.

I Was Robbed

So, after determining I had done nothing wrong, except holding a recent reappointment, Rudy and his auto shop buddy, with support of a gang of unknowns by name and uniform, to me, got Pataki and Bruno to ask the COMMISSION to investigate me based on “they had heard things.” They knew the people who could do it.
My life got ruined, my career as a judge ended and we had to sell our home and move, to Vermont, where I found little love and more distrust/hatred.
I don’t have much of a life anymore except for Sharon and I am dying. No one cared and no one understood. Except for Ron Russo.
I used to be somebody. Now I am someone else. Them: To my friends, everything; to my enemies, THE LAW. Sing it: I fought the law and the law won. And everyone knows how fair and impartial the courts are!
By the way, has Trump been sentenced yet?

 

Publix Sushi Maker

I don’t know his name, but I eat what he makes. I smile at him; he smiles back. If I don’t see what I want, I point or tell him. Whether he understands, I dunno. But our Publix puts out a credible Sushi and handroll product.

I have taken many images of workers at the store, printed and distributed them. Dunnot know what they do with them. A fruit cutter had hers on the wall for all to see. Usually supermarkets have the manager’s images posted near the service/complaint dest next to the founder’s. I give the workers equal status.

Tree Trimmers

 

So, an almost disaster morning turned out to be a winner, better than I hoped or anticipated.

Here I was, MINDING my own business, sitting on the lanai, trying to do something creative with colored felt tip markers, sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Finished meditating. Looking around for a photo. No birds around singing or fishing. No trees blowing in the wind. No flowers in bloom. Just carts spreading poisons and lawn care workers shaving trees. The noise was deafening and the spraying made my eyes tear.

As I got packed up to go inside, a man wearing a Yankee baseball hat, holding a chainsaw (an instrument of destruction unfamiliar to and not allowed in the arsenal of Jewish men) knocked on the screen. In some undecipherable language, he motioned with his hands like he had a camera and said “Photo.” Let’s leave aside how he knew I was a photog, something I will never know and couldn’t ask, but I assumed he meant he wanted me to take his photo.

I grabbed my nearby camera, made sure I had a chip and a battery, and went outside. There were two of them. I separated them, posed them and shot, using my hands and feet and some facial expressions. They bantered, but I didn’t understand a word. After a few shots, I held up 5 fingers and said 5 minutes; they pointed where they were going.

I ran inside to the printer, imported the chip, did some minor processing and printed two 8.5×11 prints. Now, I had to find them.

Without saying something which will have me accused of some racist language, the workers all looked alike, except for their tools. I stopped a few, showed them the pics and asked, using hand signals, where the guys were. Some didn’t answer, probably fearing I was ICE. One pointed down the block and followed me as I continued my search.

I could hear the sound of the trimmer and knew I was on the right track. When they saw me, they turned off their instruments of destruction. One came over to me, looked at the image, smiled and gave me a sweaty half-hug. The other glowed.

Not bad for a street photo inside the Gates of Valencia Reserve, eh?

Passport Renewal

Not that we are going anywhere, but our passports needed renewal because we had run out of blank pages. How do you like that? We had been to so many places that required a stamp, that we didn’t have enough pages if we travelled again.

Sadly, I had to send in the passport to get a new one. I didn’t make a copy of the pages to remind me where I have been. I can remember, but who knows for how long. And, at 76, this is probably my last passport. Perhaps they will return it and I will have to rely on my fading memory.

But the best thing was making the photos, pictured above to use. They provide a list of requirements: size, color, pose, lighting, background, expression, attire. They also provide a crop tool.

To fill out the application on your computer, you need Adobe Acrobat. I downloaded it, gave them a credit card, and got a clean copy so no-one could complain about my handwriting. Today, I will have to cancel my 7 day trial (why doesn’t AARP have a discount for this?).

I used my studio lights and a white backdrop. Printed on my semi-professional printer. Cut on a paper cutter and used an exacto blade on the edges. The final results will be mailed to the Government and copies stored in my portfolio.

This saved me no money, because …. But it did save me a trip to UPS or Staples or a photog. Now, I just have to deal with the anxiety of having my pictures rejected for some technical reason like the wrong size, expression, lighting or clothing.

Lorin Duckman, 76



So, here I am, alive at 76. Complicated year health wise, not all resolved. Travelled extensively. Made a few new friends. Kept old enemies. Still no family on my side. Won’t reconcile with any.

Improved creatively. Read a lot. Saw some movies. Learned a few things, but no new tricks. Overall, a good enough year to make me want more.

Gotta live with the hand dealt with. No reformation or rehabilitation on the horizon. Nothing I can do to help anyone or myself.

Just need to stay fresh and interesting enough for Sharon. We all know what a headache I can be. Then we both will deal with aging and our end game.