(1991)
Window shopping, Philadelphia
Back alley, Philadelphia
(1992)
Before the rain, Avalon, N.J.
(2020)
Rehearsal space, Philadelphia
“E flat into G sharp minor? No.” Chris Larkin (1984)
Cécile, Wilmington, Del.
(2018)
Sunbeam, New York
(1997)
Smokers’ corner, Wilmington, Del.
(2019)
The W&J, Northern Liberties, Philadelphia
“Youth must keep decently away.” (Eugene O’Neill) The first time I entered this joint, on a late night in spring, my friends and I had to be buzzed in. It was named the W&J, at 5th & Poplar Sts., and both Walter and Juliette, the aging Polish couple who owned it, were on the other side of the door along with absolutely no one else. There were handwritten signs prohibiting cursing. This was the Philadelphia few knew. I moved into the neighborhood a couple years later, at the cusp of its gentrification, and not long after that the place was sold to a couple of guys in their 30s who turned it into what would then have been called a hipster bar. The guys were OK, but the secret weirdness was gone. (2001)
Tiniest redwood, near Eureka, Calif.
(1997)
Boardwalk guys, Wildwood, N.J.
Tony, tonight is going to be special. It gets weird at the Jersey shore after Labor Day. No one’s driving slowly anymore because the cops don’t care, or the cops were part-timers anyway and are back on the mainland. The whole barrier island becomes a construction site. Some businesses are still open, others already said fuck it. More than any other place here, the boardwalk — home to three piers of amusement rides and you don’t want to know what else — really loses it by mid-September. Behind the lens at this moment there’s a guy giving a shopkeeper the business about Jesus Christ, and the shopkeeper is having none of it. Two old dames are driving too fast in their motorized chairs and laughing hysterically. There are no rides running and no one young enough left to want them. And then there are these two guys. (2020)
