Memory and Desire

Last Saturday I was on Market Street looking for a way into the yard above with a big Ribity multi-coloured piece -- one of the best productions I've seen yet. Steve tipped us off to it and Danny had run out to grab a capture that same day. I didn't get to it until Saturday, and it was grey and gloomy, and I thought I'd inquire at the Lucky 13 Bar next door to see if there was a way into the lot from the back of the bar. No dice. I loved the interior aesthetic within -- black walls covered with murals, grim kitschy skull tsotchkes, a great skylight pouring down a slender patch of light in the middle of the dark room... but the smell -- stale beer, sweat, stagnant, uncirculating air -- was almost more than I could bear. I asked the barkeep if he knew of a backway I could get to Ribity; he didn't, and I was back to peering at the piece from outside.

Market Street is a fairly busy street, and I was basically peering through some gaps into a boarded up lot, shooting first with my large 20D, and then with my smaller A80 for mobility (stronger zoom, capable of being wedged into smallish spaces...). Perhaps it was the rainy weather, perhaps that strip of Market isn't as busy as say, the Castro-Market intersection, but I didn't feel anything was amiss as I peered through the gaps and taking photographs.

And then someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to a face that looked remarkably like John Ashcroft's (kid you not!) to hear it intone, "Hey, Homeland Security's watching you..." Then just as rapidly that face smiled and quickly said, "just kidding," leaving me somewhat open-mouthed and askance...

And it was then that I began to feel a bit odd and self-conscious, the attention and comment from one person -- a joke at that -- enough to turn my self-confidence and comfort to embarrasment and guilt. Perhaps I'm a little too sensitive, but it was precisely that very feeling we ventured down to MUNI to counteract. There is nothing wrong with taking photographs, but somehow 9/11 has managed to turn well-meaning, average individuals into hyper-paranoid nervous wrecks. And when you put such individuals into positions of some authority, there is the potential of the infringement of civil liberties...

Since posting the MUNI photos, I received comments from 2 Flickr friends regarding experiences they, or their friends have had -- Sharyn provides a link to a friend in Minnesota, while Kris talks about his own experience in NYC. Hooray for GeeDumbya!

The lemon-lime Ribity series starts here...