Category: Unphotographable

This is a picture I did not take of a homeless man sitting at the corner of Robson and Burrard, next to a newspaper box surrounded by army green blankets and a backpack. He leans on his left elbow, smiles a half-toothless smile, and shakes the curls coming out from his worn baseball cap. People rush by trying not to make eye contact, but they take a quick peek at his small sign. And then another. And another. And then a smile appears on their face, and they start to giggle to themselves. The plastic sign is blue with white writing. It looks familiar. Like a campaign sign. And it says, “I need spare CHANGE I can believe in.” No one gives him spare change.

This post was inspired by UNphotographable.

Saturday we spent the day wandering around downtown San Francisco to see all the holiday decorations and get into the Christmas spirit (as much as it can feel like Christmas in California). We wandered all over and checked out the new mall. Crowds take too much out of me and I was dealing with the results of an open bar at the company Christmas party, so I gave up in Bloomies. So there I was, bleary-eyed in the middle of the make-up department when I had a vision of a redhead in glasses wearing a black Public Enemy hat. No, not my Brendon, but Trey Anastasio! And what do I do in my tired state? Stop dead in my tracks with my mouth agape pulling at Brendon, gasping “I think that’s Trey Anastasio!” And given that we were in Bloomies, no one else around us knew what that meant sadly. Otherwise, I would have come to my senses and gone into stalker mode to get a picture of my two favourite redheaded men together. And I was right, it was him. He was at the Warfield this weekend. Oh well…Happy Christmas!

In Mountain View of a man in the pouring rain on 2 Jan 2006, wearing nothing but sneakers, swim trunks, and snorkeling goggles. He marched on toward Pioneer Park oblivious to the world, as if it was completely normal to be a fish out of water in a monsoon.

And there I was in the car without my camera.

Entry inspired by my friend at UNphotographable.