Well, a general store bonanza to be more accurate. Now I’m sure that supermarkets in New Hampshire look just like regular supermarkets anywhere else in the world, but North Conway, New Hampshire has a very special general store. Good, how I do love those Olde Time things that New England towns offer in abundance.

Zed’s General Store is on the main road in North Conway and is one of those places with 5,000 things in a space that can really hold 500 things. And most of those things are candy. They also have a talking moose and all kinds of weird additions to the store that add to its charm.

Unfortunately, I was kind of in a hurry, so I couldn’t get any red laces, penuchi fudge and a Moxie to wash it down with. Next time. You know what they say? One minute on the lips, a lifetime, eh who cares? I mean I ate an ice cream called a Salty Pimp last week.

LET THE SUPERMARKET BONANZA BEGIN!!!!

Recently, I went to an exhibit called “China Through The Looking Glass” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It had to be one of the most beautiful exhibits anywhere of anything I have ever seen. It traced the influence of China on fashion. The people at the Met really have it right with the way they do their exhibits. The exhibits are always so interesting and so engaging that you don’t even feel like you are in a “museum.” It is like you are in this other world of beautiful things. Maybe a jewelry box or someone’s dream. I’m writing this because I do get to go to a lot of museums and really the Met is the best.

As an added bonus, I go to see the exhibit with my friend who works at the Costume Institute (the Anna Wintour Costume Institute, sorry) at the Met. I turned to her and said “oh that looks like an Yves Saint Laurent.” Oh that one over there is like a Paul Poiret. We talked dresses. It was magnificent. So seldom do I find another person who speaks fashion!!!! I’m like an encyclopedia of fashion who wears virtually the same thing everyday, like my beloved Bill Cunningham.

Now let’s talk FASHION. First off, here we’ve got what I thought was a Yves Saint Laurent, but I later found out was a Ralph Lauren. The one after is a John Galliano, I think, but I could be wrong. Looks like a chartreuse number with fur trim he designed before:

Now some haute couture. Or hawt cuttere. Whichever pronunciation you prefer:

And now for something completely different:

Something for my evenings at Chateau de Wideville with Marisa Berenson (you need to speak ADVANCED fashion to get that reference):

Finally, lost in the glass fields:

I very nearly did not put my camera in my bag this morning. Really, I was pretty close to leaving the camera at home this morning because it is heavy and I was tired from lugging it around with me this whole week.

But I thought to myself — I’m going to Fenway tonight and maybe, just maybe I’ll see those guys dressed as the bowling pins.

I was walking to Fenway when I saw my beloved bowling pins!!!!! Never, ever, ever leaving the house without my camera ever again:

Well, after five years in my palatial maisonette in Allston, I’ve decided to move. Where you ask? Oh my new apartment is in a prime location, with beautiful views, exposed brick with plenty of history attached to it. Want to see?

OK, OK, it requires some fixing up obviously. What is this place and where is it? Well, that is the bottom of the bell tower in the Old North Church in Boston. It is where a group of students from the MIT Church Bell Ringers Guild (at least it isn’t the Assassin’s Guild) goes in and rings the bells.

I know the interior space doesn’t look great right now, but somehow when I went there, I imagined myself living there. I thought “wouldn’t the t-rex fit in perfectly over there?” I mean I could get a bed, some kind of curtain around to make it feel less like a studio. Then I could get a kettle and hot plate and some kind of small fridge. I mean I never cook, so that would be sufficient. They already have a bathroom up there. They’d just have to install a shower.

Nah, I’m kidding. But visiting the place was really interesting. Who doesn’t want to live in a 300 year old church bell tower anyway?

Oh I nearly forgot. The views:

I almost freaked out when I saw this thing today. I assume it is some kind of water valve system, but really I mean I’m not an expert in valves or whatever this thing is, but man was this thing every amazingly vast. Like some kind of water system octopus or something:

I did a meditations on photography post recently with the woman posing photos in the art gallery. What I wrote in that post, I kept in mind when I was taking the photos I’m about to describe here.

I went to the Jazz Age Lawn Party as you saw in the other entries. Going to New York usually involves passing through Times Square, as it is where the bus stops and of course where one can usually take all sorts of weird photos. And where weird is, I’m usually nearby just taking a photo of it.

So I went to Times Square to shoot a statue called “Unconditional Surrender” by Seward Johnson. It is a statue of the iconic Alfred Eisenstadt photo of the nurse and sailor kissing after the declaration of the end of World War II. Now that is an iconic photo and the statue is quite interesting and absolutely impossible to get a good photo of. I’ve taken photos of it before and no matter what, the photo you take of it is flat and boring. How can shooting a standing object that is so iconic and larger than life be so incredibly difficult? Well, it was.

I shot as quickly as I could. Did I get a good photo? Well, time to judge:

These are fine. I tried several different ways, different lenses and I guess they are fine. Maybe more wide angle, maybe more buildings, who knows.

Well, then we come to the other photographic highlight of any trip to Times Square. The place is not only populated by angry Elmos and Metal Hero Friends, I mean Ironman, but also naked painted ladies. The first time I saw that, I couldn’t believe that someone would go marching around basically naked in a place like Times Square. Now I’ve seen it a couple of times and it seems kind of normal to me to see that. I mean its not normal, although considering how many clicks the mostly nude man in the thong got, something that the public is clamoring for.

On a photography note, these were pretty easy to take. The moving object was easy to find and situate in a photographic fashion. And that sign about Jesus behind the argument (photo TK) was just pure luck. New York, New York, the town so nice they named it twice.

People of Times Square, welcome back to my blog:

As I mentioned on the blog a short time ago, I ran into Bill Cunningham in front of South Station recently. Well, not exactly surprisingly, he was at the 1920s party on Governor’s Island as well on Sunday.

My friend and I boarded the ferry to Governor’s Island to find Bill sleeping very soundly on the ferry ride. I kind of wanted to take a photo but I figured I’d give the guy a little peace and quiet. Probably stayed out too late the night before anyway.

He seems like a funny guy in general. There he was, obviously exhausted, his knee in a brace with a cane on his way to photograph yet another event. I guess on some level I can relate to this.

Good to see you again, Bill!!!!

That image with the woman standing there, that was dumb luck that it even looked good. I was standing on the edges, as I mentioned and I got this kind of shot where the person was standing there and then I got another shot which was just black. The outlined woman just kinda ended up looking good out of dumb luck.

Every year I photograph Michael Arenella, the band leader of the absolutely aptly named Dreamland Orchestra and every year I am much too intimidated by him to even say a word to him.

He always looks so well put together and his suits are so well pressed and all the rest of it and I’m there in my melted shoes taking his photo from far away, just desperately trying to get the correct angle on him.

The guy is a real showman and the songs he picks every year give the party this wonderful atmosphere that I’m not sure any other party would have if the band leader weren’t quite so great.

Here he is, the main attraction:

How I lived so many years of my life without my yearly sojourn to New York to attend the Jazz Age Lawn Party, I will never know, but here we are. Its 2015, and I’ve attended ANOTHER of their amazing parties.

My New York friends decided that the party has gone way commercial and elected to hang out at the edges. I decided to stay with my friends this year and just hang on the edges as well. It was equally great and produced (what I think) are just as wonderful images as in years past. I love how the party attracts both those who want to be seen and those who want to see them.

On my own note, this year I wore a vintage dress that was not from the vintage of the party, but it was vintage and shoes that completely and utterly melted when it came to the end of the party. Oh well. Oh and it rained, but the photos I got of that weren’t particularly interesting.

But these were!!!!!