Driv(ing)-By(e): Dracula

25°48'18.9"N 80°12'26.6"W

I have a habit of conscientiously avoiding the same route home. I dont necessarily go out of my way, but I do change things up a bit each day. I also don’t like take the same route home as I took to get where I was going. I remember when the habit started. I had just started working as an executive protection agent, still in training; still wearing the “FNG” hat during exercises. I was tired and not paying attention and I was followed home by someone… and I didn’t notice. Fortunately, she wasn’t dangerous or malicious, just cute and trying to be cute.

During 2019, video stores aren’t a thing. Blockbuster video, on the other hand, was very much a thing of my youth during the 80’s and 90’s while I was growing up along the western plains. Living in the country, were the nearest stop light was more than a mile away, the weekly trek into town on Friday night with my mom to get movies for the weekend was an opportunity to catch up on the latest buzz; even though the buzz was mostly gone as the movies had been in and out from the theaters by the time I got to see them. But it was exciting nonetheless. Usually, I could select one, if I had behaved all week. Birthdays and special occasions, two or maybe three(!) movies for the weekend!

During all the drives that I have taken home along NW 7th avenue, I never recognized seeing “Dracula Video.” The store sits near on the south side of an intersection and I would always be focused on the traffic light and other vehicles as I approached, particularly because I would often turn right at that intersection. This night I just happen to be stopped at a red light with an unusual amount of traffic in front of me, resulting in a few moment to observe, remember and reflect.

During 2019, I imagine their clientele is largely without high-speed internet access. Which is also without access to banking, shopping, grocery deliveries and any form of education, especially during the pandemic. Early on during the pandemic, there were many memes online about learning a new skill or taking up a new hobby while stuck at home. Just as I did not see this video store, most of their patrons may be part of the invisible “other” without access to online job training or self-improvement but among the most vulnerable of our community.

Driv(ing)-By(e): Freighty

25°50'29.4"N 80°11'47.6"W

Fright trains hold a specific place in my psyche. Even though I really didn’t like the book, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, I romanticized about seeing the country by freight train. During 2006 when I was living in Alaska and laid off from Noritsu, I tried applying to the railroad. With 20/20 hindsight, thankfully, that didn’t work out. While I would have loved to have remained living in AIaska, I fully understood that it would be a terrible way to see the country; but I connect with the idea of traveling across the country and being On The Road. Much of my early photography, including my senior exhibition for undergrad graduation, focused on my travels, On The Road, with Roxy, my 1977 Corvette. Through the years there have been many memories of trains, but two really stood out when I shot and edited this image.

When I was in high school, a friend was killed late one night while driving on a country road when she ran into the broadside of a freight train that was traveling at high speed. There were no crossing lights at the intersection. It was a dark night. It was moonless night. And based on the lack of skid marks, she never knew what she hit. Even worse, her toddler was in the car with her. In an ironic twist, I found out about the accident the next evening when I arrived at the home of a date. I learned not only of the death of my friend, but that she was a mutual friend of my date.

For many years, my wife and I have lived in a townhouse about 40 yards from train tracks that have freight and commuter trains rolling back and forth most of the day and evening. For the most part, we rarely hear the trains go past. But, the trains have been a constant source of entertainment for our sons. Each of them, between 18 months and 3 years old, have run to the door screaming that “Freighty” is going past! Not until I I take them out and let them watch the train cars rubble by from my shoulders - counting the cars, naming the colors until the last car passes - would they stop shouting. Of course, I never let on that I loved doing that with them. If I had, they would have quickly forgotten about the trains and wanted to watch Blippi instead!

Driv(ing)-By(e): Specticals

25°49'46.1"N 80°11'46.8"W

What caught my attention at this intersection was how people were choosing to time their crossing. In Miami, pedestrians rarely pay any attention to intersections or stop lights. While I waited at the red light and traffic was crossing in front of me, a group of 3 young women began pushing a baby stroller across the street with the oncoming traffic. Like the young man on the bike, they group was wearing dark clothing and paying little attention to the traffic. The bike rider was riding circles around them, waiting for an opportunity to cross, which he began right as my light turned green and the oncoming car……

The title for this post is inspired by the bike tires and how I am reminded of the eyes in Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s 1932 image, 'Parabola optica.'