Archive for the ‘Photographs’ Category

Suspect Womit

stellahpam
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Stellah is a gadfly, a transplant from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, now living in New York, with a style that spans decades and an accent that at some point, long ago, was identifiable as Australian. I have dined on elegant meals with her on the East and West coasts. Sushi topped with seared foie gras in San Francisco, poached egg drizzled with truffle oil at 4 AM in SOHO after a night of drinking absinthe at a gas-lit bar. She is the one person I simply let order for me.
stellahthaliNow, in a filthy restaurant in Mysore, India, we were sitting across from each other staring down our highly suspect thalis. They had been slopped out of crusty brass buckets onto our banana leaves by a waiter in a filthy uniform. A mound of rice in the center, surrounded by splotches of what looked to be different varieties of small animal “womit,” as they say in India, like a sadistic science display where you’re meant to match the animal with their barf.

Stellah pinches a bit of rice and places it on her tongue. The rest of us tentatively do the same. Within a few minutes Stellah, Cara, Cleveland and I have channeled our inner toddlers and are eating like natives. The meal is both delicious and disgusting.

Garden Gecko

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We love these little guys and they are everywhere. In the house, on a towel, behind a door, and in this case, on the front porch. They do good things.

Welcome And Enojy The Day

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It really is nice to wake up and find this stuff on your doorstep. These are little sand pieces, and before too long they get brushed away by the dog and blown away by the wind.

Unmeatly Body ?

ayurvedic
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Click the image to enlarge; then, you must read this whole thing out loud. With an audience, preferably, but even if you are alone. The whole thing. This sign was posted outside a tent by side of the road. You going in? I’m not going in.

Bespoke Bollywood

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SInce our arrival in India, I have been limited to, and quite happy with, a single vice: custom-tailored clothes. Raymond of India is the largest distributor of fabric in the country, moving unbelievable quantities of wool, cotton, linen, silk, and other ready-to-use textiles through their innumerable retail storefronts (sometimes multiple stores on a single street – you think Starbuck’s is ubiquitous back home? Meh !). We popped in one day just to check it out, and left having ordered 4 or 5 shirts, after having measurements taken and drinking hot chai with a half dozen store attendants. Each shirt, custom stitched with the fabric of our choice, was about 20 dollars in U.S. money. So this new vice is not as profligate is it may sound :)

Vice is no fun alone, and so I found a perfect co-conspirator in dear Mr. Andrew Cox. We have been endlessly darting in and out of Raymond for months now, having shirts of all kinds put together, and just recently, we commissioned a pair of three-piece suits. This was a fantastic adventure, throughout which the Raymond tailors were endlessly patient with us as we changed our minds, made adjustments, and generally made a confusing mess of things any time we entered the store. This adventure finally came to an end: last night was Andrew and Nina’s final hurrah in Bangalore, as they are moving to Italy; his suit had just been completed, and the tailor from Raymond made the delivery at 10:30 pm during our farewell party for our once-and-future Bangalore doppelgangers.

A Lightroom Tutorial

pam
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Step One: You will need a great camera, a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and these cheekbones… Let me know when you are ready for step two.