Uppers

A Round up of Some Good Things

Things have been pretty bleak lately, and even my stupid posts have been downers, as I write about what I don’t like (colors) and what I don’t want to do anymore (road trips). Yeesh. Of course it’s important not to pretend everything is fine, but it’s also important to enjoy stuff, so here is a quick post about some things I do like.

Do you know the song Stay with Me by Lorraine Ellison? Until recently, I had somehow never heard it. Let me tell you, it’s fucking great. Devastating, even. As someone who listens to a lot of music, I am a bit embarrassed that I’d missed it, but mostly, I was excited. It was recorded in 1966 and I think it was her biggest hit, but I’d only vaguely heard of her and didn’t know the song at all.

I think part of what made it feel exciting was to think about all of the other songs out there that I have not yet discovered, that are someday going to destroy me (in a good way).

Next are the photographs of John Boaz. I’m not quite sure how to describe his portraits beyond maybe “quiet” and “beautiful.” I can’t remember where I first encountered his work, probably on Instagram. If you are still on there, go follow him. There’s a restrained power in his portraits. I wouldn’t call them groundbreaking in the sense of doing something entirely new; rather, what he is doing, he’s doing perfectly.

John Boaz

John Boaz

Another thing I like is the novel The Slip by Lucas Schaefer. I’m not entirely sure where I first heard about it, but it’s great. I think it may have been a recommendation from Jason Diamond, though I could be wrong.

Either way, Jason writes one of my favorite Substacks, and you should be reading him. It’s not photo-specific, but shouldn’t you be following a few people who write about things other than photography? (Don’t stop reading mine, though. Everyone should be reading mine.)

Anyway, back to The Slip. This isn’t some overlooked sleeper I’m trying to turn people on to, it won the Kirkus Prize. I won’t get into the plot, except to say it’s a fucking journey. It grabbed me early and never let go. A few times I thought it might be going off the rails. I was wrong. It was still on the fucking rails!

OK, last thing. Below is a photograph I took of People Choice Pharmacy on the Lower East Side near where I live. I walk by this place pretty frequently, and there’s just something about it, I photograph it almost every time. Often with my phone, but sometimes with my camera.

In the photo below, I noticed the sunset doing sunset things, so I brought my camera along. I stood on a barrier to get a bit of elevation, while my daughter stood nearby and warned me about oncoming traffic.

I think before long I’ll gather a group of my photographs of People Choice and share them in a post, and maybe try to explain what it is that keeps drawing me back to it. Until then, here’s the one photograph.

So those are a few things that aren’t terrible. In fact, they’re wonderful, at least to me. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

If you’d like to tell me about some things that aren’t awful, I would genuinely love to hear about them. Whatever it is, because I want to enjoy things.

I hope you’re all well. Have a great holiday. Enjoy some stuff.

Thanks, Travis

While writing this I was listening to: