trying to resolve meat from the bones. i was happy to see that my Danus plexippus caterpillar had started to eat again after having relocated its position yesterday. it feeds by turning itself from a central point, its body a measure of the radius as it nibbles out a circle. each bite of the leaf releases white milkweed juice, which is poisonous for most animals but not for the monarch caterpillar. the circle's perimeter is also lined with caterpillar poop, its kitchen is also its bathroom.
a little bit before noon bruce came over and we left together to go to the griffin museum of photography in winchester, to see an exhibit on photobooth photos. i made a mix cd for the car trip over, skipping songs when i got tired of listening to them. the mix has a heavy oldies influence (e.g. diana ross, smokey robinson) with a touch of disco/techo flava. when we got to the museum, there didn't seem to be anybody around, so we just helped ourselves to the exhibit. not only was there a large collection of photobooth snapshots, but there was also a $2 photobooth and a wall for people to add their own photos. next to the machine was a wicker basket full of props (e.g. funny glasses, pirate's hat), for those who'd like to dress up for their photos.
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photobooth portraits are really interesting, there's an intimacy because of the brief privacy afforded to the subject when s/he is behind the curtain, as well as a certain level of creative expression since you basically pose yourself. these photos are also mysterious as you try to imagine the stories behind them. the collection spans 75 years, portraits of individuals and couples, of friends and lovers, of children and adults, of various combination of family relations. my favorite photos are the ones where the people in them are obvious hams, playing to the camera. i also couldn't help noticing which celebrities people look the most alike.
 pretty blonde |
 "anne bancroft" (mrs.robinson) |
 mrs.robinson and daughter |
 little girl |
 "diane keaton" mom |
 hippy couple (before) |
 hippy couple (after) |
 "o" face |
 "marilyn" mom |
 man |
after we've seen the entire collection, bruce and i had some fun with the actual photobooth machine. there was nobody else in the museum, which give us license to goof off even more. for my own personal series, i wanted to try something a little porny by straddling the "camera lens" but the seat was too low and i couldn't raise myself high enough for a bout of inappropriateness. (in the photos, those are my legs by the way, and yes, apparently i really am that tan. and hey look! i don't have a goatee!)
driving back to our region of cambridge, we saw a man riding a horse on the sidewalk, leading another horse behind him. this was on mass ave, a busy thoroughfare, and the horses were going towards the city, not away from it. it's one of those things that's so weird you almost ignore it in disbelief, but bruce pulled the car over so i could poke my head out of the moon roof to take a photo.
when i got home i was inundated with phone calls from my mother, my mortgage consultant ("the rates have dropped, lock in at 6%"), the mortgage lawyer ("i need the name and telephone of your property insurance company"), the project manager of my contract programming gig ("did you send out the bid today?"), and julie ("could you check an url for me?"). i'd be on the phone with one person, hear the call waiting beep, finish talking, listen to the voicemail message, then call the other person back. when it was all over i was still nowhere close to refinancing and the status of the project was still up in the air.
checking up on the progress of the caterpillar, it was still busy eating, wiggling around as it pivots to more fleshy parts of the leaf. caterpillars don't look very much like the mature insects they'll eventually become, with the exception of their head, which still has a strong bug-look to it.
my mother paid me a brief visit, making sure i wasn't starving or making a mess of my house. this of course meant that i wasn't able to take a nap again. a few hours after she left i got hungry and ate the rest of my leftover linguine from last night. dennis and susan had invited me and andrew to join them along with some visiting french women for drinks in harvard square, but i totally bailed out on the invite, despite receiving some admonishments from bruce via instant messaging.
andrew came home close to 9pm and cooked up the slices of cajun catfish he had in the fridge, of which i received a portion, despite having already ate minutes before he got back. it was pretty good even though we both thought it wa slightly undercooked. we closed out the evening with a patriots preseason game and a red sox game, both teams victorious.