many miles traveled
Written on October 5, 2007
in the second half of september i managed somehow to drive over 2,300 miles. more than half of that took place in one week when i drove to las vegas (and back) twice. i did one job in las vegas on a wednesday (drove there and back the same day) and then the next day got another job to go back to vegas the following day. what this means is that within a half a week period i found myself in baker, california four times. really, there is no logical reason to be in baker, california four times in one week, not even if you’re the kind of person who’s really fascinated by the world’s largest thermometer. i am not this kind of person.
still, part of the point of this blog (for me, not necessarily for you) is to inspire myself towards taking more pictures of things. that is, inanimate objects. from the first moment i started taking pictures there was never really any thought to what i would point the camera at. it was always people. or sometimes animals. things with eyes. i was only ever really interested in photographing things that could talk back to me. or get impatient, or vain, or shy, or angry, or say witty things, or could share some experience. and still, the best part of my job is being able to get small slices of the lives and experiences of a great many different kinds of people. i don’t think still-life shooters get that so much. but i could be wrong.
anyway. . . here are a couple shots from some of the miles traveled.
and while we’re on the subject of it. . i have one big gripe with las vegas. on my first trip to las vegas last month i specifically brought one quarter that i intended to use in a slot machine. i’m not much of a gambler, you can tell. i like the games, but not particularly the losing money part. slot machines were appealing only insofar as there was a tactile sort of quality to it – it’s satisfying to feed coins into a machine and to see moving parts whir around and hear the clink of the reward, should you actually win. also, winning at a slot machine has weight – coins are supposed to spill out, and you fill up a cheesy plastic cup with them, and it’s heavy and it’s noisy and you feel like you’ve done something.
imagine my surprise now, when i find that, carrying my quarter around the new york, new york casino, none of the machines actually accept coins anymore. it’s all paper money or special cards. there’s no more tactile feeling of dropping coins into a machine. there’s hardly any machine feeling at all – just electronic buttons and displays. i left without losing my quarter.
on my second trip to las vegas that week i spent exactly $2 on gambling. i put one dollar into a slot machine, and one dollar into a video poker machine, only to have my suspicions confirmed. this isn’t fun. now, i don’t have any problem with gambling. i have self-control, and i don’t have an addictive personality of any sort. so gambling isn’t ever going to get me in trouble. my gripe is this: these are supposed to be games and the truth is that they aren’t actually the least bit entertaining. i don’t mind losing my $2, but i’d like some entertainment value for that money. however, there wasn’t any.
Filed in: inanimate, pictures, ramblings, travel, uninhabited.