self-portrait

December 1, 2005 - Remembering childhood suburban Autumns when we'd rake the leaves off the lawn and pile them at the side of the road for the municipality to pick them up. Walking home from school and plowing through other peoples' piles, ending up with sneakers filled with bits of leaf. And the always popular making huge piles to take running jumps into. That was the favorite, flailing around and burying ourselves in the smell and the rustle. Oh, and adults warning us that it was dangerous because cars might drive through the leaves and not see us.

Riding along in Englewood, I came across a road with particularly nice piles of leaves along the sides. I did what anyone would've done as long as no one was looking. I flopped back into a pile and took a self-portrait.


Then I got up and bemoaned having leaves all over my hair and in my jacket, and wondered if I had been smiling in the shot. What's the point of having a self-portrait in a pile of leaves if I don't look like I'm having a world of fun doing it? So I did it again.

Then I got up and again bemoaned having leaves all over my hair and in my jacket. Several passer-bys had gone by at this point.



iTunes shuffled:
1. Hang to Dry (Julie Plug)
2. Red (XTC)
3. Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun) (Stanley Clark)
4. It's a Mistake (Men At Work)
5. The Vision (Victor Wooten)
6. Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)
7. I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
8. Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family (David Bowie)
9. Panic in Detroit (1979) (David Bowie)
10. Pictures of Success (Rilo Kiley)