Monday, September 13, 2010

On, In and Around Mondays: Window Shopping

open neon sign

In Chattanooga, I walked past windows, shopping for memories. Every city offers this diversion, and I am a willing consumer. Ordinary words like "open" suddenly seem like treasure in neon, blinking, "look at me." I look. I angle my camera. I capture "open" and the reflected sky that is, itself, opening to night.

Jesus Bandaids

I find I can take my Jesus home on a band aid, should I prefer Him over BooBoo kisses adhesive bandages, or protective rainbow monkeys or fairies. He cooperates nicely by agreeing to sit in a tin next to a plastic alien figure who, herself, has preferred to stay in the open. The sky is still doing its thing, now peachier. There is still time.

Leg lamp

Surely I am in need of a fishnet stocking lamp, or perhaps a blender with a green bulb, or maybe a wire figure... blue-bikini clad with long wild hair opening to imaginary wind.

In the end, by trick of a lens, I take it all. Greedy consumer that I am. I take the "open" sign, the sky, night coming on, Jesus and the BooBoo kisses, blue bikini-clad figure wild as John the Baptist in his desert. I take, too, the fishnet-leg and blender lights of the world.


Chattanooga Window photos, by L.L. Barkat.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place.

Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below. If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

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12 Comments:

Blogger Glynn said...

That fishnet stocking lamp -- that's from the 1983 movie A Christmas Story. It's one of the stories told int he movie.

OK, so I've watched it 37 times.

8:05 AM  
Anonymous Kathleen@so much to say, so little time said...

Nice eye, turning the reflection in the window into its own descriptor. I love the way you personify Jesus on the bandaids and the little alien in the open. :) (Personally, I think Jesus on a bandaid = carrying things a little too far...a little weird for my taste. LOL)

9:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Jesus band-aid? "Mama, buy me some of them"!

Too funny. But maybe it's a sad commentary too. We need 'just a little Jesus" to stop the bleeding-- David

9:48 AM  
Blogger TraciB said...

Great post, as always! I enjoy your sense of composition in the photos and your sense of perspective about their subjects.

9:52 AM  
Anonymous Maureen said...

Glynn, the royalties from A Christmas Story should be going to you.

12:25 PM  
Blogger Mama K said...

Makes me want to take a trip to Chattanooga!

1:29 PM  
Blogger Mama K said...

Makes me want to take a trip to Chattanooga!

1:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now I want to go window shopping! :) Loved the pictures and the commentary.

1:21 PM  
Blogger Amy Sullivan said...

It's funny- the journey my family and I are currently on started while we were window shopping in Chatanooga. Well, I guess we didn't stop at just window shopping.

Your words flow so beautifully, and I want to read more!

Yes, I would like to try "On, In and Around Mondays"...not this week, but I will be visiting again soon!

2:33 PM  
Anonymous Sandra Heska King said...

Interesting how today and yesterday kind of all blur together.

3:20 PM  
Blogger Douglas Dahl said...

Great eye. Nice pictures of the bandaids

4:03 PM  
Blogger TUC said...

Funny, I have been doing quite a bit of camera window shopping for these past few weeks. It has been bringing back a conversation we had awhile ago about souveniers and why we "need" them. And now of course I find myself experiencing the views and events from behind a video camera, missing the present so I can watch it later with "you".

1:49 AM  

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