Mad Times

It just occurred to me that I never announced here that I had decided not to photograph lost gloves any more. I think I said something on Flickr and forgot to bring the message back here to the blog.

I was starting to groan when I saw them instead of being amused and excited by the challenge of getting a new picture. I let a few go by and didn’t feel any remorse, so I’m done. Not saying I won’t shoot if I see something extraordinary, but the series is over.

One of my rules when I was photographing them was that I didn’t move or take the gloves. So now that I don’t have to hew to that constraint I’ve started collecting them. Not sure what might come of that. Maybe nothing. I pick up all kinds of stuff on the side of the road from nails to lost credit cards to a Jaguar hood ornament, so picking up the gloves is just another thing. Maybe when I’ve got a big enough pile of stuff inspiration will strike.

The Issaquah Art Walk is this Friday (May 4) and yours truly will be showing photographs of lost gloves at the Kung Fu Club at 185 Front Street North. Please do introduce yourself to the nice long-haired bearded man with the strange pictures should you happen to come by.

Then on Saturday and Sunday, also in Issaquah, come to the second annual Flying House Art and Craft Sale. Works by 12+ artists. Fine art, Photography (hi!), Paper-cuttings, Textiles, Jewelry, Handmade soaps, and more. All at my house from 10am to 4pm each day. Say you saw it here and amaze us. ;-)

Got an email a couple days ago from a woman from Dortmund who spent 3-1/2 months in Denmark and took 150 lost glove pictures while she was there! Amazing variety both in setting and style of glove. Thanks, Anita!

Rachel made this amazing lost glove cake for my birthday. Not only is it terribly amusing, it’s also quite delicious. Click the picture to go to flickr where I’ve added notes to draw attention to the various features of the cake.

This pair seemed almost like bait. Anyone want to admit to planting them?

This is actually the other half of #117. I saw it the day after I saw that one, just a little ways down the road, almost buried in leftover road sand. When the sweepers came by a few weeks later they left it like this.

I’ve put all of my lost glove photos in a set on Flickr.

This is mostly to take advantage of the integration between Flickr and Yahoo Maps. I’ve placed each glove picture on the map as close to where it was sitting as I can recall and reproduce. #27 is still sadly homeless, but all the others have been mapped.

You can see a map showing all the gloves, even the outliers

Or you can look at one showing just the ones in Issaquah.

If you click on the numbers you’ll get a little popup with scrolling thumbnails that will take you to the individual pictures. It’s pretty neat. It’s also much much easier to maintain than my old map.

updated to fix link to Issaquah zoomed map

Today’s Writer’s Almanac includes the poem “First Day of Spring” by Ann Hudson which starts off like this:

It’s a wild March morning in Chicago, the wind
dragging its nets through the streets.
Trawling for its usual and plentiful treasures:

crushed styrofoam cups, torn newspapers,
lost gloves, a blizzard of fast food napkins.
…

Shot this back on Valentine’s Day, forgot to post it.