In Suwon Station today, I wanted to take a picture, so I whipped out my battle-axe analog camera, and I spied a colorful scene in an I-phone accessory shop, next to the Dunkin Donuts: a girl in one of the standard-accepted-fashion ensembles arranging the artfully designed covers for the hot new phones. She had on the black heels, the black stockings, and a sunset, explosion-red sweatshirt (“hoodie’), and I thought this modern shop, minimally furnished and pristine-with a person in it-who seemed like an anachronism (as if a robot should have been attending)-among all the artifice, looked Bladerunner sci-fi. And the color of her clothes said both, ‘I am not a machine’, as well as, ‘I am art, among these things’!
I aimed at a woman nearby-a similar distance from me to the distance of the girl in the shop, so as not to be conspicuous-but my camera’s light-meter and shutter wouldn’t work. I inspected the machine. The battery cover and batteries had disappeared! What a major, big time, down-the-hole drag. I moped to the subway gate and beeped my walleted transit card, and went up to the platform for the long ride to Seoul.
Later, I ran around Namdaemun’s eclectic and crowded market, narrowly avoiding collisions with old ladies, old men, hawkers, buyers, police officers, Korean, Japanese and Chinese shoppers, and men on their ever-weaving motorcycles and scooters-who are forever coming out of every possible blind-spot to almost run you over-while delivering all manner of goods through the swarming alleys.
I was-of course-in search of a camera shop that could supply me with the things I needed for my dinosaur Minolta X-300 SLR. Most shops only sell “Dica SLRs’, or digital single-lense reflex cameras, so most men these shops waved me off. In one shop, the proprietor hardly finished mumbling his blow-off, while simultaneously taking a phone call and averting his gaze out the window, when a cool looking dude seated where they had been chatting, called out in Korean, “go upstairs; third floor.”
Well, upstairs, I found that Chongro/Dongdamun, old school Korea thing goin’ on, you know, the inlaid marble or granite flooring, the small, hide-away stairways here and there, with rickety steps, the ajumas carryiong food trays with the remnants of lunch on them-on their heads, the old office furniture (made of wood), and phot posters and calendars from years ago.
To be continued…
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Tell a Friend Who Could Learn with Carl!
Published by
Carl Atteniese / 亜天二恵世万慈道
Thank you for reading. I hope this finds you exceedingly well.
I was born in Brooklyn, in the middle of the NASA Gemini space Program era--which was on course for the Apollo program, aiming to land men on the moon. I watched Neil Armstrong make humanity's first step on the lunar surface. The space program left a lasting effect on me and inspired life-long interest and passion in me.
I was born a little more than 2 years after President John Kennedy was assassinated and a few years before Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. It was a time of tumult, but better manners, a gentler approach to one another (despite the prejudice being worked on by progressives-) little political correctness, no cancel culture and thicker skin & more opportunity for laughs, a time of fantastic television, austere and fact-based news delivered with brevity and sobriety and much superlatively stylish design. It was the beginning of Star Trek, Star Wars, and a few years on, personal computers, digital watches, hand-held electronic games and movies were still in theaters--not on our TVs--unless they were a little old. People paid more attention to books, from where trust is built with credibility we intrinsically see, competency earned and reflected and facts & expertise. One reason I am not apt to dabble in irrational conspiracy theories is I made many a trek to the local library, to read about stars, planets and astronauts, and to the local bookstore--no longer there--to find my favorite science fiction novels--to either read, or simply marvel at their covers, by Boris Valejo and Frank Frazetta--inspirations that would fuel my later entry into the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
I grew up in Long Island, worked and was educated there until I discovered New York City, then it was on to Boulder Colorado, The Mojave Desert, South Korea and now Japan. I have visited Mongolia, the Philippines, and England and hope to see the rest of the world--and maybe even beyond it.
I teach English as a Second Language, practice secular Buddhism and pay attention to philosophy, astronomy, spaceflight, aviation and human & species rights. I make art, poems and photography--and real friends, wherever I go--when I can.
Maybe our paths will cross; until then, enjoy my writing and pictures, and send me a note. Maybe we can have a cup of coffee someday, somewhere.
Thank you for reading.
I wish you love, peace, joy and enlightenment--sincerely--because you are sentient, and you suffer, too.
Carl Atteniese
Tokyo
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