Raafi Rivero | images and ideas

Chili Dogs

LIBERTY, KENTUCKY. — Jerry, the grill cook at Sandy’s Pool Hall, knows a thing or two about serving up comfort too. The lunch counter and pool hall are located in a town whose main attraction is its prison – the Casey County Detention Center. There is only a tenth-grade kind of irony in building a prison in a town called Liberty; the building itself could double for a high school. The people who built it are market leaders. A courthouse, police station, bail bondsman, and bevy of youth services businesses make up the center of what functions as the town square. Sandy’s is off to the side. Most of the patrons are either headed to or recently released from the nearby facility; others put in appearances due to court dates or visits to those on the inside.

“You just get out?” A young teen next to me asked eagerly.

“No.”

“You got a family member inside?” he continued.

“No, just passing through town,” I submitted as cavalierly as possible.

“Oh. Got family in the area?”

“Just passing through,” I said finally, my cover blown, an outsider.

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Lamborghini Doors

Even the drive-thru at McDonalds is a show place for teenagers with fly rides.

“Ay man! How come you didn’t take a picture of mine?”

It was quite a different reaction from the day before. The owner of the second car, pictured on the left of the top shot, was dismayed that I hadn’t shot his car yet. Fine. He recovered quickly though, shouting to his friend,

“Ay Dogg! Them doors is the only thing you got on me!”

The two teams convened in time to make a massive order of Quarter Pounders. There were many celebratory high-fives to go.

rides

I spent a lot of time photographing cars in the three weeks. This one was in Key West, in the ‘hood.

“May I ask you why you’re taking pictures of that car,” a woman asked. She held the hand of a toddler who looked on blankly.

I explained that the red color of the canopy and the colors of the mural interested me, and that I hadn’t photographed the license plate. A faint wave of something less accusatory crossed her face. She looked on as I snapped a couple more pictures. When I asked if the car was hers, she replied that it belonged to her sister, adding a brief smile.

“Come on,” she sing-songed in the universal language of children, and the toddler followed her down the street.

Country Roads

Over the past few weeks I’ve spent no a small amount of time traversing small country roads. On them, I’ve crossed mountains, and visited the ocean. I’ve flown in planes too. I spent a couple of nights at the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne, a few nights on a friend’s couch, and passed one evening at the Knights Inn in Parkersburg West Virginia. In between I’ve taken more than a thousand photographs. Over the next few posts, I’ll try to bring out some of the shades and colors of what I’ve seen.

No Dress Code

It took some doing on the internets to find a suitable dive bar in the ‘nati. Most of the other bar descriptions I found said things like, “make sure you dress sharp: be sure to wear khakis and tuck in your shirt.” The Comet, on the other hand, served cold bottles of high life, a good jukebox, and a hacking cough to go. Apparently that smoking ban thing is pretty much a coastal phenomenon.

Cozy’s Corner

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE — The stuff heart attacks are made of is prepared in perfect batches here, and on weekends the city fills with epicureans searching out barbecue and Blues music. Several downtown hotels were filled to capacity late Friday evening. The desk clerk at the downtown Holiday Inn smiled as a stream of visitors approached. Was there a convention in town?

“No sir. Just a regular weekend in Memphis.”

And on a regular weekend in Memphis lines form outside of smokehouses, and the young fill the streets deep into the night carrying cups emblazoned with the words Big Ass Beer. On some corner the legends of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash crouch next to a liquor store. BB King’s flagship franchise blues joint squats at the top of Beale Street. A few blocks away a preserved version of the Lorraine Motel holds forth at the top of the South Main Street historic area. Still, there is a swing to the place that goes beyond the Cliff’s Notes.

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