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Founded in 2011, Chinese temple in a South Philly enclave populated by Cambodians, Mexicans, Chinese, Italians, blacks and Vietnamese, among other groups.

There was quite a bit of funky weirdness in this dodgy neighborhood, but my camera went dead not long after this photo, so I could only look and not snap. My 3-year-old Canon 50D has been acting funny lately, and today it finally died. "Fuck you," it said to me before it expired, "I've been doing all this grunt work for you, and what have I gotten out of it? Next to nothing. You drag me up and down this accursed yet gorgeous country of ours, and often into the worst motherfuckin' neighborhoods imaginable, and do I ever complain? No way, Jose, because I'm a tough made-in-Japan hombre, but it's time for me to lie down and die, so fuck you and goodbye." That's exactly what it said all right. My good lens has also been broken for 2 months, so I've been walking around with my backup lens. What this means is, no photos for a while. The gods are telling me to focus on my writing, I suppose.

In late July, I'm scheduled to give a talk in New Harmony, Indiana, as part of the Summer Forum, organized by Sara Hunter, about Community, Utopia, and the Individual, so I'll use that excuse to travel around by train for 15 days. I'll rent a camera and lens to take photos on that trip.



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