The tactfully side-stepped charade, the superficial patter of plastic tongues clicking against plastic roofs of mouths rattling in plastic heads garnished in metallic sparking shine
And the constant hummmm, the bass beneath my feet at 3:00 on a Tuesday night/morning and the vibrations of hills of encased iPhones being answered with headsets and insincere HELLO?s bellowed at maximum volume to disguise the insecurities hidden beneath the words
And the tap tap tap of five-inch-high heels and glinting patent leather on glass, marble, gold floors walking to a hollow destination at a pace that suggests the end is near, leaving trails of glitter glistening in the heels' red-traced path
And the clouds of dollar bills resting on the thick green layer of smog that hovers above the city, wilting and crumpling and decaying as the ragged frail underbelly stretches out its withered hands from miles below, watching as the paper crinkles into ashen dust
And the rush and dip and swirl of a world disguised by a shot or a smoke or a snort or a swallow and the thud as her head hits the wall and the wet warmth in the dark
And the colors and flash of lights and the big grand display, come one come all to the greatest show on earth, and the swiveling heads with hungry hypnotic eyes leering and luring and reaching into the pockets of the entranced
And the nails, the claws, the jagged teeth of fights staged in cages amongst the lions and bears and tigers but tastefully adorned with a lace pink bow and stardust and the rusty dagger dragging down his back
And me
And this city.
--Amy Kristen
*"Shmootz." Those of you who haven't spent time in NY or aren't Jewish, might not be familiar with this wonderful sounding Yiddish word that translates as "dirt" in a wider context. It isn't dirt, like ground from the earth (unless it's all over your face or clothing, as in "What's that shmootz all over your clothes?" kind of way...it's messy or dirty stuff that shouldn't be where it doesn't belong.
Like the greasy fingerprint a small child got on my lens when I wasn't looking!
I was in LA last week for a family event which is where the shmootz got applied. Later, driving through the West Hollywood area, I did a few "drive-by shootings" ...shooting while in the car, sometimes at a stop; sometimes while still moving along. Generally in LA that means not moving too fast because the traffic is abominable, which is how this series began when I lived there. It was so frustrating to be sitting in traffic so much of my life that I took to photographing out of my windows or windshield to feel more productive or at least to keep myself from traditional road rage. Also, street life and real estate is visually interesting there. As an aside, I have to say the series came to a halt when I moved to North Carolina. Anyway, I didn't notice the fogging in the photos until later that night when I was having supper with a friend and looked at a magnification of a shot I did of him across the table; his nose and mouth were blurry. A quick look at the lens told the whole story. 
Examining earlier pictures, including a bowl of fruit I shot before leaving to drive around, struck me with a sense of wonderful serendipity...how cool it was that the shmootz added an element of soft focus shifting for the eye to enjoy as it wandered around the image.
I love when life offers little surprises and shifts to encounter and make us slow down for an instant......May they all be all be enjoyable and uplifting.
