© Frank H. Jump
Kurt Vonnegut On Suicide
The Biome’s Blog posted a piece about “who we lost in 2007.” Vonnegut was the image chosen. I wrote:
Funny you chose Vonnegut [in context with my last posting]. I was a huge fan growing up in the 70’s. Oddly enough, I got to meet him in a very intimate setting, his daughter Lily’s third birthday party. An ex-friend Janet and I were all dressed up for a formal party, so I was wearing a tux and she a gown. Janet used to babysit for Kurt and Jill (Krementz). When we got to the party, everyone got really quiet because Janet and I looked so good. My old friend Lou Miano (Larry Kramer fashioned the character Lou Marino “Anthony Montano” [thanks Larry for the correction!] after him for his biting and bridge-burning novel Faggots) was there and there was that “what are you doing here?” exchange of glances and then comments. Lou worked for a major advertising agency before getting fired, and later sued [and won according to Larry] for age discrimination.
Well, as soon as he could, Kurt came over to introduce himself and because of the way Janet and I were dressed, he assumed we were an engaged item. Kurt was also two-sheets to the wind with a few clothes-pins missing. So he took me outside to give me the fatherly talk. He told me what a good girl Janet was and how I needed to treat her right. Then almost immediately he told me that he was thinking of committing suicide.¹ I turned and without blinking an eye I said – “Well, you’ve been writing about it for years and with your family history, why haven’t you done it already?” He lit up a cigarette and told me sometimes suicide takes time. Then he laughed and said, “I was just trying to see if you read my stuff.” We (Janet and I) left shortly afterwards.
¹ According to Wikipedia: Vonnegut reportedly smoked Pall Mall cigarettes, unfiltered, which he claimed is a “classy way to commit suicide.”
Four Seasons Hotel – Rosario Dawson Getting Ready for Rent Premiere, NYC – November 17, 2005
© Frank H. Jump
Click here for a clip of Vincenzo feeding caviar to Rosa in her hotel room.
Ten years ago [May 1, 1998] we were at the He Got Game premiere watching Rosario on the Wonder Wheel with Coney Island as the backdrop. Hey Ivana! Come take a picture with Rosa, she’s in the film!
© Frank H. Jump
Fletcher's Castoria – Chinatown, NYC – March 1997
© Frank H. Jump
By far the most prolific NYC fading ad at one time. For more information about Castoria products, visit the Centaur Company website and the Fading Ad Campaign!
Merit(?) Cigarettes – (if memory serves) – near Tompkins Avenue & Madison, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn 2000
© Frank H. Jump
“Wonderfully Great”
“Winning on Merit”
My memory (and digital archiving notes) aren’t what they used to be, but while combing through some of my archived photo library (file management nightmares), I pulled up this image and remembered the day I took these images. There was a luncheonette I believe below that was selling household food items that was owned by a local resident for four decades. I asked if I could get on her roof to shoot this and she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but I could go ahead and climb. Next door there was an antique shop that had better egress to the roof and he said it was OK too. After shooting this, the woman asked why this project was so important and I asked how long she had owned her business (forty years) and how often she looked at the fading cigarette ad (she has never noticed it before). Enough was said. She got it.
