Of Visual Men

One of the nicer things I've discovered about living in London is, unlike LA or NYC, good friends from all over the world, keep passing through.

Mom at Easter

YL, late spring

Jimmy, early summer

 On Monday, we met Sugar and Spice for an impromptu lunch in Islington, then went to Shoreditch.
(The Fish & Chips Store, 189 Upper Street, is dog-friendly.)

Often Spice feels very familiar as he reminds me so much of Jon.

 They have the same height, the same gentleness, the same old-world manners.  They are also both intensely private men.  So when he left, I felt briefly, a sharp sadness, and a longing to be held.

HELD.

But while walking around Shoreditch, for some reason,

Spice reminded me too much of my friend, Eric.

photo credit-  E Nakamura

   The same brisk energy, the all consuming curiosity.  Nothing escapes his eye, their eyes.

 They are both very visual men.  Everything they see, they encounter, becomes a possibility for something else- a magazine, a painting, a picture, a film, a new restaurant.

photo credit-  E Nakamura

Because of his eye, his interests, and just the way he is, Eric without too much conscious thought, built an empire.

photo credit-  Inter Trend Communications

And always when I think of Eric,

photo credit-  Kiyoshi Nakazawa

I think of my brother.

photo credit-  S Wong

For the first man I experienced brimming with that sort of visual sensitivities, is my brother.

You can't put a finger on artistry.  You can grow it through hard work, but there is nothing to grow, if at first, God didn't give you, The Eye.

My brother is so nonchalant about being talented.  He tells me, he is very lazy.  Yet, I still see glimpses of the artist he ignores.  It's the way he photographs his family;

photo credit-   S Wong

photo credit-  S Wong

it's what he's engraved on his body.

photo credit-  Tina/S Wong