College Journal #2

ChocoCat Photo Wallet

I used to love going to any shop that sold Sanrio goodies, like the old Zany Brainy store, and would always seek out their little pocket sized photo albums. This one I still carry with me in my bag. Some old photos sit side by side with the newest latest.

Miss Lucy's sweet school photo

Me & Rachel: 29 Oct 1993 before seeing Nightmare Before Christmas - Atco Multiplex & 12 July 1992 in Ocean City, NJ

Me and Kathleen: 9 March 1995 Pulp Fiction & 2 October 1993 The Fugitive - Atco Multiplex 

The Five: 17 March 2019 The Quiet Man - The Colonial Theatre 

Dave and Me: 4 November 1978 & Me: possibly Fall 2000

Amy, Me, and Rachel - Spruce Street Philadelphia - 6 July 1994 (I still have that shirt!)

Little Jackson!!

Godsisters with Godmommy Gina - April 2014 & Me in Disney World October 1986

Jaeden 16 August 2015 & Zach, Jax, Syd, and me - 23 December 2018

Isabella Class of 2017 & Kayla Class of 2018

Nana Irma and Aunt Mercedes 1944

The Accords

It was super strange and purely coincidental, but myself and two of my closest pals from high school all drove Honda Accords as our first cars. Mine was a '92 (inherited from my dad and named Morrison) and is pictured below followed by Lori in her '84 Accord and then Rachel in her '85. Mine was stolen when I lived in Philly but Lori and Ray drove theirs into the ground. Hondas are like tanks. They last through damn near anything.

 

Notes from Ray

I am known to save everything. I've recently decided that it's entirely ridiculous and I need to go through all my stuff and toss it. I started with my childhood shoebox filled with every note that Rachel and I passed to each other from 4th grade through to senior year of high school. Why do I still have these? But before I throw them to the fire, I thought I'd scan my favourites and share them. The first one clearly predates email and was labeled Top Secret, although I'm still trying to figure out why...

Rachel was never ashamed to state her feelings, especially when it came to boys.

Untitled - 2/97

by R.L. DiMatteo

Kathleen's Room

Senior year of high school I became really good friends with a hilarious gal who had just moved here from California. Kathleen was crazy and so funny - like a brunette version of Jenny McCarthy. Kathleen had the sort of parents that didn't care what she did to her room. We took that as an opportunity to paint whatever we wanted wherever we wanted. Rachel's Peace Love & Hair~weave was borderline absurd and soon became our way of ending notes to eachother in Study Hall. Noel painted the first few line of Pearl Jam's Daughter beside Kathleen's bed and I did a quote from a Madonna song. Kath painted those adorable squiggly lines and daisies you see in the photo around her poster of The Cure. Also, please note the framed black and white photo of The Beatles on Kathleen's dresser. Man, do I miss that gal. She was a laugh riot!

Gus Bosco

In college, I would often finish my Art History class and head down to meet Rachel as her sculpture class let out. Her teacher was Gus Bosco and we loved to stand around after everyone had gone home and chat with him. One afternoon in his office, Gus sketched this on the back of my syllabus. I think it's fabulous.

10 October 1996

Rachel, who I had met in 1985 and who is pictured below, was attending art school in Philadelphia in 1996. One of her classes had arranged for a field trip to New York to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several galleries in Soho. After checking out the Met, Ray and I decided to sit out back and watch the rollerbladers in Central Park. We were young voyeurs in a trendy world we only knew of in movies and storybooks. Such a simple, brief snippet in my life, but without question, one of my fondest and happiest moments.
After the museum we all headed to Soho, with Rachel and I ten minutes ahead of the group. We stopped at a gallery and saw George Rodrigue's Blue Dog pieces for the first time. One on the fuel tank of a Harley Davidson. We walked on and stopped at Todd Oldham's shop that had gorgeous wallpaper in the fitting rooms and clothes too expensive to touch. Then we came upon a gallery owned by Tony Shafrazi. It was not until many years later that I learned the importance of this man on the art world. But that's a story for another time. As luck would have it, the gallery was showing the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a favourite of mine. Ray and I were the only ones in the gallery except for three grown ups chatting by a desk. I asked the woman if I was allowed to take pictures and she said so long as they were for personal use only. (Um, hi, I was like nineteen, clearly they weren't going anywhere.) So I was able to snap the above photos just before Rachel's class came bursting into the place with ferocious energy. But those few quiet minutes spent standing inches from so many significantly beautiful pieces was one of those spectacular moments that I visit in my memory time and time again.

Untitled (Fallen Angel) 1981

Dust Heads 1982

Untitled (Red Man) 1981

The Field Next to the Other Road