doolittle with the sky
One of my favorite albums of all time is the Pixies Doolittle – it is just a rocker from start to finish. This was an album I picked up on a whim while in New York City in my junior year of high school. I had never heard the Pixies before, but something drew me to this one – so I bought it. I loved it from the first few notes of Debaser and still can listen to it over and over and not get tired of it. I wholeheartedly recommend this one.
The complete track listing includes:
- “Debaser” – 2:52
- “Tame” – 1:55
- “Wave of Mutilation” – 2:04
- “I Bleed” – 2:34
- “Here Comes Your Man” – 3:21
- “Dead” – 2:21
- “Monkey Gone to Heaven” – 2:56
- “Mr. Grieves” – 2:05
- “Crackity Jones” – 1:24
- “La La Love You” – 2:43
- “No. 13 Baby” – 3:51
- “There Goes My Gun” – 1:49
- “Hey” – 3:31
- “Silver” (Francis, Kim Deal) – 2:25
- “Gouge Away” – 2:45
Buy it, crank it.
So I got back out to take some pictures with Toby last weekend. We started at this old abandoned house in Chesterfield Valley. It was in close proximity to a busy gas station (but in somewhat thick tree cover), so we moved slowly while there. The house hasn’t been vandalized (spray paint), which is good – but is in very bad shape. Most of the windows are broken out of it and there is a decent amount of trash/debris in it.
This chair, across the room (in what I suppose is the living room) caught my eye. The window I shot from was busted out, the window to the back of the chair was in tact, but very dirty. The only thing that would make this creepier would if there was someone in that chair.
The floors of this structure were pretty rotted and unstable – I was worried that I would fall through to the basement in spots. We made our way upstairs and it was in even worse condition.
The windows were gone and the walls were starting to go as well. There were numerous holes in ceiling where you could see the sky (natural skylights I suppose). Lots of broken glass and leaves everywhere.
We eventually decided to leave here (worried about getting busted because Toby had heard of people getting busted at this location) and head to St. Charles to check out an old farmhouse we had heard about. We found this location easily and debated how we wanted to get in undetected. Eventually we found a church parking lot and walked the main road to the driveway and just walked right up. This was a large piece of land, with multiple structures. The house wasn’t all that interesting and we were thinking a vagrant had taken residence in the house (so we didn’t go upstairs) – which I now regret.
The house was fairly modern, but obviously not lived in (by the owners) for a while. Surrounding the house was a number of barns, suggesting that this was a fairly extensive farming operation at one time. There was very little graffiti, which I hope remains to be the case going forward. There were also fresh tire tracks, so I am guessing the owners of this land are clearing it for sale?
(I liked the contrast of the sky against the bright red color of this barn)
While I liked the tones of my pictures from this day, I am not 100% happy with the composition. I think part of my problem is that I feel a little rushed when in these locations. I have it the back of my head that I am going to need to gather my gear and start running at any given moment, so I don’t slow down and really thing the shot out. This is something I need to remain cognitive of when I am these adventures and is something I am going to continue to work on.
It was a fun afternoon and I am already scouting locations for our next outing 
