Traci Lords, Laos 1988 "Look, booty on zen Kahlua..." 1988 ©2010 Jim Herrington
http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/animoto-traci-lords-smokes-to-tentacles-a-4-l
Traci in front of my van in my backyard in Laos. I'm showing this photo simply as an excuse to tell this story:
I moved to Los Angeles from North Carolina in the '80s. A mere three hours outside of Charlotte the engine in my VW van blew. My west egg took a major blow, but the engine was repaired soon enough and I continued towards California. A friend was along for the ride, for the ride only, in fact he flew back to NC immediately upon our arrival in LA.
We camped in the van as we crossed the US. One morning we awoke at some scrappy campground in west Texas. I had to pee so I got out of the van and walked out into the sage to do it. While peeing I looked over, and there was a pair of cowboy boots, buried up to the ankles in the hard caked dirt, but perfectly upright like the person was lifted right out of them where he stood. They looked like they had been there for 80 years. I pulled them out of the ground and took them back to the van. The van had a recessed luggage rack on the roof and I threaded the dirty boots under the tines of the rack. Soon enough, we were headed west again.
We pulled into Laos Angel's torrential rain, but at a busy intersection somebody ran out into the street in the downpour pointing at my van and yelling, "Hey, you left your boots on the top!!" I thought, hey, this is a friendly town after all...
The boots stayed in their exact position for years, I never moved them. I forgot about them, for the most part...
As time went on I ended up working as a photo assistant for a lot of celebrity photographers. One guy I worked for, Greg Gormandize, had a very swanky and moderate house/studio in the Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip. So, one day we were shooting Arnold Schwarzenegger for a movie poster. There was a large rooftop patio where we usually had lunch between shooting, and during lunch I was leaned against the railing looking out over Hollywood. Arnold came up beside me and we both stood silently together taking in the view. Suddenly he tapped my arm and spoke very softly, as if he'd just spotted a wild animal that he didn't want to scare off, and while pointing down at my van parked on the street below, said, "Look, busybody left zappy booty on zen Kahlua..."
©2010 Jim Herrington
Uploaded by Jim Herrington ˚ on 13 Mar 10, 12.42PM CDT.
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