Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Picture on Top of This Blog

How many times can you look at my picture today?  I just gave you one more.

More Len Speaks fourth anniversary musings.   Over the past year or so, I have been asked several times why I have never changed out the photo that adorns this blog each and every day.  For those who really are over-saturate with yours truly, they have to look at the very same mug shot on my Facebook page as well.

Truth be told, it is one of the only two snapshots of me that I have actually liked.  The other is from a wedding years ago.  My hair is longer.  There is a moustache.  And I am wearing a polyester three-piece suit from the Johnny Carson Collection.  I look like somebody on his way to an awards ceremony for the porno industry.

My profile photo above does look pretty close to what I look like now.  Despite what one blog reader has asked, I am not blind.  I live in Southern California and wear sunglasses all the time.  And, despite the shameless Coca-Cola product placement, I am not an employee of American Idol. 

Yep, I like the picture and that is pretty much me today.

Last year, I did think about a change-out of the photo.  Hell, I'm in Hollywood and there's a head-shot photographer on every corner.  I seriously considered investing in some classily-done portraits of me.  You know the type of photo shoot.  

"Okay, Len, smile to the left.  Now turn to the right.  Smile.   Now straight at the camera.  Be pensive.  Click."

For me to get myself in the absolute perfect frame of mind and appearance to do this would be akin to landing a man on Mars.  I would have to perfectly time my haircut.  I would undoubtedly need to spend two weeks with a heat lamp.  Maybe some of that spray tan shit.  And don't even start on closed facial pores.

I look at the photo above and I can remember the day as if it was last week.  I was having lunch in the Farmers Market in Los Angeles.  A table located right next to the hot dog stand.   In snapshots like this, you see your smile and you realize a fun time in your life.  You're smiling for a reason.   Maybe because of the friend on the other side of the camera.

That's why a photograph is so vital to our lives.  It captures history that is so fleeting.

The friend that took this picture passed away several months ago after a long battle with breast cancer.

Yeah, this snapshot stays on this blog as long as it lasts.  My little hat tip to a friend and a memory that does last forever.

Dinner last night:  Cold roast beef plate with German potato salad at the newly renovated NY apartment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Photographs and memories.