As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 winds down here in New York, I wanted to post a few images of a friend's public art project from this weekend: He drew one of the Twin Towers in chalk along Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 19th Street. Every ten feet marked for each floor. A cup of chalk at each floor, a gentle encouragement to write a memory, thought, image. I shot these Friday morning, spending an hour watching as people interacted. Fed Ex drivers carefully wheeling packages around the cups. People taking pictures. Drawing. Crying. One woman picked up several cups in anger, throwing them out. A couple followed her, picked up the cups, and put them back. I think the last image summed it up for me the most. I watched the Towers hit, burn, fall 8 blocks away from my apartment. Had the ghost of the buildings, the white cloud, envelope me. Spent the nights that followed burning candles in my windows, the electricity cut off, to let the police officers stationed each night on my corner know I was there. I remember the day. The days. I think it's important that we remember. That we share what we witnessed. Again. Again. And again.
Having had no babies in our house for half a decade Alpha and I are in dire need of a refresher course before the arrival of Peanut this summer. So we've been hanging out with as many small babies as possible in an effort to ease ourselves back in gently prior to the Big Event. This is what we've figured out: Babies are really cute. Especially when they smile. And they smell really good. Plus they feel nice to cuddle. And persuading a baby to fall asleep with minimal screeching feels a bit like winning the lottery. But all this is only really great in the context of other people's babies. Because then you can hand them back when they shout or if they've done one of those really nasty up-the-back-of-the-babygro yellow poos. Or if you want to do something nice and solitary, like go for a wee. This is because babies are tiny dictators. Their weapons of choice are noise pollution, sleep deprivation and projectile poo - and they have no moral qualms about launching the...

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