Underwear Graffiti At The Gas Station

I stopped for fuel at my regular gas station the other day and looked down to see a little spot of white graffiti on the cement. Upon closer inspection, I discovered a rather cute drawing of a pair of men's traditional fly front briefs. I liked the drawing but I liked the incongruity of it in front of the gas pump even more...apropos of nothing...

Photos by JEF

BEAUTY: Photography--Vanessa Leissring

Vanessa Leissring's startlingly pristine photographs of gas stations (or petrol stations for those not in the US) are beautiful and so atmospheric--lonely, mysterious, isolated. Oases floating in the inky black of night...

http://www.vanessaleissring.com/

Leissring's photos bring to my mind "The Last Chance Texaco," the glorious song from Rickie Lee Jones' debut album released in 1979. It is a lonely, pensive but yearning song, just like the photos above. I have always loved the chilling moment at the end of the song where she mimics passing, speeding trucks on the highway. Goosebumps...

A long stretch of headlights
Bends into I-9
Tiptoe into truck stops
And sleepy diesel eyes
Volcanoes rumble in the taxi
And glow in the dark
Camels in the driver's seat
A slow, easy mark

But you ran out of gas
Down the road a piece
Then the battery went dead
And now the cable won't reach...

It's your last chance
To check under the hood
Last chance
She ain't soundin' too good,
Your last chance
To trust the man with the star
You've found the last chance Texaco

Well, he tried to be Standard
He tries to be Mobil
He tried living in a World
And in a Shell
There was this block-busted blonde
He loved her, free parts and labor
But she broke down and died
She threw all the rods he gave her

But this one ain't fuel-injected
Her plug's disconnected
She gets scared and she stalls
She just needs a man, that's all

It's her last chance
Her timing's all wrong
Her last chance
She can't idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin' out of the last chance Texaco

http://www.rickieleejones.com/

BEAUTY: Photography--Thomas Jorion

French photographer Thomas Jorion focuses his lens on ruins. But they are not empty. They are full of echoes of their previous lives, full of purposes now not understood...

His series of abandoned gas stations are charming and wistful.

http://www.thomasjorion.com/