Acid Squid: Important Obituaries Of 2010
“You don’t miss a chance that good”
With his inclusion in the Philadelphia Citypaper’s Important Obituaries of 2010 as a founding member of Swellco & Swellco today, we’ve decided to feature some of the Squid’s photography. He had only seriously been taking pictures for a few months before he died, but a you can see, he was a natural born talent. I was with him when he took the shot of the two South Philly ladies. We were walking from his house to mine with Louise LaTease so I could film a screen test. (Squid & Louise were originally slated to be the hosts for the Video Circus.)
The women were sitting on their stoop smoking and waiting to wash the dye out of their hair. It’s a shot my inherent misanthropy would have denied me. But he marched right up to them and asked.
Of course they said no, one suggesting he come back when they were done and “lookin’ nice.”
“Why yah wanna take a picture of us lookin’ silly?” asked the other.
“Ladies, seriously, look at me” he warmly laughed while waiving his hand around his face “don’t you think I look silly myself? We love silly. Silly is what we do.”
They continued to refuse him.
He got on his knees and pleaded with his hands in prayer.
Finally they agreed, if he promised to come back in an hour and get a photo of them dressed up and sporting their new dye job.
He lied his promises and got the shot.
“You don’t miss a chance that good” he said as we walked away.
He was right, and it was that good.
Photos courtesy of http://acidsquid.tumblr.com
Tags: acid squid, john weir, philadelphia, south philly, urinal
