I heart strangers

There are blogs and there are blogs. Some of them show that thought and planning went into the effort. This blog, I heart strangers impressed me for the obvious work needed daily to accomplish his ends. He impressed me for sure. He did his photography and interviews almost daily for over a year, a task indeed. Click here to see the interview of Andrea and all the rest of the people he met as strangers, plus the blogger's profile.




20 February 2010

andrea, 37 years old / denver . colorado

if you are following this website enough to know the days of the week that each stranger falls on, then you will know that today is a saturday. and you might even remember that saturdays are very busy for me. i work at the café from open to close, which also happens to be from dark to dark, so i have to count on someone filling in for me for a short period of time in order to search for a stranger. i haven't had to hang a sign on the door explaining why the café is briefly closed and am hoping it doesn't come to that, but there isn't much that i will allow to get in the way of me and my stranger.

i rounded a few blocks, surveying the crowds, looking for that one person to stand out. i was walking by a group of people through a crosswalk when i caught a glimpse of a pair of piercing green eyes tucked into a black hood. it was a delayed notice, though. what i had just seen didn't register until a few seconds later. when it came to me, i turned around and bolted after the woman. it's always weird to approach a stranger from behind, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

i blurted out what i was up to and what i wanted and the woman responded kindly. her name is andrea (andréa is how she pronounces it). she was doing a favor for some of her friends by patrolling the 16th street mall in search of potential candidates for a discovery channel reality show called "the colony". there was a casting for the show today, so she was passing out flyers to people who looked as if they might fit the bill.

andrea migrates between los angeles and telluride on a regular basis. she works as a production assistant for television, covering the x-games - something that combines her technical skill set with her passion for snowboarding. she doesn't like to stay put for very long and tends to tire of places quickly. we chatted about our mutual aversion to planting roots and the boredom we experience after being in one place for too long. it seems that andrea has an easier time of finding work than i do, but she attributed that to being in the business for a long time.

after i took andrea's photos we had a great chat. she walked with me to the street where i needed to turn off to head back to work and then she turned around to make the same walk back towards the casting location. i enjoyed our conversation so much and felt a bond with andrea that was slightly out of the ordinary. i think it was because of our similar mentality. it was refreshing to see someone a few years older than me living life as she desired. i run into a lot of people who are living their lives as directed by others and i don't find that very inspiring.