Errant Shoes

I was on my way out when I came upon this pair of runners in the lobby.

It was late afternoon and the lights hadn't come on yet, hence the bad lighting despite my effort to lighten the images.  Anyway, a couple of hours later I came back;  now the lights were on (still not great though) and the shoes were still there in their corner, but in the meantime someone had taken the trouble to straighten them out neatly.

Errant Truck

A shoe charm that fell off someone's Crocs.

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What's Left

I visited SeongSu yesterday.  It's known as the "Brooklyn" of Seoul, with lots of old factories and other industrial/commercial buildings converted and gentrified to cafes, galleries and fashion houses mostly catering to the hip young set.  True to that image, in the central area every lane and alley was filled with well-dressed young crowds (which presented problems for moi, who don't generally like to include people in shots -- I often had to wait long minutes for even a  relative lull in the crowd, till I just gave up) merrily chattering away and ambling along to the next hip joint to patronize.

Behind the scenes though, I espied signs of an older community that used to occupy the neighborhood -- it was once known as a shoe manufacturing hub of the city.  Whether mass-manufactured trainers or expensive hand-crafted boots, there were shops and factories producing them.  And squeezed in among the fancy new shops were relicts from those bygone days, having resisted the wave of change -- or been left out of it.  And sculptures honoring the old tradition could be found here and there.  All in all, it was a somewhat wistful-making trip.

... and traces

Errant Trainers

Yesterday on my way to have dinner I passed by these shoes somebody placed in a schoolyard fence.

Today I happened to pass by the same spot, and yes, they were still there, if somewhat disarranged^

Related post:  Errant Wasp

My Favorite Old Boots

Two days ago the right one of the pair breathed its last.  I have had these boots for many years, and there were periods when I wore them literally every day for months.  When the original heels wore out, I had them replaced and wore them until they began to literally fall apart at the seams.  Then Friday morning the right sole just gave up.

I wore them to Korea back in 2008.  Koreans tend to spiff up when going out; their clothes are neat and pressed, their hair is neatly brushed, and everything matches.  So while riding the subway train in Seoul one day, I noticed that everyone sitting across from me was wearing clean, well-shined shoes;  far from being embarrassed about my scuffed, dusty and discolored boots, I wore them proudly as a mark of my American distinction.

As it happened, when the boot gave up the ghost (gave up the 'soul/sole'? hah!) I had just bought a coat at a second-hand shop in Hollywood and was on the way to have it dry-cleaned (BTW, I like to wear second-hand jackets and coats because I don't have to be careful in them;  they come 'pre-broken in', as it were;  and besides, I often see other guys wearing great-looking threads that I would love to wear myself but I can never find them anywhere, so why not just buy other guys' clothes?).  So there I was, carrying a rumpled old winter coat someone gave up, on a warm L.A. morning, walking awkwardly in a cracked flappy boot, with a big fat shoulder bag that was also beginning to fray at the seams -- I probably looked halfway to being a homeless person.

Which reminded me of the last time something similar happened.  I was going home late at night a few years ago.  I had just recently moved into the loft, and I was parking in a lot across the street while waiting for a spot to open up in my building.  I had been shopping for groceries and was trudging tiredly toward the crosswalk when the sole of my right shoe suddenly came apart.  Rather than walk in the awkward, flappy shoe, I decided to take it off and carry it, since there was no one around to see -- so as I continued on, walking down an empty downtown sidewalk at night, carrying heavy plastic bags in my right hand and a flappy broken shoe in my left, the same big shoulder bag slung precariously from my sloping shoulder, it occurred to me that anyone seeing me just then might well conclude that they were looking at one of the many crazy homeless folk that people downtown L.A., and they would be perfectly justified.

Anyway, at the cleaner's I asked for a piece of tape to try and temporarily mend the boot, but it didn't work very well.  I ended up driving to a shoe store to buy a new pair of shoes to wear home.  I might still take the old pair to a shoe repair shop, though, to see if they are worth repairing.