C. is for Coffee and X. marks the spot

"C is everywhere, and I consume it" 

"The First Sip"
Photo: Angela M. Counts

"Waiting"
Photo: Angela M. Counts

City Feed and Supply, a neighborhood grocery/cafe/deli in Jamaica Plain, is one of those places reminiscent of Old Boston, Old New York, Old Mexico City -- any where, where vendors once hawked their wares, their food, in modest wooden crates. 

"This Just In"
Photo: Angela M. Counts

If I crop the pictures just so, it may even feel like a hundred years ago. 

C = care. C = caress. C = city-time. C = careful. C = see me. C = love. C = friendship. 

C = Neighborhood in the city. Jamaica Plain. 

Contentment. The city on a small scale. A wasting not of time, but a gathering of time and space, if only just for a moment. 

"0.0.3.6"
Photo: Angela M. Counts

X on the other hand is a mystery. 

In the English language it is rarely used at the beginning of words and not so much seen in the city, except perhaps in spray-painted X's that mark the spot in a series of ongoing Boston construction projects. 

We see X's on the packages of gum or antacids. X feels like the shorthand of doing more with less, or some ubiquitous device to draw our attention (X-tra, X-tra!).

"When The Money Didn't Come Out"
Photo: Angela M. Counts

But what of the city's visual culture can be found in the letter X and in Boston Metro no less? That's an X-cellent question. Perhaps one can ponder on "X" as an absence of something. 

Recently I started documenting the machines in the city that don't work. Money that doesn't come out of an ATM when it's supposed to. The meter that doesn't work, but takes your money anyway. The parking machine that charges your credit card twice. The city is full of what is X'd out, what isn't working, and what isn't seen. I must confess that I want to look into this concept more. X is truly intriguing.