‽Bros

At the breakfast table, the entomologist mixes and measures instruments of longevity: vitamins and serums that support various aspects of the body and mind.

Preservation abounds in his house in nearly every sense. The solar lighting tubes and rainwater collection system preserve life on a large scale, while his study houses many small things preserved in both life and death.

A Black Widow spider guards her jar atop  a terrarium.

A glance through the entomologist’s much-used dictionaries reveals many words that have been highlighted
and underlined. Rumor has it that every time the entomologist looks up  a word, he highlights it to mark that it’s been investigated. Repeated inquiries into a highlighted word earn an additional underlining or a checkmark, and, according to loved ones, a small amount of irritation with himself.

Among these highlighted words:

Servomotor: A device for changing a small force into a large force.

Gorge (second definition highlighted): What has been swallowed.

A Tarantula, removed from a friend’s bathroom.

Desultory: Aimless, disconnected.

Canny: Cautious and shrewd.

Skylark: A Eurasian lark famous for the song it utters as it soars.

Specimens apparently collected in the entomologist’s house in February 2011.

Only: Alone of its or their kind.

Actual: Existing in reality.

Numberless: Countless.

Am I right!?

After some photos I took of model Lynsie Lee were published in February 2012′s Hustler Magazine, I noticed a spike in traffic to interrobangbros. This was accompanied by a twin spike in the number of people who came to the site and stayed for only a couple of seconds before leaving. What’s the deal, Hustler readers? Not as interested in pictures of bugs and senior citizens playing Bingo as you are in images of naked women? I can’t imagine why. Here’s some more Lynsie, just for you.

Oh, what’s that ? You wanted her in focus? You don’t want some guy reading a car magazine in the shot? Shoot. I guess I just don’t have my finger on the pulse of this market.

I’ve been hanging onto these three images for some time; they seemed to go together, but each time I tried to articulate their connection, there was always one odd image out. Two of them were taken out the window of a car, two of them show men at work, but what was that instinctive common thread that caused me to view all three as belonging to the same family of images? Ultimately, I realized that each image shows a man with something to offer. Some of the offerings are explicit, some more mysterious, but each man confronts us with the promise of something.

Above: Man outside 7-11, Portland, OR

Above: Haircut Sale, Newberg, OR

Above: Tobacconist, Victoria BC, Canada

The Victoria Bug Zoo, in Victoria BC, Canada, houses all manner of exotic insects in a series of candy-colored terrariums.

Dan (below) is one of the zoo’s tour guides. During his shift, he continually rounds the doughnut-shaped duo of rooms comprising the zoo. Guests drift in and out, joining or leaving the tour at their leisure. At each terrarium, Dan pauses to give a speech and to scoop out one of the bugs within, which he then allows brave gusts to hold.

Noting that he is fairly new to the bug zoo, Dan says he has only seen a female mantis destroy a mate once. He describes the spectacle as a steady diminishing, saying that each time he passed the mantis terrarium, less and less of the male remained, until there were only small undesirable bits. Curiously, the male mantis doesn’t resist the female as she attacks him; in fact, it’s thought that in these cases the male offers himself up, in a last-ditch evolutionary mechanism, as supplementary food for the female carrying his eggs.

Dan pauses at a terrarium housing leaf insects of varying sizes. Sliding open the glass door, he blows air inside, asking us to note how the real leaves and the leaf insects sway at once. The effect is uncanny.

Some guests jump at the chance to hold each bug, and others make disgusted comments and shy away.

And some bugs, Dan explains, aren’t for holding.

This white bug (below) was so beautiful that guests were immediately taken with it and began asking questions. One guest asked what it was called. “I like to call her Bianca,” said Dan, before blushing and correcting himself–it was an Orchid Mantis.

http://www.bugzoo.bc.ca/index.htm

This organic fluff is meant for both flying and clinging. Humans, in their own quest to distribute seed, mimic these properties of fluff.

The above fluff is more sedentary and bleak-futured, having fallen in clumps from some animal. However, it may yet experience flight as birds carry it to weave into their nests.

This fluff has been caught by a spider’s silk. The breeze creates the illusion of a struggle. The seed is the very embodiment of potential! Think of the pressure it must feel to land in the right place at the right time.

Shelby, an 18-year-old Seattleite, rolled into downtown Portland with a suitcase full of dresses, three swimsuits, and a few Trojan Magnums.

The black one is Shelby’s favorite of the three swimsuits she had with her; however, she is careful to note that any of her suits will look good, “because, well, it’s me.”

I was impressed by Shelby’s modeling ability and her charisma–we grabbed strangers from the sidewalk for her to pose with, and she was completely unfazed. One of those strangers, Liam (below), was on his way to the Columbia Gorge in business attire and a friendship bracelet for unknown reasons.

Darcelle (above) has headlined her own drag cabaret at Darcelle XV, her downtown Portland club, for more than 35 years. Darcelle’s alter ego, Walter Cole, first dressed in drag at age 37; he is now 80 years old.

The showplace was largely populated by shockingly young bachelorettes and middle-aged birthday parties. Each performer held a distinct appeal and attracted tips, though some members of a bachelorette party near the stage were also seen stuffing dollars into their own bras, for reasons unkown.

www.darcellexv.com

Every Thursday night, a certain unobtrusive bar secretly plays host to the wildest nightlife in Portland. Neighborhood seniors gather here to play bingo and take jello shots–more than one patron boasted to me that the cherries embedded in the shots had soaked overnight in vodka.

Denny (above left) is a gregarious regular who rather literally froths at the mouth during the game. Though he does not play himself, he goes from table to table joshing and jibing so loudly that he is regularly admonished by the bingo caller. He often leaves before the end of the rounds, not wanting to miss American Idol.
Leonard (above right) runs a printing business and is referred to as a leprechaun by his fellow bingoers. He seems to embrace this image of himself; his business card features a leprechaun-like figure.

Below is a woman identified only as the bingo queen. She was hesitant to have her picture taken at first, but showed interest once others had consented.
“She always wins,” said her husband.

Lynsie Lee, a 23-year old model, dancer, and student, recently celebrated her daughter’s 3rd birthday.

Lynsie’s husband is a musician, and Lynsie is considering becoming a lawyer. She stresses that she will support the dreams of those she loves at any cost.

Lynsie’s daughter invites us into her room and then insists that we must not touch her things.

One of the best things about having a child, Lynsie says, is that one is never alone: “If I want someone to garden or do yoga with, she’s always there.”