BUS STORY # 353 (Albuquerque Bus Stops: A New Blog)

Detail from the cover photo for Michael Jerome Wolff’s blog, Albuquerque Bus Stops.

Albuquerque has a new bus blog. Or, rather, a bus stop blog. It’s called Albuquerque Bus Stops. Melissa Ewer posted the link on the ABQ Bus Riders Discussions page of Duke City Fix. I was so taken by the photograph that it took me a while to move on to the top post. But when I started reading, I didn’t stop until I’d read all eight posts. The first was posted on May 4.

The blog is concerned not so much with the bus stops themselves, but with the homeless of Albuquerque who, as every bus rider knows, can be readily found congregating at various bus stops around the city, and who use the bus when they need to go somewhere. It is a demographic that is hard to miss and easy to overlook. Michael Jerome Wolff has chosen not to overlook.

Michael and I have spent time at a couple of the same bus stops. I can vouch for the accuracy of the scenes. But we are different bus riders and writers after that.

Michael actively solicits his stories; I passively observe, or interact only when approached. It is clear he is comfortable among some of the most discomforting characters around; I am not -- until an unsolicited one-on-one happens, and the story of a human being emerges.

Michael is young, and it’s not hard to see an adventurous, even fearless, streak in the lines of his stories. I am long past young, and apprehension tends to temper my curiosity.

I sense a much more uninhibited compassion, and perhaps romanticism, in Michael’s stories. He also takes better pictures than I do. Lots better.

Michael has taken some compelling photographs of the people he writes about. There is a curious coincidence about my finding these photos this week; I just finished writing a possible bus story about why I don’t take pictures of people I see on the bus or at the bus stops, even though I sometimes would like to.

We do have this in common: we sometimes are fortunate enough to have a beautiful woman by our side when we travel the bus.

I highly recommend starting with the About page. I’ve posted the link to the home page to the right of my stories, under all Albuquerque links.

This is a promising start. I look forward to more posts, more photographs, and maybe recognizing some of Michael’s subjects on the bus -- or at the bus stops.

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Thanks to BB in Marshfield, MA, for this week’s featured link: This Week In: Boston.