“Signs & Portents”, Fortuneteller sign on Barracks Row, Washington DC. Photo: Mike Licht.

“Signs & Portents”, Fortuneteller sign on Barracks Row, Washington DC. Photo: Mike Licht.

At one of the last remaining video stores in America, I asked a real live human who stood behind the counter to help me find the 2006 Almodóvar film Volver  that I’d been looking for. He smiled and directed me to the foreign films section. A few minutes later, I returned to the check-out counter empty handed. Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown (1997) was playing on a television near the ceiling, behind this man, and in front of rows and rows of DVDs and VHS tapes. In the Tarantino film, gunshots signaled the end of something.

The video store guy smiled at me, his white hair parted to the left side, a youthful smile on his 50-year-old face. He asked me if ‘I found what I was looking for,’ instead of ‘found everything alright.’ I told him I liked the way he asked me that, that the idea of ‘finding what you were looking for’ was far more valuable an experience than just ‘finding everything alright.’ He smiled again, his pearly white teeth matching his wispy white hair. I thanked him, but told him that I didn’t find what I was looking for. I left, hoping I would find everything alright.

Read the full story at Crave Online: http://www.craveonline.com/art/columns/865377-crystal-paradise-tarot-readings