They Stole My Tag.

2 min readJul 21, 2022

Day 170 / 2022 Photo Project365

Spent June 19th — my birth anniversary aka “birthday” and also now the Juneteenth national holiday — with my daughter at an emergency eye clinic in Manhattan. Not what I had in mind for a birthday celebration or quality time with my daughter, but I am glad I was there to love, support and care for her as my 61st trip around the sun concluded.

After hours in the clinic, my daughter and I walked along 14th Street towards a pharmacy around the corner. Looking up, I saw street art supporting Ukraine on the second floor wall of a building, glittering in the afternoon sun.

Returning from the pharmacy an hour later, I looked up again, and noticed a wall of graffitti I had missed earlier. I laughed when I saw my own initials on the wall — somebody else had graffitti-tagged the wall with “REM” — they stole my tag!

My full name is Russell Evan Murray, my initials are REM, and this photo blog is called “remages” which is my initials plus “images” squished together. Of course “REM” is short for “rapid eye movement,” the sleep state in which dreams happen, and it’s also the name of a great band from Athens, Georgia, but I hadn’t run into anyone else with my initials before!

Camera: iPhone 13 Pro Max
Editing: Hipstamatic app
Photographer: Russ Murray aka “remages”
Location: 14th Street, Manhattan, NYC

See you tomorrow…