Week #11: Johnny Ramos

My host for Week #11, Johnny Ramos, is the friend and colleague of Michael Paul Britto (Week #6) and it's already been a pleasure!  A photographer and filmmaker, Johnny's home is a spacious two bedroom in Crown Heights that he shares with a roommate he's known since college (Zak).  We all shared our first meal together (handmade ravioli from Little Italy, tossed salad, french bread toast and whiskey gingers) as I probed these two filmmakers for their  top movie picks...

 

I've been noticing that many of my hosts are tenders of altars (thanks for alerting me to this phenomenon, Legacy).  For some, this practice is entirely intentional, for others it's an outgrowth of personal documentation and casual collection.  Peeping Johnny's space, I was struck by the repeating motif of... chickens, roosters in particular.  Curious, I asked the deal and he schooled me on a cultural marker: Puerto Ricans like Chickens.  It's too wonderful to be real, but the perception actually exists! So much so, that Johnny routinely receives poultry figurines as gifts.  It even sounds good together- PUERTO RICANS LIKE CHICKENS (now say that 3 times, fast :->)




"You keep saying age is just a number, but that's like saying jail is just a room!" - Emily Q. Lu, Age 18