florence

 

.

This isn't an accurate picture of Florence at all. Instead try to imagine instead 10,000 people in a medieval city, all jostling against you, all admiring plaster busts of David, all eating ice cream cones.

wave hill

. 

Wave Hill is beautiful, especially in the rain.

.

But it's such a long ride from the city that the train empties completely and things start to resemble the beginning of a horror movie.

relational aesthetics

.

For serious, Stefan Sagmeister--I couldn't have put it better myself.

weekend|diptych

Spencer Tunick/Mara Hoffman, IRELAND 4 (DUBLIN) | Studio Snowpuppe, paper lampshade

common people

.

People at a Pulp show:

• 6,000 dazed-looking 30-somethings who just realized they accidentally showed up at their 10 year college reunion.
• The guys who created The Venture Bros.
• Girls in pencil skirts.
• A couple carrying an infant strapped snugly into a Baby Bjorn. They sit in the mezzanine and drink beers. When the lights dim I notice that they brought noise-cancelling headphones for the baby.
• Jarvis Cocker.
• Jarvis Cocker's skinny tie.
• Jarvis Cocker's slim and glistening torso.
• That girl. (pictured)
• A porpoise made of lasers.
• About 500 fashion casualties of the late 1990s.
• A giant, florid, sweating dude who spells out the lyrics to F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. with wild flaps of his arms.

natural history

.

A fogged-up lens can make all sorts of pretty things happen, actually.

winter is coming

How to prepare:

1. California Dreamin' by The Mamas & The Papas. Repeat as needed.
2. Visit the last late-blooming roses.
3. Read something set in a world where winter lasts one hundred years. Certain characters will remind you darkly that winter is coming and you can think, "Well, for me that's merely true in a seasonal sense, whereas in your case it's a metaphor for being caught in the middle of an intractable political conflict and assassinated or possibly being eaten alive by wolves."
4. Accept that your herb garden is dead. Plant paperwhites on the windowsill.
5. Make too much oatmeal for breakfast and then watch in amazement as the cat casually sticks her head in the bowl to eat the leftovers.