Antelope

My mom took this picture just outside of her house of antelopes casing the joint.

polaroid

Maybe no one else cares, but did y'all hear that Polaroid has decided to stop producing film? I love the convenience of digital cameras too, but until you can get this kind of image in-camera with one, I say something's missing.

Picture from this flickr page. *L

Portland Meteor

*k

Binerdy

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L, K

uncouth

J, you are correct. I am kind of obsessed with Werner Herzog. Sometimes he just gets things exactly right:

"We lived for a while in San Francisco, but it was too chic and leisurely. New York is only a place to go if you're into finances. But we wanted a place of cultural substance. And if you look behind the stereotype of glitz and glamour, that is Los Angeles. If you go to Florence, it has all surface beauty, but like Venice, it's simply a museum of Renaissance times. Los Angeles is raw, uncouth and bizarre, but it's a place of substance. It has more new horizons than any other place."

That almost exactly sums up why I quit my great job, ditched my great apartment and moved across the country with no job prospects just over 3 years ago. How can I not be fascinated? Plus, he has several other interesting things to say. Not to mention a few amazing films to his credit.

Photo above is Herzog eating his shoe after losing a bet to Errol Morris. *L

Schnee in NYC

snow in NYC today.
*pic courtesy of Jdub

ungeheuer zwei

Thanks to K, I found this incredible TED lecture by the photographer I already pimped below, Edward Burtynsky. While I naturally disagreed with a few details here and there, I found it to be a really, really thoughtful & beautifully illustrated lecture--in the way that ugliness and ungeheuer can sometimes be stunningly beautiful. And I mean stunningly--I'm sometimes frozen by his images, like a visual slap in the face. It's like the exact opposite of J's ungeheuer in that these are all images of "manufactured landscapes" , completely unnatural. They are particularly striking to me in that they reflect a certain discomfort that I have dealing with the fact that I love some of the conveniences in my life (like the laptop I'm writing this on) and yet am very aware of the waste (K!) and results of these conveniences down the line.


If you have 35 minutes to spare, I think the lecture is well worth your time. *L

Brandy! By the Wonderful Mr. October

I know that this has special meaning for J. L, you'll love it too.
* K

Slowloris...

If I Could be Anything...

The above is the slender loris. Behold. Relative of the slowloris and is similarly arboreal, nocturnal- it sleeps curled in a ball. I've had a thing for the wonderful slowloris for far too long. We have quite a lot in common: button-cute fur covered ears, we're ganz plucky and sport freakishly strong toes; alas, I had some help.
*K
*Top photo from the Duke Lemur Center

ungeheuer

I know i put the link to this book under my links, but i feel the need to post this image as well. The Deep trumps any other book i've seen in its beauty, depth of information and ability to emphasis the reality that nothing we create is really novel. This fish is a female. Attached to her at the bottom (i'm not sure if you can see) is another, small fish, about 1/20th her size. This is the male. He spends his whole life attached to her, until he eventually disolves into the folds of her abundant flesh. j

italians

yes, that is a bust of the pope under plexi in the middle of a table in a family-style chain restaurant. taken on my cell phone on the way to the restroom.
as half italian-american, i don't know what to make of boca de buca's quasi-catholic shrine room. am i offended in some way by southern california's gaudy take on what it means to be italian, or am i amused at the kitschy near-heresy of it all?
in general, i find there are not as many italians around as i am used to. i thought everyone was catholic up until 5th grade. in new york, pizza joints looked like pizza joints. in la, they look like this:
Just imagine spinning that lazy susan around to get another spoonful of pasta. it's like a mini popemobile. *L

shipbreaking

photos by Edward Burtynsky *L

Despair has struck the soul of new england. and me. In this dark hour, there is almost no solice. As if it weren't bad enough its monday. j

I saw this on Ebay and....

This nugget expires today, so act fast ladies. *K

More Football News: Arlen Specter You Big Kidder!

He's just joshing, right? Republican Sen. Arlen Specter from the commonwealth of PA and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee wants answers to tough questions. Questions such as why the N.F.L. commissioner destroyed files related to the Patriots spying on the NY Jets. Yikes. Can one infer that this is the most important thing going on in PA? How idyllic. No homeless people, no hungry kids, no crime, no ugly people. Sorry. Crikey, the Jets are not even from NY. Musings of antitrust status and the destruction of spy tapes oooh are pretty compelling. Potentially lots of money, but no lives at stake, so carry on. *K

dreamy

Last night i dreamt that the patriots crushed the giants after a white knuckle game in a fierce snow blizzard.

i feel this is prophetic.

l., if you were here, i would make you pigs in a blanket.

j