an evening in Key West

From a trip taken a few months ago to the Florida Keys. Highly recommended: the whole fried fish at El Siboney, a Cuban restaurant in Key West.

why can't more churches look like this?

MIT chapel by Eero Saarinen (image from Wikipedia).

hanna

Last weekend we went to see Hanna, and although I'm normally lukewarm on action movies, I really liked it. Not one of those profound movies that's going to change your life, but it was a very satisfying watching experience [disclaimer for the violence-averse: there is some]. I tend to watch movies for the esthetic elements, and they were all done just right in this one*. Probably my favorite element of it was the locations, including this abandoned amusement park in Berlin, which leads me to this amusingly surreal tidbit from Wikipedia:

Norbert Witte* failed in his attempt to run a "Lunapark" in Lima. On 19 May 2004 he was sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine with a value of £14 million from Peru to Germany in the masts of the "flying carpet" ride.

The photo, also from the Wikipedia article, is of part of a roller coaster, and reminds me of this fellow gaping-mouthed monster. Seen together, they make me want to embark on a gaping-mouthed-monster themed world tour.


*From context clues, I'm guessing Norbert Witte is the former owner/operator of Spreepark. Wikipedia is rather Sphinx-like on his identity, introducing him out of the blue as moving to Peru in 2002.

happy girls

Another of the old Swiss pictures. I have no idea what the story is behind this, but I'm guessing it's from the 1940s. I just love everyone's expressions.

i am love

If you're in the mood for beautiful photography (it would also get my nomination for Best Recent Use of Typography in Credits, if I were handing out awards).

some sunshine

Since it's unseasonably cold in a lot of places, including where I am, here is the next of the old photos from Switzerland:

I don't know where this was taken (although probably NOT Switzerland), but I love everything about it, except my scan job which, try as I may with different scanners and settings, I can't get quite right (the original is a tiny photo, which I'm sure doesn't help). Here, for good measure, is version #2:

thing one and thing two

Finally, some things in the shop! If I were a cloth-napkin sort of girl* I would have been sorely tempted to keep the vintage linen handkerchiefs. Not many people I know** use cloth handkerchiefs, but I think these would make really lovely napkins, especially after repeated washings.



*Which I wish I were, but I should try to concentrate for now on eating at the table instead of on the couch.
**Only one family, in fact.