After discovering the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream, I had a sudden itch to fill the Deviation Obligatoire Flickr feed with beautiful vintage images, such as the one of the passenger pigeons above. Seriously, how dreamy is that? The best roundup I found? Buzzfeed, of course. Continue reading
Oh, let me count the ways.
The world is better for this being out there.
Now: do I need to borrow a child when I go to see this, or can I just gallop up there myself?
Also, new goal (to add to my considerable list): have my own name in a headline even a tenth as devastatingly delightful as that one.
A few years old, but always always always worth repeating: 15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will at the AV Club. Continue reading
I’ll just leave this here.
The curious, wonderful collision of science and poetry. Her face!
One of the DO Flickr’s pictures ended up in the CHS photo roundup again this week. Whee! Continue reading
Ocularists: a creator of prosthetic eyes. It’s meant a lot of things over the last couple millennia, but for a pair of families, it means two strikingly different philosophies. The LA Times explores the gulf that exists between the art and science of ocularistry.
Because Halloween is so awkwardly midweek, I declare that this weekend has also been Halloweekend. (The substantial number of costume-wearing people I saw Friday and Saturday night agree with me.) As such, this excellent roundup of horror movies set in New York is still timely. This is a new blog I’ve found, which looks at New York from the distinctive view of a location scout.
Also, this kind of thing is why going to New York feels like entering the real world, and leaving feels like going back to the outside to look in.
Capitol Hill has a new bookstore, and I can’t wait to wander through it!
As I mentioned last week, I listen to a lot of podcasts. It’s at the point that I’m pretty choosy about taking new ones on, because I hate a backlog. (The 47 unheard podcasts on my phone as of this writing would be surprised to learn that.) However, when I read Sarah Vowell’s post about 99% Invisible on Facebook, I got that big-pupilled Kate Beaton drawing look on my face that means “WE WANTS IT, GIVE IT TO US.” I’m looking forward to diving in this weekend.
In the meantime, they have a Kickstarter to support their next season. I am 99 percent sure I will be throwing them money once I listen to, oh, about 0.75 of one of the podcasts. Because it is a podcast about beauty, design, intention, and history. Are you kidding me.
An overview of Washington’s own deeply unlikely Bavarian-style town, written by a British woman on her Paris-themed blog. Yes, internet, I like you just fine.
I like Leavenworth, although I’ve been once and don’t feel compelled to go again. I went around Christmas with friends several years ago. Lots of tourists in weird hats, due to an oddly successful weird hat store, placed prominently in the center of the town. My favorite part was a big, big tree, its canopying branches carefully wrapped in softly glowing blue-white lights. If it hadn’t been about 25 degrees, I might’ve laid down on the stone wall beneath it and stared up at it and the peeks of midnight-blue sky showing through for hours. I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that I didn’t have a camera up for capturing it. Continue reading
A nearly deserted replica of Paris in Tianducheng, because of course there is. Continue reading
So, uh, I figured out where I’m going to be this time next year, I think. (On a temporary basis, that is.*) Behold:
You know, I don’t even want context for this. I like it, just as it is.
So, I have cats – two of them, both inquisitive and both deeply affected by things that are small, made of hard plastic, and fun to bat off a table. Despite that, I think… I think I need to own this. I need to own it and kind of gently spoon it sometimes when I’m longing for far-off places, and maybe stick my hand inside the tiny rooms to pretend it’s a tiny bit real. Related: how the fuck did Brickcon just happen in my city without me being aware of it at all? I’m going to blame it on being largely offline while I was in Hawaii, because any alternative suggests an intolerable failure on my part.
An essay about the stifling power of seeking perfection – and how most other people don’t give that much of a shit anyway. And that’s good.
I’ll make you dinner if you make me one of these with my own dudes on it. (I’m online friends with this person, and it’s extra exciting in this moment.)
A collected photo tour of the abandoned Holy Land theme park in Connecticut, over at Messy Nessy Chic, documents the live times and the end times of what looked to be a somewhat eerie place, even when it wasn’t decaying and covered in graffiti. For bonus unsettling, check out this old Time slideshow of post-Katrina Six Flags New Orleans.
If you think this applies to you, it does. If you don’t think it does, it still might. Ask your friends.
To my dismay, I missed the opening night…
…but I am absolutely, positively going to see this in a couple of weekends. Continue reading
A month or so ago, I was walking through Capitol Hill with a friend. We walked by a former telephone pole that is now sawed off about ten feet up; what remains is thickly covered with several kinds of vine. As we walked by, I reached out and let my palm skip across its surface.
“Ok,” he said. “Hold on. I need you to explain what just happened.”
“I touched the plants?” I said.
“I was walking with a coworker the other day, and she did that too. And I see people just, just do that – reaching out and, like, caressing plants. What is that? Why?”
“Sometimes they look soft,” I said. “Or like they have a varied texture. And I want to know what they feel like. I wonder if they’ll be pokey, or soft like moss, or something else altogether. I just do it. I’d do the same thing with sweaters if we were walking through a department store.” This seemed to satisfy him. Somewhat.
This is all just background to tell you one thing: if I visited one of these exhibits, I would need a couple hours just to go around petting everything, just to see what it felt like.
