what do you call yourself?

Scharlooweg / Willemstad, Curaçao
A friendly ... There is no name for a person coming from Curaçao. How stupid is that? Someone from America is an American, someone from Venezuela is a Venezuelan, someone from Curaçao is, well, someone from Curaçao.

barrelful of.. rumbullion

Needham's Point / Bridgetown, Barbados
Within the walls of an old fortress were a number of barrels - I'd like to think a one point in time they had been full of some good casked Barbadian rum.

oh, what a weekend it wasn't

Circus World Museum / Baraboo, Wisconsin
This mirrored reflection from the side of a circus train car sadly is not a reflection of my wild & crazy weekend here in Brum - I worked all day saturday - it rained all day sunday. Though I did go see Brüno. You know, Americans (or is it just southern rednecks) seem even more stupider when you are watching them in a foreign country. Zahh Brüno izzahh da nutzlich.

wheels of the [circus train] go round and round

Circus World Museum / Baraboo, Wisconsin
A trip to Baraboo, WI is not complete without a visit to Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey Circus World Museum - which also served as the former headquarters and winter home of the Greatest Show on Earth. Step right up - spin the wheel - win the little lady a prize!

chinese lanterns

Canal Street [堅尼街] / New York, New York
Unlike most other urban Chinatowns, Manhattan's Chinatown is both a residential area as well as commercial area. Most population estimates are in the range of 90,000 to 100,000 residents making it the second most populous Chinatown after San Francisco. Canal Street, west of Broadway (especially on the North side), is filled with Chinese street vendors notoriously known for selling imitation perfumes, watches, and hand-bags, which are largely purchased by tourists.

scrummin' - on a sunday afternoon

Wards Island / New York, New York
What better way to spend a summer Sunday afternoon than scrumming with a pack of your best mates. Me, I'd rather be on the sidelines watching.

urban waterfalls

Brooklyn Bridge / New York, New York
Last summer, parts of New York City were bathed in giant waterfalls when the grandest public art project since Cristo's Gates in Central Park, hit the "water" (no pun intended). New York City Waterfalls, a $15 million art project paid for with private donations, ran from mid-June through mid-October. Four mechanical fountains were installed on the shores of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Governors Island standing from 90' to 120' tall. This one was running under the Brooklyn Bridge.

ye old contemptible

Edmunds Street / Birmingham, England
For a certain someone, today puts them one step closer to being an old contemptible - happy birthday birdshoes! And a thank you to the same for serving as guest poster for the past two weeks while I had no access to internet (initially) and then just became lazy - great job on the food porn. This is another in my occasional posting of interesting pub names in the UK and elsewhere. Based on what I was able to find out, the brave Tommies in the British Expeditionary Force proudly took on the nickname "The Old Contemptibles" with this Birmingham pub being a favorite watering hole of the veterans. Apparently, it has recently undergone a major restoration which has immediately made it attractive to the more well-heeled crowd. As one reviewer put it "Not a bad pub, though packed with suits weekday lunchtimes. Fortunately, they bugger off soon enough." Sounds to me like he's a bit of an old contemptible himself.

apocalypse now

Edmund Street / Birmingham, England
Yesterday morning I walked out of my flat in city centre Birmingham into - wtf? There was trash strewn everywhere - cars were tipped up on the sidewalks - spray paint graffiti - broken windows. My first thought was - how did I sleep through this - and what the hell happened. As I find out, I walked out of my door and on to the set of a shoot for the new yet-to-be-released BBC series "Survivor" - billed as "One virus. Millions dead. A few Survivors." For a brief moment, I did feel like a survivor.

eye of the storm

Westminster Bridge / London, England
Off to London and Birmingham for a couple of weeks. With any luck, the weather will be abit more settled than this.

arctic iciness

Paksuniemi, Sweden
Some 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, we found ourselves racing reindeer through the tundra forest on wooden sleds. Was it cold - yes. How cold? My beard looked just like this reindeer's.

angels & demons

Ponte Santa'Angelo / Rome , Italy
For those who have seen Angels and Demons (which I highly recommend), you will recognize the Castel Sant'Angelo in the background. In the movie, Castel Sant'Angelo is seen as the last existing church of the Illuminati. The book also emphasized the Passetto di Borgo, an 800m long secret passage from the Vatican to the castle which was commissioned by Pope Nicholas III in the 13th century.

mission accomplished

Times Square / New York, New York
As if Times Square wasn't already a disaster, last week Mayor Bloomberg began his 6 month experiment of closing off Broadway from 46th St to 42nd St to vehicular traffic. While the concept isn't so bad as the city can always use less taxi, bus and car traffic in already congested areas - whoever made the decision to put the cheap plastic lawn chairs out there so tourists can rest their asses and feel right at home - should be dismissed. If the objective is to make an already tacky area even more tacky - mission accomplished.

the afterparty

Old Town / Bucharest, Romania
Wondering what to do after that wild and crazy Memorial Day party? You can always hit the afterparty. Bucharest - a dichotomy of old and new. Similar to Berlin, it has a certain edge to it that keeps it interesting.

father & son

High Street / Birmingham, England
It's rare to see the accordion being played much anymore - especially by a young boy. I suspect it was largely due to the particular song they were playing, but the scene had a very melancholy feel to it.

spring is in the air - almost

The Lake @ Central Park / New York, New York
Tomorrow it is supposed to hit the low 70's in New York City - spring is definitely in the air - which means Central Park will soon begin to blossom with colorful activity washing away the greys of winter.

bugle boy

Waterloo Bridge / London, England
It was a beautiful sunny Spring day and the smooth jazz only made it better.

repair required

Av. Rodrigo de Bastidas / Santa Marta, Colombia
Last night (and technically into this morning) a major installation occurred - now requiring repair. I am April's fool.

alkohole urgently needed

Jewish Quarter / Krakow, Poland
Work seems neverending - I need alkohole. Enough said.

eye for an eye

London Eye / London, England
The London Eye (also known as the Millennium Wheel) is the biggest ferris wheel in Europe, and has become the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3 million people a year. I don't get it - these things became the rage over here in Europe with the coming of the new millennium, thus the name. So far I've been on the one in Belfast, Northern Ireland.