Street Performers In London

I've got to thank my sister for these photos of street performers she took a week or so ago in London and sent to me. It's early Monday morning here in Florida and this is an easy post to start the week with. More to come later today!

Ice Cream Truck In London

I just got these images in the mail yesterday from my sister that was in London for a few days this past week. It reminded me of this post that I had done a short while back and being a sucker for "naif art" had to post it here too. I love these pseudo-good attempts to recreate pop culture icons such as this Disney-inspired ouvre seen above.

Topless Fishing Tours In Florida

The Smokin' Em Charters fishing boat, a 44-foot Trojan, was booted from the Fort Pierce City Marina, FL after city officials discovered the fishing service offers an optional add-on: well-constructed female first mates who will do everything a male mate would do, such as baiting the line, pulling in big fish and serving cold drinks, plus - oh yeah - removing their top for an extra US$150. According to their Web site, they charge from US$350 to US$2,000, depending on the length of the trip and destination.

Check out their website for a selection of questionable "beauties" available for hire.

Via The PB Post

Junk Food Marketing

A selection of tempting artery-clogging junk food options available on my wanderings through South Florida. The colorful neons and cheery flags seem to hypnotise Americans towards the compulsive consumption of food-shaped crap, hence the turd-on-a-stick...oops...corn dog atop one of these trailers. My favorite sign is the "Fried Twinkies" as if you couldn't make junk food even more damaging to your health - a Twinkie - by dipping in boiling lard. Yuk!

They will even give you the sh*t out for free - SPAM! - like drug dealers around a school yard recruiting new addicts for future costumers. Can it get any grosser?

Palm Beach Zoo

I took these photos a few weeks ago when I spent a beautifully sunny Sunday morning visiting the Palm Beach Zoo here in Florida. The zoo is a gorgeous park where the enclosures are mostly very large outdoor natural settings, with plenty of space, foliage and water sources for the animals to roam. I am sure that a large Siberian Tiger still feels trapped no matter how large the enclosure is but it sure beats most zoos that I have visited in recent years - and I love zoos. There are no steel bars in any of the pens but simple wire mesh giving a very open feel for the spectators. You can stare at a stunning spotted leopard from a few feet away, almost too close for comfort. The animals at this zoo were all bred in captivity and are often traded with other zoos when they come of age so to avoid inbreeding. One of the most unusual animals I saw there was a white alligator - a real freak of nature - that was set in a temporary indoor exhibition to avoid the caustic Florida sun on it's delicate hide. The keeper told me that he is one of about 1o survivors from a nest found 20 odd years ago somewhere in the American South. She said that they all would have perished in the wild because of it's lack of skin pigment had they not been rescued. If the sun didn't kill them first other alligators would have finished them off because of their white appearance. Note: they are not Albino alligators by the way. They are actually just white skinned - with blue eyes (!) - whether an Albino's eye color is pink.

Street Painting Festival

It was a hazy Sunday morning here in Florida, nice enough to be outdoors but not sunny enough for the beach. My plan was to go get some rays today but as the weather was not too agreeable I decided to go check out Fort Worth's 14Th Annual Street Painting Festival that I had seen a blurb about on the news last night. Their site says that the great tradition of street painting began in Italy in the 16Th century. A crowd would gather whenever an itinerant artist used his chalks to turn the ordinary pavement into a fine work of art. Although the "painting" would only last until the next rain, the tradition of street painting has endured over 400 years.

Artists using chalk took the pavement as canvas and transformed downtown Lake Worth into a temporary outdoor museum of original art and masterpiece reproductions. A lot of the artists were being sponsored by local businesses, schools and institutions and the turn out was a mix of suburban families, tattooed hipsters, young couples with strollers and excited teenagers. There were also many pet owners toting their dogs around that really made me miss Booboo.

Besides the paintings on the asphalt there were many tempting food vendors, jazz bands and small tents selling cocktails, T-shirts and what-nots. The local shops were mostly open and holding sidewalk sales. Several cafes and restaurants had their tables outside and there were long lines to grab a bite to eat. The quality of work ranged from the "I can do that" to the truly amazingly detailed chalk paintings. I picked a few of my favorites to post here on the blog but there were way too many more that also deserved a mention. A couple of hours after I got home this huge rain storm came down full force and saddens me that probably most of the work, many still unfinished, was washed away. I am glad I took pictures!

Veteran's Monument - Rio de Janeiro

I spent most of 2007 in Rio de Janeiro visiting with my folks. As I had plenty of free time I also did quite a bit of sightseeing, rediscovering my home town with the eyes of a tourist. I cannot recall the last time I had been to the monument on these photos, maybe on a field trip in grade school, who knows. This has to be one of my favorite ones in Rio, in a city where there are plenty of cool places to visit. I just love the main statue style and design. Though done in the early 60's they look so modern and dare I say, sexy? A brief history for you:

The "Monumento Aos Pracinhas", located at Aterro do Flamengo in downtown Rio de Janeiro, was projected by architects Marcos Konder Neto e Hélio Ribas, whose project won a nation wide contest. It was inaugurated in 1960 and it's Brazil's first construction done in exposed concrete, a very futuristic approach for the time. This monument and museum honours the fallen Brazilian soldiers of World War II and features two lofty columns either side of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A changing of the guard display can be seen here on the first Sunday of every month. The monument museum displays medals, documents and military uniforms that belonged to soldiers. The ensemble consists of three main pieces: a metal sculpture by Júlio Catelli Filho, in honor of the Brazilian Air Force - or FAB, a granite sculpture by Alfredo Ceschiatti depicting air force, army and navy men in uniform and a ceramics mural by Anísio Medeiros in honor of military and civilians dead at sea (image below).

If you happen to be in Rio de Janeiro go check it out as it is a only 2 minute walk from the Museum of Modert Art in Aterro do Flamengo.