I love this idea

This excellent lady photographer, Gail Albert Halaban, recently started a project taking photos of New Yorkers and the neighbors they see out their windows.



If you're interested in being part of the project, email her! Check out her blog to read more about it, and see the first few shots she's taken. And you can see more of her work in general on her website.

Don't forget to click on the pics if you want to see them bigger. Some of these, you just gots to see biggah.

The pillow as weapon

There was some mad pillowfighting last week when two little munchkins named Henry and Hazy came to town with their cool-headed, foxy (and wildly ambidextrous) mama Brook. The sad fact is, I didn't take many pictures. Why? Because I was often running from a pillow myself. And the few times I did have my camera, a certain someone (HENRY!) always managed to do a good, quick duck-and-roll away from me. But I did take this action snap of the All-Powerful Hazel Louisa trouncing some dude named Wolf.



Wolf, were you perhaps trounced because you made the fatal mistake of taking off your glasses, therefore making APHL blurry in your eyes, and sealing your fate? If so, I'm sorry, my brudder, I'm sorry. Next time. NEXT TIME!

Holding paws

I've been ruminating about otters ever since I watched one of the super charismatic little mammals in the Los Angeles aquarium a few weeks ago. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of him to share; just imagine an otter spinning around quickly like a log in the water to the amusement of many schoolchildren and you get the idea.

What is up with how crazy cute they are? They hold paws sometimes when they're sleeping, just so they can stick together while off in dreamland.



P. left this image on my computer's desktop the other day, which reminded me of the oh-so-understandably popular video on YouTube of (perhaps these same) otters during nap time. It took a second look at this picture for me to notice their little triangle noses, and their closed eyes.

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, one of the rarest otter species on earth is called, gloriously, the Hairy-Nosed Otter.

Uh, yes, this is exactly why you stopped by to visit this blog today. So you could stop thinking about like, the IRS or whatever, and focus on something REAL. Riighhht??

Doucet doubletake

I know, this blog is about to become the Dynamite Doucet Emporium, run by spiral-eyed Julie Doucet groupies, like me. Apologies in advance!

I've been reading 365 Days, an illustrated journal by YES, OK, Julie Doucet, published a couple years ago by Drawn and Quarterly. And here's how she drew herself before she went to sleep one night:



Well of course it reminded me of this painting, mentioned in this post.



Right, right? Isn't that cool? Huh, huh?



I'm probably going to start seeing this type of image everywhere, now. In the clouds. In my cornflakes. What, oh what, does this repetitive Woman, Book, and Cat imagery mean?

Salton Sea finale

So after we saw the little volcanoes and the abandoned hotel, smelled the Salton Sea, climbed up Salvation mountain, and drove through Slab city and the tiny, ancient town of Calipatria, which boasts ownership of "the world's tallest flagpole," we stopped for gas in another small, stuck-in-time town, named Brawley, and saw this:



Well, high-ho silver!



Frank became understandably preoccupied with it and took these inspired shots. I love this one, especially. The horse has been returned to his first love: the wilderness!



What a storefront. About 100% too freaking patriotic for my taste, but I like what they did with their awning, yes, indeed I do.