Dentzel

I went down to Glen Echo yesterday, to dance at Contrastock - three bands, friends onstage and off, lots of exercise, and fabulous tunes - and i planned to come back with lots of brilliant photos of the dancing. Turns out, i still haven't got the knack of shooting high-energy dancing in the odd lighting of the Spanish Ballroom, and the photos were pretty uniformly dreadful.

So instead, you get to see the photos i took of the 1921 Dentzel Carousel at the park. This is a swell carousel in its own right, but gets a few bonus points from me because it reminds me just a little of my favorite carousel in the world, the (even bigger and more grandiose) 1910 Dentzel at Seaside Heights.

I confess, i've ridden the Glen Echo carousel in full formal dress - at least once, at the expense of a snagged stocking - they will sometimes open it for special events like the springtime Strauss Ball. It's a little less of a challenge when i make it out there for one of the regular Sunday afternoon waltzes, but that's (alas!) a pretty rare occurrence these days.

A satisfying cup of coffee

Transferware meets vintage restaurant china: this cup makes me absurdly happy. (But then, so do several of my other mugs, most of which are odd vintage ones... maybe i should do a little series just to show off the more interesting ones.)

What's your favorite container for your essential-morning-beverage-of-choice?

A tiny bit of settling in

Amidst all the upheaval of new ventures and major housecleaning-and-reoganization projects, i managed a small but satisfying bit of overdue settling in: i finally hung one of my great-grandfather's paintings.  I have quite a few of them by now: the first was an engagement gift, years ago, and then more followed as my parents and my grandmother moved to smaller places.  I haven't got loads of wall space, so it can be tricky finding a good spot to hang something.  (It's a cruel irony that i've gotten into visual art myself now, and have even more demand for wall space...)

They're not brilliant, but good, and some of them are quite charming.  A few, at least, are copies of other works - i've come across at least one print in an antique shop, of what must have been the painting he copied - but others i know are original.  This one is one of my favorites: the still life in the niche is all well and good, but what makes it delightful is the miniature landscape glimpsed through the knot hole.



When i've got that area a little more sorted out, i'll have Grandma's sewing machine cabinet under that painting, which will pick up the colors nicely, and just seems fitting, given how much she adored her father.

Leaves

We're starting to see just a few leaves turning around here... for those of you who aren't close enough to drop by the show i've got running, here's a peek at the newest item i hung at the library Tuesday:

I love the look of images printed over text, but couldn't quite bring myself to break books to do it. After mulling it over and bouncing it off some bookish friends, i think i found a compromise: for this, i used pages from Reader's Digest Condensed Books, which somehow don't seem to cause the same qualms as "real" books. And of course, i called it "Leaves" because i can't resist a play on words.

Why i've been under a rock...

I know, i know... blog posts have been scarce lately. I've had a few other irons in the fire:

If you're in the neighborhood, come on out for the art show opening on the 10th!