to drown a rose

diva

any information about this clothing label?
i can’t find it on the internet, so i guess it might be something from the early 90s.
(i’ve got quite a few diva items from a friend a couple of years ago, but never really asked where they came from--they’re made in england, cheap but fun.)

you can find a black cat

sleeping in the stuffy upstairs rooms of shakespeare & co. in paris (lovely place in a great location, but by no means a great bookshop, this should be said).

photofriday: rest

resting on my scanner is a favourite with miss m. (the photo is blurred, but this suits her somehow)

cultural exchanges, or the safety of objects

reciprocating chatiryworld’s «three pictures» (and cheating, because i’ve grouped 3 things in 1 picture):

3 favourite items from my breakfast table (i’m a bit ashamed now, because i can’t help noticing none of them seems to be made in italy): tin cereal box, plain put lovely bowl from habitat, typographic mug from the metropolitan museum, where i’ve never been.

3 things i’d save from my apartement if I should leave in a hurry (assuming that a man and two cats do not count as «items», that i’ve had time to get dressed and my shoulder bag is already on my shoulder).
this exercise has been useful: i discovered i was strangely detached while thinking about it--i mean, if i was to leave everything behind, it would really make little sense taking only 3 «important» things. if i had to choose now, i’d probably look ahead, so: my computer, a book i haven’t read yet, and my new seurat-patterned umbrella, which might be nice to have in this weather.

(so sorry about the ugly flash, but every sunlit hour seems to have disappeared from my working days, all of a sudden.)

filastrocche come vengono

weeks run towards their end
like they knew where they're going

(i'm stuck with socks to mend.)

folastrocche, filastracche

the heat is not an option
i can't let it prevail
i'm melting on the pavement
my hair a burning veil
who sets my thoughts on fire
confuses what i know
until my mind gets cleared
by dreams of silent snow.

friday cat blogging,

or the perfect excuse for blogging about cats.
i discovered it here, but its origins seem to lay here.

so what is this?

this is a length of shoestring recently torn from my trainers by my cat. isn’t chewing an understated weapon of distruction?
there is no limit to what felines can achieve by chewing, given enough time.
(i came across more striking pieces of evidence, through the years, but threw them away without thinking of recording their horribly shredded appearance in pictures.)

a found sketchbook

found among the things of someone who can’t tell me about it.
i guess she must have found it in turn; i don’t know when – no later than 2001, not sooner than 1997, i think – and i don’t know where: in england or wales, probably in london, but... forgotten on a bus? thrown away? among books in a charity shop?
i'm so curious because, in fact, i know whose this is. it’s a book of sketches and notes for the stage design of a theatre production, and inside the cover the designer wrote her address and the theatre’s.
maybe the luzern stadttheater production of the elixir of love is long gone – I couldn’t find it listed on the internet – maybe ms jacqueline gunn (hers are the lovely pictures below) doesn’t care anymore about having her sketchbook back.
but, i wonder: should the finder have sent it to the cover address? should i do so now? do i have the right to be here posting this?
(oh, if the author could read this and tell me! or maybe she could tell me: take it off your site, immediately, and burn it...)

 

paris, les halles

having read about le ventre de paris yesterday at chocolate&zucchini, and having talked about film images of paris in a post of mine the day before, i thought i'd share a few 1960's images of les halles. left, a frame (or set picture?) from one of my favourite paris-american comedies, irma la douce, next to a street scene from the neighbourhood (that's from maurice rué, paris des poètes, hachette 1965). and, there's an online exhibit about the film's set designer, alexandre trauner, here (i didn't know he designed subway too). below, click on the thumbnails for pictures scanned from qui parigi, touring club italiano, 1968 (sky views by alain perceval, photographs by giancarlo botti and monique valentin). only at the end of 2003, the last time i've been to paris (where i've bought the gorgeous dress i'm wearing now, but i won't digress further), did i vist the interior of saint-eustache. i had been reading john berger's the shape of a pocket (sacche di resistenza, giano editore, varese 2003), and wanted to see raymond mason's sculpture: fruit and vegetables leaving paris, february 28, 1969. you can see it below, on a postcard bought on site and in a detail distorted by my husband's wicked eye. of course i wanted to end on a catastrophic note showing something from ferreri's movie non toccare la donna bianca, shot in the canyon-like excavations made after the demolition of the old pavilions, but i couldn't find pictures online - i will have to search the books. update, 14.06.04: tournage di ferreri e altre immagini cinematografiche delle halles sul sito dedicato ai progetti di riqualificazione (finalmente) dell’area. update, 3.06.04: aggiungo qualche immagine dal dvd della mgm di irma la dolce.

filastrocche come vengono

your pointy pink-black fingers
in search of snagging threads
will cause no hurtful blisters
they only drive me mad