Escapism

Just picked up Hemingway, again. Not that I have time, but who can deny this mental vacation:
""The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea. It had lasted through three hurricanes and it was built solid as a ship. It was shaded by tall coconut palms that were bent by the trade wind and on the ocean side you could walk out of the door and down the bluff across the white sand and into the Gulf Stream."
- "Islands in the Stream," Ernest Hemingway

photoeye

Because it's...

February. Hallmark season. And I'm a sucker for Cole Porter. A new playlist; something old, something new, something lovely for you.

Stunning!

The above is a rendering of the cultural arts center as part of the new cultural district to be built in the UAE's city of Abu Dhabi. It is so awesomely cool it can never be built in the US. Ever. Because we like our buildings clunky and chunky, like our expanding waistline.

Frank Gehry is contributing, and so are several other internationally famous architects. The building above will house a concert hall, some exhibition space, and probably a gift shop or two.
Abu Dhabi is trying to build its tourism industry. I guess if you put bucket loads of money together with the williness to embrace modern design, you get fabulous in return.

[sigh] If I weren't in fear for my life because, well, the whole gay issue, I'd so go there to visit.