turning leaves, lownsdale square

fallen leaves, lownsdale square

pod

rouillé-arrugginito

A picturesque relic of the Pearl District's old industrial days, outside what's now the Ecotrust building. FWIW, the title of this post is just "rusty" in French & Italian; since it's the Pearl, titling a post "rusty shutters" or something would be insufficiently upscale and simply wouldn't do, even if I went my usual all-lowercase route. Oh no, this is ultra-premium, exclusive Euro-rust, like you'd find on the Eiffel Tower, or the underside of your Lamborghini.



For that matter, the north of England has whole cities made entirely of Euro-rust. Well, Euro-rust and broken alcopop bottles. Or so I've gathered from various British news sites. It's possible their coverage is on the alarmist side, though. At any rate, we now have an example of our very own, right in the heart of the Pearl, because we're sophisticated like that.



To avoid an unforgivable faux pas, be sure not to say you can't tell the difference between Euro-rust and classic blue-collar Detroit-style rust. The rust snobs will snicker and gossip and make corrosive remarks about your plebian tastes, as is their wont. Deep down they all know you're absolutely right, but that never really seems to help much, socially.



I'm told that if you monkey around with these rusty shutters too much, you'll score an exclusive opportunity to experience Euro-tetanus. I'm not actually recommending that, but if you're going to get tetanus you might as well go to the Pearl and catch the fancy kind.

koin center, infrared

Crazy Girls, Riviera, Vegas

Back to Vegas again, folks, this time to the vintage Riviera Casino on the North Strip. The Riviera is a rare remaining slice of old-school Vegas, complete with a long-running topless revue called "Crazy Girls". Some years ago they parked the unique sculpture you see here at the casino's main entrance to help advertise the show. It's since become quite a tourist attraction in its own right; note that certain key parts of the dancers have been polished to a shine by the grubby hands of passers-by. For good luck at the slots, for a giggle, or just for an only-in-Vegas photo to show the folks back home.



A sorta-similar phenomenon occurs at many of the newer, more upscale hotels in town, except with "foo dogs" instead of scantily clad women. The idea here, as I understand it, is that much of high-end 21st Century Vegas depends on the whims of deeply superstitious, baccarat-addled Chinese industrialists, and you need a pair of these guardian creatures at the front door they can rub for good luck, otherwise the whales will freak out and take their billions elsewhere. Which would make Wall Street and the money guys in Dubai deeply unhappy. That's generally less fatal than making the boys from Chicago deeply unhappy, but it's still to be avoided. So as you might imagine, Vegas is a city where one can make a very comfortable living as a feng shui consultant. I'd have a go at it myself, except that I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face about it.

contrail rainbow

Saw this today on my way home from the office. Similar examples of the phenomenon here, here, here, and here. You might also enjoy my sundog rainbow photos from January 2009.



It's gotten so I'm always a little leery of posting contrail photos on the interwebs, as that tends to attract conspiracy netkooks. I'll never understand how some people can fixate on such an innocuous phenomenon and decide the only possible explanation is a massive government conspiracy that's gone on for over half a century without the truth ever leaking out. I've come to think that they just see the world in a fundamentally different way than I do, and arguing with them is pointless.

Having said that, Gentle Reader(s), let me take an informal poll: Team Double Rainbow, or Team Rainbow Conspiracy?

infrared soldier, lownsdale square

penstemon, lovejoy fountain

Fair-to-middling macro pics of penstemon flowers near Lovejoy Fountain. Before you rush to compliment me on my newfound botanical ID skillz, I should explain that I only know this because a commenter explained it to me on a previous post here. And now every time I post any penstemon flowers I need to go back and refer to the comment thing -- I've already done it once before here.

I realize me ragging on my own photos here gets kind of tiresome, and really they aren't so bad for handheld tripodless macro pics taken in rather low light on a windy day. I just don't think National Geographic would return my calls if I sent them a portfolio that contained these, that's all I'm saying.