Are You for Real?

Is this a handsome young man kitted out for the Venice Carnival or just a lifeless shop front dummy?
Photo: Annie. Click to find out.

Mythical Beast Flies Over Amsterdam

Last week, this lonely Pegasus was spotted high above the Saturday shoppers in the heart of Amsterdam.

Photo: Annie. With thanks to Lidi.

Alien Discovered in New York City

I'm interrupting the reports of my recent adventures in the Middle East with the breaking news of an alien sighting in NYC. No not really. It's fashion diva Daphne Guinness, who is related to both the brewing family and the formidable Mitford girls. Daphne is clad in head to toe Alexander McQueen including the famous (or infamous) "Alien Shoes". God knows what her feet looked like the next morning!

Losing Your Head

Even after being decapitated John the Baptist certainly managed to get around. Or at least his head did. It is rumoured to be located in places as varied as Rome, Antioch, Munich and even Halifax in Yorkshire. However, the people of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus are quite certain that they have the real thing and have built it a shrine of emerald splendour.

The Umayyad Mosque also houses a niche where the head of Huseyn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammed, was displayed by the caliph who had him executed. According to Islamic texts, "the Heavens and the Earth wept only for two people: John the Baptist and Husayn ibn ‘Alī".

Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

A Warm Welcome in Damascus

The multi-coloured fish of the Oriental House hotel rush to greet me a stunning feat of synchronized swimming.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

Waiting for Wisdom

An empty lecture room in the lovely al-Azm Palace in Hama, Syria. It seems so serene, a place where wise people may contemplate subjects such as the perfect, exquisite void of the number zero that was discovered two-and-a-half thousand years ago by the Babylonian mathematicians in what is now Iraq.

The Palace has also seen more than its fair share of trouble, and was extensively damaged in 1982 when the Syrian military bombarded the city in an action against the Muslim Brotherhood, which resulted in possibly as many as 40,000 deaths.

Photo: Annie

The Very Thing?

A couple of weeks ago I met this man in the souk in Aleppo, Syria. Apart from the ferocious looking knife, he is holding a sign in Dutch that reads: "Is this something for your mother-in-law?" From the look on his face I get the distinct feeling that he's not joking...
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

The Face on the Door

Somehow I feel I know him and that he knows me too.
Photo: Annie

A Thoughtful Gesture

Someone has thoughtfully draped a woollen jacket around a statue of the Dutch writer Arthur van Schendel. Just right for the chilly autumn weather.
Photo: Annie

Swashbuckler

Caught amidst a swirl of reflections is the latest in swashbuckling fashion from Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

I Know I'm Not Supposed to Laugh at This...

... but I did!
Photo: Annie

The Aunts

Like the stylish maiden aunts you should have had in your childhood, these two mannikins pose prettily in Comme des Garçons.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

The Triumph of Style Over Substance

For 30 years Lou Lou de la Falaise was muse to Yves Saint Laurent and reputedly inspired him to create the legendary 1966 tuxedo. Now she has a shop in Paris, Maison de Loulou, and her own line of cheap but chic accessories, which she sells through the American HSN shopping channel. A surprising move for someone once married to the Knight of Glin, and perhaps even to LouLou herself, who was heard to remark during a recent broadcast 'I always used to say I'd rather be run over by a car than do this'.
Photo: Richard Avedon

Sam One Sleeve

As I reported recently, photographer Annie Leibovitz is going through a tough time with a threatened bankruptcy and assorted court cases. Maybe that why she (or her people) made the above gaffe. When photoshopping director Sam Mendes, she forgot to include his left arm, which is wearing a dark jacket, while the rest of him is clad in a nice blue shirt.

Be Afraid, Very Afraid!

What evil spirit lurks behind this cracked mask?

One for the Collection?

The Hands Resist Him was painted by California artist Bill Stoneham in 1972. Click the image and you will see countless little hands pressed against the glass door behind the boy and the doll. Spooky? Well, that's not all. In 2000, the painting was put up for sale on eBay with a very strange description. Apparently the two figures move freely around the painting at night and may even disappear without trace. Clearly a case of caveat emptor or "let the buyer beware"!

The Elephants of Amsterdam

I met this perky pachyderm on Amsterdam's Damrak and was instantly smitten. He's part of a herd of one hundred that are are to be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the world's biggest elephant charity. So why do I want him so much, especially as I live in a ridiculously tiny apartment? Because with him in my life, I know I'll never stop smiling!
Photo: Annie

What a Cheek!

Spotted at the flagship store of Marlies Dekkers, purveyor of fine undies.
Photo: Annie

What's Going Here?

Who needs a burglar alarm when you're protected by the dark arts and a scary-looking door knocker? And what is going on in the privacy of this home? Deeds of unspeakable depravity, hopefully...
Photo: Annie

Should We Take Him Seriously?

This is Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and leader of the ultra-right-wing PVV party. His latest bright idea involves taxing Muslimas who wear headscarves. Fortunately this proposal has been turned down flat.... for now.

Going to a Concert Amsterdam Style

You take your boat and sail through the city's canals towards the Prinsengracht for its annual concert on a specially-constructed stage above the water.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

Just as You Thought Things Couldn't Get Any Worse

Not only is Annie Liebovitz still in deep financial schtuck, she is also being sued by a fellow photographer for allegedly passing his pictures off as her own in a 2009 calendar shot for a coffee company.

The photo above is an example of what the calender has on offer. A naked lady in your spaghetti? The words "vulgar" and "tacky" come to mind. Understandably Annie L may have been desperate for the money.
Photo (presumably): Annie Liebovitz

How Nice They Remembered!

A message in an Amsterdam window intended for the star of such gems as One Million Years B.C. and Myra Breckinridge.

And here is the birthday girl herself. Only in Hollywood do they stay so young.
Top photo: Annie

Dream Time

This sweet-faced boy is Michael Jackson wandering through Amsterdam in 1977. Of course, the photo is worth a lot of money so it is being prominently displayed in a local shop window where I snapped it amidst the reflections of the city's streets.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

Glamour and Grime

I love the photos of artist Marlyn Minter: very dirty, very sexy.

The Look of Love

... and it was mutual. I met this young gentleman while photographing a mothers and babies group at my local bookshop.
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

Shot from the Hip

This photo was literally "shot from the hip" so as to avoid attracting the subjects' attention. The seated passengers on this London underground train seem oblivious to what's happening, faintly sedated in fact. But the man standing is another story. He knows full well that his image is being captured. Maybe that is because he, too, is a man of pictures: the Irish painter Francis Bacon.

The photographer is a mysterious person who goes by the alias of Johnny Stiletto. You can find out more about him at http://www.aliasjohnnystiletto.com/#/home/ajs-home.

Corridor of Secrets

My eternal fascination with hotel corridors. The chance encounter and furtive glance, the secret worlds behind closed doors, transience...
Photo: Annie

Jesus of the Ciggies

A pot of plants with a welcoming Jesus outside a hotel in Connemara. Unfortunately since the ban on smoking in such establishments, it is used for less divine purposes...
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

In the Eye of the Storm

Irish weather is a religious experience everytime!
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge

Madracula

It's scary what a little surface photoshopping can do to bring out a girl's true nature...

Image borrowed from the wonderful http://www.worth1000.com/ website.

Daphne

Daphne Selfe is an 80-year-old model with a 50-year career. I love her strength and beauty that no way denies her grey hair and magnificent age. Here she is stylishly gracing the pages of the Guardian colour supplement.

See also the Profoundly Superficial entry of 18 March 2009.

Little Wolfgang is Profoundly Superficial

From the frothy exuberance of Eine kleine Nachtmusik to the unfathomable grief of the Requiem, Mozart is the Profoundly Superficial composer par excellence. To quote the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky: “I believe that whenever someone employs the light touch, it bespeaks tragedy. Start with Mozart”.

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Creative Commons

Monsieur Ripley, c'est moi!

This enigmatic-looking woman is the writer Patricia Highsmith. She's an important part of my life right now because I'm re-reading her books, the famous being The Talented Mr Ripley. Highsmith has a genius for seamlessly transforming the normal into the psychopathic, good into evil.How does she do it? Yesterday I discovered a clue, a quote from an acquaintance of hers: "She was a mean, hard, cruel, unlovable, unloving person."

Do I care? Of course not. Creative people often "live" more brilliantly, more satisfactorily through their work than they ever do in their lives. And that's what's important.

Me a Bioharzard? The Disappointing Truth...

After extensive testing the answer is a rather disappointing "No, I don't have swine flu". I say disappointing because at least I'd have had something to boast about after a week of misery. Worst of all it has cost me the chance to help out a friend in need. Each month, she eagerly awaits her copy of Vogue only to discover that the local supermarket has scrawled the price in ugly ballpoint across the cover. Naturally she asked the manager to desist from such vandalism, but he just looked at her though if she were fit to be sectioned.

Clearly it was time for direct action, and the plan was to unleash me in the shop sneezing, coughing and gobbing over customers and cream cakes alike!

But it turns out I'm not that poisonous. Moreover, my friend has since discovered that the kind lady at the newsagents is more than happy to provide her with her monthly Vogue in virgin condition!!

Sometimes We All Feel like a Toilet Needing Attention...

Spotted at the Galway Hooker bar, Heuston Station, Dublin.
Photo: Annie

Am I a Biohazard?

Last Friday, when I flew from Amsterdam to Dublin, the stewards gave detailed information on how to avoid swine flu: use a handkerchief or your hands when sneezing or coughing, and always wash your hands afterwards. All good advice, I thought, but swine flu is something that happens to other people, not me. Well, fate had bitten me on the bum and I've got sick. My room is full of rubber gloves, masks, tamiflu and the large, yellow bin bag pictured above, which is for all my used paper handkerchiefs.

I feel like a one-woman germ warfare weapon!

Photo: Annie

My Friend David

I'm thinking a lot about my friend David Solomon, who's teaching English to Palestinians in Abu Dis, a town next to the Wall that separates Palestine from Israel. David, who is Jewish, has been writing a blog about his experiences, which included a meeting with his staunchly Israeli cousin.

David writes: "When I broke down in tears talking to my cousin Peter in Jerusalem, this was a reaction to six days of unremitting intensity. Life is so intense here, there is no let up from it, nowhere to go. People are talking about the Situation all the time: the wall, soldiers, detentions, prisons, roadblocks. There is absolutely nowhere to go to escape it. I wonder if they feel this in Israel too? But at least there they have the kinds of escapism also available to people in Europe and the US: shopping, getting drunk, going to nightclubs, taking drugs, the beach, the sea. Here most of these things are not available, except of course sociability which is on a very high level. As I have said, this is one of the most friendly places I have ever been to in my whole life."

Photo: David. Check out the site here: http://abudisvolunteer.blogspot.com/

So Many Clothes, So Little Space

How I wish I could just chuck a couple of t-shirts into my suitcase, grab my toothbrush and set off happy and carefree on my hols. But I can't. Last night I even dreamt that I forgot my passport. No, spontaneity is not my middle name. Instead, I plan my packing with all the precision of a military operation. Fortunately Alfie, my traveling teddy, is always there with a helpful suggestion... which mostly consists of pouring myself a nice long drink!
Photo: Annie. Alfie with one his mates.

Heartbreaking...

... little Blanket clutching a Michael Jackson doll at Tuesday's memorial.

What Happens to the Wannabes?

Now Michael's dead, what happens to the wannabes?

I guess they'll take on a life all of their own...

The Haunted Snapshot

This is a haunted picture. It contains rather more than you can see. The woman, Myra Hindley, is sharing a secret with her lover, Ian Brady. Here, she is acting as a marker indicating the position on this Northern English moor where she and Brady have just buried the latest of the children they tortured and murdered in the mid-1960s.

The child's remains have never been found despite numerous attempts to decipher this photograph. Hindley died in prison 2002; Brady is currently detained "at Her Majesty's Pleasure" in an institution for the criminally insane, where he refuses to divulge any information about the child's whereabouts.

Photo: Ian Brady

How to Transform the Crisis into a Life-Changing Experience

Take a tip from the Chinese. Their word for "crisis" is made up of two ideograms: one meaning "risk" and the other "opportunity". Apparently they believe that both meanings are inextricably linked.

And where did I glean this little gem of wisdom? From the introduction to the 2010 Fall-Winter Fashion Collections, as published by French Vogue.

It's not for nothing that they call me "Profoundly Superficial"...

Rest in Peace, Michael

So strange that he's no longer there...

A Lost Story

Forensic photography records the evidence of a crime or an accident. It tells a story; it deals with the dramatic.

The photo above is of an unknown child found wandering the streets.

A Crack in Time?

An ancient staircase frozen in time. Maybe the people on the floor above will be from a similar era.
Photo: Annie, Paris

Secret World

Who lives in the apartments that branch off from this staircase with its peeling trompe-l'oeil marble and wood panelling decor?

What are their secrets? Their perversions? Their hidden crimes?

Photo: Annie. Taken through an open doorway in Galerie Vivienne, Paris. Click to enlarge.

What Is He Thinking?

This is the shrine of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. He looks extremely lifelike but that is because his bones are covered with a generous layer of wax.

It's his expression that fascinates me. What is the secret of his deep contentment? Has he just seen God and all his angels waiting for him at the Gates of Heaven? Is he thinking of something delicious: chocolate, fresh truffles or some forbidden sexual delight?

Click the photograph to enlarge it and tell me what you think.

Photo: Annie

Our Lady of Crisis

Miraculously hovering in mid-air in the Church of St. Eustache in Paris, this Madonna and Child is by the gay artists Pierre et Gilles, who are known for suffusing their photographic portraits of saints and sinners with a kind of holy aura. Here, the Virgin is surrounded by wrecked cars and scaffolding that refer to the social housing projects of Paris's troubled banlieus. Her bridal gown is by Christian Lacroix, who has just gone bankrupt. No doubt another sign of the times...
Photo: Annie. Click to enlarge.

Would the Real Amanda Knox Please Stand Up?

The trial of Amanda Knox in Perugia (Italy) still rumbles on where she and two others stand accused of murdering her housemate Meredith Kercher.

Is she the fresh-faced angel come down to earth - as her friends and family believe - or the scheming, psycho devil girl so reviled by the popular press.

(Hopefully) time will tell...

See also the entry of 18 February 2009