Sweetness and Light

This photo of the Café de Flore brings back happy memories of our Paris trip — Andrew and I spent a few hours here, sipping coffee and people watching.


(photo by Alice of hardcore unicorn — see more lovely photos of her Paris trip here)

Buffet

This week's links. Enjoy.

100th Anniversary of the RV
Autoblog has a fun slideshow featuring recreational vehicles from the last 100 years. I'm rather partial to the Hunt Housecar from 1937 — it looks exactly like a spaceship on wheels. Via things magazine.

Hauntings I and Hauntings II
Guy Maddin has an interesting art exhibit on right now, commissioned as part of Essential Cinema for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) — Hauntings I and Hauntings II are a series of short film installations that are "... meant to invoke and appease the ghosts of cinema. Starting from the premise that every filmmaker has an unrealized project, a half-finished or abandoned film doomed to oblivion or left on the cutting-room floor, Maddin presents a series of shorts that explore the lost history of cinema." This sounds amazing. Times and locations here. Via clusterflock.

Printable Bookplates
Brighten up your personal library — download this set of four (free!) cute and colourful bookplates by Pilgrim Lee of draw! pilgrim. Via how about orange.

The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects
Deirdre Foley-Mendelssohn of the New Yorker has a fun review of The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects, the intriguingly titled new book by John Tingey about eccentric Englishman W. Reginald Bray (1879-1939) who, after reading the entire British Post Office Guide, decided to take the rules as challenges. Foley-Mendelssohn writes that " ... Bray tried posting an unimaginable array of things, to see whether the post office would deliver them. Apparently, at the time, the smallest item that could be posted was a bee, and the largest an elephant. Bray seems to have tried most things in between." I definitely have to get this.

Size Matters: Small Towns with Big Things
Intriguing essay by Keith Eggener about the human fascination for going big. It focuses mainly on smalltown USA, but there's plenty to be found here in smalltown Canada, too — in Ontario alone I can think of Sudbury's giant nickel, Wawa's giant Canada goose, and I seem to recall seeing a towering wedge of cheese and an enormous orange somewhere on the road, too. Via Design Observer.

dwellinggawker
I've just recently discovered the addictive dwellinggawker, which, like NOTCOT, Tastespotting and other such sites gathers together related links — but focuses on interiors. A wonderful reference, with loads of great stuff.

17 Strange and Interesting Beds
DesignCrave has rounded up 17 offbeat beds, ranging from a classically-inspired swan to a Claes Oldenburg-like giant hamburger. Entertaining — especially for interiors geeks.

Ginger Pear Upside-Down Cake
Saveur is breaking out the fall recipes, and this one, taken from the Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook, sounds both warming and delicious — a perfect way to end supper on a crisp autumnal evening. Recipe is here.


(photo via the beautiful soup)