Last weekend Toronto dedicated a starkly breathtaking park/memorial to the Irish Famine immigrants of 1847. Ireland Park was opened by Mary McAleese, President of Ireland and features a rather striking memorial wall made up of glass bricks commemorating those who…
There is a great discussion at Bricoleurbanism on the absence of people-scaled spaces in Toronto’s urban streetscape. The discussion takes as a starting point construction hoarding on two sides of the street near Bloor that inadvertently created a humane street…
Sorry for the drought of postings of late. Things get in the way. There’s a unique concept hotel opening at Gatwick in July. Modeled on the compact sleeping spaces that I have always associated with Asia, they provide what they…
As the weatherman forecasts that the temperature will reach its hottest thus far this year (28C is warm enough for me), I am linking to the remnants of a trip journal to Munich during winter 1998. The HTML is a…
(if this image is just a pretty palace, click refresh to reload the animated gif and enjoy a quick look at the rebuilding of the schloss) I am always both fascinated and charmed to see an older building lovingly restored…
Answering the question, what’s up with the weird look to Randomosity today…I am trying a strange WordPress theme today using simple ASCII charters. Its actually a rather complex theme and its surprisingly difficult to actually make WordPress look so low-tech.…
I happened to stumble upon (literally – I was using the new StumbleThrough feature of StumbleUpon) this wonderful Flickr collection. In this set, Michael Hughes captures a variety of popular tourist sites and superimposes souvenirs in photo in situ. What…
When in Montreal, one must savour the fine eating opportunities and I am thrilled to report a gem of a spot. Rumi is a Persian/Sufi restaurant located in Mile’s End at the corner of Hutchison and Fairmount. It has a…
Down the line of totally cool furniture comes this rather unique objet d’something. Its called Obelisk and come from Jane et cie. Its simply cool – a set of four chairs and a table that, when stored forms a rather…
The Gardens at the Palais Royal are distinctly different from those at the Luxembourg. A grand urban courtyard, the Palais Royal have been a public garden from immediately prior to the Revolution. The Palais Royal was owned by the Duc…
There’s a neat spot, a little off the beaten track, in Paris that I have some fond memories of. It’s an oasis, small in scale, and slow in pace. It’s not the sort of place that you find in the…
I have long wanted to jot down some thoughts about some of my favourite places in Paris. Meaning to eventually present these as an appropriately georeferenced set with appropriate navigation, for now I thought I would add them as simply…