I have nothing to say about this other than I like the effort made to decorate the frontage of the building (which is a youth hostel) and it certainly stands out. The artwork is apparently by Brutto, an artist from Rio de Janeiro who currently lives in Dublin.
The city’s ha’penny bridge which was built over the River Liffey in Dublin in 1816. It was originally known as the Wellington Bridge, which the locals would be unlikely to entirely appreciate now. I say appreciate now, but it seems the locals didn’t even appreciate the name at the time, and it was rarely used. The Duke of Wellington was born in Dublin, but colonial links made that a difficult name to use after Irish independence and in 1922 the bridge was renamed the Liffey Bridge.
The bridge was cast in Shropshire and is 43 metres long and 3.6 metres wide. The bridge takes its informal name from the ha’penny toll which was allowed to be charged for 100 years to enable the construction of the project to be paid for.
The bridge from the other side…. The authorities have had problems with people placing love locks on the bridge which is causing problems with the structural integrity of the crossing, and any locks are removed. There has been a recent restoration of the bridge, although it’s estimated that around 85% of the metalwork is original.
And a seagull.
I tried to find out the backstory to this frontage, but the only architectural web-site I could find mentioned that this area was new build and the building had a fake frontage to enable it to fit into the local area. Situated looking out onto the River Liffey it’s an intriguing sight with the pillars and empty windows. But, to be honest, I can’t entirely see the point in keeping a frontage if there’s no effort made to keep anything behind it.
Porterhouse is a small international chain with four bars in Dublin (of which I’ve been to three), one in London and one in New York. There’s also a Porterhouse Bar in Gorleston, which fortunately is not part of the chain. This outlet has had numerous incarnations over the last century, as Kidds bar, Jammets fine dining restaurant, a Berni Inn and as a Judge Roy Beans.
My visit to the pub was in January 2018 and it’s fair to say that it wasn’t particularly busy. The service was typically Irish which is to say it was conversational, friendly and engaging. The customer base seemed to be a mix of locals and Americans, but it was all rather convivial.
There’s a wide range of beers at every Porterhouse outlet and also a food menu. I didn’t eat anything on this visit, although I know from previous experience of this chain that their fish and chips is quite marvellous. The beer list has hundreds of beers from around the world, although I’m entirely satisfied that they have four or five of their own stouts on draught.
The Oyster Stout which actually does contain oysters to try and make the beer a little sweeter. I quite like this as a light drink, despite its colour and ABV of 4.6% perhaps suggesting otherwise, with no strong aftertastes.
Given the central location of this bar the prices are reasonable and it has plenty of character. The owners say that this is perhaps the longest bar in Dublin and it’s certainly a large location which seems easily able to cater for most size groups.
This photo dates back to January 2018 and it’s an art installation by the Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias which is located at the relatively new Bloomberg HQ in London. It’s designed to mark where the Walbrook River once flowed, a river which was covered over relatively early on, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The art installation is made from cast bronze and there are strands of this material used throughout, so the water flows to create small pools.
This cabin is the oldest building which is still standing on the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was originally a tourist office, which then became part of a hotel and then later on became part of a lodge. It’s one of those structures where chunks of it likely aren’t very original, but nonetheless, it’s an interesting building.
An information board about the cabin, which was built in 1895 by Buckey O’Neill. O’Neill was a gambler and he later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders voluntary army, in which he died in battle in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, a conflict I’ve rarely seen mentioned during my visits to the United States.
From mid-May 2019, these are the photos from my little morning walk along the seafront at Capistrano Beach. Capo Beach was badly damaged by the weather last year and so there are some construction works afoot to try and fix it, with evidence of the half disappeared basketball court in the below photos.
There are some photos of the damage at http://www.meetsanclemente.com/south-orange-countys-beaches-are-rapidly-disappearing/.
Painted by Ruth Peabody in 1925, this painting is apparently showing a pensive looking women planning what meal to cook. Peabody gave the painting to Laguna Art Museum in 1966 and I liked the pose and look of the woman in the artwork. Although, as ever, I’m confused as to why the items on the table are painted in what I consider a clunky way which is out of perspective, but I’m sure it’s very artistic indeed.
This is a quirky piece of artwork and one which I thought was actually quite thought provoking. It relates to the 1980 Canyon Project in Laguna Beach and the artists wanted to show that the area was important environmentally. So the artists collected a load of trash from along the road and they then arranged it on light-sensitive paper. It’s apparently a Cibachrome photograph, although that’s not something I’ve ever heard of.
Sadly the artists have both died now, Jerry Burchfield in 2009 and Mark Chamberlain in 2018, but the artwork feels modern and contemporary even though it dates to 1988. Dominating the section of the gallery that it’s located in, the artwork is fifteen feet wide and five feet high and is split into seven sections.
Paul Lauritz was a Norwegian painter who ended up in California, with his desert paintings apparently being his strong-point. After trying to find money in gold prospecting, he opened an art studio in Los Angeles in 1919. This painting of Los Angeles City Hall was painted in 1930, just two years after it was completed. This is also the building which has been on the badge of Los Angeles police officers since 1940.
