Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
Above: Traditional cachopo of beef filled with serrano ham, goat cheese and caramelized onions at LaMasBARata
With Oviedo our only stop in Asturias during a trip last spring, we opted to sample some of the dishes of which the region boasts. This is not to say we didn’t stray a few times, as photos from these restaurants we patronized show.
Continue reading “Postcard from Oviedo, Spain: Exploring Asturian cuisine”
Above: Part of a community art project of Color a Mexico
Sharing snatches of artwork brightening up walls and doorways we encountered while meandering the streets of Morelia. Some of these murals resulted from Morelia’s Festival Internacional del Arte Urbano in 2022. These photos were taken prior to the fall 2023 event, so presumably there is a fresh crop greeting visitors now.
Continue reading “Postcard from Morelia, Mexico: Festival marks walls with color”
Above: Interior of The Design Museum
A basement space in the Victoria & Albert Museum was the first home to Boilerhouse, a showcase for modern design that outgrew that space and another subsequent one before transforming the 1960s Commonwealth Institute into today’s The Design Museum on Kensington High Street. The most striking feature of the post-war modernism landmark originally designed by RMJM is its tent-like parabolic copper roof. The dramatic interior rehabilitation of it was completed in 2018 under the direction of John Pawson.
Exhibitions change, but I’m going to mention two. The first is “Antifurniture,” handsome wooden sculpture designed by performance artist Fyodor Pavolov-Andreevich and BoND Architecture to engage interaction, to invite one to “inhabit” the works. By “one,” I definitely mean someone other than me. Among the phobias the artist strives to help combat are agoraphobia, atychiphobia, demophobia, gelotophobia, acrophobia and basophobia.
Continue reading “Postcard from London, England: From conquer-phobia furniture to man-skirts”Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we may ignore the problem before us and metaphorically ‘bury our heads in the sand.’ This reaction can cause anxiety and encourage us to avoid the problem; Rock-n’-Desk, however, invites you to confront it.”
Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich
Postcards from Barton Springs 