Dizzy Swallows

The Yearly Portrait Sharpshooter

October 29th, 2010

I found this fairly serendipitously after posting Wednesday’s photos. Once yearly self-portraits aren’t anything new, but this rather unusual series turned up on the gallery blog The Year in Pictures. The series was discovered in the Netherlands, published in a book called “Almost Every Picture #7″, and I couldn’t pass it up. Beginning in 1936, then 16-year-old Ria van Dijk began frequenting fair booth shooting galleries – the type that snaps your photo every time you hit the target. The series includes a photo of Ria in firing pose from nearly every year of her life (with a rather ominous pause between 1939 and 1945). Now age 88, she is still hitting those targets.

I love how each snapshot tells such a story, from the crowd of onlookers to the photo medium itself.

1936 – Oh the hair!

1938 – Oh the glasses!

1949 – Haunted eyes.

1958 … Continue reading

Home on the Range

October 27th, 2010

Last Sunday we indulged in some rather Texan pastimes: shooting, drinking and football. It was my first time firing a gun and I must say, the experience was pretty darn fun (with proper respect for your weapon of course). While I’m not likely to become a gun-toting member of the NRA anytime soon, I do think that knowing your way around a firearm is an important life skill. After all, you never know when the zombie apocalypse might come.

If there’s one thing a 120 acre ranch has it’s ample shooting space. Father dearest informed me that the average .22 bullet will travel about a mile, so even in the wide open spaces of Texas it’s a good idea to shoot towards a hill least you hit any stray neighbors.

Our humble range was measured out with 25 and 50 yard intervals, and a simple paper target fixed to a … Continue reading

Little Bits for a Monday

October 25th, 2010 1 Comment

As some of you may remember from last week’s Bits, I mentioned the lovely and talented Laura Marling. So this morning I decided to make good on that tease and share one of my favorite songs/videos of hers. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but I can really hear her channeling Joni Mitchell in this one. I love that her videos are like her songs understated, intriguing, genuine. And what do you think is in that suitcase?

Check out her site for more, but fair warning, the sound starts automatically (which is a pet peeve of mine). Talented young songbird that she is, Laura is naturally dating Marcus Mumford. On her website you can hear a few songs from their 2009 tour of India during which they teamed up with the Dharohar Project, a Rajasthani folk collective. The result is a four-track EP with a gloriously full sound that … Continue reading

Uncommon Objects

October 22nd, 2010

Hello my dears! I hope all of you have had a productive yet relaxing week. Ours has been filled with all the joys, commotion and feasts that go along with entertaining house guests. As a change of pace from the old F-berg, we spent Tuesday in Austin haunting the vintage shops of South Congress.

One of my absolute favorite places is Austin can be found on this street. Equal parts museum, art gallery, antique market and purveyor of all things curious, Uncommon Objects has something to bewitch everyone.

The friendly folks behind the counter were kind enough to let me snap a few photos while we marveled at the wondrous objects from large to small, furry to glassy, endearing to disturbing. All credit for the ingeniously creative nature of these photos should go to the very talented proprietors and designers of Uncommon Objects. I merely had to point and shoot.… Continue reading

Little Bits for a Monday

October 18th, 2010

Today’s music comes to you from Boy & Bear of Sydney, Australia. The band is relatively young, formed in 2009, but has already laid well deserved claim to a spot as folk royalty. They’ve toured with the likes of Laura Marling, Angus and Julia Stone and, my homeboys, Mumford and Sons. This is their newest video for their single, “Blood to Gold” and boy is it lovely. It reminds me of Tarsem Singh’s work in The Fall (one of my favorite films of all time).

Oh, the mystery, the colors, the pistols, the neckerchiefs!

And for our bits today, how freaking cute are this owl and this fox? Damn you Anthropologie-nature-inspired-hardware!

I have been skulking about the fabulous blog, Tales of a Junkaholic for awhile now and just had to share Artemis and her enviable Brit style with you. She even has an online shop where she … Continue reading