Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Splendid Displays






Here's more on the theme of mysteries and displays. I'm back home in New York, and today the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen fell on W 16th Street, about the size of those paper umbrellas they put in cocktails, and as they fell they seemed to become little cones of snow, pointed end downward, looking for all the world like badminton birdies dropping from the sky. The flakes got smaller, disappeared, came back, and by nine o'clock the city had a Christmas aspect. Above: lights in the trees on a playground on Hudson, a fountain in Jackson Square and, from earlier today, a shop window on W 44th Street. Those musical instruments are each about three inches long, and each comes in a perfect little case; they seem to have migrated from the Museum of Jurassic Technology, another wonder-cabinet of miniatures. Who wants a very tiny mandolin? I do, naturally, but I think you'd have to have a lot of them for these intricate little replicas to make any sense.

3 comments:

Paul Lisicky said...

I am pining for a little instrument. Santa?

Andrew Shields said...

I want that little bouzuki! I've got a big one (whose maker calls it an octave mandolin) that's my favorite instrument, and a little one would be a nice addition to my collection. :-)

Collin Kelley said...

Beautiful photos. It's 70 degrees in Atlanta and doesn't feel like the holidays or winter at all.