Robot Buzzer

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Picturesque robot-head door buzzer
Campo dei Mori, Cannaregio
Venice, October 2012

Bruderkuß

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«Господи! Помоги мне выжить среди этой смертной любви»
„Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben“
(My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love) by Dmitri Vrubel, East Side Gallery
Mühlenstraße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Berlin, September 2011

“... and the Russian artist Dimitri Vrubel's ‘Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben’ (Dear God, help me to survive this fatal love), a picture of Honecker and Brezhnev's brotherly kiss. This ensemble of paintings was officially opened in September 1990 as the East Side Gallery; known worldwide, it is extremely popular with visitors to Berlin.” (East Side Gallery, Berlin.de)

See also: Berlin Wall - Test the Rest - Stay Free - Without Title - Sonic Malade - Vergesst mir die Liebe nicht - Niemandsland - Many Small People - Curriculum Vitae

Scramble

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“Scramble”, The Battle of Britain Monument, First Panel - Fighter Command
Paul Day sculptor, Donald Insall Associates architects
Victoria Embankment
London, October 2009

“That classic moment, when the signal to ‘Scramble’ is given, had to take centre stage. It is the very symbol of the Battle. In this case, the pilots surge off the wall, out of their picture and onto the pavement, into our world, a reminder to say that these men really did exist and do those incredible things.” (Description of monument scenes by the sculptor, Battle of Britain Monument)

See also: The Observers

Henri Farman

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Homage to Henri Farman and the Voisin brothers by Paul Landowski, 1929
Rue Henry-Farman
Quartier de Javel, 15th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

See also: King Edward VII - The Sons of Cain

“If we pass over his tentative hops during September 1907, we can mark October 1907 as the month of his first powered and sustained flights (including one at Issy of 2,530ft on October 26), and January 1908 as the month of his first powered, sustained and controlled flying, in that he made the first officially observed kilometre circuit on January 13, and to won the Prix Deutsch-Archdeacon. Henri Furman was also the first
true and proper powered aeroplane pilot of Europe. Santos Dumont’s best ‘flight’ in 1906 —when he was adjudged to have made the first powered flights in Europe— was only some 720ft, after which he speedily abandoned his ingenious but impractical and virtually uncontrollable aircraft, and did not make a significant aeroplane flight of any kind until 1909. Furthermore, neither Delagrange nor Blériot, despite their good efforts in 1907, were able to fly properly until well into 1908. For the academic, it should be said that one finds Farman‘s Christian name spelt both ‘Henry’ and ‘Henri’ during 1907 and 1908, with Henri appearing on the tail-unit side-curtains of his Voisin biplane, and on his own designed machines of l909.” (From All Quarters – Obituary of Henry Farman, Flight, 1958)

Delivery Boats

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Delivery boats on the the Canal Grande (Grand Canal)
seen from the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge)
Venice, October 2012

“The system of transport, for example, with the fast Grand Canal cutting across the slower-moving smaller canals, was a model of its kind. The waters of the lagoon have also ensured that the city remained of a manageable size; it did not sprawl, and its only suburbs were the other islands that had an intrinsic life of their own.” (Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City)

Charité Bettenhochhaus

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Charité
Bettenhochhaus, Campus Mitte
Berlin, September 2011

“Soon, Berlin was divided. The Mitte campus fell into East German property, bordering the Berlin Wall to Moabit. The Charité was announced the leading hospital of the ‘capital of the GDR’ and soon received a new building, which still dominates the skyline over Northern Mitte. The Bettenhochhaus (bed high rise) with its twenty-one floors and connected sections still rises high above the campus. After the Wall came down and when financial issues affected local politics, the Charité gradually merged with the former West-Berlin campi in Wedding and Steglitz.” (Charité Campus Mitte, Finding Berlin)

Mother Playing

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“Mother Playing” by Chaim Gross, 1961
Fordham University, Lincoln Center campus
New York, September 2007

An identical sculpture is installed in Miriam's Garden at Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem. (Art @ Hadassah Study Group)

Paris in the Springtime

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“Paris in the Springtime” by David Shillinglaw
Paris Free Walls, MSA Gallery
Rue Crussol / rue Amelot
Quartier de la Folie-Méricourt, 11th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Ponte delle Guglie

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Ponte delle Guglie (Bridge of Spires)
Canale di Cannaregio, Cannaregio
Venice, October 2012

Test the Rest

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“Test the Rest” by Birgit Kinder, East Side Gallery
Mühlenstraße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Berlin, September 2011

“The longest section of the Berlin Wall still standing lies north of the bridge Oberbaumbrücke in the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain borough. This 1.3-kilometer-long section of the Wall along Mühlenstraße was painted in the spring of 1990 by artists from 21 different countries who produced 106 large-scale murals. Some of the best-known images include Birgit Kinder's ‘Test the best,’ a painting of a Trabi (an East German car) breaking through the Wall...” (East Side Gallery, Berlin.de)

See also: Berlin Wall - Bruderkuß - Stay Free - Without Title - Sonic Malade - Vergesst mir die Liebe nicht - Niemandsland - Many Small People - Curriculum Vitae

Portwey

Steam Tug Portwey (built 1927)
South Quay, West India Docks
London, October 2009

“A fine example of a small steam coastal and river tug, the twin screw, coal-fired Portwey was ordered from Harland & Wolff, Govan, in October 1926 for barge and collier towing duties with the Portland & Weymouth Coaling Co. at Weymouth. Her enginers were built by W. & D. Henderson, Glasgow, and she was launched on 10 August 1927 and completed on 28 April 1928.” (Portwey, National Historic Ships UK)

Dream on Board

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Rent a Ferrari or a Lamborghini for 89 Euro / 20 minutes
Place de la Concorde
Quartier des Champs-Élysées, 8th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Campo San Vio

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Street artist
Campo San Vio, Dorsoduro
Venice, September 2012

“Over the water lies the Campo San Vio, a fine platform from which to watch the traffic on the Canal Grande. The reason this little square opens out onto the water is that the houses on that side were demolished in order to make it easier for the doge and his entourage to disembark for the annual thanksgiving service in the church of saints Vito and Modesto (contracted to Vio in Venetian); held on the saints’ joint feast day, June 15, the service commemorated the defeat of the Bajamonte Tiepolo revolt, which occurred on June 15, 1310. The church itself was demolished in 1813; the walls of the chapel that took its place (St George – the city’s Anglican church) are encrusted with stone fragments taken from the Tiepolo palazzo, which was destroyed in punishment for their treason.” (Jonathan Buckley, The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto)

Amazon

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“Amazone zu Pferde” (Mounted Amazon) by Louis Tuaillon, 1896
Kolonnadenhof
Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery)
Bodestraße
Museumsinsel Berlin (Museum Island)
Berlin, September 2011

Engine 24

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FDNY Engine 24 (2000 Seagrave 1000/500) and crew
Spring Street, SoHo
New York, September 2008

“Engine (fire helmet front color: black) is the basic firefighting apparatus. Its main job is to put water on the fire. It is responsible for securing a water supply from a hydrant or some other form and for suppressing the fire.” (New York City Fire Department, Types of Apparatus, Wikipedia)

VP

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Ironwork on the Passy side of the Pont de Bir-Hakeim
Originally named Viaduc de Passy
Quartier de la Muette, 16th arrondissements
Paris, July 2012

“Des écussons ornés des sobres initiales VP (pour Ville de Paris) sont présents sur les grilles de certaines stations, notamment celles qui protègent les voies lorsqu'elles deviennent aériennes. Ils sont réalisés en fonte.” (Le patrimoine de la RATP, Flohic, 1996)

A Camel in Venice

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Bas-relief on the façade of Palazzo Mastelli or ‘del Cammello’ (of the Camel)
Rio della Madonna dell'Orto, Cannaregio
Venice, October 2012

“Diagonally opposite the church, on the other side of the canal, stands the Palazzo Mastelli, former home of the mercantile family of the same name. The facade of the much-altered palazzo is a sort of architectural scrap-album, featuring a Gothic top-loor balcony, thirteenth-century Byzantine fragments set into sixteenth-century work below, a bit of a Roman altar set into a column by the corner, and a quaint little relief of a man leading a laden camel – hence its alternative title, Palazzo del Cammello.” (Jonathan Buckley, The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto)

Berlinwasser Holding AG

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Berliner Wasser Holding AG corporate headquarters
Haus III by Christoph Langhof, 2000
Stralauer Straße
Berlin, September 2011

“Company was founded in the year 2000 and is the holding company of the Berlin Water Group (a public but state-run utility), which was created in the process of the restructuring of the Berlin Water Works in 1999. The headquarters of the Berlin Water Works is made up of three components, with House I and II by the Berlin architect Joachim Ganz and House III designed by LANGHOF ' (which is how Langhof styles his firm name).” (Berlinwasser Holding AG, Haus III, UNL Image & Multimedia Collections)

Wellington Monument

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Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington as “Achilles”
Wellington Monument by Richard Westmacott, 1822
South-western end of Park Lane, Mayfair
London, October 2009

“The cost of £10,000 was donated by British women. The bronze came from cannons captured in military campaigns by the Duke of Wellington at Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse and Waterloo. This was London’s first public nude statue since antiquity and despite its fig leaf it was still controversial. The entrance gates to Hyde Park were too low to get it through and a hole had to be knocked in the adjoining wall.” (Monuments in Hyde Park, The Royal Parks)

Léon Blum

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Monument to Léon Blum by Philippe Garel, 1984
Place Léon-Blum
Quartier de la Roquette, 11th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

“Finally, an impressive, larger-than-life statue of Blum was completed in 1986 by the sculptor P. Garel; temporarily housed in the Jardins des Tuileries, its permanent location is yet to be determined.” (Joel Colton, Léon Blum: Humanist in Politics, 1987)

Glass Rooster

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Glass rooster in a shop window
Dorsoduro
Venice, September 2012

“The main fondamente of Murano are given over almost entirely to shops selling glasswork, and it’s difficult to walk more than a few metres on this island without being invited to step inside a showroom – and once inside, you’re likely to be pressured into forking out for some piece of kitsch which may not even have been made here. However, some of the showrooms have furnaces attached, and you shouldn’t pass up the chance to see these astoundingly skilful craftsmen in action, even if they’re only churning out little glass ponies and other silly knick-knacks.” (Jonathan Buckley, The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto)

Block der Frauen

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Block der Frauen (Block of Women) by Ingeborg Hunzinger
Rosenstraße
Berlin, September 2011

“The headquarters of the Jewish section of the Gestapo was just around the corner, within earshot of the protesters. A few salvos from a machine gun could have wiped the women off the square. But instead the Jews were released. Joseph Goebbels, in his role as the Nazi Party Director for Berlin, decided that the simplest way to end the protest was to release the Jews. Goebbels chose not to forcibly tear Jews from Aryans who clearly risked their lives to stay with their Jewish family members, and rationalized that he would deport the Jews later anyway. But the Jews remained. They survived the war in Berlin, registered officially with the police, working in officially authorized jobs, and officially receiving food rations.” (Nathan Stoltzfus, Women's Rosenstraße Protest in Nazi Berlin)

Garibaldi

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Giuseppe Garibaldi by Giovanni Turini, 1888
Washington Square Park
New York, September 2008

“The sculptor, Giovanni Turini (1841–1899), who also designed the bronze bust of Mazzini unveiled in Central Park in 1878, was a volunteer member of Garibaldi’s Fourth Regiment during the war between Italy and Austria in 1866. Donated by New York’s Italian-American community, the bronze statue on a granite pedestal was dedicated in 1888, the sixth anniversary of Garibaldi’s death. By the 1960s, a good-luck ritual developed among New York University Finance students in which each new student in the School of Finance tossed a penny at the base of the Garibaldi Monument at the start of the school year. Acknowledging this tradition and reinforcing its commitment to the community, the university sponsored a wreath-laying ceremony in 1961 to honor the centennial anniversary of Italy’s unification.” (Giuseppe Garibaldi, Washington Square Park, City of New York Parks & Recreation)
See also: Garibaldi in Rome - Giuseppe Garibaldi - Garibaldi in Venice

Vandal Heart

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“Vandal Heart” stencil by Nick Walker
Boulevard Beaumarchais at rue Scarron
Quartier Saint-Ambroise, 11th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

External link: Nick Walker new mural in Paris

Gondolas

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Gondolas on the the Canal Grande (Grand Canal)
seen from the Ponte dell'Accademia
Venice, September 2012

“There were ten thousand gondolas in the sixteenth century, many of them festooned with ornaments and carvings. This encouraged displays of showmanship and rivalry among the wealthier Venetians, who were allowed few opportunities of conspicuous consumption in public. Such a spirit was of course to be resisted by a Venetian state that curbed individualism of any sort in the name of collective brotherhood. So the ornamentation was, in a decree of 1562, forbidden. That is why the gondolas became black.” (Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City)

Giraffe

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Giraffe
KunstHof Berlin
Oranienburger Straße
Berlin, September 2011

Park Lane Underpass

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Park Lane pedestrian underpass
From Aldford Street to Hyde Park
London, October 2009

Cirque d'hiver

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Cirque d'hiver (Winter Circus)
Rue Amelot
Quartier de la Folie-Méricourt, 11th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

“The circus is an oval polygon of 20 sides, with Corinthian columns at the angles, giving the impression of an oval building enclosing the oval ring, surrounded by steeply banked seating for spectators, very much like a miniature indoor Colosseum. A low angled roof is self-supporting like a low dome, so that there is no central pole, as under a tent, to obstruct views or interfere with the action. The building was designed by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff and opened as the Cirque Napoléon, a compliment to the new Emperor of the French Napoleon III. The sculptor James Pradier was called upon to provide exterior bas-reliefs of Amazons, and Francisque Duret and Astyanax-Scévola Bosio sculpted the panels of mounted warriors.” (Cirque d'hiver, Wikipedia)
See also: Saint Michel terrassant le démon - La Justice Consulaire

Madonna dell'Orto

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Church of the Madonna dell'Orto
Cannaregio
Venice, October 2012

“At this church, a good reason to walk to this remote northern district, you can pay your final respects to Tintoretto. The brick structure with a Gothic front is famed not only because of its paintings by that artist but also because the great master is buried in the chapel to the right of the main altar. At the high altar are his Last Judgment (on the right) and Sacrifice of the Golden Calf (on the left).” (Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince, Frommer's Portable Venice, 6th Edition)

Storchenpaar

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Storchenpaar (Couple of Storks) by Hans-Detlef Henning
Monbijou Park
Berlin, September 2011

“As a precaution, all the palace windows had been bricked up already in 1940, but the entire building was gutted during an air raid in November 1943 and almost entirely destroyed. The ruins were left in place until 1959, when the East Berlin Magistrate—against the strenuous objection of museum professionals and parts of the West Berlin public— ordered the final demolition, apparently out of an ideological motivation similar to what prompted the breakup of the likewise heavily damaged Hohenzollern city palace in 1950. Only a few names remain as testimony to the former existence of the palace: on the grounds between Oranienburger Straße and the Spree there is a shady refuge of three hectares with a children's open-air swimming pool, today’s Monbijou Park. Nearby there is a Monbijou Square, a Monbijou Street, and a Monbijou Bridge for pedestrians connecting both banks of the Spree at the north end of Museum Island.” (Monbijou Palace, Wikipedia)

Cornelius Vanderbilt

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Statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt by Ernst Plassman, design by Albert De Groot
(The only remaining fragment of a 150-foot-long bronze frieze)
South facade of Grand Central Terminal
New York, September 2008

“The Commodore looks pretty spiffy, set against the newly cleaned limestone of the south facade of Grand Central Terminal. All brushed up and polished, the four-ton statue of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt is half a century older than the 1913 Beaux-Arts building. Actually, it is a mere fragment of a 150-foot-long bronze frieze illustrating the steamship and railroad magnate's accomplishments. Unlike the statue, it has disappeared without a trace.” (The Curious Travels of the Commodore, The New York Times)