Reims, France. Early December. Temperatures way below zero. Five friends in a lively Christmas Market. A guy in his booth sells chess boards and pieces. He probably dreams about being a chess piece himself.
Picture taken by my friend Albert
This picture was taken as I entered Las Vegas on a Greyhound bus on an August night. It was 5pm, I was coming from Flagstaff, Arizona. The bus had briefly stopped in a squallid McDonald around 2am. I had slept very little during the journey, nonetheless I was awake in excitement as we entereed into town. I was going to spend 19 more sleepless hours in Sin City and I knew it. Despite the early hour, the city wasn’t sleeping either.
I know it’s hard to believe, but all the buildings in the picture stand on an artificial island. The rightmost one is Amsterdam’s conservatory, next to it the public library. The others are still under construction, except the leftmost one which is a hotel with a poshy roof bar. The sort of red Christmas tree on the left is actually a floating Chinese restaurant where a few friends got food poisoned once.
Because I know you have always wondered how to weigh cheese, I’m posting the information that you need: this bas-relief shows you how it’s done. And yes, it appears on a building in Gouda. Maybe I should start a blog about Gouda.
