A very red piglet

a little red Porsche (Lil Hog), originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

or Lil Hog
or Porsche 911
or just plain fun, in red.

When in Maine, this is the Main dish...

A lobster roll, a fantastic invention.  Cooked lobster meat stuffed into a bread roll (like hot dog roll, but split on the top, not the side), with some mayonnaise and some dusting of paprika.  Eat.  Simple. Good. Amazing.


We had our only lobster rolls at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights, near Cape Elizabeth south of Portland on a dead end road that ends in a parking lot that immediately becomes too full and too crowded on summer days.  But it is worth it.


 It is a little restaurant perched on the cliffs near the sea, and the closest building houses a fog horn (with appropriate signs to watch out for the sound, but how can you do that?  Doesn't it hit you when it hits you, without warning? Or does it sound a warning before, heh!?). The fog horn was on the day we were there, sounding its eerie warnings out in the fuzzy fog of the ocean.


There are other warnings too, near the shack itself, since it is surrounded with highly adapted ferocsiouly behaving seagulls that have mastered the feats of 'getting the lobster before the human'.  Hold on to your food, or someone else will.


The best thing with Maine are the rocks and the coastline.  Granite and shale cliffs, rounded by the ice ages' massively thick glacier covers, and now with lichens and seaweeds as the only plant cover.  The feel is very similar to parts of Norway (without the mountains) and the west coast of Sweden (Bohuslän).  I love it.


This yellow lichen (Xanthoria) are typical for these coasts, and if I ever would be a painter I would paint giant closeups of imagined lichen macro images. 


And out there in this direction, are Scandinavia and England.  Far away from Cape Elizabeth, Cape Cod, Nantucket and Cape May, but certainly, Europe is there. Even if it is invisible.  Don't you ever wonder how we can be convinced of such things before we have experienced them?  We have to believe the invisible until we have sailed, flown, or swum there.

Signs of the times

It is amazing how much a sign can tell you about everything from the time period when it originated, who it was/is aimed for, who was selling something, and how it was/is sold.  Just see here:


Whole pig sign seen in a small neighborhood shop window in New York City that still have not been pushed out by the supermarkets.  But, this sign is not from this store, but from a store that closed and now the sign is an antique item used to attract customers.  Mr Hodges is probably long gone, only his sign lives on.  Fantastic handmade tin sign, don't you think?


Ugly sign in neon, very designed, and very fancy.  It just oozes dollars. Overdesigned to a fault.  I bet the prices here at Chelsea Wine Vault in NYC are four to ten times the prices at Trader Joe's.


Now this sign is REAL, not just a design job.  A food establishment, Miller's Pub, in Chicago, with an old neon sign and the traditional letters in the white box.  Straight to the point, effective, and historic, and some people probably think it is very ugly.  But it is not over-designed and doesn't try to look like something it is not. This just oozes tradition and good food feeling. (Smelt is a kind of small fish, you eat them whole.)


This is my favorite kind of sign.  It is new, but made with old methods, and cleanly and clearly states what this is about. Somebody took the care to design it, and it is simply beautiful. You want buffalo meat, just come here!  (Readington Buffalo Farm, NJ)

Have you ever wondered why it is called DE-SIGN?  Like undoing signs?  Is a designer someone that unconstructs old signs into something new?  I wonder how the words sign and design really started.

Does this car go fast or slow?

snail car - S-Gar-Go (escargot!), originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

And is it served with butter and garlic?

Looking for adventure...

Quixote - of course. Porsche., originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Don Quixote is rolling about. In black.

Jazzy restaurant

This Asian sushi restaurant, Thelonious Monkfish, actually exist, in Cambridge, MA, USA.  I love the logo image. Do you think Thelonious Monk would have been happy or appalled?

Chicago memory, part 3 - fake copper

If this had been real copper it would have been gone by now, but it is painted wood on the outside of the historically landmarked Auditorium building in Chicago. It is located on S Michigan Avenue, a street that goes from the fanciest addresses (think 5th Ave in NY) and down south to areas that have been very run down for many, many years (kind of like 5th Avenue in New York going up into Harlem, but here it is southwards). Along S Michigan Avenue are many old classic hotels and buildings, and it is also next to the large city park with the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum, veterans from the last-last century (that is the 19th century, not 20th..).

On this building, which now seems boarded up, was the tiniest and nicest No trespassing sign I have ever seen - about 4 x 8 cm and in brass.

The perfect name?

Army ant moving truck, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Seen in Durango, Colorado, USA this summer.

A car for....

Generic SUV, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

....pretenders, pragmatics, or vintage nerds? Check out the bumper sticker. Seen in Colorado, by the Georgetown Loop Railroad. SUV in Swedish is 'stadsjeep', which means "city jeep". This truck is certainly not a city car.

OK snapshot: To sleep...

...perchance to dream?
Better get another cup!

Roadtripping.. part 3: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a giant state, like the big bloated brother next to little New Jersey. New Jersey has the beaches and the people (9 million of them) and is the most crowded state in the US (sigh, I wish I lived surrounded by less people). Pennsylvania has lots of 'empty' space of oak forests, rolling hills, small towns and large towns. Many of the rural towns have been suffering from economic problems from decades, since the manufacturing industry collapsed. We drove through Pennsylvania on our way to Binghamton, and found some nice gems:

Starrucca viaduct, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Starucca Viaduct, the largest, and at the time, most expensive, railroad viaduct in the world. In Lanesboro, PA, USA. Built 1847-1848 by the Erie Railroad, and still in use today.



How about some rubbish service?

The old Susquehanna railroad station, where no trains stop anymore. The station was renovated and made into a restaurant and bar, but that has closed and now it seems abandoned again.








I like the details on old railroad cars, like these springs on an old Erie Railroad box car. Look at those little wood pieces under, how long do they usually last?

More Pennsylvania photos here.

OK snapshot: New Species!

"Caninus herbivorus", a vegetarian dog.
(In Swedish, hot dog is called 'varm korv', not 'varm hund'. Korv is
sausage, hund is dog.)

OK snapshot: Ospecificerat (Unspecified)

Translation: "Shoe lost. Contact me if you have seen it. Thanks."

No way out, no way in...

What were they thinking? This must be the end of the world.  Really.

Never stop loving

Never stop loving, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

The Sourland Mountain in New Jersey has some interesting street art graffiti. Seen yesterday, on Ridge Road.

LS snapshot: What happened to my car?

Watch out if you have a 'violated vehicle', originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

The grammar police is needed here... :)

Stamp of the Day: Toad

There has been a lot of talk about frogs here, but who cares about the toads? I would like to know what a natterjack is....

Life in New Jersey in 5 images

Sunset towards Sourland mountain, a rare moment captured forever. This photo reminds me of summer nights in Sweden when the sun sets at 11 PM and gets up at 2 AM.
An old motorcycle was parked outside a restaurant (this one is for you AREA). Might have been one like this, I don't remember.
Tools and signs at the Sergeantsville butcher shop. On the sign - Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing, It Wastes Your Time and Annoys the Pig.
Midsummer here still means potatoes cooked with dill, herring, sour creme, and chives, just like at Barking Dog Plaza where I grew up. And after the sill.... I think we had quail ('vaktel'), locally farmed. Next year we are planning on rabbit, groundhog, and raccoon for the midsummer night grilling. (Yes, a stupid raccoon woke us up by sitting on the bird feeder at 4 AM and trying repeatedly to get in to the precious bird food. And today a squirrel tried to chew his way through the steel of the bird feeder. I think these deserve to be midsummer food...)

School graduation, about two weeks later than in Sweden. Here the 8-graders get ready to get their diplomas and to have two months of school vacation. And yes, all the 400+ students looked the same in their rented green gowns.

Endangered hardwood in Philadelphia

Nice old sign from Philadelphia, from one of the few, and now endangered, workshops in the center of the city that are still in business. And look, the sign is on Youtube!

John Grass Wood Turning Company
Manufacturers of Wood Poles, Rollers, Handles, Mallets, Mauls
Lignum-Vitea blocks

Lignum vitae is a really hard type of wood, and I have seen the real lignum vitae trees in the Dominican republic. I'll dig up a photo later. More info here, isn't the wood beautiful!? It is sad to see these old workshops being replaced by Starbucks and fancy stores with things made in China.

Snapshot: The upper class' subtle way of expression

What a load of crap.

Ok, this is probably only funny to Swedes and jokes that need to be explained are often ruined, but I'll try anyway so you won't feel too abandoned.

This is a bill for the Newspaper Östermalms-nytt. Östermalm is a part of Stockholm with a long upper class tradition. The bill reads "3000 TONS OF HORSE SHIT MAY BE DUMPED IN RECREATION AREA". Oh the irony...

I find the second headline amusing as well but for a different reason: "Get in shape with books and bottles". That could become a very popular method.

/O.K.
Listening to while posting: The humming sound of a espresso machine from 1961.