Dateline: 30 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Slaughter and self-destruction

Not selected at random. Inside Prado Madrid, part of the Great Museums of the World series (published by Newsweek and Mondadori), one of Francisco De Goya y Lucientes' most shocking pinturas negras, "Saturn Devouring One of His Children." For me, it's a fitting picture of the everyday horrors that we struggle with nowadays.

Dateline: 23 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Rounded and homey

Random number between one and 158. Page 57 of H.O.U.S.E. (Homes that are Outrageous, Unbelievable, Spectacular and Extraordinary, by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski) illustrates the wooden sphere house that hang above the trees from a web of ropes, credited to Tom Chudleigh.

More information about Tom Chudleigh and the free spirit spheres HERE.

Dateline: 18 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Looks scary but it works

Random number between one and 224. Page 107 of The Spotter's Guide to Urban Engineering (Claire Barrat and Ian Whitelaw) shows the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, the United Kingdom. Considered one of the UK's scariest junctions, it was noted that the system's has been in place for more than 30 years, and it seems to work.

(Acquisition: 17 October 2017, Makati, PHL)

Dateline: 16 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Fair winds for the sexiest

Random number between one and 544. Page 77 of 501 Must-Be-There Events (published by Bounty Books) features Buenos Aires Tango Festival held between February and March. Cautions on the "cabeco" tradition: "potential partners exchange meaningful glances to establish their willingness to tango." Jeepers creepers... those peepers.

Dateline: 13 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Apsara in ban

Random number between one and 167. Page 74 of National Museum Tokyo, part of the Greatest Museums of the World series (Newsweek and Mondadori, publishers), contains a full-page detail of a ten-foot Buddhist banner or standard (ban). Apsara (pictured) are flying nymphs and divinities of nature and fertility in Indian mythology.

Dateline: 11 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Echoes and dust, my wallet sighed

Random number between one and 825. Page 452 of The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (William J. Bennett, editor) is the middle of an adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk." It's a different kind of hunger when you read a story of someone counting gold coin pieces, and you're still a few days away from the mid-month salary.

Dateline: 09 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Grab and randomize

A tsundoku sometimes becomes aware of his duty to his collection. I've thought about this long before, but only got to try now. Grabbed any book from the shelf then used an online random number generator to get a number between one and the randomly selected book's last page number.

From 1 to 188, I got 140. Page 140 of The Book of Uncommon Prayer (Constance and Daniel Pollock, editors) contained the last lines of Sir Philip Sidney's "Eternal Love." Not yet sure how to proceed after that.

Dateline: 04 October 2017, Pasay, PHL

Midnight velvet

Ipomoea purpurea (Tall Morning Glory) featured for 04 October in A Bloom a Day: A Fortune-Telling Birthday Book, photography by Ron Van Dongen.