Wayfarers Chapel on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, taken near Portuguese Bend on Easter 2006 a few moments before the bell rang noon.
Oh man. I recently saw a special on the Food Network on the topic of the history of American pizzerias in general, and New York vs. Chicago Pizza in particular. Profiled on the show was Lombardi’s in NYC’s Little Italy, which dates back to 1905 and claims to be the first pizzeria in America. They still use the same coal ovens as they did 101 years ago. I believe they said that such coal ovens are illegal to use in new establishments today.
I always thought I was more of a Chicago-style pizza guy, but this made me think again. It was all about the crust, which was unlike anything I’d ever tasted. No wonder it’s illegal. I’ll be back…
An awesome piece outside the Smithsonian Museum of Modern Art in Washington D.C. I snapped in 2004. I wish I took a couple more angles. What’s going on here is that the house, made of sheet metal, is physically concave from the perspective of the viewer (i.e. the point where the white wall meets the yellow wall is furthest from the camera). The illusion, as you can see here, is that the house is convex (i.e. the point where the white wall meets the yellow wall seems closest to you, when it in fact is not).
The easiest way to realize the true perspective is probably to study the baseline of the house. It’s an upside-down V. If the house were truly convex, the V would be right side up.
