Snow tagging in the UK (hat tip to Melinda). Usually street art leads to the branded version, but not this time, as far as I know. Neat idea, especially in Helsinki, hmmm…

Image from Springwise.com

No lobby mailboxes here - Finnish postal workers deliver your snail mail directly to your door (through a door slot that makes receiving your mail semi-frightening as it drops to a crashing heap). So tenants’ names are posted on their doors in official plaques that make everyone look like upper office management.

Who enjoys retrying a door knob or peering below a stall to awkwardly check if a public bathroom is being used? Always courteous when “occupied” signs are designed into a system that revolves around temporary privacy in a public space. In Helsinki’s Kamppi mall a red light turns on when you lock the door. But no fanciness needed - in this bathroom at a university in Durban, South Africa…

locking the door shifts the sign from “vacant” to…

“Engaged”.

In the Shembe village in Durban there’s this big ’80s photo of two white people rafting in North America. For 20 rand ($1.95) you can get a picture taken of yourself in front of this granola scene. I asked the photographer why he chose this backdrop - a demand for fake visits to the US? He said no, these are the pictures he somehow ended up with, and he also had a South African flag for more local flavor. Made me think of the ways we can pretend we’re in places that we’re not. Kind of like…

EPCOT in Florida, where a Norwegian church and fortress sit next to a Chinese temple. Not only can you mug in front of a pagoda and the Eiffel Tower in one day, but you can learn about origami and buy a funny beret! Inauthenticity gets boo’d on a lot, but is this just good fun? Maybe it just means that a photograph is no longer sure-shot proof of your whereabouts. Especially the photos that come out of here…

A photo booth in Japan, where you can choose backdrops from rainbows to haunted houses, take snapshots in front of a green screen, and then digitally drag cartoon mushrooms, cakes, and aliens all over your face. That’s right, I was there!

I’ve got a bag of proposals that may never see the light of day, but they can live on here for funzies and future inspiration. One of these is Data Walk: Bringing Demographics to the People. According to data from the 2000 Census, a particular block east of Allen Street is 50 percent more Asian than the block directly west of it. And a block north of Rivington Street has 40 percent more divorced couples than the block directly south. If you walk down these New York City streets, however, these numbers don’t add up. What does it mean when spatial data is defined by arbitrary boundaries? How does the U.S. Census compare to its original people and places? Data Walk will bring demographics to the people by mapping Census data directly onto the landscape. The boundaries of Census blocks and tracts will be drawn on the sidewalks with a continuous chalk line and paired with select statistics to make this information more accessible and bring awareness to its strengths and inaccuracies. See more here…

This is Girly. She’s 97 and lives in Chatsworth in Durban where she and her neighbors got their righteousness on and fought eviction through community mobilization. “The landlord shut our water off and we said no sir!” You go girl. She showed me her apartment - entrance room, bedroom, and kitchen - which she shares with her son and daughter-in-law. Her son’s leg was bit off by a shark when he went fishing ten years ago. The fishing rod now hangs on the wall in her entry room. That’s some hardcore wall art.

Portrait of Girly and her late husband when they got married

Her building complex in Chatsworth

Side of the building. The local kids wrote their names and nicknames, which include $Drean, Spider, Pie, DK(DarkieKid), and Joel

And then I saw this - Bush! I asked why that was written on the building. Did George W make it onto their wall of fame or shame? The residents all laughed and said it was just another nickname of one of the kids. No Bush supporters here! They all laughed hard.

Near the huge informal market hoopla at Warwick Junction in Durban, South Africa. More important than addresses or sometimes even store names… I hear 0828339060 sells hot vests!

Big lady pants in Durban, South Africa. Time for shoppin’ gurl!

Seeing a road called Street in Bucks County, Pennsylvania made me feel a little bad for this road. Ah to be a road namer! Give me the job! The names of the planets! Who wouldn’t feel a little more wordly on Neptune Avenue? The names of colors! It would be like driving through a box of crayons. The names of the months! You could say things like “I’m a half year away.” The names of vintage media! Vinyl Road would be hot property for a booming night scene.

Is Street Road so nondescript and unmemorable that the namers couldn’t fall back on a single tree species? Is it so sorry that giving it the historic figure treatment would have sullied Washington’s good name? Or was the street-naming team in such a rut or so anxious to get out of the meeting that this was all they could muster. Oh leaders of Bucks County, you’ve squandered a moment of opportunity and now your citizens will forever suffer, driving in cars on roads called streets in towns whose names I’ve already forgotten.

In a yard in Calexico, California.