Picasso Exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris
Picasso Mania
The Studio, Currently on display at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky
Untitled Picasso Sculpture in Daley Plaza in Chicago
Woman, Chicago Art Institute
Photo: Benn Bell Sculpture: Picasso Model: Ginger Bell
All Photos by Benn Bell
On one fine day in May I was strolling through one of old Louisville’s beautiful “walking courts” with my good friend and trusted side-kick Victoria Mansion. When much to our surprise we came upon a phenomenon down toward the end of the block for which neither of us was fully prepared. A Pink House! Now this wasn’t any ordinary sort of pink house it was an extra fancy with raisins sort of pink house. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t a house at all but a palace.
What caught our interest was a small gathering on the porch. Everyone had a drink in their hand and seemed to be having a good time. Come on in, they beckoned. Well it was just too hard to resist. Turns out it was an open house put on by a local real estate agency. The old Pink House was for sale!
Now let me tell you what they had to offer for refreshments: beer, whiskey, two kids of wine, cheese and crackers, and sushi. Well, we came right on in and helped ourselves. We were invited to explore the house which we did.
A little of the history of the place. The “Pink Palace”, circa 1896, features beautiful period architectural details and a massive turret. The entry foyer and elaborate and ornate staircase are impressive to see as you enter the front door. You will see quarter-sawn “Tiger Oak” floors and woodwork throughout and magnificent stained and leaded glass windows. The “turret” rooms are located on each level of the house are as you might imagine round and filled with light. Great for sitting or reading.
This glorious mansion began its history as a Gentleman’s Club and Casino for the male residents of St. James Court and Belgravia Court to relax and unwind. They enjoyed a good cigar, brandy, stimulating conversation and cards, as well as other past times including the services of ladies of the evening.
The Gentleman’s Club was in existence for only a few years before it was sold to the local chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union who bought the mansion for their headquarters and promptly painted the red brick structure pink. Hence the “Pink Palace.”
It is said the Pink House is haunted by a friendly ghost named Aviary.
He only appears at times of danger to warn the residents…
You can see Aviary in the mirror above the fireplace.
It was on a very merry day in May…..
In a few days I will be moving into my new digs located in Old Louisville. I’ll be moving there from St. Mathews which is in the East end of Louisville and rather tony, if you get my drift. This will be my fourth move since I moved back to Louisville in 2012 maintaining a life long habit of moving every few years.
First I lived in the Highlands, which I loved, then out Westport Road which is even further to the east, and now, finally getting back to my roots and a more urban environment, Old Louisville.
Old Louisville is a historic neighborhood in central Louisville nestled between Downtown Louisville and The University of Louisville. It is the largest preservation district in the United States featuring almost entirely Victorian homes mostly made of brick. With its wide avenues, beautiful treelined streets, and magnificent mansions it is truly a wonder to behold.
Old Louisville also sports a number of fascinating and interesting taverns, bars, and grills, and an odd assortment of restaurants. And I have been having quite a time exploring the area. Here are a few snaps of my new digs, and my new neighborhood.
See you in the hood!
Mag Bar
Fourth Street Tavern
Vis-a-Vis
Granville Inn
Once upon a time in a land faraway (New Jersey) I made a road trip with my then wife Robin to Niagara Falls. On the way we made a stop in Corning, New York for a business meeting which justified our trip.
We traveled in my new convertible Crossfire which could go from 0 to 100 in under 10 seconds. It came equipped with it’s own green frog whose name happened to be Kermit.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel on the Canadian side.
While walking around the downtown area of Niagara Falls we sort of wore ourselves out. Robin commented that if I was a few years younger she would make me pick her up and physically carry her back to the hotel.
I responded that if she was a few pounds lighter I would pick her up and carry her anyway. She laughed and I laughed and we both had a good laugh.
Next day we went out to the falls which were nothing less than spectacular.
This lovely creature is found in the Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach Florida
Would you rather be a fish?
It was my last best hope and expectation to meet up with a very special girl from Jersey in Wildwood. I was from Philly and she was from Harlem and our lives intersected in a small town in South Jersey. She was a sweet kid and wild as Friday night and we were supposed to meet for a weekend rendezvous in the seaside town of Wildwood. It was during the off season and there weren’t too many people around, which was how I liked it.
I holed up in a cheap hotel near the beach for a few days but she never showed. So I walked the streets and combed the beach a bit and I snapped a few pictures.
The Garvin Gate Blues Festival is held the second weekend in October in historic Old Louisville. It’s a two day festival featuring performers both national and local that celebrates blues music. This event attracts both a multiracial and a multi-generational crowd. It has a 29 year history and is still going strong.
Featured here is the band Tweed Funk hailing from Milwaukee.
Bikers, Booze, and Blues
Garvin Gate Neighborhood
Pet Friendly
Tweed Funk
Smokey Holman
Andrew Spada
Eric Madunic
Dave Schoepke
A Face in the Crowd
Houston, Texas
Louisville, Kentucky
Paris, France
Louisville, Kentucky
Someday I’ll go to Paris and fall in love
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Mr T. bareheaded in a soiled undershirt
his hair standing out on all sides
stood on his toes heels together
arms gracefully for the moment curled above his head.
Then he whirled about bounded into the air
and with an entrechat perfectly achieved
completed the figure.
My mother
taken by surprise
where she sat
in her invalid’s chair
was left speechless.
Bravo! she cried at last
and clapped her hands.
The man’s wife came from the kitchen: What goes on here? she said.
But the show was over.
The editors of WordPress have chosen “Lust” as the word of the day for my daily inspiration. I am happy to accommodate them with my own interpretation and inspired rendering of this volatile, combustible, and knocked out loaded word.
I take you to the lust capitals of the world, two sister cites really, which gives an extra added dimension to the word lust, if you catch my meaning.
So here we have visual evidence of the lusty nature of these two great cities: Philadelphia and Paris.
A Philly stripper goes into the Candy Store for stripper supplies.
“Of all the worldly Passions, lust is the most intense.”
-Buddha
Purple Orchid, Philadelphia
“She was perfect, pure maddening sex, and she knew it, and she played on it, dripped it, and allowed you to suffer for it.”
– Charles Bukowski
Ozz Gentleman’s Club, Philadelphia
“Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity.”
― Blaise Pascal
Club Ozz, Philadelphia
“I live for sex. I celebrate it, and relish the electricity of it, with every fibre of my being. I can see no better reason for being alive.”
― Fiona Thrust
Sex Shop on South Street in Philly
“The world is divided into those who screw and those who do not. He distrusted those who did not—when they strayed from the straight and narrow it was something so unusual for them that they bragged about love as if they had just invented it.”
― Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
Leather and Latex, Philly
“Lust’s Passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.”
-Marquis de Sade
Moulin Rouge in Paris where girls who can Cancan
“Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.”
– Marquis de Sade
Pussy’s Gentleman’s Club, Paris
“I can resit anything but temptation.”
– Oscar Wilde
Sex Shop, Paris
“There’s something here, my dear boy, that you don’t understand yet. A man will fall in love with some beauty, with a woman’s body, or even a part of a woman’s body (a sensualist can understand that) and he’ll abandon his own children for her, sell his father and mother, and his country, Russia, too. If he’s honest, he’ll steal; if he’s humane, he’ll murder; if he’s faithful, he’ll deceive.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
La Diva, Paris
“Only the united beat of sex and the heart can create ecstasy.”
-Anais Nin
New Girl’s, Paris
“To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth – I count that as something of a miracle.”
-Henry Miller
Paris Museum of Erotic Art
All photos by me.
Ghost Dog 