Toybox

Actually, this was a shelf full of toys, not a toy box.  But toy box sounds nicer, so title it is.  Toy Joy, in Austin, is one of the coolest stores that I have ever been to.  I mentioned it in a very early post on this blog- but it is worth mentioning  a million times.  Their selection of nifty things is kind of unparallelled.  And since I have determined that Austin is the capital of kitsch, this store completely makes sense.

I am a sucker for everything Asian at this point.  I don't know why, but asian toys, asian tv shows, asian food... they all make me really happy. All of these toys have a very asian feel to them, the art work is what I think of when I think of slightly vintage asian toys.  I think that's the idea though.  In any case, I am visually attracted to basically everything in this photograph.

Austin, Texas, USA

Flipper

Whereas the big orca whale at Sea World really is considered to be Shamu, none of the dolphins are known as Flipper... except for in my imagination.  Every one of them is called Flipper there.  It's a happy land full of jumping dolphins... Okay, not really, but that would be a pretty happy imagination, wouldn't it?

Moving on.  This is a dolphin from the dolphin tank at Sea World.  You could actually pay to feed the dolphins( $6), but Danny and I did not (we're poor because we work in theatre).  The people who weren't cheapskates and did feed the dolphins looked like they were having a marvelous time.  Some of the dolphins were too rad for the people with food, however, and entertained us starving artists (and anyone else who was really a cheapskate, not poor).  This one played with a bucket.  Who knew a bucket could be so cool?

San Antonio, Texas, USA