Havana (Part II)

[androiduk]

 

[JasonParis]

Fascinating pics. Good job!

 

[Urban Shocker]

Carlos Garaicoa - who has a large work in the AGO's contemporary wing and had a solo exhibition at the ROM a couple of years ago - comments on the lost and decaying architecture of Cuba in his work.

http://www.ejazztravel.com/modules....le=article&sid=88&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

http://www.galleriacontinua.com/english/opere.html?id_artista=6&lang=e

 

[Hipster Duck]

Havana looks like it was frozen in 1959, letting its future residents wander around the remnants like shepherds herding sheep through the Roman Forum of a Piranesi painting.

And you have a stunning eye for Piranesian detail, too.

 

[Mustapha]

This has to be right 'up there' in terms of UT posts. You even managed to get an old car into nearly every picture.

The hitchhiking soldier is touching.

Cuba has been done badly by it's governments... corrupt dictators, dogmatic dictators, an embittered inflexible diaspora; happily, aging and soon gone. My own family lost holdings in another revolution and there isn't a million Chinese biding their time to get their holdings back.

Perhaps Raul is waiting for Fidels passing to liberalize more.

Why are the lights on in an abandoned Woolworths store?

 

[billy corgan]

I just got back from a 2-week trip to Cuba. Havana is definitely an interesting city and I would have loved to visit it in its heyday (pre-Castro, perhaps in Hemingway's era). The architecture in the old city is amazing but is slowly crumbling away. I fear that the sea wall protecting the city will be lost in the next few years and all these beautiful structures will be washed away.

 

[androiduk]

^ Let's hope the new U.S. administration is more mature than the old one. I don't have pictures because the building is always surrounded by soldiers but here's an example of what's going on down there. There is an ominous looking building along the ocean front that's called the U.S. Interests Building and the entire perimeter of the top floor is a giant LED screen. As soon as it gets dark the screen lights up and starts displaying propaganda against the Cuban government. In retaliation, the Cuban Government has surrounded the building with giant billboards picturing Bush in unflattering depictions. One of them shows him with fangs a la Dracula. It's pretty comical but also pretty disturbing that the worlds most powerful country would act like this. When you get right down to it, how much of a threat can Cuba be?

 

[billy corgan]

The US interest building is surrounded by Cuban flags strategically placed to block the view from every window.

 

[Long Island Mike]

More good Havana pics!

Android: Good Havana pics again! I like these I will note especially;
Drive for FOOD! Clever re-wording of a Ford and a good license plate pic.
That abandoned Woolworth's - lost in the 50s I presume?
The Perfect Match-with a good old '56 Chevy I recognize-My father owned one until it finally succumbed to a broken axle in 1970-when I was 11 years old. Some things from your childhood you do not forget...LI MIKE