Porcelain bowls float and gently collide, creating a calming, random melody. This sound installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot fills the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, France. 🔊 #AGoodPlace
Source: www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/s…— Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ (@snarkysillysad.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Many thanks to Omnes Omnibus, for linking to Michelle’s BlueSky feed.
Jerry
First images of space from world’s biggest digital camera stun astronomers released. Oh! My! God!!
First images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory released, giving a taste of what’s to come
TheOtherHank
Last weekend I went camping in the Sierra foothills near Pollock Pines. When I woke up I let my Merlin app listen for birds and it claimed to hear a bald eagle. I was doubtful. Later I went for a paddle around on the lake we were camped next to and I saw two of them perched in a tree. Score 1 for Merlin.
scav
And, the Bourse de Commerce, a teeny stroll from the best cooking store for equipment geeks ever, Dehellerin.
Ohio Mom
What a lovely sculpture. I wish I was there, watching the bowls float.
martha
We discovered a lavender farm in the Capay Valley (near Sacramento) on our travels this past weekend. So beautiful, surrounded by olive trees and live oaks. But, the most amazing, zen experience was to walk down a row and stop in the middle and just listen to the honey bees, those happy bees. (Yes I realize that some people cannot have this experience in person!) They were busy gathering the nectar, so they had no time for us. Perhaps they also know that the farmer is going to harvest the lavender in a couple of weeks. Anyway, it was just the best feeling.
Thanks AL for this thread and also to Omnes for the Bluesky link.
StringOnAStick
@Jerry: Thanks for that link! Looking at the cosmos is the antidote for feeling overwhelmed at the petty world we live in now.
They Call Me Noni
@scav:
My kind of place. This past Christmas I got myself a tin lined copper stock pot. Worth every dime.
They Call Me Noni
@martha: Sounds like a little slice of heaven.
LAC
So lovely…we have to find peace where we can these days.
Kristine
@Jerry: wow 🤩
scav
Wandering a bit further in the (local, less stellar but more Parisian) neighborhood, the Galerie Véro-Dodat (another link).
Elizabelle
I loved the oven view video of baking goods Omnes shared in the morning thread. Yum.
https://bsky.app/profile/snarkysillysad.bsky.social/post/3ls77fxsv5k2b
ETA: It has an Edith Piaf soundtrack. Of course.
Omnes Omnibus
I did something good? I won’t let it go to my head.
Jerry
Yep. For all the bullshit that is going badly right now, this breakthrough in gazing into the cosmos is the good side of our modern times coin.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: LOL. I was just about to comment:
What has Omnes done now? Why is he behaving so well?
Layer8Problem
@scav:
Thank you scav and Anne Laurie. How’d you both know I was jonesing for France?
Layer8Problem
@Omnes Omnibus: If you had Steve in the ATL and Baud would be by presently to set things right.
pat
Those amazing pictures are coming from an observatory named Vera C. Rubin. A woman!!!
DEI, anyone? //
from Wikipedia:
Omnes Omnibus
@Layer8Problem: Those fuckers owe me money!
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes you did and Anne did also by putting the link on the front page.
oldgold
@Layer8Problem: Thanks a lot. I just spit out my coffee over my desk – laughing.
mayim
@TheOtherHank:
I’m so glad Merlin was talked about here, as I hadn’theard about it before that. Some of the birds even I know [loons are rather distinctive] but Merlin is definitely helping me connect what I see to what I hear.
Layer8Problem
@oldgold: My god, I’ve made Kristine and you laugh today? I’d better clear out before I do any more good. 😁
ETA: But the credit belongs to those three guys, with their shenanigans and their high jinks.
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: Because you tortured me with baking pastries this morning, I am curious if you are old enough (sorry) to remember “Ovens of Brittany” in Madison. If not a Google will clue you in.
My husband and I used to do weekend trips to Madison and Ovens of Brittany on Monroe part of the reason.
mayim
@Jerry:
Wow! Amazing photos.
Thanks for sharing.
Jeffro
@Jerry: this Rubin telescope is (not kidding) rapidly changing my whole mood for the better
I may just add a daily look-see at its latest images to my morning routine. =)
peter
@MagdaInBlack: Oh, yes, the Ovens of Brittany had cinnamon rolls and croissants that were definitely worth traveling for. As UW-Madison grad students in the early 1980s my wife and I couldn’t afford to eat there often, but when our parents visited, that’s where we took them. (Or rather where they took us.)
eclare
I saw and heard this in 2015, I hope the link works
https://youtu.be/n86pF-wQKrw?si=UL0FIwOXQqgk34aF
MagdaInBlack
@peter: It’s where I discovered croissants (not something one runs into in northern Illinois farm country) and my husband discovered food was more than just fuel =-)
mayim
A couple [very different] comfort watches have been my recent respites:
The Hoof GP: he essentially does bovine manicures, with repairs of minor damage. Soothing Scottish accent, cows that are in less pain/discomfort after he does his job, and often the intro is pretty Scottish scenery. Can be a bit yucky at times [as various liquids spurt out as he trims the hooves] but otherwise quite enjoyable.
Dylan Hollis started at TikTok but he’s now also at YouTube. High-energy short videos baking vintage recipes, with the occasional longer videos [much calmer] with fascinating historical detail.
CaseyL
OK so I thought the Rubin satellite images would be today’s big thing for me.
But then I watched the inside-the-oven video. The various transformations were just mind-boggling. Those pies that swell up, then shrink down, then shrink down some more… WTH is all that?? And the breads that appear to be multiple upwellings are…well, borderline porno.
But the Rubin photos are amazing, too! I particularly love the one with the two spiral galaxies that appear to be playing “The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round”.
Omnes Omnibus
@MagdaInBlack: My high school French II class did a weekend trip to Madison. Ovens of Brittany was the Saturday night highlight. These days, La Baguette on Mineral Point Rd is the place to go. A French baker and his half French, half northern Wisconsin wife run it. Great bread and pastries. To go or to stay in the cafe. Sometimes, they’ll have French rugby on the TV.
WTFGhost
I came here to kick ass and vape THC, and I’m all out of ass.
Nice start to a Tuesday.
Soprano2
I wonder, how do they keep all those bowls from congregating together? Thanks to Omnes and Annie for posting that, and also to Jerry for the pictures from the telescope. It makes you realize how vast space actually is.
Trollhattan
@TheOtherHank: Nice!
Jenkinson Lake?
CaseyL
Talk about amazing second acts…
Bobby Sherman, teen idol in the 1960s-70s, has died, at 81, of cancer.
I was a smidge too young to get seriously smitten with him – also, my tastes ran to the more dangerous seeming rock-n-rollers – but I was certainly aware of him. I remember watching “Here Come the Brides.”
But here’s the thing: after the teen idol phase of his life ended, he went into EMT training, got his license, and built a career helping people in emergencies. That, it turns out, was his real passion.
Good on ya, Bobby. RIP.
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: Sounds suitable replacement. If I am ever so fortunate as to make it to Madison again, it will be on the list.
It was during the “real men don’t eat quiche” days that my husband had his first quiche, at Ovens. He said ‘real men” are dummies, this is good stuff.
Shana
@MagdaInBlack: where in Northern Illinois are you from? My home town is Rock Island
WTFGhost
Oh, hey, Anne Laurie. Welcome back!
What? I didn’t want to join the throngs when you were coming back, I wanted to stand out.
Okay, fine, I forgot. Happy? I think it’s the weed. IIRC, weed can cause – what’s that stuff, you take for heartburn? Milk of… MAGNESIA! Right, weed can cause magnesium, or, memory loss.
Belafon
@CaseyL: So he could afford to be an EMT. :)
rusty
AL, thank you for the respite thread, it is greatly appreciated. I am working on my own quirky art project as part of a summer class I am taking at seminary, Art, Religion and Contemporary Culture. I had a choice of a research paper or an art project for the final. I don’t see myself as an artist, so was planning on doing the paper. A few classes in however, I decided to take a chance and do the project. I am building a cradle boat, a baby cradle in the shape of a boat, built using real boat building techniques. It’s inspired by the story of the infant Moses being floated down the Nile in a waterproofed basket (a boat!) along with many other stories and metaphors of water, the seas and boats throughout the bible. The title is an old fisherman’s prayer, “O God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”, which will be on the transom along with other biblical quotes and prayers on the hull. My professor was surprisingly enthusiastic about the idea. My other, and bigger motive, is our first grandchild is due in November, so it will ultimately be a gift to my daughter and husband for the baby. Working on it has been a real relief from national and world events, its own respite.
MagdaInBlack
@Shana: Little town called Sheridan, on the Fox River, north of Ottawa. My mil’s fam was from Viola, over by you. My husbands uncles worked at John Deere, in Milan (?)
JCJ
@Omnes Omnibus: When my daughter was at UW we often stopped by. I would also recommend, though I never saw rugby when I was there
TheOtherHank
@Trollhattan:
Right on the first try! I was tempted to throw in a 1-day rafting trip on the South Fork of the American, but it was unseasonably cool last weekend. Getting splashed with 60-something degree water when the air temp is in the 70s is not my thing these days.
Baud
Moved
Omnes Omnibus
@JCJ: You need to know when the French national team is playing.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Violating respite again, eh?
Trollhattan
Can relate–cold water makes me cranky and it’s still snow runoff feeding those rivers. Plus, it actually snowed in the Tahoe Basin last weekend. Very odd this close to July (beats fire, to the infinity).
Dangerman
@CaseyL: Interesting that I can remember Bobby Sherman on a episode of Emergency. I was an Emergency addict at one time (but still confirmed he was on the show through his Wikipedia page).
A bit of Emergency Trivia for you: Mike Stoker was a real firefighter and actor. Needed him to drive the real fire engine.
MagdaInBlack
@CaseyL: I had a crush on Bobby Sherman, before I discovered more dangerous appearing rockers and bad boys ;-)
Miss Bianca
@CaseyL: Wow, that’s what happened to Bobby Sherman? Like you, a little too young to be his target audience back in Tha Day, but I was certainly aware of him. Good for him for finding such a selfless calling after his teen-idol glory days.
Miss Bianca
@rusty: Wow, so cool! Give us pics when it’s done!
Layer8Problem
@Miss Bianca: Jeez, I watched the TV show and had the records and was in the fan club too. I let my membership lapse.
They Call Me Noni
@rusty: It will become a treasured family heirloom handed down through the generations. You’re a very thoughtful Grandpa.
You’ll have to post pictures when it’s done so we can all admire your work.
And congrats on the baby on the way. Hope all goes well.
Dangerman
@Dangerman: … and, since I had to look him up, tomorrow, 6/25, is Mike Stoker’s birthday.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL: Oh, man.
I never really knew who Bobby Sherman was–all I knew was that a lot of kids at my elementary school had Bobby Sherman lunchboxes around the time I was in kindergarten and 1st grade. I think he was the last big teen hearthrob to really be before my time. I was more cognizant of what was going on when David Cassidy and then Shaun Cassidy got big, and Farrah Fawcett…
randy khan
@scav:
I did not know that. I will have to check it out next time I’m in Paris. (Although I am not a huge cooking geek, I like to at least look at things and imagine I could use them.)
And the Bourse de Commerce is a really interesting museum.
Shana
@MagdaInBlack: pronounced “my-lan” with the stress on the first syllable. Hey neighbor
MagdaInBlack
@Shana: Nice ta meet ya =-)
Lol I do now remember it was My-lan, yes.
like Marseilles, IL is pronounced Mar-Sales.
dnfree
@MagdaInBlack:
@Shana:
Fellow northern Illinoisan. Grew up in Loves Park north of Rockford, college in DeKalb, then my husband and I bounced around Chicago and the suburbs before settling in Freeport for 34 years. Our children, who are Pretzels, live in the Chicago suburbs now, so we’re back in Elgin, where my husband grew up.
MagdaInBlack
@dnfree: Whoa. I work In South Elgin.
Live In Arlington Heights.
Trollhattan
You hate to see it.
“Money can’t buy you
loveVenice.”lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
Ha! I baked my first quiche several years before that book came out. It was one of the first recipes I cooked on my own when I first had an apartment with a kitchen. My mom had occasionally baked quiches when I was in my teens, and the recipe in Joy of Cooking didn’t look difficult. In fact it was pretty easy.
It also made for an easy but good date meal. A bacon quiche, a green salad, some crusty bread and a bottle of wine – back in the 1980s, being able to put together a meal scored a guy some points with a woman. So after you were done with dinner, things usually progressed nicely from there.
The Red Pen
This weekend I’m trying out Postcard Cabins (fka Getaway Cabins). It’s basically a bunch of free-standing hotel rooms in the woods designed for “glamping.” I’m hoping it’s as relaxing as it sounds. There are a few locations. The one I’m going to does not have WiFi and its remoteness makes cell WiFi too rudimentary for streaming. This forces you to disconnect, although it means that people don’t tend to rent during the week because they can’t telecommute.
A friend had a boyfriend who worked there until Marriott bought them out and he (boyfriend) was laid off. Apparently, there is a WiFi network on site, but it’s just used to monitor the site and allow customer service to remote-unlock your cabin. They decided not to provide WiFi to guests to make it a haven for people who want to unplug. Some locations do offer WiFi, though.
Scout211
Thank you, AL. A respite “something good” thread is very much appreciated.
MagdaInBlack
@Trollhattan: Aw, gosh darn it ;-)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Trollhattan:
Two very different reporting emphasis:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/24/jeff-bezos-lauren-sanchez-change-wedding-reception-location-in-venice-after-threatened-protest
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd0vjr07570o
The former at least mentions the threat of “floating crocodiles” to jam up guests getting to the reception. The latter doesn’t say boo about that but instead highlights how Venetian authorities wanted the wedding and the “income” it brings and how pissed off they are at the protesters.
Going out to Arsenal is probably a better thing for Bezos in terms of keeping the hoi polloi at arms length, it’s easier to secure, it more expansive at least in a Venetian sense. Won’t be as picturesque but gee, I guess even fucking billionaires can’t have everything…yet.
Gravenstone
Sounds like Marc from Quincy M.D., he was actually a tech for Perkin Elmer – the manufacturer of the instruments the featured in the lab.
cckids
@rusty: That sounds lovely and well thought out! Please share when you are done!
dnfree
@MagdaInBlack: Our middle daughter teaches at Westgate school in Arlington Heights. We live in the Del Webb development near Randall Rd and Bowes Rd.
Raven
@dnfree: My aunt and uncle lived in West Chicago for years and retired in Elgin.
JoyceH
@Miss Bianca: I liked the detail from the CNN obituary about how he once delivered a baby on the sidewalk- the new mom asked his name and was told Bobby so she named the baby Roberta.
NotMax
@JoyceH
A wiser choice than Bobbi.
;)
Jay
@Soprano2:
The shape of the bowls, the draft of the bowls and the currents in the pool will all have a major impact on what is called “the suction effect”.
It is best understood in the Maritime environment. Two vessels underway, if they come too close together, will get drawn into each other in a collision. The stand off safe distance is determined by the relative sizes of the vessels, the speed of the vessels, the draft of the vessels and the shape of the hulls.
So, to give an example, a small craft can get much closer, safely to a large freighter, than a similarly sized freighter. I would guess that the artist experimented with all factors until they achieved the effects they wanted, from sound to visual effects, before they installed the art.
Jay
How European Bison, on the edge of extinction, restored a dead Romanian forest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk3Ar8Yoi-I
pieceofpeace
@rusty: I’m so grateful you posted about this engaging project.
For me, memorable art of all kinds comes from engaging our feelings, in your case here, the happiest of reasons…
Enjoy this (and other) grandchild for whom the boat is being built…
catclub
Want is a strong word.
Apparently a haven for people who lack the willpower to unplug.
Bettencourt
I saw those floating bowls a few years back at SF MOMA. Probably my favorite piece I’ve ever seen in a museum.
MagdaInBlack
@dnfree: You’re west of the “Highway of Death”: Randall Rd.
Gloria DryGarden
@MagdaInBlack: real men are dummies…
Could be an interesting book title, with the right tweaks.
Gloria DryGarden
In response to one like
by an admired jackal, to a comment i made on Blue Sky
And suddenly I wrote 5 or 6 more poems. Partly in reply, and gratitude. But also, it opened my door.
One is pretty, was already bubbling up from Earlier, the others have a little range of moods, and possibly charm. I’m pleased.
Can see them on blue sky if you wish. Poetry is my respite. Sometimes
Ruckus
@Jerry:
This thing (whatever it is, a universe, or just part of one) we live in is stunning.
That the entire concept that we humans are the tippy top of possibilities in this universe is stunningly ridiculous. (Yes it might also be true….)
That some think that they must be the tippy top of this planet is also stunningly ridiculous.
That the concept that equality cannot be is stunningly ridiculous.
That we have some of the 2 legged animals on this one planet believing they are the only rational, reasonable segment of animals anywhere in the universe is stunningly ridiculous.
Is it possible that there might be some form of life that isn’t human that may be smarter than the smartest human on this planet and wouldn’t that stun the person that thinks they are the smartest/top of all other living beings?
Any one of us is a moron if they think they are the top of all living beings. And maybe they don’t rate even close to that high.
My point is that what/all we have seen up to now is the neighborhood we are in, not in any way how or what else is out there.
Princess
The Bourse de Commerce is one of my favourite museums in Paris. Or anywhere.
dnfree
@MagdaInBlack: My husband grew up here when Randall was a two-lane country road. “We used to drag race on Randall!”, he says. People still do, unfortunately.
His childhood back yard connected with the state hospital before the 20 bypass was put in. He and friends used to play on the hospital grounds, and escaped patients sometimes came to his house.