Oh my. Joanna Pallaris‘ photos are dreamy and somewhat Francesca Woodman-inspired, but hey, I’ll take it. What do we know about Joanna? She’s British. She works in Polaroid. She makes really romantic photos. These are the type of photos that photographers take when they don’t know what to shoot so just walk around the house with a camera, and then good images come out of it.

Oh yes, I love Felicity Powell. She makes her wax pieces look almost as magical as photography (darkroom processes only). Felicity is an artist from London, whose show, Charmed Life: The solace of objects, is on display at the Wellcome Collection through the end of February.

She was one of the only people to have access to a collection of 1400 amulets assembled by the Edwardian amateur folklorist Edward Lovett. These amulets were once carried in the pockets of Londoners for luck or protection.

I’ve been in love with the idea of items buried in asphalt-intentionally or non-, after I saw scissors embedded in concrete in Boston’s North End, at the entranceway to a salon. And at the Fenway neighborhood’s King of Records, with their name spelled out in marbles in the entranceway. There were a lot of cool old men hanging out there, doing “yoga” (smoking pot), playing piano, and selling records and trinkets to young college girls like myself. It was the kind of place you had to move heavy pipes to get Stephane Grappelli records.

Anyway, Mike Mission is on a…ahem, mission to document items that have been buried in asphalt in NYC.

Yeah, Boston has a lot of squares, most of them not in the shape of squares. Some are even corners (my favorite) or circles. Andy Woodruff has spent some time mapping the squares. Good lookin! He also has a really cool blog where he maps Boston in every which way–by radio station, tree, MBTA traffic– called Bostonography.

And if you’re so inclined, you can buy a poster of Unmapped Boston.

How did they know we needed Likes and Dislikes stamps? Maybe they read my Likes/Dislikes zine, or were inspired by the Library of Congress Subject Heading named after my zine (Likes and dislikes).

Hey all you lucky ones in New Orleans: Through the end of the month, you should stop into the the Marigny and see Lafcadio’s Revenge, a “mobile museum” of New Orleans’ “forgotten histories,” by Tessa Farmer, Nina Nichols and Dana Sherwood. This Prospect. 2 satellite project is an homage to homage to Lafcadio Hearn, a 19th century New Orleans journalist and  ethnographer and an inventor of the city’s mysterious history.

Lafcadio’s Revenge: Mixed Media Sculpture Installation, through Jan. 29, 800 Press Street, corner Dauphine in Marigny in New Orleans

Pronto is a new, really-fast-to-put-on condom. Invented by South America’s inventor, Willem van Renburg, developed it in the hopes that it will help to bring South Africa’s HIV rate down, as it is currently home to the world’s largest HIV-positive population. The foil IS the applicator.  I hope they’re cheap and available everywhere.

The New York City Department of health developed the NYC Condom Finder, which helps you find free condoms near you. It uses the iPhone’s GPS to locate free condoms near the person who needs a handful.

Is this turning into a Bellocq-blog? I’d be ok with it if it did. Well, here we go, haven’t looked at these pictures in a few weeks. The above is my ultimate favorite. If only Storyville was still around, with their blue books (the lady of the night directory–so organized).

I like how he leaves the backdrop visible as a backdrop.

Can you imagine what other images he made that we’ll never see? Like the images of New Orleans’ Chinatown opium dens? Thanks Bellocq for being an amazing photographer and for letting the ladies be real people, thanks ladies for sitting for these portraits, and thanks Lee Friedlander for finding Bellocq’s remaining negatives and helping them to live on.

I have a thing for good storefronts, in real life and in pictures.

I hope the country doesn’t get so cleaned up that there’s no good junk shops or quirk anymore.

Find these photos and more at the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection