The Sheila Variations

Wow, that stucco house looks like it could be in some tropical locale instead of, you know, northern Jersey. There's a pagoda-style house mixed in with tudors and colonials on one of the streets in my hometown. I love how random Jersey is.

P.S. Great colors in your photos!

Curly - I know, right? That building just really stands out in my neighborhood - which is mostly two-family two-story homes, you know - the usual. Then suddenly there's this green and pink thing on the corner - with rounded doors - I love it! And if you went inside, I would bet the folks who live there have a view of all of Manhattan - it's perched right on the edge of the cliff with no obsctruction.

The light bulb behind Roseland is just a terrific picture. I love the detail... shows you how awesome the seemingly mundane can be when you photograph it. Decades worth of cracking paint and the orange bulb make a winner.

Noonz - Thank you!! I love the back of that place - it takes almost an entire block, and there are huge very faded musical notes painted all over that cracked adobe-ish paint - it looks slightly seedy, and yet glamorous - like all old-school New York joints. I love it!

It's easy to see why your "favorite roof" is, well, your favorite. I love the color and intricacies.

Just yesterday I was in northern NJ visiting family and driving through the area I just thought to myself, yup, this is (the area my family's in). I couldn't put my finger on it but it's the same, every time I've gone, since I was a kid, despite the passage of time.

Kate - I love it when things don't change. I love going home to my hometown where I grew up and finding that SOME things have not become mini-malls. The same groves of firs are there ... the same woodsy pond ... the same Cape houses and little curvy street neighborhoods ... I can visit all my old haunts and not feel too disconnected.

Speaking of my favorite roof: what do you think it's made of? Is it ... tin? Like ... what is going on up there?? It's obviously not stone - not like the rest of the building. I love the slant of it. I don't even know what that building is - it;'s on 46th and 8th or something like that ... I should investigate.

I was guessing the roof was oxidized copper--like the Statue of Liberty. But I'm no scientist!

I'm with Kate P - definitely copper. The big cathedral here - the Cathedral of Saint Paul, used to have the same green roof (http://www.planet99.com/pix/7567_1.jpg), until they redid the roof and put in new copper. (dull, not shiny. I was hoping for shiny copper - thought it would be beautiful. I'm still disappointed.)