I don't get (fully) the Burj (Al-Arab)

The building is really quite special. It is attractive, distinctive, and has done much for Dubai's international profile. Tom Wright certainly earned his commission (attractive photos follow). However, the furniture is a bit overdone/tacky (even in flashy Dubai) and the food really isn't that great, especially for the price. Friends visited from out of town last weekend, and we had a better dinner at Buddha Bar than at Al-Mahara (although the aquarium is very cool. I really like fish and fully intend to install quite a serious installation if I ever stop traveling and moving round so often). At this point I think it gets a lot of mileage as a landmark, and I'll continue to take curious visitors form out of town there, but otherwise, I'm much happier looking at it from 360 (when that's open) than going inside.

Cool Sights Around Moscow

Moscow architecture, though attractive (large Soviet era apartment complexes excepted), is usually fairly conservative, so when I saw this building near the Patriarch Pond, it was a very pleasant surprise:


The following monument not far from the Kropotkinskay Metro is also pretty cool. It is a memorial to Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, an author most famous for writing And Quiet Flows the Don, and depicts the author on a boat, taking a herd of horses across that river in a scene based on that book.