Anyone in the mood to go shopping? Today’s Photo Friday theme is Girl, so here’s an image from last month’s trip to Dublin, where a store display in Saint Stephen’s Green Shopping Center caught my photographic eye. Here in the States, I occasionally go shopping for bargains at T.J. Maxx…but if I lived in Dublin, I’d have to patronize Mr. Maxx’s Irish brother, T.K. Whatever the store is called, who can resist the ever-watchful eye of a camera-wielding glamor girl?
What’s that girl looking at? Well, here’s a shot of the inside of Saint Stephen’s Green Shopping Center…
Is it me, or does this open and ornate architecture call to mind the panoptical splendor of Kilmainhaim Gaol? Whereas Kilmainhaim’s Victorian hall allowed prison guards to monitor inmates with an ever-watchful eye, a well-designed shopping mall encourages consumers to see, desire, and ultimately possess an ever-alluring array of goods. How many times have you gone “window shopping” and ended up buying something you didn’t know you needed until you saw it?
As for me, this girl’s going hiking. I’m off this morning for a long weekend in Bar Harbor, Maine, where I plan to spend as much time outside (and as little time blogging) as a potentially rainy weekend will allow. If it rains, I guess I’ll have to go window-shopping. What’s more quintessentially girly than some weather-induced retail therapy?
Sep 22, 2006 at 2:03 pm
We stopped in Bar Harbor on the way to Nova Scotia several years ago. If we’d known it was so pretty there we’d have planned a longer stay. Have fun!
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Sep 22, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Bar Harbor? I’m so jealous! We spent some time in that area on a whirlwind tour of the Northeast a few years ago. Make sure to hit Freeport and L.L.Bean (not to mention all the other outlets)!!!! Hope the weekend is a great one.
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Sep 23, 2006 at 9:29 am
That’s so funny about T.K.!! I wonder if “TJ” is somehow offensive in Ireland. Then again, we have a store called “BJ’s” in the US, and don’t care who it offends!!
😉
have a great weekend!
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Sep 23, 2006 at 10:45 am
Too odd about the TJ / TK thing….
and enjoy Bar Harbor! If you see a tallish bearded man snapping endless photos while you’re there just shout out “j kirlin!” and see if he responds – he haunts the area regularly! (see jkirlin.blogspot.com). Happy hiking!
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Sep 23, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Funny, I was just reading the latest New Yorker this morning, which is the Style Issue. There’s an interesting bit on Marie Antoinette as a victim of fashion http://tinyurl.com/efkkz and the ever amusing Calvin Trillin on thrift shopping in Nova Scotia at Frenchy’s: http://tinyurl.com/ej8we (if only you had a bit more time to head up to Canada from there).
Have a great time in Bah Hahbah.
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Sep 25, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Hey, I know that shopping centre! I used to work in there. 🙂
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Sep 25, 2006 at 4:38 pm
That mall reminds me of a shopping mall in Toronto. They also tried to use as much glass as possible to use all the sunlight they could find. Of course it is also depressing to shopping there when the rain clouds surround it 😦
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