Photographic conditions were not ideal on the day that I photographed Prague’s Dancing House. In Prague, all buildings are houses, no matter how large or how unrelated to human residence they may be. I had good company on that day, however. I’d spent most of it with Kača, Maruška, and Štepán, and as evening made its first tentative whispers, I met with Pavl. We walked. We talked. We smoked. And long after sunset, we drank beer, had friendly words with Jana (Pavl’s sister) and then spent much of the evening doing the things one does on lazy evenings in Prague. We listened to music, smoked, talked, and at night’s end pecked one another’s lips in friendly departing kisses. Tančící dům—Czech for “dancing house” is one of the famous landmarks of Prague. It’s a marvel of…well…something. Diminutive in size, it is a violation of the Art Nouveau vibe of the city. It’s a bit more like Czech humor, loopy, way out in left field, and a little bit prickly on top. Well, Czech humor isn’t so much prickly on top as just flat out dark. In many, many, many Czech jokes, death is the punch-line. But jokes and architecture are two different subjects, and so we’ll go into Czech punch-lines a bit later; this is about that crazy looking building standing at # 80 Rašínovo nábřeží, right across the street from the Vltava River. What’s not to like about that: my favorite city populated by some of my favorite people on Earth, my favorite river? It’s all a good thing, and I’m incredibly happy that I found this example of a good day in my home city. I remember what Pavl and I talked about, and I remember how much Štepán and I drank, and how much we smoked…we stole some of Kača’s cigarettes, too. She pretended not to notice. I’d emailed this picture to Moscow, and so I had a copy of it hovering around in digital limbo. Since I found it, I decided to post it. I’m amazed that such potent memories have been stirred, but then when they’re attached to a building like this, they can only be potent. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a warmer and drier week than it’s proven to be in the winded city.