Terrible Pictures Of Beautiful Animals At The Tashkent Zoo

It's a weird dichotomy at zoos. Exotic animals are more accessible than in the wild, yet the environments are awful. Nice animals, bad backgrounds. Or, maybe, great.

Hairy camel.

Fuzzy monkey. Fuzzy coyote.

Lazing lion.

Soft hippo. Tortoises.

Hungry yak.

Uncooperative goats. Flexing lions.

Lizards, somewhere.

Mighty Mosaics In Tashkent

The Soviets built so many miles of blah apartment blocks in Tashkent, it's hard to tell where you are. One bright spot, or detail, are the mosaics that were sometimes added, frequently at the end of a building. A little tile bling goes a long way toward brightening the concrete behemoths.

Typical apartment blocks with a typical end mosaic.

Big crosses are good, especially combined with some cheery nature patterns and colors. The bounty of the Motherland is also a good inspiration, the prosperity pouring.

Sometimes buildings start an art dialogue between themselves.

In addition to ends of buildings and window trim, entryways also got the mosaic treatment.

Sad progress. Giant vinyl signs are now draped over many of the mosaics. Blah returns.

More details. So many apartment blocks in a neighborhood, it helps to have a giant number added. Window trimming, in the full sense of the description.

The typical mix of plain concrete, a nice mosaic, some modern louvers and a colorfield of more tile. Wild.