Picture Perfect

Since the Monolith has arrived in Houston all manner of strange occurrences have been happening. First, the clocks stopped telling the correct time by an hour, and now this – the entire season has changed. Something about the advent of spring always brings me a fresh energy and sometimes I seem to find a puzzle that captures the moment as well. Past springs have seen Kamei’s Spring Box, and Kakuda’s Spring Night. And now here we have Kawashima’s Spring Camera!

Hideaki Kawashima, a member of the Karakuri Creation Group of puzzle box artists located in Hakone, Japan, loves cameras. He is an accomplished amateur photographer, and has a fondness for vintage film cameras. What he really loves are the old lenses, which have limitations and are not so easy to use. One of his favorites is the MOSKVA-5, a medium format bellows model he acquired as a student, when he would develop his own film. He has even let his passion influence a few of his puzzle box designs, starting with his Twin Reflex Camera. He followed that up a few years later with Spring Camera, which is modeled after the foldable format cameras of the fifties, the immediate precursors to the single lens 35mm camera. According to Kawashima, this one is specifically based on an image of the ARCO 35, with a few other cameras mixed in. He could have gotten an actual old copy to use, rather than just a photograph, but he already had ten vintage cameras, and was trying to be practical. We all know the feeling.

If you are a savvy enough photographer yourself, you may be able to get this camera to spring open, although Kawashima created a movement that would be a little unfamiliar to photographers, just to add a little challenge. But you still have not discovered the secret compartment. His goal was to faithfully reproduce the camera and “spring” action, which meant the puzzle could not be as tricky as some of his work, but he did not want it to be easy. So find the secret, and feel satisfied. That is, unless you know how Kawashima likes to mark the final compartment with his signature hanko. And you haven’t seen it yet! Like many of his designs, there is still one more very well hidden compartment to discover. Beautifully crafted from wenge, maple and cherry wood, Kawashima has spared no detail to make this one picture perfect.

A camera themed puzzle box is ironically self-referential for the social media obsessed society we live in now. I often feel a slave to posting a pretty picture and have obsessed over intricate citrus peel garnishes for my cocktails of late. It was with this in mind that I poke fun at myself and feature a brilliant and delicious Old Fashioned from Tony Roehr that was easily one of my favorite drinks this winter. It combines bourbon with walnut and banana liqueur to create what has been described as “banana bread in a glass” and it is so, so good.

Tony created this drink at Raised by Wolves, a flamboyant cocktail bar with a memorable name created by Erick Castro, owner of another one of my favorite bars in San Diego, Polite Provisions. Raised by Wolves is remarkable in many ways, styled after an old-world gilded emporium from the Belle Epoque, it is the last place you would expect to encounter inside a suburban shopping mall. Step through the door and you will find yourself in a classic apothecary and bottle shop – the opulent bar hides behind a swiveling wall. Named Imbibe magazine’s 2019 Bar of the Year, it’s worth a trip to the mall. Just make sure to bring your camera and snap some perfectly postable pics. Cheers!

Social Animal by Tony Roehr

2 oz bourbon

½ oz crème de banana

1 barspoon walnut liqueur

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Garnish with a citrus peel camera.

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