In the summer of 1993 I spent a lot of time listening to The Chronic. Over the course of the next year, with those various amateurish videos released for the most radio-friendly songs from the album, I really believed that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's lives were filled with low-rider trips to endless barbecues where bikini tops were removed from girls with Double-Ds and the dude handling the meat had a handgun always tucked into the back of his pants and where girls in slinky dresses who didn't appreciate the compliments of gentlemen callers would end up getting sprayed by shaken-up forties.

So I'm sitting at my mother-in-law's house and I find these videos from the 1995 Death Row Records Christmas Party (from a DVD documentary) and as I watch them my jaw drops. The cameraman follows that creepy-voice Me'chele or whatever (the one who had babies with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight) as she talks in that creepy voice to various artists on the label (Dre, Tupac). What captivated me about this video is how NORMAL this party is. I've seen Bar Mitzvah videos that looked more like those parties portrayed in the Chronic videos than this one does. Everyone is so well-dressed and well-mannered. Tupac even looks a little awkward and nervous. There are white guys in suits who tell jokes that make Dre laugh. Shouldn't he be looking at them with contempt and thinking of rhymes about performing crude sexual acts on their corpses? The party is in one of those ugly tents and the food looks like bad wedding fare. It looks like every boring event or party I've ever attended.




This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.







I am just completely blown away by James Jean's evocative Japanese-woodcut take on Santa Claus. So beautiful. See the full image here. The huge (41" x 90") oil painting will be shown at the Jonathan Levine Gallery, January 10th - February 7th, 2009.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.





We love Buster Keaton movies so much around here, so this photo took my breath away. I'd seen photos of him before from when he was old, but I'd never seen that famous old stone face feature such a dour look. Imagine the stories he could have told you over a mug of beer.

My favorite Buster Keaton short is "One Week," and one of its best scenes is here (not necessarily because of Keaton, but the lovely Sybil Seely):






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


Whatever. . .

Posted by jdg | 10:15 AM | , , ,



Someone sent me this video saying, "You'd better watch this, and pay attention at about 1:09 and 2:13." It's apparently a parody of T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" recorded in M.C. Serch's mom's basement. Then at 1:09, after talking about all the "wack" things he can do in Detroit because he's white, the Bloomfield-based rapper says, "I can be a stay-at-home dad." I was all, "Woah!"

That's pretty awesome.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.




Watch this animated cartoon.

Also, from Tom Walsh's column in today's Detroit Free Press:

"When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared. They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees. General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work. Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000. The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached."



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.




At some point during all this auto-industry bailout talk, I remembered my favorite all-time silent comedy short---it doesn't star Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle or even Roach, but the venerable but nearly-forgotten Snub Pollard as a wacky inventor in 1923 ready to save everyone driving Detroit's newfangled machines from the greedy oil men. His own "car" is extremely fuel efficient: it doesn't use any fuel. Nor does it create any emissions. I sincerely hope that some of the CEOs of the Big Three watch this video over the next few weeks to get some ideas.




This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.




So my friend managed to get some free tickets to the Neil Young/Wilco show at the Palace of Auburn Hills last night, as well as the keys to a corporate box with its own bathroom. I had been a little worried about the whole bathroom situation because I wanted to drink a lot of beer and I knew that with that many 50-plus-year-old male fans at the venue, the collective prostate issues were going to create some serious lines at the men's room. I counted seven David Crosby lookalikes just in our section.

One of my friends in the luxury box was a roommate from college who'd practiced this song on the guitar about 60,000 times our senior year, even recording it meticulously on his four-track in the basement. When the chords started I could feel his excitement, but when Neil Young sang the first verse: "Hey hey, my my, DETROIT CITY WILL NEVER DIE" even my withered spine felt a jolt. I love that kind of pandering. I think rock stars should always pander to local crowds and say nice things about where they are, especially 62-year-old rock stars who want to proceed with a set that includes 2-3 songs about the battery-powered/hydrogen cell Lincoln he's building. I wish I was kidding. Neil Young may just have written the definitive country rock song about fuel cells.

I hadn't seen Wilco in five years, but it's always nice to see Jeff Tweedy in his Canadian tuxedo. I had forgotten how much I liked this song, mostly because it was ruined for me years ago by some douchebag from Swarthmore who put it on a mixtape he made for my girlfriend and also by a girl standing next to me at a show during the Summerteeth tour who, after hearing the repeated line, "What you once were isn't what you want to be any more. . ." shouted, "Oh my Gawd, that is so true for me right now!" Gah! I could have punched her.






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






I now have filled an entire shelf with children's books from many different decades that tell stories from classical mythology. My mom sent us this one a few months ago (in addition to being lucky enough to have a mom who makes my kids gifts instead of buying them a bunch of unwanted plastic crap, she has a habit of finding really cool things during her own thrift store adventures).

Yesterday there was a pomegranate on the counter I'd bought at Eastern Market a few weeks ago that was starting to go bad (you know, with some gross black seeds but still plenty of good ones) so I gutted the thing and sat down with Juniper during one of Gram's naps and read her this book. The illustrations grew on me as the story progressed and I was a little amazed by how the book didn't gloss over some of the more risque or creepy elements of the myth. Juniper started to freak out a little when she realized how many pomegranate seeds she'd eaten after Zeus made his compromise with Demeter and Hades.

It was just a pleasant thing to do on a gloomy winter afternoon, to sit there with my daughter devouring a pomegranate and reading a story that explains it all so much better than the tilt of the earth on its axis.



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I have been enjoying the documentary photography taken by people in other post-industrial rustbelt cities that I have been able to find on flickr (obviously I feel some kinship with other people who find this sort of thing interesting). I have particularly enjoyed browsing through El Rebelde's photos of Cleveland, and when I saw this recent photo of a glove being devoured by moss I had to share it. This summer I spent so much time taking pictures of the way nature was slowly taking over the works of men, I find myself a bit stumped now that winter is here and the foliage is dormant.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.







Apron designed by our friend Andy Beach, made by Workers in Japan.

Andy is curating a real world version of his blog Reference Library at Kiosk in Manhattan, November 28–December 7 (with an opening party on Black Friday, November 28, 7–10pm: I assume Andy will be there and you should stop by to meet him---a very cool guy).

Kiosk
95 Spring St. between Broadway and Mercer
Second Floor
New York, NY 10012

If you don't read Reference Library you're missing out on an amazing world of folk design, obscure case goods, kids' stuff, trench art, unusual typography, cool old clothes, and lots more stuff mostly inspired by his adventures exploring the craziest corners of eBay and beyond.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


The Big Three's next green SUV!

Posted by jdg | 11:07 AM





Source (rogntudjuuuuu's flickr stream)

Okay folks, I am so sick about writing and thinking about Detroit and green cars and the auto industry. I'm sure you're sick of it too. I need a furlough from the class war. I need a walk in the woods. I just hope I don't run into something like this.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






Charles Peterson's photograph of the Filson factory in Seattle.

It's so hard to find stylish, reasonably-priced clothing that's made by workers in the United States* that most people don't bother trying. A lot of the online resources for American-made clothing and accessories are of the 1980s "Made in the USA" animated GIF ilk, so style blogger Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean and The Material Review compiled an excellent (and sure to expand) list of "stylish and cool brands that make their goods in America." I recommend checking it out:

The American List

*I keep talking about products Made in the USA but my real interest is in products that aren't made by companies that moved their manufacturing to Asia. That is not to say there aren't excellent Asian companies or goods manufactured in Europe that I don't also love. I just find something particularly repugnant about companies like Lands End or Patagonia with long histories of domestic manufacturing or a lot of lip service to environmental issues, but whose catalogs don't contain a single product that's not identified as imported.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


Reginald- 1975

Posted by jdg | 8:23 PM | , ,



Holy crap. Holy crap.

It's going to take me about two weeks to get over the onslaught of awesomeness that is this kid. I would vote for this kid for president. Fuck the constitution.



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SOURCE: Daniel Shea's Flickr

Photographer Daniel Shea (recently of Baltimore, now Chicago) does an amazing job capturing life in the sorts of places most people would prefer not to see. I find it incredibly inspiring. This photo is one of the most incredible, I think I like it because unlike some of the others it wasn't obviously posed (and yet maybe it was?) Either way, the ambiguity is pretty cool---just the possibility that this scene happened just like this without provocation is enough to keep me carrying my camera everywhere I go.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






Source: Getty Images

Easily our most enduring memory of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was when the U.S. men's gymnastics team found out they were going to win a medal. The NBC cameras were there to capture the moment as these six leprechaun beefcakes started puffing their chests and celebrating what turned out to be a bronze medal. While the Chinese men stoically pommeled, swung and hung their way to a gold medal, the impish U.S. men were shouting and jumping for the camera like they'd just won the most badass athletes category at the Source Hip-Hop Music Awards.

One of them kept saying, "This is how we roll" over and over in this high-pitched voice. I think it might have been the Desi one. Ever since then, my wife and I, and even our daughter have used a falsetto voice to say this randomly to each other in all kinds of situations. All decked out in the pink coat, hat, boots, pants, etc.? "This is how we roll." I have tried desperately to find footage of that Olympic moment, but all I could find was this picture from a shoot the gymnastics team did for Mandate Magazine. Okay, not really. But really, guys? I know each and every one of you could totally kick my ass, but you're so adorable I just want to carry you around in my pocket to protect me. And maybe once in awhile say in a tiny voice, "This is how we roll."



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.







The $70 white laminate countertop in our kitchen is about shot and we're going to need a new one. I found this photo on one of those foreign "we'll remodel your kitchen for $380,000" websites and---given that you could buy four or five houses like ours for that much right now---I don't see much wisdom in investing in much more than a new laminate. But I dream about something like this beautiful kitchen. I would love to have a wooden/butcher block counter, but the wife is afraid it would stain or ding too easily. I don't really like granite or corian and I don't want to spend that much. Anyone have any good "alternative" countertop recommendations? I like the idea of fireslate but those bastards won't return my e-mails.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


|

November 4, 2008

Posted by jdg | 9:00 AM




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Screenshot, The Shining DVD

I first saw Kubrick's The Shining ten years after it was made (in 1990---when I was thirteen). I found myself really bothered by the outdated style of everything in the film, from Danny's shaggy hair and bellbottoms to the carpet in the Overlook. I was also really grossed out by Shelley Duvall. Why did Jack marry that giant-eared freak I wondered.

Then I caught a few parts of the film on TV this weekend and was struck by how much I loved the design and style of just about everything in the film. And I found myself totally into Shelley Duvall. But mostly loved the psychic cook's Florida apartment. I wanted to redecorate our house symmetrically with lots of pictures of naked ladies with giant Afros.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


Studs Turkel, 1912-2008

Posted by jdg | 9:04 PM |






RIP Studs. They sure don't make radical left-wing badasses like you anymore.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






I tried to make it down to Southwyck ghost mall in Toledo with Juniper last December but got sidetracked by something or another and then the boy was born. We have been going to ghost malls around Detroit and planned to make another attempt at Southwyck but when I looked it up on the internet everyone says that it's officially closed. I'm glad these Ohio urbex photographers documented the place in its final days. The second photo speaks volumes.







This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.





We've been in Cincinnati for a few days, and on a really rainy day last week I took the kids to the Contemporary Arts Center downtown and went up to the Unmuseum on the sixth floor---these were the free art supplies that anyone visiting the museum can use. When I got there another dad was there with his two girls, both drawing away. If I lived in Cincinnati, the museum people would have to kick me out of this place every day.

Cincinnati is a cool and beautiful city. More on that later.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






SOURCE: BibliOdyssey

Peacay of the always-great BibliOdyssey recently posted an amazing set of scanned mid-sixteenth-century engravings called "Architecture of Fantasy I" (I hope that means there will be a part II and III?) all done by Hans Vredeman de Vries. I particularly love the imaginative caryatids.

Okay, I admit I have added these to the ever growing PDF coloring book of weird old stuff I'm making for the kid. That's probably really annoying. Oh well.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






SOURCE: Sameli's Flickr [via fffound]


This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






For years I've been collecting old architectural drafting texts, and I just scanned a bunch of pictures from one published in 1972 full of all kinds of great images that would have been used in architectural presentations. There are about ten pages like this that are all of people in their groovy period dress, and I print them out on 8.5x11 paper and let the kid color them.

Yes, we have truly entered the age of coloring books around here.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.







A lot of people ask me how I find any time during the day to get stuff done without turning on the television. Luckily the kid LOVES to draw independently so I spend about $6 a week on books of newsprint sketch paper (we buy one of those 18x24 pads at Utrechts after every trip to the art museum). This past week we visited the new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art and we bought one of these Taro Gomi coloring/sketch books published by Chronicle Books in the gift shop and the kid really loves it. Gomi, of course, is the Japanese author/illustrator of Everybody Poops, and this book is full of hundreds of outline drawings not unlike those in My Friends or Bus Stops and his other books. I like them because while a little more formal than a blank page, they let the one holding the crayon use a lot more imagination than a traditional coloring book.

There are several other editions of these Gomi coloring/sketch books (I've ordered them all). One of them we keep in a bag that we bring to restaurants to keep her occupied while we try to prevent the other one from destroying the place.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.




No comment. And depending on howmuch money you have/have not lost in the past couple weeks, you might find this website funny.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

2

Posted by jdg | 12:46 AM




This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

1

Posted by jdg | 12:46 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

4

Posted by jdg | 12:45 AM




This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

3

Posted by jdg | 12:45 AM





This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

6

Posted by jdg | 12:44 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

5

Posted by jdg | 12:44 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

7

Posted by jdg | 12:43 AM





This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

8

Posted by jdg | 12:42 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

9

Posted by jdg | 12:41 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

11

Posted by jdg | 12:40 AM





This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

10

Posted by jdg | 12:40 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

12

Posted by jdg | 12:39 AM




This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

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Posted by jdg | 12:38 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

14

Posted by jdg | 12:36 AM





This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


15

Posted by jdg | 12:35 AM






This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

16

Posted by jdg | 12:26 AM





This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Sean Connery in Zardoz

Posted by jdg | 11:58 AM





This is what it will look like when hipsters finally join the revolution.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






SOURCE: Rosa Parks?

I found this large (11x17) photo in a closet of an old office in an abandoned skyscraper downtown. It had obviously hung on a wall at one point. After the sun set and I hopped back out onto the street (coughing out a few mouthfuls of asbestos dust and black mold) I brought it over to my wife's office where her coworker seemed to recognize most of the white guys and had guesses for the black guys. From left: Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rosa Parks, Rep. Thomas Foley (?), Rep. William Gray (?) (is is that her boss, a younger Conyers?), Rep. John Lewis (?), Rep. Richard Gephardt. I am assuming this was after Ms. parks received some kind of honor on the hill back in the early 1990s. I know she received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, but the suits and youthful visage of now-grizzled Steny Hoyer make me think this was a bit earlier (also, the building where I found it was shuttered in 1997). There is a photo from the same meeting at Gephardt's site.

Rosa Parks worked in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers for many years, and the office building where I found it is really close to the building where Conyers' office is now. I wondered who in the abandoned, ramshackle office with its overturned desks and moldy carpet had once cherished this photo. Rosa herself?

A guy at a coffee shop told me the other day that he once delivered a pizza to Rosa Parks. She buzzed him into her building and then rode down the elevator to meet him. He says he then rode in the elevator up to her apartment where she retrieved her purse. He says she tried to tip him, but he declined, saying, "You just keep your money, Ms. Parks."

Leaving comments open in case anyone recognizes the congressmen in the photo.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

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SOURCE: my television

Oh, the awesomeness. They're singing the "Speedy Delivery" song, if you hadn't already guessed.

Even better, this followed one of those factory segments showing how adult tricycles get built. I used to love those segments. One time when I was still working I wasted a couple hours researching how many of those American factories where Americans actually made things with their hands were still in operation, planning to write a post about it. The results were way too depressing.

Mr. Rogers is pretty much the antithesis of everything I hate about television.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


Hans Wegner, 1960

Posted by jdg | 9:48 PM









Forget the debaters, just look at the furniture.


This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

My Big Powerful Boys

Posted by jdg | 10:51 AM | , ,


Most people know Winsor McCay for his amazing comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland (an obvious influence on Sendak's In the Night Kitchen) or McCay's early animated films, but he was also an accomplished political cartoonist.

A century after this was first published, I can't help but wonder what McCay would draw today. Some nearsighted investment banker, perhaps, with a real estate agent, a mortgage broker, and a house flipper, down on their knees (having dropped the reigns of the American economy). And looking to Uncle Sam for a hand out.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Dad's tool wall

Posted by jdg | 11:05 AM | ,





Source: me

This is part of my dad's tool wall and his welding station. My dad repairs automobile bodies and restores antique cars in his own shop. Lately he has been building his own machines to fabricate parts for early-twentieth-century cars---parts that no longer exist---that he has to build based on old pictures of the cars he's restoring. Two of those huge cars (WAY bigger than Hummers) were in the shop when I took this photo so I couldn't find a spot to get the whole wall of tools in the frame. It's pretty awesome though. I'll try to take another photo next time I'm in town.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.







Photo by Ezra Stoller, published in Detroit Home

Born in New York City and raised in Florence, Alexander Girard spent much of his life living in the suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He moved there in 1937, opening a small design gallery and designing auto interiors as well as commercial and living spaces (I have long kicked myself over the missed opportunity to purchase a chair he designed for the cafe at the Detrola radio company's offices in Detroit's Fisher building---someone showed the chair to Charles Eames up in Bloomfield Hills and he immediately sought out Girard and their collaborative friendship was born). Girard worked as a color consultant for General Motors and in 1949 he designed the Detroit Institute of Art's "For Modern Living," a significant early exhibition of midcentury design. In 1952 he became the director of textile design for the Herman Miller Furniture company.

Joseph Giovannini said it well in New York magazine: "The multitudinous fabrics he created, sometimes bold and sometimes capricious, were a little like Andy Warhol's platinum wig: Shocked by the platinum, you don't notice it's a wig. Girard's fabrics warmed up and camouflaged the functionalist, factory-produced furniture, making it more palatable to suburban taste buds."

One of my favorite stories about Girard is the 1958 discovery of the Herman Miller San Francisco studio that he would design: "On a scouting trip to San Francisco, Girard, Eames, and Herman Miller’s Hugh De Pree (D.J.’s son) chanced upon a boarded-up building while searching for somewhere to have lunch. Taking a hammer and crowbar to the layers of plywood, they began to uncover what had once been a music hall of considerable ill repute (ed: the Hippodrome), rife with life-size nude satyrs, nymphs, and all manner of marvelous ornamentation. At Girard’s behest Herman Miller secured the property, and he set about creating a thoroughly modern interior design that would complement the location." (dwell)



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Posted by jdg | 11:14 AM | , ,

Alice Neel, "Frank O'Hara," 1960. Oil on canvas,
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

"My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time;
they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and
disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away.
Or again at something after it has given me up. It makes me
restless and that makes me unhappy, but I cannot keep them
still. If only I had grey, green, black, brown, yellow eyes; I
would stay at home and do something. It's not that I'm
curious. On the contrary, I am bored but it's my duty to be
attentive, I am needed by things as the sky must be above the earth. . ."

----Frank O'Hara, Meditations in an Emergency


This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.






source: me

I was in this alley at dusk last Saturday checking out how the kids are getting into the David Broderick tower these days when a cargo van full of drunk people pulled up and several beefy suburban guys hopped out to cavalierly piss on the Metropolitan. They didn't see me and they hopped back into their van quick enough, but I still had to walk back through their piss smell. I know that kind of thing happens all over, but I couldn't help resenting these guys. They were acting like the city was just a toilet. "Pull over, I have to piss." It's not just suburban types, though. I see people pissing on their own city all the time.

Then, from the alley, I saw Torya Blanchard lugging a big bucket of water around, tossing sheets of suds out onto the sidewalk and scrubbing them down with a broom. Torya was a French teacher for five years in a Detroit charter school. She'd lived in France as a student and an au pair. This year she decided to open a creperie in downtown Detroit, calling it Good Girls Go to Paris. It's only been open a couple months and we've been there a dozen or so times, and there's always been a line. It's so great to have a place to get a delicious crepe downtown. I find it so inspiring when people like Torya or Joe or Clare or Karen and Kelli or Liz see something lacking in this city and instead of complaining about it they do something about it.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Moscow Family

Posted by jdg | 8:47 AM | , ,






I don't know how I first came across this photo of a Moscow family taken by this guy. Everything about them is perfect though, from the little girl's Laura Ingalls dress to the dad's pathetic blond mustache to the baby's hat to the mom. I would want to shove them down a sewer drain if I saw them in Park Slope but somehow the fact that they are European makes it all okay, even though they make me feel ill-clad and covered in spit up.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.





A little more than a year ago I wrote this post about John and Faith Hubley's beautiful animated movies of conversations recorded among their children. During the past year, the Hubley's short "Cockaboody" has definitely become one of my daughter's favorites, and one of the best way for me to grab nine minutes when I really need it. She really loves---and identifies with---the voices of Emily and Georgia Hubley (the latter became the drummer for Yo La Tengo).

Three days ago, YouTube user Mcover1 posted another video that's very similar to Cockaboody, "Windy Day," that features Emily and Gerogia when they are a little older, and it's even more poignant and beautiful than Cockaboody, I think. We've been transfixed for days.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.


Family Sweet Family by Ashley G

Posted by jdg | 10:01 AM





from: ashleyg's etsy shop [web site]

We've had this print from ashleyg for years, since well before my wife was pregnant with #2. I wake up to it every day and love it so much. I'll admit I have dreamed about writing a children's book and asking ashley if she would illustrate it. Her bearded men have been all over the internet, and she just released some drawings of the bearded men as boys. They are pretty awesome.



This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.