Naked

Posted by jdg | 11:26 AM | , , , ,








Spring:






Summer:




Fall:






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Parc Lafayette

Posted by jdg | 6:01 PM | , ,





About half the units in this nearby midcentury condo complex are empty. I saw on the MLS that some of the 2-bedroom units are selling for as little as $1500.










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The Zombie Trap

Posted by jdg | 2:23 AM | , ,





The dog was out in this field following some kind of crazy animal tracks (badger? fox? coyote?) and they led us right into this creepy old industrial building. That metal pole was set at the exact height to totally brain you if you weren't being careful (this was shot using the flash). I half expected zombies to stagger out from those doors disappointed that there weren't fresh BRAINS steaming in the snow.

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Cat prints in the frozen library

Posted by jdg | 10:47 AM | , , ,





The snow has crept into this abandoned library, and so have the neighborhood cats.

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Diego Rivera court, Detroit Institute of Arts

Posted by jdg | 11:43 AM | , ,





The breathtaking Detroit Industry murals by Diego Rivera (which he considered his finest work) in the courtyard at the DIA are almost always being admired by dozens of museumgoers whenever we are there, but yesterday the museum was almost empty and I just sat on the floor in there with them and let them crawl and run around. I took dozens of photos, but liked this one the best because of certain parallels unnoticed at the time.


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Gram at Eleven Months

Posted by jdg | 9:30 AM | ,







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Too cold for much else

Posted by jdg | 12:58 PM | , ,





We killed some time hanging out in the lobby of Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati. Because it was warm there.


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Over the Rhine kids, Cincinnati

Posted by jdg | 2:34 PM | , , ,





I've walked around Over the Rhine a few times now, and every time I see kids like this just walking around by themselves, maybe on their home from school, all of them with their own agendas. This little one was just so small.

But just a quick note to some of the older kids: my name is not "white boy." Next time you want my attention, be more specific, like your colleague who called out, "Hey white boy with the crazy hat." Thank you.

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Cincinnatus mural in the snow

Posted by jdg | 1:23 PM | , , , , ,






This mural just on the edge of downtown Cincinnati features a trompe l'Oeil effect to look like a Roman temple built into the side of an old building. The artist was Robert Haas, and I was lucky enough to be walking past it on a snowy night after dinner on Vine Street.

Cincinnatus was one of the most legendary politicians of the early Roman Republic. He is most famous for the way he took up the mantle of dictator to defeat the Aequi, supposedly recruited from behind the plow on his modest farm and then relinquishing the fasces and returning to his plow immediately after the defeat of the Aequi. This act was held by staunch Republicans in the later Republic as a model for responsible and modest leadership in an increasingly competitive society, and obviously in stark contrast to the ambitions of men like Julius Caesar. The spectre of Cincinnatus is what compelled later dictators like Sulla to voluntarily step down.

The city of Cincinnati was named after a society of that name which honored George Washington as a contemporary model of this virtue.


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Cabin Fever Days

Posted by jdg | 10:34 AM | , ,





Too much snow on the roads to really go anywhere. Too cold outside to spend any time out there (yesterday we took a sledding trip that lasted seven minutes before someone got too much snow in her boots). We've been spending our days trapped inside the house. And Spring is too far away to have much hope that things are going to change any time soon.

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Former Key Oldsmobile/Nissan/Isuzu dealership (Warren, Michigan)

Posted by jdg | 11:06 AM





We were driving past this abandoned car dealership showroom next to a ghost mall and my wife said, you should buy that for your business. "What business is that?" I asked.

"I don't know, it just seems like a really cool space for a business."

"Right," I said. "That's how all small businesses flourish: never mind what business they're in, so long as they have a cool space."

"Just don't sell Isuzus," she replied.


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This will bring nothing but trouble

Posted by jdg | 2:10 PM | ,





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Posted by jdg | 10:46 AM





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Belle Isle Children's Zoo Viewing Huts

Posted by jdg | 12:34 PM





When I showed this to my wife, she said it looked like something out of Star Wars. Post here.

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Baby New Year

Posted by jdg | 10:37 AM





This photo (taken by my wife) is pretty much the equivalent of those moments in the old Warner Brothers cartoons when Baby New Year replaces the haggard decrepit old previous year. Here we have my fresh-faced progeny in the foreground, replacing the ragged, scruffy old man worn down from several years of childherding.

Happy new year everyone. The blog will return from its current state of crappiness to its regular state of crappiness shortly.

[at a DIA birthday party for one of Gram's colleagues]

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