Dig Jhalal Drut, a most-cool blog.

Good grief, welcome back to another round of Where & When,  where conversation and controversy flourish continually.  Or at least since the last game, where we had a little controversy about the actual location and date.  Nevertheless, it served a purpose and we all remain friends, ready to jump all over each other on the next challenge… I mean, jump all over the next challenge…

This is yet another picture I like a lot; something about the imposing aesthetic and the antiquity it represents.  This photo was undated by my source, but I’m sure a few of our clever participants will be able to round up, if not find the exact year or date this picture was taken.  Lots of clues to go by in that regard, so take your best shot. Some of you probably see this on a regular basis, but have not seen it in this manner for a long time, if ever.

A stein of Brigham’s Brew for the lucky number one who gets the name of the building in the background (when the picture was taken, important distinction) and the name of the street in the foreground along with an approximate date, and a cold bottle of Faygo for the rest who have similar responses. Bonus if you know what the building is called now and who owns it. I wonder if you know I’m keeping score somehow… anyway, enjoy; leave your responses in the comments and don’t peek at the photo credit.  Happy Hunting!

[Photo Credit: Wired New York]

The Magnificient Seven–The Clash

[Photo Via: ]

“Composizione con grande piano rosso, giallo, grigio e blu” by Piet Mondrian (1921)

Movie Poster of the Day:

Bookmark it.

A day in the life of Pete Hamill:

If it’s a beautiful day, I love taking walks. The walks are always aimless. From where I live, I like walking to the Battery, where so many people, including my own parents, came through that harbor and passed into Ellis Island and became Americans. You can just sit on a bench and look at the harbor, or look at the people. Like being a flâneur. You can just wander around and let the city dictate the script.

And here is Hamill’s review of The Boy Detective by Roger Rosenblatt:

To enter the world of this wonderful memoir is to leave the dull certainties of home and go wandering. The author’s destination is always the great wide world Out There, and through his sharp, compact prose, Roger Rosenblatt takes the reader with him. He is, after all, what some 19th-century Parisians called a flâneur, a stroller sauntering through anonymous crowds in the noisy, greedy, unscripted panoramas of the city.

In that role, Rosenblatt has no exact destination. In unstated homage to such wandering scribes as Walter Benjamin and Charles Baudelaire, he doesn’t consult Google Earth or a guidebook. He doesn’t need a tour bus or a taxicab. He walks the streets like a poetic stray, embracing chance and accident, inhaling the gritty air of his true Old Country, a Manhattan village called Gramercy Park. He is not, however, parochial. Sometimes he slips over the border to make the strange feel familiar. Along the way, he bumps against human beings he almost surely will never see again.

Those nameless men and women are moving in the streets, retreating into shops, escaping snow or wind in the churches, the schools or the malls that have replaced the arcades once so precious to Parisian flâneurs. At times, a single person is the object of his scrutiny. Above all, his subject is people one at a time. He studies them, he says, like a detective. Clothes, hairdos, shoes, postures. And eyes, which say so much without words about what used to be called the soul. Rosenblatt tells us he has been doing this since his age was written in single digits. Detective fictions filled his head with ways to see the world, really see it, and then try to figure out what he was doing in that world. He suggests that though he studied at Harvard, and even taught there, his most important education came from popular fiction. Above all, detective fiction, starting with Sherlock Holmes.

[Photo Credit: Dave Sanders]

Happy Chopsticks. This looks like a place to check out. Nu?

Our pal Matt B sent me this still from John Ford’s She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Struck him as Vermeer and Rembrandt out west.

Cool.

She’s A Rainbow

[Photo Via: This Isn’t Happiness]

Morning Hopper.

I Used To Love H.E.R.

From Anonymous by Robert Flynn Johnson.

I went once as a kid. I would like to go again. (And I’ve never been to Ellis Island–for shame!)

[Photo Credit: Sally Elena Milota]

Good morning, and welcome back to Where & When; tracking down locations over the eons. Well, at least in the 200 years or so… I have wanted to introduce the new feature I vaguely described, but I’ve had a rush of work come at me lately, so it has to wait for the opportune moment.  In the meantime, let’s track down the origins of the following pic:

I really like this one; the size and design seem very imposing in its girth as opposed to it’s height (which is still too high for me to swan dive into an Olympic-sized pool of chocolate milk below), but it also reflects the rugged undiscovered nature of early New York.  That was not likely the case when this photo was taken, but compared to what we have now, it was certainly both an achievement and a period marker.  I don’t have to give much in clues for this one; you’ll likely see it in other places, but it’s history is interesting enough, so feel free to discuss what you’ve found during your research.  Tell us what building this is and when it was built, and bonus points for knowing whether this building still stands or was replaced by another. Explain how you came to your conclusions and you’ll be able to honorably imbibe one of the following:  Steelhead for the first player with the right answers, and Sprecher for everyone else.  Enjoy! And no peeking at the photo credit… >;)

[Photo Credit: Museum of the City of New York/Getty Images]

Instant Replay comes to baseball. Here’s how it will work.

Max and Kershaw, Miggy and McCutchen: the Award winners.

[Photo Credit: Morry Gash/AP]

I know he can’t hit a lick but I really enjoyed watching Brendan Ryan in the field late last season and hoped that he might return in 2014. According to Joel Sherman the Yanks are close to signing him. I can’t tell you if it is a good move or a dumb move but I can tell you that I will enjoy watching him play short again next year.

[Photo Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images]

It’s all about pie this week at the always-impressive Food 52.

Everything you need to make the perfect pie. 

Cook’s Illustrated’s Foolproof Pie Crust. 

Four & Twenty Blackbird’s All-Butter Pie Crust.

Cranberry Sage Pie.

Lemon Chess Pie. 

Oatmeal and Chocolate Pie.

Five links to read before baking a pie. 

Six ways to fancy up your pie. 

Get the Four & Twenty Blackbird new cookbook. 

Coming soon to my old neighborhood. Looks like I’ll have a reason to make a pitstop on the way home to the BX.

[Photo Credit: Dan Nguyen]

Man, this picture is just so dope.

Good Times Roll

Paintings by Cameron Howell.

“Bill’s nicknames are ‘Cuffs’ & ‘The Inspector.'”
2013
acrylic and card stock on panel
20″x 16″

“Benny’s leisure activities include dancing.”
2013
acrylic and card stock on panel
20″ x 16″