Sweet Juniper (All)

The Mysterious Tire Swing

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:41 GMT

A few weeks ago a bunch of the neighborhood kids started working on a fort built around a dead tree that had fallen on a strange triangle of land that was incredibly overgrown and wild; it was always unclear who owned this sliver of land and it seemed like the perfect place to build a fort. One day we brought out a picnic and a bunch of tools and built a huge wall from the fallen tree to

The Launch of the River Hunter

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:03 GMT

Ship launch from Cockatoo Island Dockyard - The "River Hunter" A class standard steamship released along a slipway into Sydney Harbour, 1945, Photograph by Alan Evans. I was cleaning up my desktop this morning and saw this picture there; it's one I return to often. I first saw it on one of my favorite websites (I Had Dreams Like That, which sadly hasn't been updated in some time) last

Adventures in (Wooden) Swordmaking

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:44 GMT

This is Jim again. I know last time I said if my wife ("Wood") didn't post here I was changing the name of this part of the blog from Woodcraft to Jimcraft, but (not only does that sound incredibly stupid) this week I'm writing about actual woodcraft, so the name is sticking. For now. A few weeks ago I was in my dad's auto body shop looking at some of the woodworking he's been doing. He and

Rural Decay

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:06 GMT

During the months I spent taking pictures for the recent post about the Fauxtopias of the Detroit Suburbs, I spent a lot of time driving around those liminal spaces between Detroit's exurban communities and the Michigan countryside, and one afternoon I was driving on some dirt roads and came across a huge landfill with hundreds of trucks approaching and turning into the facility to drop off

William Klein's "Baseball Cards," New York (1955)

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:15 GMT

Those are 1955 Bowman baseball cards in their hands. I believe with all my heart that the 1955 Bowman was the greatest baseball card design ever. Each player's photo appeared as though it was on a classic wood-grained television set. In hand-painted color! The best part of the 1955 Bowman series was that it included the umpires. Umpires with baseball cards! My dad used to drag me to auto swap meets all over the midwest, and while he looked for the car parts and whatever else he was after I scoured the endless rows of greasy metal for dealers who set out their old baseball cards (this was right at the beginning of the 1987-1991 bubble). One time we were down in Indianapolis and one of the dealers put out a whole box of 1955 Bowmans. I bought them all, and have them still. It's too bad they were printed on such lousy cardboard.

William Klein (b. 1928) is mostly known for his fashion photography, but he captured some great New York urchins in his Life is Good and Good for You, for which he won the Prix Nadar award.I suspect I'll be sharing some more of his work here soon.

Previous Week's Urchins

Nearly all of these urchins were discovered in the photography archives of the Library of Congress (and available without copyright restrictions online). Otherwise, urchin photos will be credited to the appropriate photographer with a link to its source (unless they come from my own collection of photographs from unknown photographers). If there is ever a copyright concern, do not hesitate to contact me.

Spend a Day Storming the Incredible 170-year-old Fortress You Didn't Even Know Was in Your Hometown

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:24 GMT

When you visit Historic Fort Wayne, don't forget your shotgun or your coonskin cap. He wandered along the ramparts, tumbled down the earthworks, and generally had a blast. But then we went in one of the tunnels, and he saw the windows and gun slits for fending off opposing armies, and I think this officially became his favorite place ever. Previous Fun

Historic Fort Wayne, Detroit

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:08 GMT

We had the pleasure of spending some time at Detroit's historic Fort Wayne during a recent volunteer "cleanup day," and we were blown away by what we saw there. I hadn't visited the fort in a few years, and I was extremely impressed with the work that the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition had done to preserve the fort and present it to this community. The Coalition formed in 2004, and includes many

The Fauxtopias of Detroit's Suburbs

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:21 GMT

Detroit rose to its greatest height (and fell as far as it did) in part because Henry Ford didn't want to work too hard. As a child, he hated farm tasks that required physical labor; a neighbor once recalled young Henry as “the laziest little bugger on the face of the earth.” Ford’s first mechanical efforts were born out of frustration with manual labor: “I have followed many a weary mile behind

The World's Greatest Septic Tank Truck

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:22 GMT

With all the Helvetica-drenched / minimalist vintage graphic design out there right now, sometimes you find yourself driving behind a giant shit tank thinking, "Gosh darn it, that's the most effective logo I've seen in years." I really love the fearful skunk's stink lines. People don't draw enough stink lines these days. Plus look how shocked he is when he sees your disgusting septic tank: and

One Dad, Two Kids, and 33,591 Screaming Tiger Fans

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:34 GMT

The other day I walked over to the baseball stadium to catch a game. Two little Tigers followed me. These were very fierce little tigers: We had good seats. The drunks behind us could yell at the left fielder and the guy in center field. They made it seven innings in the seats before they had to walk around. Two ball park hot dogs and some smuggled-in juice boxes helped. We bought