Mom & Pop’s Toy Shop was located in the heart of Hamtramck’s retail district on Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck being a separate town inside of Detroit, which was at one point mostly Polish, then seemed to become more hipster, with an influx of other ethnic groups and, on my last visit, seemed a bit barren, with more ghost signs than I’d expected.
In Michigan, Hamtramck Pleads for a Bankruptcy Option: oh, boy, tough times for Hamtramck, the funky little city within Detroit.
News Building: Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York checks out a gorgeous office building lobby.
Joy to the World’s Ugliest Houses; Here are Five of Them!: yikes, my eyes are bleeding.
The Conquest: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: designer Delane Meadows visualizes the final book in the Harry Potter series by plotting out a time line that coincides with a map, along with key elements pointed out along the conquest.
My Trip Within Vintage Bus Pt. 1: Caught #9098 on M34: apparently there’s a vintage MTA bus that’s currently out and about on NYC streets; one transit fan documented the trip.
Reflections on the Literary Decline of the Subway: speaking of the MTA, the old “ads” featuring thought-provoking quotes from novelists and philosophers are being removed to make room for a promotional campaign on the subway.
Dribble Hometowns: sweet eye candy — over 400 designers illustrate where they’re from.
Every time I go to Detroit, I make my customary stop in Hamtramck, the small city within Detroit that’s historically been a Polish and Polish-American community [it’s now increasingly a mixture of Yemeni, Albanian, Bangladeshi, and Polish]. I always do the same things — pick up some Krówki at the Polish Art Center and pierogi and kabanosy at Srodek’s, and usually also some things in jars, like żurek and gooseberry jam. Then, a meal has to be eaten at Under the Eagle. It’s my food pilgrimage, you could say.
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Postcards from Detroit are small, daily oil paintings by Stephen Magsig, who has been painting Detroit scenes for over 20 years. Magsig divides his time between Ferndale and NYC, and also sometimes depicts non-Detroit subjects, such as the Brooklyn Bridge. Amazingly, Magsig’s depictions are faithful and ambient, and yet avoid fetishizing Detroit’s ruins and decrepitude.
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Department of Everyday Visualingual 