Above: what would be the view from my cubicle, if I get the window seat.

It is One, at the moment, but I still think my car won’t start. This means I will walk to the spot where I parked it in a half hour, start it, sit there for a while, then come back. This also means I have to restart my watch’s “Outdoor Walk” feature so I can tote up all those important steps, for some reason. I also learned today that I should enable “Functional Strength Training” for weightlifting, so I get those important calorie counts toted up. For some reason. I do like the idea of “Dysfunctional Strength Training,” though.

The reconfiguring of the new space has begun - I just saw a worker push two smaller desks towards the area where I am to move. As I may have noticed, the veal pens are getting smaller. People just have fewer things to store - or at least they should. I have a box of books to take home, and I know not where they will go. I’m still peeved at myself for taking the Katchor book, the history of Jewish Dairy Restaurants in New York. Now I'm obligated.

Although I do love looking at the pictures, in that scratchy and askew style.

I wonder . . . well, what do you know:

Hey, it’s the Tisch school of the arts. I’ve been in there.

   
 

According to the illustration, this was a theater? Yes: the Lowes Commodore became the Fillmore East. A famous venue.

   

I was happy to see this when I turned the Google camera around: a glimpse of old New York, a much more interesting commercial landscape.

You’ll notice it was Stores, plural. It was a chain, yes, but also a big retail pharmacy player. Bought up in 2001. Note:

Leonard N. Block died in 2005 at age 93 after suffering for years from Alzheimer's disease. Block's nephew John P. Roberts was the producer of the Woodstock Festival using money from his Block inheritance.

To be specific, as his bio notes, he was “heir to the Polident/Poli-Grip denture adhesive fortune.”

The idea of Woodstock bankrolled by denture adhesive is immensely gratifying, somehow.

Anyway. I think the chance that I’ll get a window seat are pretty low. And I think it is absolutely hilarious that I am fixed on this as some sort of win or loss, some important turn of events. It’s the equivalent of holding on to one’s favorite stapler.

   
 

There are orphaned staplers sitting around for anyone to take. No one wants them.
   

The stapler culture in this building is largely over, and it’s probably instructive that the boxes of refills seem to come from the 1970s.

We now begin this year's account of meaningless, random clickings on the internet, following one link from here to there, learning some interesting things along the way. You know, the rabbit hole.

   
  So! What's the journey that takes us from this image . . .
   
  . . . to this one?
   

What’s missing from this ad?

That’s right: the source of Joan of Arc’s inspiration. To be honest, I never knew more than the basics of the story - young girl, hears God, leads army, wins, then something-something-not-quite sure, and then she’s burned at the stake. Wikipedia, help me out:

After Charles's coronation, Joan participated in the unsuccessful siege of Paris in September 1429 and the failed siege of La Charité in November. Her role in these defeats reduced the court's faith in her.

In early 1430, Joan organized a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which had been besieged by the Burgundians—French allies of the English. She was captured by Burgundian troops on 23 May. After trying unsuccessfully to escape, she was handed to the English in November.

She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

Ah. As for the Siege of Paris:.

The siege of Paris was an assault undertaken in September 1429 during the Hundred Years' War by the troops of the recently crowned King Charles VII of France, with the notable presence of Joan of Arc, to take the city held by the English Burgundians. King Charles's French troops failed to enter Paris, defended by the governor Jean de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam and the provost Simon Morhier, with the support of much of the city's population.

Let’s see about Jean:

Jean de Villiers, lord of L'Isle-Adam (c. 1384 – 22 May 1437) was a French nobleman and military commander who fought in the Hundred Years' War. As a supporter of the Duke of Burgundy, he fought on both sides of the conflict – English and French. He was a Marshal of France and a founding member of the knightly Order of the Golden Fleece.

The Order of the Golden Fleece still exists. Talk about your exclusive clubs.

Anyway. Back to the movie. The tale was told before in 1928, in a movie whose startling directness reminds you how sophisticated the medium was.

That's Joan, played by Renee Jeanne Falconetti. When I googled her, this came up.

The copy under the song, the stuff you get when you click MORE, has her bio.

The actress was mostly known for her light-comedy work on the stage. She had mental health problems, gained a lot of weight, and starved herself to death trying to lose it.

I have no idea what's going on. So let's google the name of the song:

When you plug the name into google, SugarNoseHop-Hey!Hey! We're Da Monkeys you get the theme to the TV show.

The second resulti is equally inexplicable.

I have no idea what’s going on here. I have no idea the copy on the score page just burps up batches of wikipedia bio on Falconetti and Jane’s Addiction.

Her grandson was Gérard Falconetti, who died by his own hand in 1984. You have to go to his French wikipedia page to learn that he had AIDS, and jumped off the Monparnasse Tower.

From the French wiki of the tower:

Since the renovation in 2011, bay windows have been installed on the terrace. These cannot be opened and do not allow you to go to the other side. In addition, the terrace is several meters behind the edge of the tower. Therefore, you must access the corridor of the 58th floor to have the opportunity to throw yourself into the void at the top of the tower.

The opportunity to throw yourself into the void.

Nevertheless:

On March 8, 2007, a 27-year-old man, a journalist for three years at the weekly La Vie, was able to access it thanks to his press card, on the pretext of wanting to take photos; he then deceived the vigilance of the firefighter who accompanied him.

It’s an awful building. The train station in the complex was built on the location of the old station, which was the scene of this famous picture:

Wikipedia: “The accident was caused by a faulty Westinghouse brake and the engine driver, who was trying to make up lost time. A conductor was given a 25-franc fine and the engine driver a 50-franc fine.”

Seems a bit light. Anyway, that’s how we got from Joan to the train, and we never had to leave France to do it.

 
 
 

   

I choose these towns at random, or I’m sent there by a matchbook or postcard. I’m not looking for despair.

But we do seem to have a lot of despair this year so far.

Well, perhaps that’s an outlier, and the town is really -

What in the wide world of sports is this

First of all, the spout. Couldn’t have it go straight down? Had to slash diagonally to meet the other? Second, what is that metal thing on the left, some sort of space-alien receiving gear? Or the remains of a dish, perhaps. Third, the pole in the middle, with the spot for flags, perhaps. Four, it’s all a wreck. Man.

The next pass of the google car took this. So it’s gone. You’re glad for everyone.

I have so many questions.

The great arch looks like it was a door for a big vehicle, like a fire truck, but it has that elevated sidewalk.

The whole thing is odd and off-putting.

Buffalo Billswest! It’s wild!

November 17, 1910! You know, November 17, 1910!

I’m starting to think everyone died and moved away.

Ah - looks as if there’s a before shot. The post-war downtown revitalizing sheet-metal facade sheathing.

OUMB, with those detached columns. Because columns mean bank and they mean security, but since we don’t believe in the old styles and forms anymore, we’ll give you ironic columns.

Big sheet metal facade next door.

And more sheet metal. Signs of a temporarily prosperous period in the post-war years, or an attempt to be one.

I repeat my stance against downtown murals.

Look at all the life and vitality and architectural charm that no longer exists! Gaze upon this weathered, abandoned picture!

 

Oh for GOD’S SAKE

Sometimes this modernization can bring a little pep and zest to an old downtown, but in this case it’s just hideous. The poor cornice was left intact, as if the building is drowning in kitsch but can keep its nose above water.

Rehab in progress, you hope:

Rehab in progress, you hope

Palimpsest, nearly every element unintelligible. Except possibly Coke.

Probably Coke. They were everywhere.

“Gimme a Bernadette Peters, everyone loves her”

Another example in my brief against murals. What if you just don’t like it, or think it’s very good? It just stays there for years annoying you. It’s always a jumble of “history” without context, old-timey things that are supposed to give you the nostalgia emotions, but rarely succeed.

The end point of modernity: having reached a perfect state, it can only decline and collapse. It cannot be refined or improved.

Looks as if they’re getting new sidewalks, though. That’ll do it. That and some planters.

See? Planters!

Annnnd I think that’s enough.