Girl Watching

 

This is a crop of a much larger photograph of a Detroit street corner in 1905. While I suspect that the fellow is looking down the street instead of at the passing woman, it's fun to imagine him caught in a more compromising candid moment.

Naturally, looking at images like this today makes me ponder the ghosts of our past: Not just the people, but also the places long gone.

The building is the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad Office, at the northwest corner of Woodward and Jefferson. None of this is still here; this lot today houses a giant mid-century skyscraper, One Woodward Avenue.

The full image

In any case, it struck me, so it's here. Until next time, kids.

Awakening From My Slumber

 Geez Louise, has it really been over eleven years since this blog was updated? 

Besides concentrating more on real life (which frankly, all of us should do), I've also wasted time on social media and attempted to jump-start my YouTube channel every couple of years. Somehow, this blog fell by the wayside in that time.

While I always got the impression that I wrote this blog for maybe four people, Blogspot tells me that about 75 people a month are still looking at it. That's more than look at anything else I do online. Mostly people cruising in through Google searches, no doubt, but I should still do something with those views. Hello, random people.

For anyone revisting, you may notice a few changes here. The outdated format has been yeeted in favor of something a bit more managable, and the godawful pond-scum-green-and-orange color scheme is gone. While that did seem appropriate for a blog called "Murky Depth," I have to appreciate that people have EYES.

I also no longer use the tagline "Rants and Ruminations of an Acrimonious Young Man." For one thing, while still managing to be under 40 doesn't quite make me an old bastard, I'm not totally comfortable calling myself "young" anymore, either. Also, I've lost quite a bit of interest in "ranting." That was a holdover from the old days of the internet, when everyone was trying to channel George Carlin and Dennis Leary, yet forgetting that rants have to be FUNNY to be entertaining. 

My old "Pugnacious Kerfuffle" format, however, where I simply post about three random things that bug me with no through-line between them, may still be around: For some reason, I'm awfully attached to it. I'm also more interested in goofy creative writing projects here in the future....except for "We Three Kings" of course. I don't know where the hell I was going with that one. I'm not sure I ever did. It seemed to be a one-joke premise (they're all named King, get it?) that didn't evolve as it should. Still some funny dialogue, though.

I've become far more interested in ephemera, so you may see updates in the future about random things that interest me. Cars, firearms, history, or just goofy memes that make you facepalm. Who knows?

You may also see more connections to my YouTube channel in the future: Posts that combine video and audio.

This rebirth will be a process, but Phoenix, ashes, all that jazz. See you guys really soon....