Dub Truck, B Side

Walking up to Prospect Park West the other day I came across the dub truck again, and asked the guy driving if I could take a picture of the truck. He turned out to be Gareth, the man behind the bakery. He told me the paintings were done by someone called Love Billy, whom he allowed to paint one side of the truck as he wished as long as he painted a meat pie on the other.

Gareth wanted to know if I had tried the pies, which I have, the curry vegetable. It was delicious. Pushing it, I asked him if he was from New Zealand even though I already knew he was. He said yes, sheepishly. Eyeing him, I noticed he is much more elf than orc. I hear that people from there are self-effacing in a charming way, I wonder if that's really true. It seems to be. Maybe I'll find out, because though Figwit lives (in LA), here in Brooklyn, we have Gareth.

I told him I'd been watching Flight of the Conchords, and he agreed that was a good show. When I noted that it seemed like there are lots of cultural influences from New Zealand right now, he said, "Yes, we're taking over" in a tired, pleasantly sarcastic way. (Maybe he's heard that comment too often.) From what I've seen, that would mean a lot of savory pies, beautiful hand-painted trucks, amusingly hapless musicians breaking into impassioned song at any moment, girls riding whales, and of course small individuals overcoming monstrous evil. Sounds good to me.

NYC logophobia

Not only is this new logo on taxi cabs but it also appears on DOE materials, as shown.

I wasn't glad to see it on an information packet handed to me by my daughter's 5th grade teacher, although I was glad for the information. I'm just having trouble with it. I believe it was the blog Pardon me for Asking that called it blobby. (NO, it was i'm not saying, i'm just sayin) It is much more. Words it brings to my mind: edema, dropsy, constriction, smog, claustrophobia, congestion, eminent domain, brutality, bully, brass knuckles, abuse of power, gridlock. Escape from New York.

I believe the font is called Power Station and some of its usages look pretty good. But not this. Sorry to be a pain in the ass, NYC government. Maybe it's just me, but I think this logo needs some air.

Lava Soap at Met Food

The Met Food on 5th Avenue in South Slope sells this Lava Soap, which stands out because it's rare for red to be used in soap packaging, it doesn't scream "clean!" But it does say "hot," and I'm wondering if the soap can make me hot like lava. That would be so much cheaper than surgery. Can soap do that? And can soap really come from a volcano, which I associate with things that aren't water soluble? Why, yes, yes it can. It can because of the exfoliating properties of the floating wonder rock we call pumice.

I'm sure Brooklyn residents will be very happy to note that they can choose a beautifully packaged bar of Lava soap with or without the Nascar endorsement.

Here's what Lava used to look like.

Brooklyn Royals

On the corner of 15th and 8th you find the Royal businesses, the Royal Deli on the South East side of the intersection and the Royal Supermarket on the North East.

The Royal Supermarket was just gutted and revamped, it is now brighter, cleaner and more spacious inside. The people who work their seem a little more cheerful, I hope they are enjoying the overhaul.

The new awning went up recently. I'm not sure how it is that the Royal Supermarket crown looks like a chef's hat and the Royal Deli crown looks like a really nice crown I would like to wear if I were the Queen. Or is it a king's crown, I don't know the difference. Was it on purpose that the newer one looks like a chef's hat?

I wonder who Nida is. That's a nice name. There's an eyeball sticker affixed to the pinnacle of the crown that says Nida's, perhaps to ward off evil. Curiously, that eye faces the armory directly, as if they are seeking protection from some of the energies carried by the more desperate people living in the shelter. I was in the deli once when some of the armory denizens started fighting with each other. My kids and I hunkered down in the back of the store until they craziness ended. (cue giggles from PS mommy haters)

But fights happen all over the place. Even in my hometown of Arlington VA you can get beaten up at the 7 Eleven if you are there at the wrong time. I'm hoping the Royals get the protection they'd like and the desperate people find whatever support they need so they don't have to act like that. I wonder if that would be possible.

Victorian Fencing?

Charming molded iron fence on 13th St. It would be impossible to replace this, so I'm glad the owners leave it, even if it's cracked and the finial is gone from one post. I wonder what brought it down. A lead pigeon?

Don't Dye Here

Happy New Year and Don't Dye Here! I guess the guy in black is a mourner. This sign hangs at Rob's Stop and Wash along with 6 others with similar charm. They aren't taken for granted. Thanks JB for drawing my attention to this outpost of laundromat style. To see the rest of Rob's signage, visit 54 5th Avenue, or the museum of laundry blog.

It's a Good Look

White was the new black at the Maine Mall parking lot Thursday night. There's something amazing about a nearly empty parking lot covered with snow. Now I'm back in balmy Brooklyn looking at this picture confused and still with that moist and slightly metallic taste of snow laden air in my mouth.

As always it was a thrill to pass the Octagon building and Triangle Mall in Queens on the way back, and to see the Unisphere lit up and enormous from the BQE.

One-Pie

I bought this attractive can of squash in Patuxet Village, RI. It was processed by the One Pie Canning Co. of Paris Maine. The typography at the top seems old, the bottom possibly new, but who knows. I wonder how old the design really is. Love seeing a wedge of pie on the label. I wonder if anyone even knows how to make type that rips like it used to. Perhaps people have lost the sense of it due to the presence of synthetic chemicals in the ground water. God knows what else has been lost.

The price was $1.89 at Lindsay's Market, while a can of 365 brand pumpkin from Whole Foods cost only $.99, but being a sucker I bought the One Pie, because I'm in love with the can. I wonder if it would be at all beneficial to adopt "One Pie" as my mantra for meditation. I think it would.

I hope you enjoy the can of One-Pie. It has nothing to do with Brooklyn, but it is a nice can.

604 Perfect

This place is just off 4th Avenue, the avenue where the slope stops sloping.

I wonder what they make at Perfect. Seeing that compass and ruler on the building gives me a thrill. I used to play with things like that at my dad's office when I was a little girl, they seemed magical. I'm not sure what he was doing with them because he worked as geologist then, but he had an interest in making geometric art for a time so I guess the instruments came in handy.

I wonder about Raul. What was he like? Was he perfect? Has that mural really survived for 33 years?

Swollen Graffiti Free Vehicle

Is this vehicle wearing a hazmat suit? Seems like it. I've never seen such succulent tag bait. All that white space seems to say, come on, I dare you.

But seriously, what are these people afraid of? I'm more scared of the new signs being generated by whatever kind of large format machinery people boast of, ones that generate, with the help of Adobe Illustrator, formulaic and dead lettering. I'm scared of that embalmed feeling. Give me the hand any day. Give the taggers some legitimate work.

If you need some visual and verbal refreshment a la the hand, check out Rudayday's storefront churches.

Pharmacy

M&B Drugs, 15th Street and 5th Avenue

Opposite Leaf Motifs

On a recent field trip with my son's first grade class I got to review some botanical terms, in particular alternate and opposite arrangement of leaves. Terms which I never should have forgotten since I used to do botanical illustration. I didn't do it for long though, it paid poorly, and I couldn't keep up with the likes of Bobby Angel. She has such a lovely hand, I often see her work in the New York Times. My hand was fairly stiff compared to hers at that point.

Anyway, I've found these examples of opposite leaf pattern around Windsor Terrace, one is in the HN laurel wreath. Please tell me, what other logos bear that wreath? I think maybe the Regina Bakery uses something like that, I'll have to investigate, for what reason, I'm not sure.... The HN laurel wreath holds the rest of the logo like a bowl or a womb or a hug. But of course, I know it is a symbol of prestige associated with winning competitions in Ancient Greece.

HN has other logos, I believe. Sometimes organizations are very free and flexible with their logo. It doesn't make good business sense, but sometimes freedom of expression trumps sense. I've been there. In the case of this neighborhood school, why not have multiples? Instant world-wide recognition isn't necessary.

The other motif appears on my neighbor's awning. Her house, which she cared for meticulously, was damaged in a fire in October. Since then I've seen her nephew, who looks to be in his sixties or seventies repairing her house. I haven't seen her though, I hope she's OK. I asked her nephew and he gave me the feeling that things could be better with her.

She is old school Windsor Terrace. I have the impression that she is related to people in every other house around here. I wish I were. When I say things like that, people say, "Oh no. No you don't." But really I do.


Here's a laurel logo suggested by anonymous. Thanks, it makes me happy. It's for flour but would work for beer too.

Can PPW keep the Pet Food sign?

I was sorry to hear from Icky that this Pet Food store on Prospect Park West had closed and that it's owner had died. My impression is that she was sick for a long time.

I'm glad the sign is still up. I'm hoping that whoever moves in there just keeps it regardless of what they sell.

Here's the sign for the new pet supply store that hasn't opened yet. The sign could be worse, that's all I'm saying. When will it open, I wonder? Will they carry chinchilla treats for our pet, Pluto?

















The old Pet Food sign reminds me of the sign for George's, which Icky and Brit in Brooklyn have covered in the Blogs. They both seem hand painted, but the magic goes far beyond that. Check out the lines of perforations on the lower right of the sign for Georges, looks like something Paul Klee doodled there while on the phone. They seem alive.

4th Avenue Triangles

So many logos incorporate triangles. I'd love to see them all together for a family picture.

Upper East Side Appointment

I would say I gave up on finding an Orthopedist in Brooklyn too quickly. Now I'll never know what I would have found if I tried a little harder. Oh well. I took my daughter to see Dr. Scher on East 70th St., she walked out in a camwalker boot with conformation that all the little bones in her right foot were fracture free. Her foot is already feeling better. She injured it jumping off the top of the side of the grand Menorah bearing staircase in front of Beth Elohim, and I would sue my daughter but I would have to pay all of her lawyers fees and the fines too.

We took Arecibo Car Service there, I find they always pick up the phone so I call them when in need. When we were starting the trip the driver was stepping hard on the brakes every time the traffic slowed, which was every minute, and I decided to tell him that my daughter was going to get car sick, even though I was the one that was getting car sick. I hadn't even brought one of the hundreds of plastic bags I have stashed in the cabinet just in case. Note to self.

I was shocked and not at all surprised when my husband told me that studies show that having kids takes years off your life. So I figure ethically I can get away with pegging the motion sickness on the little one if it is likely to ellicit the necessary sympathy or horror. Which it did.

On the way home the taxi driver wanted me to pay him $ 4.50 extra so he could return to Manhattan via the Battery Tunnel, which was the route we had taken to get home. He said that was normal. Apparently he'd only been driving the cab for 2 months and maybe he didn't know any other way to get back. I wonder if this is normal, as he said it was. He had the air of someone already hardened to ripping people off. Or maybe he was just upset about something.

Too Much Pork?

I saw this truck for the first time last week. It's just too much pork to see at one time, I think. Also, the meaty blue stripes on the truck make me think of blue pork, which is not something good to think of. For some reason I'm always seeing the average-szied Dorrito and Jelly Belly trucks in Windor Terrace, especially in the Key Food parking lot. Much larger trucks seem to unload in front of the Ctown on 9th in Park Slope.

Perennial Forecast

1-2 inches to fall on all red block letters that spell... When you've got snow, you don't need serifs. Top: Ctown, Bottom: Royal Deli on 8th and 15th

A Fine Can of Yams

Who's yams? Bruce's yams, ok? Damn, what a lovely can of yams. If you told me the label was designed by whoever does the Barneys ads in the NYT, I'd believe you. Damn.

Key Food must have sold several hundred of these yams over the last week, I've seen the stack sold down and replenished several times since early last week when I fell in love with this can at first sight. These yams that came to Brooklyn by way of New Iberia, Lousiana are billed as being good for the heart, and I can tell you that the health of mine has improved even though I haven't even opened the can yet.

How often do you see such a butch name treated with script, but not just any script. That script is as syrupy and chunky as the yams. I love the way the yams radiate the heat of some premium briquettes. I'm also a fan of the uneven kerning between the letters in YAMS, I'm so tired of perfect kerning. I give thanks for the drama of the Y that seems to be walking away from the A and the M, feeling like a third wheel. And the S just doesn't seem to have a clue.

So, who is this Bruce?

Bartel Pritchard Acanthus Columns

Stanford White's columns here on the border of Windsor Terrace and Park Slope are underrated, I think. I know I undervalued them. Now, the more I look, the more I love.

White designed them the year he died, shot by his lady friend's jealous lover. For some reason he left out the karyatids that appear in the Dancing Girl columns of Delphi from which he drew his inspiration. Maybe they were a cliche in his period? Maybe it was an issue of proportion and simplicity? Or maybe he was too busy chasing live skirt to bother with stone women. Life is short.

The metal bowls on top reference the cauldrons on which the oracle, or Pythia sat at the temple of Delphi. Why would you make a poor woman sit on a cauldron? Pythias had it rough, so rough that the wealthy families that at one time were proud to send their daughters off to serve Apollo decided better of it. Some of them were dragged off and raped by fortune seeking visitors while in service of the oracle, others poisoned by the ethylene gas that seeped up from the earth and induced euphoria and speech viewed as prophectic.

Maybe I've misunderstood what I've read. It just doesn't seem right to make someone sit on a cauldron, especially not when it's cooking. I like these verdigris bowls, though, because Prospect Park itself is kind of green bowl, a generous womb-like place that nurtures the spirit of regeneration and reconnection, a thing crucial for those of us who madly scramble for the barrels of cash required to live here.

I can't figure out if these cauldrons, or lanterns as people usually call them, were ever lit. Some sources say yes, others, no. People want to know. It's so easy to imagine fire shooting out of them that it may ultimately be impossible to determine the truth.

I also can't read the sky braille that perforated the view that day. That's right, my arms too short.

Not... Zen

More Oldenberg. My daughter discovered the game on their website, lunch crunch, and coupons for free food. Free is fun!