Tag Archives: David Brussat

Old video: Wild NYC driving, 1928

Posted on February 2, 2014 by David Brussat

Here’s an old video from YouTube of several skits depicting crazy drivers of trolleys, horse trolleys and automobiles plowing helter-skelter through New York, circa 1928. And by the way, was the car guy’s second fare Babe Ruth? My brother informs … Continue reading →

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Old video: Puttering down Broadway

Posted on February 2, 2014 by David Brussat

Came across several fascinating videos from YouTube of old films shot in various places and sundry moods. I will post them one by one today. Prepare to be fascinated, but buckle your seat belts first! This one (perhaps notwithstanding the … Continue reading →

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Priceless. Absolutely hilarious. Nails Gehrymania

Posted on February 1, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a piece by Joe Queenan in the Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago. I am reposting it from my earlier Journal blog, in which I said I’d pay $300,000,000.01 to have written this essay, which seemed … Continue reading →

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Britannica on architecture, c. 1911

Posted on January 31, 2014 by David Brussat

I dragged out my 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. My edition is actually the 12th edition, which is the 11th plus an appendix updating, in 1922, various important subjects, many of which had seen their articles in the famous … Continue reading →

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Column: Architecture critic, heal thyself!

Posted on January 30, 2014 by David Brussat

Witold Rybczynski’s 18th book, “How Architecture Works: A Humanist’s Toolkit,” opens with a quarrel in its title. By any definition of humanism, architecture has been broken for at least seven decades. The book, published in October by Farrar, Straus and … Continue reading →

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Review of “The Monster-Builder”

Posted on January 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Michael Mehaffy, of Portland, Ore., and the TradArch list, sends this review from The Oregonian of the new play at the Artists Repertory Theatre there by Stanford University’s playwright-in-residence, Amy Freed. Michael pulls out this interesting quote from the review: … Continue reading →

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Past blast: Review of Versaci’s “new old” house book

Posted on January 27, 2014 by David Brussat

My blog on how to resolve the difficulty of finding an old house to buy mentioned Russell Versaci’s prefab houses, but I was unable to access my review of his book from 2008. Here it is, reprinted courtesy of The … Continue reading →

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Just stumbled on this …

Posted on January 26, 2014 by David Brussat

Just stumbled on this, which I really gotta love! I thought he was going to somehow hoist me on my own petard, but he ends up … waving my flag? At least I think so. You decide. [Several readers have noted … Continue reading →

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Can’t find/afford an old house? Try this

Posted on January 26, 2014 by David Brussat

This article by Dale Hrabi in the Wall Street Journal called to mind my dear old neighborhood in D.C. and our friends the van der Taks (three sons, Steven, Derek and Laurens, whose ages closely matched those of me and … Continue reading →

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Vandalism at Corbu’s Ronchamp

Posted on January 25, 2014 by David Brussat

How could they tell? Seriously, the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, with its rough texture and swoopy lines, may be the least objectionable of Le Corbusier’s buildings. Although William J.R. Curtis has more respect for the chapel than … Continue reading →

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