Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, January 23, 2022
through
Saturday, January 29, 2022
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It’s Saturday, January 28, 2022
Welcome to the 1,340th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Blizzard
Illustration of the Great Blizzard of 1888
Original work of the US Federal Government - Library of Congress
The Great Blizzard of 1888
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Commentary
Now that we have turned the corner on covid, I think it’s time to seriously examine the 8-flex-hour, 4-flex-day workweek.
Let’s not return to a ‘rush hour’.
Let’s not return to an exhausting work schedule.
We need a healthy population with time for self-health, for family, for personal errands. A healthy population with time for creativity outside of the workplace.
And we need to redefine ‘workweek’ without a reduction in pay.
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Reading and Writing
On Wednesday night when I am writing this, I own up to the truth that I did little writing today. But it was important writing. I took a section of the story that my editors were advising me to drop and, with a few strokes, I made it integral to the story. They were right in that it needed to be better integrated; I was right to keep focused on my product until I found a way to do both.
Why didn’t I write more? See Dinner and Recipes.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I alone cannot change the world,
but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.
~Mother Teresa
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A lot of family emailing today re: get togethers. The big one, a Saturday in February when Kat can come up to Boston to have our annual Christmas party with my son Dom and his family. That’s right, Christmas get-together. Covid and adult work-schedules for both my grandson, Dylan, and daughter Katherine.
And a first-ever dinner with my niece Stephanie and her family, in March.
Blog meister responds: Delightful.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night was a banner cooking night. I made bean and cabbage and kale soup with a bit of pig’s feet and a bit of chicken feet; I made chicken stock; I prepped some pig’s feet and chicken feet for a North End Gravy I’ll make in a day or two. I already put away the kale soup (with a second container of it in the freezer) and I’ve expedited two more meals for later in the week. Yippee!
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Kat’s poster board coming down
Katherine started this board in high school. Eight years in the making. But it had to come down [Katherine has her own apartment] to make room for the new sauna.
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Short Essay*
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds of at least 35 mph and lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more.
A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling but loose snow on the ground is lifted and blown by strong winds.
Blizzards can have an immense size and usually stretch to hundreds or thousands of kilometres.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, January 28, 2022
Welcome to the 1,339th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Sauk family
photographed by Frank Rinehart in 1899
Frank Rinehart - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.15857. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
Sauk (or Sac) Indian family photographed by Frank Rinehart (1861-1928)
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Commentary
In human society, family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of families is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideally, families would offer predictability, structure, and safety as members mature and participate in the community. In most societies, it is within families that children acquire socialization for life outside the family, and acts as the primary source of attachment, nurturing, and socialization for humans. Additionally, as the basic unit for meeting the basic needs of its members, it provides a sense of boundaries for performing tasks in a safe environment, ideally builds a person into a functional adult, transmits culture, and ensures continuity of humankind with precedents of knowledge.
See below in the ‘mail’ section to understand why I plopped this bit of wiki here.
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Reading and Writing
I did a piece of work yesterday but I had my cousin over for dinner and, after she left, I worked around the apartment. So, not a stellar writing day.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I have learned over the years that
when one's mind is made up,
this diminishes fear.
~Rosa Parks
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I received a pair of emails from our writing friend, Colleen G that dealt with her family’s experience with covid, two parents, four children.
The first email partly dealt with the frustrations of testing and isolation, and was an excellent study. The second email, on the same subject, took me to another place, a place where the concept of family shone through all the travails.
I wanted to highlight her letter so I include it, not here, but in the ‘short essay’ section just below.
Blog meister responds: The woman is a dynamo. But also a wonderful writer and human being, as you’ll agree after reading her response below in “Short Essay”
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night, my cousin joined me and we had chicken and thinly-sliced vegetables cooked in a teaspoon each of olive oil, duck fat, and butter. Fired rice was on the side.
The food was delicious but the visit itself was brilliant as we tried to catch up on the last several weeks.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
dom in sauna
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Short Essay*
Regarding her entire family’s bout with covid, Colleen’s prior email to me was so positive that I remarked to her how she navigated through without fear. She responded:
Hi Dom,
Well, knowing we are all vaxed to the max definitely helps. The other factors that help my attitude is my faith--knowing that I have done all I can do from my mere human position and then knowing that my fate is not ultimately up to me--trusting the big guy has my back. But--honestly--another BIG factor is that I have four kids and I don't want to freak them out. Worry and fear will only yield negative consequences and won't yield any advantage either physically or mentally healthwise. What would my kids feel if they thought mom was scared? You bet your boots they'd be more scared than they already might be. On an aside, the morning, last Thursday, when my daughter woke up with cold symptoms and not feeling well--she told me she didn't feel well and she started to cry. I asked her why she was crying--was it because she felt so sick or because she thought she'd be in trouble if she had covid. She said she didn't know, but it made me think of how difficult it is for children these days, through all this, who have been told time and time again firmly to put their masks on, protect themselves, but also and more importantly protect their family members, their Nanas, their friends, their neighbors. The point has been drilled down--at least from those of us parents who believe masks make a difference. Also, the (almost) daily inquiry of if anybody is out of school, who are they, do you sit near them . . . it's the reality they are living. Every event being preceded by the hope (out loud) that none of us get sick so we have to cancel and hoping none of us get anybody else sick because we've chosen to celebrate a festive milestone or occassion. When we adults think of it, kids are under a lot of pressure and being kids they can easily think it's their fault that their whole family is or might get sick. Then they worry--with so many people having died--what if my mother or father gets so sick they die. I mean, that is the premise of most fairy tales they read, a mother or father or both dead right from the get-go.
So, being a parent helps me to let go of the things I cannot control and just try to make things into a "fun" if possible memory. For instance, this morning at 11am I introduced my children to the luxury I enjoyed as a child on a sick day: watching The Price is Right gameshow from the couch. It's still just as fun, though I do miss Bob Barker. He was a much better host and there's no hugging and kissing with covid, but it's still fun trying to guess prices and the music and cheering when people win. My kids really loved it!! Sunday I told them we'd watch a Matinee movie--a rare splurge here where we keep screentime at a minimum, which really pays off during times like this when an at-home spoil can be a challenge--and so we watched The Greatest Showman (for a second time, they love it so much and if you have not seen that movie it is a MUST see. WAtch it tonight!:) We popped popcorn in the air popper and had bowls of ice cream afterward.
All that--and it helped to have talked to a friend of mine just a few days prior to our experience. Her family got covid, but not all of them. So, they jumped through hoops of isolating one person in the basement and then switching when others tested positive. At one point her oldest son was in the basement alone and they wore masks in the house and did everything they could or "should" according to the CDC guidelines, only to finally have that son also test positive. In the end, this process played out over several weeks--maybe a month, which prolonged their struggle as a family of five. Even before we all caught Covid here, I remember saying to my friend after hearing her story, "Well, what I learned from that is that if a couple of us get covid to not try to keep things separate because in the end we'll likely all catch it except it will be a prolonged and more miserable experience." So, I'm sticking with that lesson I learned from her.
Wow--I have so much to say on this--haha:)
Anyway, just thought I'd fill you in on what rounded out my attitude so you knew, as is usually the case in life, that it was a few things--but the vaccination status definitely helps along with my faith. It's out of my hands now and there is a relief in that. It's the moment in a movie when the person whos been hiding has to come out with their hands up. It sucks--you've been found, but at least it means there's no more energy going into hiding. The jib is up over here. Hopefully it ends well and we can go on with our lives, but I have to believe it will.
There was no "long story, short" alternative for this one:)
Cheers,
Stay well.
Colleen:)
* The preceding is written by Colleen G who retains all publishing rights thereto. The work appears here with Ms G’s permission.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, January 27, 2022
Welcome to the 1,338th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Sergeant York
Theatrical release poster for the 1941 film Sergeant York.
Vitagraph Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. at the time of publication. - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image.
Permission details
The poster included a defective copyright notice, seen at bottom left: "Copyright Vitagraph Inc. All Rights Reserved". The notice omits the year of publication, 1941.
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Commentary
I admit to spending too much timer on the Covid scoreboard,
looking for signs of improvement.
Finding some small ones, still a frustrating moment for the world.
I also admit to spending an inordinate amount of time on diet. It’s because I plan the menu for myself and cook all of my own meals.
But I have said this time and again: I love to eat well.
I have one large meals a day, and at 80, soon to be, anyway,
at 80, I want every meal to count.
But my mother and then my wife were both excellent cooks and
I am just keeping in step with their love for delicious food.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
~Henry Ford
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I got an email from one of my beta readers: These five pages are showing off your literary skills,
not advancing the story. Cut them.
Blog meister responds: I think I agree and will tackle them today.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday I chose to make slow-roasted chicken breasts with
thinly sliced vegetables.
I had leftover Chinese fried rice and served that on the side.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Holy Ghost Chapel on Park St Boston
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Short Essay*
Sergeant York is a 1941 American biographical film about the life of Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper in the title role, the film was a critical and commercial success, and became the highest-grossing film of 1941.
The film was based on the diary of Sergeant Alvin York, as edited by Tom Skeyhill,[2] and adapted by Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Howard E. Koch, and Sam Cowan (uncredited). York refused, several times, to authorize a film version of his life story, but finally yielded to persistent efforts to finance the creation of an interdenominational Bible school. The story that York insisted on Gary Cooper for the title role comes from a telegram producer Jesse L. Lasky wrote to Cooper pleading with him to accept the part, to which he signed York's name.
Cooper went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, while the film also won Best Film Editing and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan), and Supporting Actress (Margaret Wycherly). The American Film Institute ranked the film 57th in the its 100 most inspirational American movies. It also rated Alvin York 35th in its list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.
In 2008, Sergeant York was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Welcome to the 1,337th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Rules of the Game
This is a poster for The Rules of the Game. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the Film Poster/DVD Cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the film company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless.
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Commentary
It’s pretty obvious from his remarks that Dr. Fauci is leaning to accepting that covid is here to stay and to resume normal lives keeping all safeguards in place. Happy for that.
I believe that vaccines protecting us against covid-caused serious illness will be developed that can provide strong protection for a full year. Annual vaccinations may well be a regular feature of our health protocols.
I am enjoying using my sauna at a low heat (120*) for ten-minute stretches. Looks like two a day.
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Reading and Writing
Editing my manuscript has gotten rhythmic. I’m relieved. My recent loss of connectivity was frustrating but at this point I’m pretty well re-organized.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
~Wayne Gretzky
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A couple of emails related to the seriousness of the civil unrest in NYC:
“I’ve had to take ubers…”
“I bought a pepper spray.”
“I have always been comfortable in NYC. But now…?”
Blog meister responds: So sorry for that. What a test of the brand new mayor. God bless.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
For Monday dinner I bought takeout from Peach Farm. It was disappointing.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Dressing for Boston Winter
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Short Essay*
The Rules of the Game (original French title: La règle du jeu) is a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Roland Toutain, Gaston Modot, Pierre Magnier and Renoir.
Renoir's portrayal of the wise, mournful Octave anchors the fatalistic mood of this pensive comedy of manners. The film depicts members of upper-class French society and their servants just before the beginning of World War II, showing their moral callousness on the eve of destruction.
At the time, The Rules of the Game was the most expensive French film made: Its original budget of 2.5 million francs eventually increased to more than 5 million francs. Renoir and cinematographer Jean Bachelet made extensive use of deep-focus and long shots during which the camera is constantly moving, sophisticated cinematic techniques in 1939.
Renoir's career in France was at its pinnacle in 1939 and The Rules of the Game was eagerly anticipated; its premiere was met with scorn and disapproval by critics and audiences. Renoir reduced the film's running time from 113 minutes to 85 but even then the film was a critical and financial disaster. In October 1939, it was banned by the wartime French government for "having an undesirable influence over the young".
For many years, the 85-minute version was the only one available but despite this its reputation slowly grew. In 1956, boxes of original material were discovered and a reconstructed version of the film premiered that year at the Venice Film Festival, with only a minor scene from Renoir's first cut missing. Since then, The Rules of the Game has been called one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. Numerous film critics and directors have praised it highly, citing it as an inspiration for their own work. It is the only film to earn a place among the top films in the respected Sight & Sound (BFI) decennial critics' poll for every decade since the poll's inception in 1952.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Welcome to the 1,336th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Jean Renoir
The young Renoir with Gabrielle Renard in a painting by his father Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1895-96)Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Cropped from File:Gabrielle et Jean, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, from C2RMF.jpg, originally C2RMF: Galerie de tableaux en très haute définition: image page
Photo of painting Gabrielle Renard and infant son, Jean.
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Commentary
Do you just love the lengthening of our daylight?
I heard on the news, 1 hur and ten minutes gained since 12/21/2021.
Sweet.
And we’re less than a month from Valentine’s Day, my personal end of the winter doldrums.
I’m finding a ten-minute rest in my sauna is therapeutic as well as toasty. I sit with a pad and pen, ready to scribble any thoughts.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed.
Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
~Tony Robbins
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Some football aficionados are saying this past weekend featured four games that as a group, may have been the best football weekend of all time.
Blog meister responds: I only watched one: TB 12, of course, vs the LA Rams. The Rams probably outplayed the Bucs but only won the game in the last seconds.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Chicken breast recipe.
So many.
Tuesday I made the breasts with veggies sliced thin and cooked in a bit of duck fat.
At the finish I stirred in a pat of cold butter.
On the side, pasta pesto.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Katherine and William in Fugakyu 2020
And they are still a handsome couple.
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Short Essay*
Jean Renoir (15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the motion picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur defining auteur as a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.
In 1924, Renoir directed Une Vie Sans Joie or Catherine, the first of his nine silent films, most of which starred his first wife, Catherine Hessling. She was also his father's last model. At this stage, his films did not produce a return. Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, January 24, 2022
Welcome to the 1,335th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Gosford Park movie
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Commentary
Let’s refresh our attitudes towards the virus.
We have fought a war.
Let’s accept that we will always have the virus with us.
And let’s call the status quo a victory for us.
With, of course, a change in the way we live our lives.
We vaccinate.
Mask.
Distance.
Wash hands.
Mandate.
Demand vac cards for entry.
And let’s get on with our lives.
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Reading and Writing
I wrote two posts today, Sunday.
I just sent Sunday’s post and I will post Monday’s tomorrow.
But it’s done.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
~Alexander Graham Bell
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Two emails encouraging me to write a book on aging.
Blog meister responds: If you read the blog you’ll see that I try to chronicle my daily routine: I am aging.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I’m thinking of three different menus for Monday:
Dinner out at Douzo.
Pick up dinner at Peach Farm.
Or buy some Jumbo shrimp at Eataly for a pasta and pesto sauce.
America! What a country.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Cambridge Commons, a nostalgic walk through
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Short Essay*
Gosford Park is a 2001 satirical black comedy mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. It was influenced by Jean Renoir's French classic, La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game).
The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emily Watson. The story follows a party of wealthy Britons plus an American producer, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at Gosford Park, an English country house. A murder occurs after a dinner party, and the film goes on to present the subsequent investigation from the servants' and guests' perspectives.
Development on Gosford Park began in 1999, when Bob Balaban asked Altman if they could develop a film together. Balaban suggested an Agatha Christie-style whodunit and introduced Altman to Julian Fellowes, with whom Balaban had been working on a different project. The film went into production in March 2001, and began filming at Shepperton Studios with a production budget of $19.8 million. Gosford Park premiered on 7 November 2001 at the London Film Festival. It received a limited release across cinemas in the United States in December 2001, before being widely released in January 2002 by USA Films. It was released in February 2002 in the United Kingdom.
The film was successful at the box office, grossing over $87 million in cinemas worldwide, making it Altman's second-most successful film after MASH. Widely acclaimed by critics, Gosford Park was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Altman and Best Supporting Actress for both Mirren and Smith, and won Best Original Screenplay for Fellowes; it was also nominated for nine British Academy Film Awards.
The TV series Downton Abbey – written and created by Fellowes – was originally planned as a spin-off of Gosford Park, but instead was developed as a standalone property inspired by the film, and set earlier in the 20th century (from 1912 to the mid-1920s).
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, January 23, 2022
Welcome to the 1,334th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Charles Thaddeus Russell
African American Architect Charles Thaddeus Russell
Unknown - Charles T. Russell (Photo courtesy Six Mount Zion Baptist Church) - Original publication: Richmond Magazine Immediate source: https://richmondmagazine.com/news/features/coming-home/
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Commentary
Spent much of the day syncing files between my laptop and desktop.
And signing into all the different applications I had been frozen out of.
I wrote productively today. Time spent getting my computers back up and running was frustrating.
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Reading and Writing
I have found my rhythm.
My rewrite has begun.
Thank you to my editors.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
~Vidal Sassoon
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
From several readers:
Congratulations on your sauna.
How will you work it into your schedule?
Blog meister responds: As for using the sauna, I am investigating different uses. We’ll see.
It's certainly nice having it.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday dinner was a roast chicken.
The genius of the slow-roast is the juice that remains in the roasted bird.
Dinner was terrific.
Hockey on Public Garden January 2022
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Community Photos**
Hockey on Public Garden January 2022
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Short Essay*
Charles Thaddeus Russell
He was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1875. He grew up in a black section of Richmond called Jackson Ward. He began his studies at the Hampton Institute in 1893. He graduated from the Institute in 1899 and also received a certificate in carpentry. In 1901, he became a carpentry instructor at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Russell worked on the campus buildings and supervised all of the carpentry. He also collaborated and worked closely with the architects on the project. It was at the Institute that he studied drafting and architecture and served a de facto apprenticeship. In 1907 he moved back to Virginia and became the superintendent of the grounds at Virginia Union University. In 1909 the Virginia Union President gave Russell permission to begin his career as an architect.
The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church was remodeled and extended by Russell in 1925.
Russell was one of Virginia's first licensed two black architects. Russell was issued his architect license October 2, 1922. The licenses were given in alphabetical order so another African American architect John A. Lankford was issued his license before Russell.
A majority of the workers and contractors hired by Russell were black. He designed homes and commercial buildings in what was called Postletown or "Apostle Town" (now known as Jackson Ward). The area was called "Posteltown" because the street names included the names of the Apostles in the New Testament. Russel's designs helped to transform the Jackson Ward area into a thriving area for commerce. His designs helped to transform the area into what was called, the “Black Wall Street of America.”
In 1910, he designed his first building for Virginia businesswoman Maggie Walker. The building was constructed as a bank but is now known as the St. Luke Building with 12 apartments on the upper levels. It is now being renovated to create loft apartments. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In 1915 he designed a home for a doctor named William Henry Hughes. He was also hired to remodel the 1873 Ebenezer Baptist Church in Jackson Ward. He altered the design of the church from Victorian Gothic to Neoclassical and added four unique spires to the top of the church in place of a steeple. He designed the Rialto Theatre in Petersburg, Virginia which was completed in 1923. In 1925, the historic Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church was remodeled and extended by Russell.
In 1942, in one of Russell's last jobs as an architect, he was tasked with supervising the move and reconstruction of the Belgian Building on the Virginia Union University grounds. The building was constructed by Belgium for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The structure was supposed to be disassembled and returned to Belgium after the fair, but the German invasion of Belgium (1940) resulted in the building remaining in the United States. Twenty-seven different institutions wanted the building but it was granted to Virginia Union University.
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