Good Day,
I arrived to Detroit late on Saturday night, in fact it was midnight. I would have arrive 4 hours earlier but missed my train at 6:40 am that morning.
When I arrived at the station in Windsor I had just enough time to take a cab to the bus terminal where I caught the Tunnel Bus to Detroit (4.00$, but $10 for the short taxi ride). Once there, I was met by Martin Dufranse and Gonzague the two DARE-DARE organizers and Jeff Deburyn from Detroit. Jeff took us to the house where we are staying (2018 11th Street) but not before dropping in to a local bar for a beer and to meet other Imagination Station members. After and quick libation and on the way to our house, he took us on a abbreviated tour of Corktown, the neighbourhood in which we are staying. This is a very old neighbourhood, dating from the 1850’s. Many of the homes and buildings are either gone, razed, or are left abandoned. But there are many homes still occupied and within the neighbourhood there are urban farms, that is individuals who have assumed land and taken up farming vegetables and fruits and even raising chickens. In fact, in one of the homes beside where we are staying there is a rooster that announces each morning. The urban farmers survive by selling their produce to local restaurants and at the markets. As we saw this area in the dark, at night, quickly as Jeff drove us around after having imbibed and as he rolled his cigarettes and texted on his iphone (muti-tasking is not dead).
Yesterday, we drove 3 hrs (one way) to Grand Rapids to see the ArtPrize event (one of the largest art awards on the continent). The entire downtown of Grand Rapids was engulfed by the event. Many people milling about, outdoor stages with live (loud) music (as an aside, I think that the advent of outdoor stages with loud, heavy, music all the time coaxing people to move, dance and party in the middle of the day has become a bit much). It had a definite carnival atmosphere. Again it was Jeff who drove and again he multi-tasked all the way there and back to Detroit again.
Today I will start to work on Lefty (the house I will be eventually installing the beeswax windows). I have to take measurements to build wooden frames to hold the wax sheets. It is pissing rain (the remnants of last night’s spectacular thunder and lightening show). When I get images I will sent them on.
Talk soon,
D
http://www.dougscholes.ca
http://www.paesthetic.wordpress.com
CRUM 