Last night i attended a lecture at MOCAD (museum of contemporary art Detroit), the artist was Jamil Shabazz who famously documented the early 80's hip-hop scene in new york.
His old work is amazing, and raw. The body is held together by the way he approached his subjects and had them pose for candid portraits. This method separated him from his contemporaries, like Nan Goldin, photographing complete strangers made his work fresh and interesting.
However most of the work he showed at the lecture was over the past 6 months, and he needs to progress. The same method is not translating well in this time period. His ideas are strong, he wants to show hope, love and beauty, but there is an obvious loss of the raw grit, which seems often to be more true. It seems to document a time period you must show all facets of life in order to do it justice. For all the bad in life there is good and vice versa. I could babble on this for hours.
After the lecture Kieth, Eric, Nicole and i went for a bike ride. There was no agenda so we headed towards the water. With nothing to do, we pointed our compass in the direction of alcohol, and began our search. I heard the Motor Lounge at the book caddy is now open to the public, but it was not adventurous enough. It was beer o'clock somewhere in this town and we were going to find it. A quick detour took us through Capital Park, the bus terminal (for the time being), and after an obviously intoxicated man on a bike almost took us all out, i looked back to see him flat on his back on the pavement. Capital park bodegas do not sell booze, by the way. We hopped down Grand River towards one of the only Liquor stores i know in the CBD (central business district), well the only one open late. The Greektown booze spot, over priced but very convenient, located between the golden fleece and the funny greek souvenir store. My bike bag got heavier it now contained the following things:
ok, so i have all the supplies for an adventure. what next? find a place to enjoy the gems i carry 'round. A ride down the riverwalk proved in vain, there was a hockey game and it was crawling with people, Which reminds me, Happy Birthday Dad and Karen <--they were at the game.
We rode the opposite direction towards belle isle. There is a series of state parks along the way. The landscape is punctuated like this: riverwalk-carosoul-big nothingness-teenage sex hill (another story)-marina-parks with the lighthouse-chene park-rattlesnake club-hidden river ride.... etc. etc. till you get to africa and then belle isle. So, when your looking for a low key place to chill and drink a 40, what is better then a big lighthouse across the street from border patrol? Nothing really. So we camped up under a huge willow tree, and shivered while telling amusing stories and debating weather the splashing in the water was geese or otter. Which in retrospect, there are no otter in Michigan. Wtf nicole? Cracked Skulls, alien dogs and broken stripper poles later, we finished our beverages, hypothermia had begun to set in and we could no longer hear each other over the chattering of our teeth.
The cold sweat that went along with the chilly night was a comforting feeling as we cut through traffic up to oslo. Located on the corner of woodward and john r oslo is the hip sushi joint in the city. It has a long tradition of housing some of the best electronic parties in the past few years. I've seen Moby, Richie Hawtin, Troy pierce, Matthew Dear, Ryan Elliot... the list goes on, in the basement. The sound system was specially fitted by a company named Burst, to be sure you get loud clear sounds, and the dark interesting decor adds to the atmosphere. Anyways, this night it was not very busy, except in the basement there was a wedding going on. As i walked down the stairs they were carrying Grandma out. When she wasn't on the dance floor, the disco clad bride was behind the bar sharing her life story. One member of our party nearly clubed her and ran away with the dress, but this blog does not condone that, at least not on her wedding day. After crashing a wedding, and getting our dance on, it was time to put the pedal to the pavement.
We rolled past the abandoned davids on woodward,
david whitney
david broderick
Hotel Eddystone
and harbor lights
up through the cass corridor, danced past the old miami where frankie banks was rocking the dance floor.
and ended at our final destination. Cass Cafe. Dollar Black Label night and Shay sh sh Shaynes Birthday Party. By the time we got there the b-day boy had been whisked away to the Bomb.com restaurant Slows, took over a table and joined in with the roar of the other thursday night revelers. Time flies, we shared stories, tattoos, debated who was going to have a worse day at work the next morn, and where we could get the best mexican food considering our location and the increasingly late hour. Edmundos, in mexican town is the right answer. However for these tuckered little ladies Doritios would have to suffice.
I brought my bike into the gas station picked out our delicacies and plopped them down near the register. For some reason the clerk asked me if i spoke french, (this actually happens often, because i speak in a joke accent. at the wrong times), so i replied je n'parle pas francois, well, Com si come ca, meaning kinda. i havn't since high school. He said "J'mappele Alex" (my name is alex), and i said "J'mappele Vanessa" "Je suis en petit poulet" (i am a little chicken.) We laughed.. then i added pointing at my bike. "Tu vais un Pormenade un Velo" which kinda means do you want to join me on a bike ride? I was joking and we laughed, he said something i couldn't understand and told me he was from france, and told me if i gave him my number we could speak french all the time. i laughed paid for the chips, told him i want to learn espanol and ran out the door. laughing because i got hit on, the result of in broken french asking a guy on a bike ride. I laughed myself to sleep. the end.
If your looking for something to do this weekend
Friday night.
Detroit Summer is having an office warming party at the new space, the 555 gallery, invincible and others will be playing, starts at 9
Dj Mehdi- from ed banger records (justices record label) at the magic stick. Presented by paxahau and fourth horizon
Saturday all day
Eastern Market octoberfest 1-5 (i've heard)
Magic Stick -against me
C-pop Gallery- funky dance party (goes till 4am)
crow manor- kozmo and stretches' going away. (small gathering)
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1 comment:
i enjoyed reading that. wasn't aware of the new Detroit summer office. i may have to peep that.
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