the white room

The skyscrapper that houses the White Room Recording Studio located at Grand River and Griswald is almost completly abandoned except for the 3rd floor where i am curently sitting in this room ------>


Once through the frosty glass door you hop on an old school elevator and walk into a few beautiful rooms filled with music equipment. The rest of the floors are filled with odds and ends from when artists used to squat. I am here listening to my friends band, The Summer Pledge, complete the recordings they've been working on for the past few months. This recording studio, where kid rock once brought in jacuzzis to track one of his albums (for better or worse), is bieng sold. My friend Andrew Davis and his friend chris are trying to save it, I am told they are in the vision process, and thats about all i can publish on the internets.




I spent the greater part of today overwhelmed and baffled by the world. The world moves fast always, and i often feel like i need to step on the brakes... but today felt different. Lately i've been feeling this crushing feeling of an impending crisis. but i know it's not only me. We are living in volitle and uncertian times. Who knows what tragedies or victories are coming our way. Yesterday I learned that my bosses husband was forced into early retirement because GM cut 3,500 more employees, my friend Angela was violently mugged and beaten blocks from my house, a friends mom had surgery to fight a brain tumor, my friend Aj lost his 2 year internship just as he graduated, and after all of those aweful things.... my friend Jasmine and Andrew are having a baby. They have created something that trumps all the bad in the world, new life, new possabality, a reason for us to keep fighting. Right now the entire world is holding it's breath, no one is confident in which steps will move us forward, but daily on our streets in our homes and in our hearts life does not wait, it cannot. Regardless of our finicial situation, what part of the world is at war, what city buildings are crumbling under thier own wieght, the sun still sets and it also rises.  we have to keep the flame of hope alive.

I've been trying to write an article about Detroit and the many ways i can see our future. My thoughts are supported by years of research. I can't get over the feeling of being overwhelmed. life in general is not helping.

detroit city on the move

dreaming of summer.

This is my old neighbor Alex, Camilles sister. In this photograph she was 3 years old. One day i was fixing lunch in my kitchen and they started spraying my with a hose through the open windows. Alex is the baby of her family, i think at one point there were 7 people living in the flat above me. The little girls loved to come into my room and touch anything they could reach and would often cry when i would explain i had grown-up things to do. I have to admit it was fun playing with them in the summer. helping them ride bikes, picking veggies in our garden, and plying in the mud.


"you are about to witness the very exciting story about a city and it's people.
it will be an adventure that will open new sights in familiar sourroundings.
it is a story of a city seeking new horizons in a resolute contest with great challenges.
that city is detroit, home of nearly [one million] people back in 1701 long before this land become a nation, caddiliac planted the colors of france on detroits shore, and thus began a rich and inspiring history which has brought detroit to its finnest hour, the today of which we are apart. yes detroit is enjoying it's finest hour, there is a rennisance, a rebirth in this city, there is a newness in detroit. i am honored to be serving as [photographer] at this most eventful and productive period in detroits history and i am honored to be a participant in the detroit story."





"This public domain film narrated by then-mayor Jerome P. Cavanaugh was made in 1965 to promote Detroit. The city faced many urban problems and its population was in decline. These difficulties were amplified by the 1967 riots, which are seen by many as one of the most significant events which led the city into a forty year decline. Since the mid 50s, the population has dropped by half and the infrastructure has been destroyed or has decayed due to abuse and neglect"

in this cold city my home is a burning ember.

the first snowflakes, on my balcony last night.


So blogger was down lat night and i was unable to publish my normal weekend wrap up. which is wierd. so now i am plugged up like a hose with too much preasure.... i have ideas ready to burst from my seems.

There are a million things that i would love to put out to the world everyday and it's hard to decide which ones are worth anything.

First i have to include a correction and appology.. then i'm going to include photographs.. they can tell a story.

ATTN: the Funk night at russell was NOT put on by CAID. It was produced by Mike Mackool, Fank, Nicole, and Ernie. They throw killer events. Anything with thier name on it will be hoppin' and right now they are working Slow Jams Monday at the woodbridge pub, which seems to be gaining Momentum. Monday nights drink special is $5 beer and a shot. Who could go wrong?

I spent the later part of my saturday, and early sunday at one of there events... well Mikes last night as Fourth Horizon. Ghostly recording artist Michna played the motor city movie house at the russell. i dont think anyone could leave the dance floor.

anyways.

i spent thursday enjoying the last warm day of the year.

my cousin and pushed all the leaves in an empty lot of a house they just demolshed into a pile... upon jumping into them she pulled out a large chunk or brunette hair. needless that was the end of that.

we went and climbed trees instead

saturday i found myself at a jewish synagogue... the one on state and griswald.

Oren and Courtney organized the event where Benny Stoofy, the misinformants and a few others played. i sat under a sign that read no smoking on the sabbath drinking a beer, and as usual pondering the irony of life... sometimes. which makes me laugh uncontrollably.

i left early but i heard the dance floor was packed till the wee hours. around 5 am.

Later that night i found myslef inside of a building i have always wanted to adventure in. I was let in and asked not to link the photographs... so here one is. i can only tell you it was a fulfilling experience.

Sunday i was awoken by my best friend and kidnapped to Detroit One Coney Island on woodward. I almost burst my kidneys from laughing so hard at our afternoon breakfast.
I spent the rest of the gloomy afternoon adventuring around some of my favorite spots. Blowing the clocks off of dandylions, and exploring an old friend, the Globe Trading Company. I took a photograph there on a sunny day once after talking to a homeless man who inhabits the space for awhile. This photograph has garnered me some notoriety, it is not online and i would like to keep it that way, but it is of the light streaming in and the man (Oscar, i'm pretty sure is his name) reading a book. About the time i took that photograph, 3 years ago, is when they first announced this historic building was going to be turned into luxury lofts. The Globe was one of the first steal structures in Michigan, and Henry Ford was an intern there. They built boats once upon a time.. and if you need more information i have the complete application to make it a historical site. I could go on for hours.
Anyways, 3 years later the sign is still on the outside advertising the lofts... but the inside has not changed and oscar still lives there.

In this photograph there is a tiny white light in the center. that is Oscars reading light. you can view it better on my flickr.

i was there untill the sun completly set.

Around the block from the gobe is one of my very favorite spots in the city. i spent an entire summer there. i still go back to get away, but the meaning has changed. the people have faded away. construction on the riverwalk has altered the landscape. But on this cold gloomy day, it felt like Montauk from the scenes in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.


call me a hopeless romantic.. then i sipped hot chocolate as it snowed.

i need to figure a better way to upload photographs. these small ones are silly. see them larger on my flickr. www. flickr.com/photos/vanessamiller