Tuesday, January 31, 2006

my own relationship to detroit

this is a topic/essay long in the waiting and will not be at all covered in the space of this five minute blog... so here is a short list of thinking on this as we have been talking in our 1020 class, and, the superbowl will be held in downtown detroit this coming weekend for the first time ever...well the first time it will be in detroit, it is the XLth superbowl if you know how to read those kinds of numbers...

the short list:

-superbowl...have to go downtown and take some photos of the fancification of the d. i've heard in places buildings are being covered for aesthetic purposes...is this a rumor or is it true??
-superbowl...the homeless people are being rounded up to get them out of the way for the weekend, but i think they are also having some special events and activities for them at the local area shelters/organizations...they are asking for donations...the biggest money event in d's recent history and the homeless need donations to be fed for the weekend...
-wayne state...having returned to the city after years of living away (mariana islands, new mexico, colorado, connecticut) after first attending u of d mercy across town...getting to know the culture of wayne to begin with and reknow the culture of the city. it's nice to be urban. i also love walking in the woods. my hope is that one day d. will be spiffied up enough so that you could walk down woodward, say from the wsu area, all the way to downtown and have shops and restaurants and art gallerys and etc neat stuff (not even trendy fancy stuff like royal oak but just regular commercial business and city stuff...pedestrian stuff...commerce and stimulation of the urban space...). that is one idea. last year i spend time in nyc in which you can walk for miles etc... i mean, you can walk down woodward now, but there is not a whole lot to do and see.
-essay project...i have in mind a couple of writing projects that involve walking around, visiting different areas of the city, writing short pieces in response to the space the place (but not in the sun ra sense of outer space though sometimes in some areas of d. you feel like you are on another planet not in the 1st world usa the wealthiest country on this planet...so maybe this is in some way related to sun ra and his ideas...)...i also was thinking about doing a quick version of this with the superbowl downtown scenes writing that up whatnot...i think photos are important...or filmaking...amateur documentaries of the mysterious and underrated, underdiscussed city of d. ok, so, yes, documenting detroit in a way...

that's all for now, keep thinking and watch as the people pile in for the weekend.

No comments: