The Wit of the Staircase

Motor City Cribs And Rides

"The Zombie Dance Party — an annual musical freakout at the Magic Stick — started at Carey's house four years ago as dual celebration of her getting fired from a stained glass gig and her emergence as a self-employed artist. Carey’s company, Glass Action, makes stained glass crafts and works on commission.

Her Ziggy Stardust night-light is arguably the most popular and iconic item she makes.The basement serves as a practice space for her new all-chick trio, Serenity Court (with her sister-housemate Emily), as well as her studio for Glass Action. Working with glass definitely leads to more than a few cuts and scratches. 'I’ll never be a hand model,' quips Gustafson."

Link: Motor City Cribs (Metro Times Detroit).

Photography Of The Unexpected And Neglected In Architecture

Photos of neglected architecture from around the world, with an emphasis, naturally, on Detroit.

Above, a house in Brush Park, where I lived for a couple years in my late teens. Brush Park is right next to the operating Detroit Institute Of Arts with their famous Diego Rivera industry murals and impressive German Expressionist collection.

Most of the houses around the museum are in a state much like the one above, with one standing isolated in okay condition that has people living in it here and there. Like me--and my black tights and leather jackets--many years ago.

Link: Photography of the Unexpected and Neglected Architecture - Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre.

Link: un regard oblique.

Bears, Ravens, Lilacs: Death And Resurrection In Michigan

Returning to Earth, by Jim Harrison (Grove; $24).

"In this moving meditation on life and afterlife, a northern Michigan family confronts devastating illness and death. Donald, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and disinclined to lose any more control over his failing body, asks his family to assist him in suicide and to bury him in a remote spot in Canada. Although the themes and preoccupations of Native American religion—Donald is 'over half Chippewa'—form the narrative’s spine, Harrison’s handling remains admirably unsentimental. Bears, ravens, and lilacs (symbols of mourning and resurrection) appear repeatedly, yet the vividly depicted inner lives of the characters don’t rely on metaphors for meaning. Harrison gradually illuminates the often traumatic past, throwing up shadows that signify the vast spaces of his imagined world."

Link: The New Yorker : critics : briefly.

The Way People Talk About Loving Things: Detroit's New Art Space

"Its casual disorder affirms what the critic Dave Hickey once described as the social order that sustains any art community — 'the way people talk about loving things, which things, and why'.”

Link: Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - Architecture - Review - New York Times.

Michigan Central Depot

I took a train from visiting friends in Boston back to Detroit and alighted at this depot in 1987.

I sat on a bench looking up and waited for my boyfriend to retrieve me in this uncharacteristically grand and characteristically empty Detroit space.

It closed for good in 1988, but still stands, rotting. Photo tour of the ruins below.

Link: BLDGBLOG: Angles of entrance.

Happy Labor Day From The Wit Of The Staircase

Link: Faces of Detroit: Labor

Jack White Sells Detroit Mansion

The Detroit News says he ditched the city because of negative press. It's amazing and yet typical that they drove away one of the few positive cultural things to happen in the city in the past years. Knowing the place as I do, I am sure he was hounded and challenged to fistfights every time he put one toe outside the house.

Check out the slideshow of the house at the link below.

"The White Stripes singer and former Detroiter, who ditched the city in a hailstorm of negative press earlier this year, put his 6,000-square-foot Indian Village home up for sale Thursday.The four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath home has a devilish history: White recorded the White Stripes' 2005 album "Get Behind Me Satan" in its grand staircase and foyer.The home is listed at $930,000, which puts it at the top of the market in the historic, 100-year-old Indian Village Detroit neighborhood, which is flush with stately homes."

Link: Jack White puts Detroit home up for sale - 08/17/06 - The Detroit News Online.

Indian Village in the snow, above.

Some Kind Of Diabolical Formula: Full Lips, Pontiac Station Wagon, Flint Michigan

Comic Sandra Bernhard shills Plushglass lip gloss for MAC in this odd new video, below. Nearly just like Sandra in her parents' Pontiac in Flint Michigan, we had a Ford station wagon and we drove it to the Miracle Twin Drive-In in Flint in the nineteen seventies.

This drive-in had an odd (and emblematically Flint, somehow) habit of showing kids' movies on one screen and porno films on the other at the opposite end of the field. (Hence the "twin.") We could see The Happy Hooker one night while watching Bambi if we turned around in the back of the station wagon, which of course we did.

I wear MAC Plushglass too, from time to time, and it's good disco-y stuff. Buy the blush pink, it's innocent yet gooey-diva, or should I say, it's very Bambi meets The Happy Hooker.

Link: MAC Cosmetics | Sandra: Mouthing Off.

The Miracle Twin Drive-In in Flint is still open. It was part of the Redstone Drive-In chain which began the giant entertainment empire that is Viacom, now chaired by Sumner Redstone. Check it out below, it has a great concession stand.

Link: Water Winter Wonderland - Where Vintage Michigan Lives On!.

Michigan Seems Like A Dream To Me Now: 19th Century Obituaries From The Great Lakes State

Link: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan - Death Notices.

Via Coudal Partners.

Left London

"Left London is a photographic portrayal of abandoned buildings across the capital that reveals an otherwise unseen side of city life. Having explored a multitude of sites and taken over twenty thousand images, the authors were able to assemble a unique collection of photographs vividly illustrating this evocative and beautiful subject. Furthermore, as well as extensive interior and exterior shots, the book also contains various items of ephemera found in situ, which provide an additional visual narrative.

Like all cities, London has an established cycle of decay and renewal, however with the forthcoming 2012 Olympics, it is currently embarking on the most ambitious redevelopment plan in its history. In light of this, Left London takes on a particularly compelling and contemporary relevance."

They've got nothing on Detroit, but this book looks interesting.

Link: Left London.

Also, someone has decided to refurbish the achingly glamorous and utterly wasted abandoned Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit.

Maybe I'll buy an apartment there by the time they're done. Though like Jack and Meg White, I prefer Indian Village.

Link: Detroit's Book Cadillac Hotel to be Reborn - HUD .