Blow wind, blow

I thought I'd let daddio take up residency on this blog for a few days. He requires no introduction, except for the fact he forced Bergman's Persona on us as kids (Though not the naughty parts). Pretentious ass. ;)

It was beautiful in Lansing today, and I found myself daydreaming at work of the place I long to be when the weather is nice - Detroit. Bryant and his sister Lindsay grew up in something like the Addam's family, and while most Lansing-ites can't wait to hit the road for the beaches on Lake Michigan or the northern lakes, our family was more likely to spread a picnic blanket in the park in front of the grand train station in Detroit. The one that's been empty for 20 years and whose windows are smashed out. The park in front is a small diamond and there's one bench in each of the 4 corners, but Detroiters are fond of parks and every afternoon the benches are occupied by citizens enjoying unidentified refreshments in miniature picnic baskets that look like brown paper bags.

Despite the snotty comments above, fact is we do like Detroit, and wish it didn't suffer so much. It's not like Chicago in which you can walk for miles around downtown and Lincoln Park without seeing blight. If you find yourself in a nice part of Detroit, it's probably an isolated "green zone" of a few square blocks, and you want to have safe transportation to get to the next "zone". But if you like American music of the last 50 years, how can you not root for Detroit? There's a working class sort I always liked that Michigan's cities seemed to have quite a few of. I recall one in the movie 'Roger and Me' by Michael Moore, which of course takes place in Flint, or Detroit, Jr. The guy being interviewed had just been laid off at GM and talked about driving home after the fact. "Wouldn't it Be Nice" by the Beach Boys was on the radio and he notes that ordinarily he would have been so happy to hear that song, but he was crying too hard this time to enjoy it. And what struck me is that he liked the Beach Boys, and I like a guy that the blue collar stereotype won't stick to. Like you wouldn't expect a guy who finished college to end so many sentences with prepositions.

So I will finish with a plug for blightbusters.org so you can see that Detroiters care and have pride. If I'm allowed back I will tell you all I know about Brahms' 1st symphony. --Ab Manning

Comments

[Brian]

I vote to let him back!..........Hi Ab.

Brian

[ab]

Thanks Brian. That's all the encouragement I needed.