Thanks to Laci the Dog for the inspiration to look at the latest video from the
We had been talking about Martin Luther Day on The manwiththemudrakes blog and we all had a common link that involved a few square miles in the center of Detroit. I spent my eary life there. I still have a lot of psychic baggage that links me very securely in an umbilical sense to Detroit.
There is a touchstone that links the civil rights struggle, socially concious political activism and the present situation in Haiti...Detroit is a disaster, but it is a slow motion econimic and social disaster that has been allowed to occur over a space of many years. It is a study in urban decay that has taken on an almost alternate reality dimension.
In many ways it is the tragedy and failure of deregulation and Randian economics.
I know in my soul that Detroit will rebound again, because it there is more real spirit and hope than in any ten cities any where else on the planet!
10 comments:
It will rebound only if there is innovative thinking. The old model of Midwest cities is gone. It cannot follow that old, dead end plan.
Detroit is ripe for an experiment. Maybe they could model the 'new' city after one of the European cities- like Strasbourg or Stuttgart.
There are success stories out there so that the 'wheel' need not be reinvented.
I have to admit a fondness for MoTown as well.
I forgot to mention that my Dad was doing his medical residency at Henry Ford Hospital. We lived somewhere near there.
I was told that Aretha Franklin actually was my babysitter before she was famous, but that may just be family myth. I would have been too young to remember.
I like Muckrake's idea and hope to see a realrenaissance in Detroit.
I believe that there will be a renaissance in Detroit. My nephew was working in the radiology department of Ford Hospital for a few years.
I would like to believe that you were babysat by Aretha! I just listened to a great program on BBC World Radio on the tradition of black preachers in America and her father, The Reverend C.L. Franklin was featured as the epitome of the style. They played a few recordings of him and his successor, who gave some lessons...
I still love to listen to the radio.
I know we knew her father; so it's possible
"Aretha, remember me? I was the white kid (the only one in the neighbourhood at the time) you babysat!@
I doubt she would have forgotten me!
BTW, I went to Varsity Day Camp at time a man named Jim Osterburg was a counsellor there (65-67).
So, I had Aretha as a babysitter and Iggy Pop as a Camp Counsellor
Laci, I have a history of "bumping into" Jimmy Osterberg that goes back to 1968. Some of our early encounters might still not be ready for the statute if limitations to allow the full account.
Then in New York, we were neighbors on Ave. B and kept telling Detroit/Ann Arbor stories about mutual friends...we discovered that one of his friends in New York who had been someone he had met in Berlin was one of my wife's closest friends and personal hair stylist.
As I dodder off into geezerhood, his stamina is an inspiration.
His last record is a very big deal here in France. He actually sings a few pieces in French.
btw, there are a number of audio only cuts from the record his first band, the Iguanas...he is the drummer, on You Tube now...
I am still a big fan of the Detroit Rock scene and try to keep up on current developments.
I have a copy of it. Tell him you met one of his campers from Varsity Day Camp the next time you see him.
We lived on Cortland, in the Six Mile Road/Livernois area
I also went to Varsity Day Camp Iggy's dad Jim Sr. was the camp counseler.
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