Detroit / Chicago
Aug. 25th, 2019 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfOur big, major stop on the trip back was Detroit! We'd never been before so that was pretty nice. When we got in we had dinner at Polish Village Cafe in Hamtramck (what a cool name). It was very delicious food! We were tired so we pretty much just went out to our motel and crashed. Well, I'd picked up these Shirley Temple sodas in Rochester and had a few left so I put one in a bucket of ice since we didn't have a fridge. So that was me being fancy.
In the morning we got up and went to have our big busy jam-packed day in Detroit! First we had breakfast at a place called The Breakfast Club. It had the menu of a more "hip" and modern kinda take on a diner but the atmosphere and staff of a really old-school diner. The sweet potato puffs (kinda like sweet potato tater tots) were spectacular. I had a creme brulee french toast and it was good but pretty over-the-top, like I was just eating a big hunk of a cake for breakfast. Then we had a big museum explosion. First we went to the Detroit Institute of Arts. It's a pretty damn huge museum. It has a really nice modernism section (yeah, okay, the main thing I'm always there to check out). They had some nice pieces by Whistler, Rothko, Monet, and bunches more of amazing stuff that I'd have to wrack my brain to dredge up (nice mix of metaphors there, Robert!). But it was a lot and we got a lot of out it. We checked out this little gallery across the street in this old building called the Scarab Club. It had a really awesome contemporary exhibit of some women artists. Very chaotic stuff. Then we went and looked at the Detroit Historical Museum. It was pretty cool. They had some displays like you were walking in the street of the city in the olden days (across a few decades in the 1800s). There was an exhibit of a bit of the auto assembly line. The only downside was (Fucking) Kid Rock apparently gave them a bunch of money to put his name on the music wing. Otherwise, the music wing would have been pretty awesome. Then we went to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. That building is really cool, especially the round section. We went through the main exhibit which is this somewhat literal path through the stages of slavery up through emancipation and the current day. The different galleries are different rooms, made up like their environments. You go through a slave ship, downstairs into the hold and there's lots of details about all of it and it is, of course, pretty harrowing.
The next part of the day is lighter with food and other stuff. We swing by Mudgie's to eat a delicious sandwich. I wanted to run off and do my own nerdy shit so I ate quick and hopped in the car to go to Detroit Modular. It really should be called Royal Oak Modular as it's out in the suburb of Royal Oak which is about a half hour drive from the city. But I made it with just a little time to get a little demo. Had trouble finding it 'cuz it's not really its own building and the name isn't on the outside. But I called the guy and he let me in. He was nice to accommodate me. I got a nice look at the Basimilus Iteritas Alter. Ended up picking up a Make Noise Optomix and a Dave Jones O'Tool +. Having the oscilloscope may just open up so much for me in understanding whatever it is I'm doing whenever I'm doing it! Then I drove back to Stormy Records. This is Windy and Carl's record store and Windy was working there so that's pretty awesome! I picked up some cds: Les Rallizes Dénudés: France Demo Tapes, The Dead C: Rare Ravers, Eliane Radigue: Songs of Milarepa, Kites/Prurient: The Hidden Family/+White+, Parlour: Simulacrenfield, Flying Saucer Attack: In Search of Spaces, and Unwed Sailor: Firecracker single. They had a bunch of Windy and Carl stuff of course but I was too goofily nervous to actually get any with her there and all (ridiculous!). And I don't have any of their stuff outside of comps but everything I like so I dunno. Some point! And I picked up a t-shirt that says "Stormy Records Windy and Carl's record store dogs always welcome" and there's a picture of a dog. I had a few more record stores on the list but I'd spent so much time driving out to Detroit Modular that I figured I'd done good and was ahead and met back up with Mary Beth at Batch Brewing Company. I got another sandwich! It was good stuff. What did we do next? We went downtown to this cocktail bar called The Standby. I had a very tasty non-alcoholic thing. Our server got excited when we told him we're from Memphis 'cuz he's super into garage rock and Goner Records (makes much sense in Detroit!). Also, wandering around downtown back to our parked car we saw a giant mural on the side of a building with Stevie Wonder. That was cool!
On our last day, we got up and hit up John K. King Books. It's a huge used bookstore, one of those multi-story buildings with stacks and stacks of books just coming out everywhere. I picked up a few: Travesty by John Hawkes, Chaos and Night by Henry de Montherlant, Set This House on Fire by William Styron, and The Tokyo-Montana Express by Richard Brautigan. Then we hit the road heading out once again. We took a little stop in Ann Arbor for lunch. We ate at Zingerman's! It's quite the place, we had delicious, huge deli sandwiches. Then walked around the little area and I hit up Encore Records where I got a bunch of used cds: Boris with Merzbow: Gensho, Do Make Say Think: You, You're a History in Rust, Eno ⦁ Hyde: Someday World, Brian Eno: Reflection, Yuka Honda: Memories Are My Only Witness, The Haters: In the Shade of Fire, Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing, Low: Double Negative, Tortoise: A Lazarus Taxon, Earth: Angles of Darkness. Demons of Light II, John Coltrane: First Meditations, John Hassell/Brian Eno: Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid: Optometry, Don Cherry: "Mu" First Part / "Mu" Second Part, Thelonious Monk: Criss-Cross. Then what? Hit the road again!
We hit our next stop which is Chicago with pretty good time. We get in much earlier than expected. Our first stop is Quimby's Bookstore. They have a focus on zines and graphic novels and lgbtq and feminism. I didn't pick up anything but Mary Beth got a bunch of stuff. Next, it was early and we had a bunch of time on our meter and Reckless was nearby so I took another unexpected record shop stop. Well, after wandering around aimlessly. We were going in the right direction and were only like a block away when I stupidly thought we'd gone in the wrong direction so we turn around, go the other way then realized my mistake. So that was fun walking up and down Milwaukee Ave. But we finally made it and I picked up a few more cds: Emily A. Sprague: Water Memory/Mount Vision, Laibach: The Occupied Europe Tour 1985, Coil: Porto, Arca: Mutant, Oren Ambarchi & Robin Fox: Connected, Arca: By, Oval: O, Gong: You, Saloli: The Deep End, Earth: Hibernaculum, and Popol Vuh: Affenstunde. Next thing is we took a drive down Lakeshore Drive with the sun setting (or mostly just set). We ended the night at Kuma's Corner with some amazing gourmet-ass burgers and heavy metal music. They also had Sprecher root beer on tap. Fuck yes! And I mean, one burger we got had pears brie on it and the other had dates. Damn ass good! Been hearing of it for years but never went.
In the morning we got up and went to have our big busy jam-packed day in Detroit! First we had breakfast at a place called The Breakfast Club. It had the menu of a more "hip" and modern kinda take on a diner but the atmosphere and staff of a really old-school diner. The sweet potato puffs (kinda like sweet potato tater tots) were spectacular. I had a creme brulee french toast and it was good but pretty over-the-top, like I was just eating a big hunk of a cake for breakfast. Then we had a big museum explosion. First we went to the Detroit Institute of Arts. It's a pretty damn huge museum. It has a really nice modernism section (yeah, okay, the main thing I'm always there to check out). They had some nice pieces by Whistler, Rothko, Monet, and bunches more of amazing stuff that I'd have to wrack my brain to dredge up (nice mix of metaphors there, Robert!). But it was a lot and we got a lot of out it. We checked out this little gallery across the street in this old building called the Scarab Club. It had a really awesome contemporary exhibit of some women artists. Very chaotic stuff. Then we went and looked at the Detroit Historical Museum. It was pretty cool. They had some displays like you were walking in the street of the city in the olden days (across a few decades in the 1800s). There was an exhibit of a bit of the auto assembly line. The only downside was (Fucking) Kid Rock apparently gave them a bunch of money to put his name on the music wing. Otherwise, the music wing would have been pretty awesome. Then we went to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. That building is really cool, especially the round section. We went through the main exhibit which is this somewhat literal path through the stages of slavery up through emancipation and the current day. The different galleries are different rooms, made up like their environments. You go through a slave ship, downstairs into the hold and there's lots of details about all of it and it is, of course, pretty harrowing.
The next part of the day is lighter with food and other stuff. We swing by Mudgie's to eat a delicious sandwich. I wanted to run off and do my own nerdy shit so I ate quick and hopped in the car to go to Detroit Modular. It really should be called Royal Oak Modular as it's out in the suburb of Royal Oak which is about a half hour drive from the city. But I made it with just a little time to get a little demo. Had trouble finding it 'cuz it's not really its own building and the name isn't on the outside. But I called the guy and he let me in. He was nice to accommodate me. I got a nice look at the Basimilus Iteritas Alter. Ended up picking up a Make Noise Optomix and a Dave Jones O'Tool +. Having the oscilloscope may just open up so much for me in understanding whatever it is I'm doing whenever I'm doing it! Then I drove back to Stormy Records. This is Windy and Carl's record store and Windy was working there so that's pretty awesome! I picked up some cds: Les Rallizes Dénudés: France Demo Tapes, The Dead C: Rare Ravers, Eliane Radigue: Songs of Milarepa, Kites/Prurient: The Hidden Family/+White+, Parlour: Simulacrenfield, Flying Saucer Attack: In Search of Spaces, and Unwed Sailor: Firecracker single. They had a bunch of Windy and Carl stuff of course but I was too goofily nervous to actually get any with her there and all (ridiculous!). And I don't have any of their stuff outside of comps but everything I like so I dunno. Some point! And I picked up a t-shirt that says "Stormy Records Windy and Carl's record store dogs always welcome" and there's a picture of a dog. I had a few more record stores on the list but I'd spent so much time driving out to Detroit Modular that I figured I'd done good and was ahead and met back up with Mary Beth at Batch Brewing Company. I got another sandwich! It was good stuff. What did we do next? We went downtown to this cocktail bar called The Standby. I had a very tasty non-alcoholic thing. Our server got excited when we told him we're from Memphis 'cuz he's super into garage rock and Goner Records (makes much sense in Detroit!). Also, wandering around downtown back to our parked car we saw a giant mural on the side of a building with Stevie Wonder. That was cool!
On our last day, we got up and hit up John K. King Books. It's a huge used bookstore, one of those multi-story buildings with stacks and stacks of books just coming out everywhere. I picked up a few: Travesty by John Hawkes, Chaos and Night by Henry de Montherlant, Set This House on Fire by William Styron, and The Tokyo-Montana Express by Richard Brautigan. Then we hit the road heading out once again. We took a little stop in Ann Arbor for lunch. We ate at Zingerman's! It's quite the place, we had delicious, huge deli sandwiches. Then walked around the little area and I hit up Encore Records where I got a bunch of used cds: Boris with Merzbow: Gensho, Do Make Say Think: You, You're a History in Rust, Eno ⦁ Hyde: Someday World, Brian Eno: Reflection, Yuka Honda: Memories Are My Only Witness, The Haters: In the Shade of Fire, Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing, Low: Double Negative, Tortoise: A Lazarus Taxon, Earth: Angles of Darkness. Demons of Light II, John Coltrane: First Meditations, John Hassell/Brian Eno: Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid: Optometry, Don Cherry: "Mu" First Part / "Mu" Second Part, Thelonious Monk: Criss-Cross. Then what? Hit the road again!
We hit our next stop which is Chicago with pretty good time. We get in much earlier than expected. Our first stop is Quimby's Bookstore. They have a focus on zines and graphic novels and lgbtq and feminism. I didn't pick up anything but Mary Beth got a bunch of stuff. Next, it was early and we had a bunch of time on our meter and Reckless was nearby so I took another unexpected record shop stop. Well, after wandering around aimlessly. We were going in the right direction and were only like a block away when I stupidly thought we'd gone in the wrong direction so we turn around, go the other way then realized my mistake. So that was fun walking up and down Milwaukee Ave. But we finally made it and I picked up a few more cds: Emily A. Sprague: Water Memory/Mount Vision, Laibach: The Occupied Europe Tour 1985, Coil: Porto, Arca: Mutant, Oren Ambarchi & Robin Fox: Connected, Arca: By, Oval: O, Gong: You, Saloli: The Deep End, Earth: Hibernaculum, and Popol Vuh: Affenstunde. Next thing is we took a drive down Lakeshore Drive with the sun setting (or mostly just set). We ended the night at Kuma's Corner with some amazing gourmet-ass burgers and heavy metal music. They also had Sprecher root beer on tap. Fuck yes! And I mean, one burger we got had pears brie on it and the other had dates. Damn ass good! Been hearing of it for years but never went.
