Finally it's raining in Michigan, this week, if not right now.

[fflo]

Been a cool, dry summer, generally. The gardening people tell me it's been dry. Not enough sun for a bumper crop of juicy tomatoes to be expected next month.

The Tigers game some coworkers and I went to yesterday was lookin' like a very likely rain-out, but we never did get too soaked, and the sun actually came out here and there. It was pretty fun. I brought temporary tattoos, and served as designated driver of the big van, wherein I ate all kinds of snack foods that were passed up from the back, including quite a few pretzel cigars. I was between disclaimerwill and squirrelykat at the ballpark---nice. The Tigers lost to the Mariners, but a good time was had, and I got to see Ichiro as well.

Tomorrow, if the expected rain detours around it enough, the semi-underground (Positively) Fourth Street Fair will occur, at its strange little tucked-away pod of a few residential blocks, cut off by a highway in downtown Detroit, that somehow still feel remote and even woodsy. It's a laidback hippie/stoner kind of thing, priding itself on its unofficialness, eschewing publicity, and quietly showcasing bands and musicians, along with offering various (and I'm talkin' various) goods for sale and food items. It reminds me a little of Baltimore's SoWeBo Festival, which started when a buncha people in that little neighborhood in Baltimore ran power cords out of their apartments into the street and put on a street fair. Detroit's Dally in the Alley may have a similar feel too, and I suppose it's gotten bigger through the years, as has SoWeBo, whereas Fourth Street retains even the iffiness of its grassrootsy independence.

I miss Baltimore's summer street festivals. I miss the city, too, and being in a city. The relative anonymity of it was once such a relief. I think I'm beyond needing that sort of relief, or beyond its extremity, anyway, maybe, but I do miss it.



 

Comments

[shmizla.livejournal.com]

it's going to be "funny" when detroit turns out to be the shape of the future--of barter and improvisation and small-scale human interaction--for the pompous planners of great things to come. i still remember the bike cooperative and think sometimes i could organize my life around a thing like that, without having to 'achieve' anything or be affirmed.

[(Anonymous)]

the greatly emptied/abandoned city with foraging and people living in tents on the edges of grass-filled lots right downtown --- it's got some sort of post-apocalyptic--feelin' fending-for-yourselves small-scale action on multiple levels.

and fie on achievement, as defined by the external and the powerful!

uh...

[fflo.livejournal.com]

that was me