I always loved you best after all

detroit, I've rediscovered your charm.

I made out like a fruit and vegetable bandit at eastern market. a half dozen sweet corn, picked yesterday? one dollar. a quart of fresh figs? buck-fifty. going to the market with a ten-dollar bill and buying enough produce to over-fill your fridge? well, not priceless, obviously. ten dollars, by definition. I saw some zucchini there that were the size of watermelons. what could you use them for? dugout canoes?

so, from there I went straightaway to the fabled Heidelberg street to see Tyree Guyton's ever-increasing and changing masterpiece of street/ghetto art. simply overwhleming with beauty and emotion. a tree covered with crucified stuffed animals, all soggy and dirty from months and years of rain; the recurring motifs of grotesquely painted faces, and the words God and War; lots of shoes, everywhere; bright polka dots on everything. I used up two rolls of film almost instantly. so, no digital, but here's a link to other's pics.

Got to talk to Tyree a bit and his cousin (Sharon? Charlene? I'm so bad with names). He showed me a model of this camper-trailer that he's going to cover on the outside with women's shoes and then someone else will design the inside and it will become a traveling art exhibit/workshop for kids. brilliant. he was very friendly and a good salesman, too, telling me I should go see his exhibit at the Charles Wright African-American History museum. Sharon-lene and I talked about how this is the hottest summer since '88, but she says it made for good strawberry picking with her grandkids. apparently the cool, rainy summer last year drowned the crop. "no berries at all!" she said.

after being overwhelmed and surrounded by art, I was feeling a mite bit peckish. I headed back to eastern market to go to this creole place on the corner of Gratiot and St. Aubin that I'd seen for *years* and never been to. a customer in there says, "Make sure you get some corn muffins! you'll be glad you did." I got the combo plate, which did include them. "Hey, you look like my step-son, Alex. Are you part Thai?" I assured him I wasn't, but said maybe it was my spanish blood.

looking for a place to eat this tasty meal, I decided to roll up to Belle Isle, having not been there all summer. I stopped by the big fountain and saw all these old scooters parked in a row. Inquisitive me had to see what was up. So I walk over and there are about 30-40 vespas and other cool, old scooters parked there and lots of young and middle-aged mods and hipsters milling about. I started talking to this guy and apparently it was a scooter rally hosted by the Rovers Scooter Club of detroit and windsor. I sat in the grass, ate my lunch, and watched as they all started their little two-stroke engines and puttered off to cruise the island. the shrimp gumbo was very good, the jambalaya a bit forgettable, and the corn muffins were a nice accompaniment, but not all that. the scooters were dreamy and the red beans and rice were orgasmic.

finally decided to head home and plant the lavender I bought at the market. I had a hole in my garden and it fit nicely. suffice to say, detroiters are some of the most curiously friendly people; what others say, be damned. I am smitten with the city right now. I have the urge to buy a decrepit house surrounded by empty lots and paint it with polka dots and cover it with pennies. my vespa would look lovely parked outside.