you haven't got time to remember how it was

I saw a preview for some awful-looking basketball/gang/rollerderby movie and was amazed to see that it was filmed in the old michigan central train station in detroit. this was the train station that was about a half-mile down michigan avenue from where I used to live. it's been abandoned since 1988 or so and is a hulking mass of stone and broken windows. I took dozens of pictures of it, fascinated that you could watch the sun set through the building.

this movie is supposed to be set in los angeles. it's sad and funny: so many movies that are set in some bombed-out urban area end up being filmed in detroit, but the ones that are supposed to be set in a bombed-out detroit (robocop) are filmed elsewhere.

I fantasized for years about sneaking into the train station and touring its crumbling beauty, but that idea faded quickly when my friend phil was trying to climb the fence to get in and sliced his forearm open on the razor wire. Perhaps it's best not to wake the dead; I'll just rent the movie instead.