Rock, Hockey, Motor, Moore

It is only fitting that we had a crazy tire blowout the second we were about to pull off the highway into Detroit, the Motor City.  Last nights show, featuring a bare band of Brent, John, Drew and me, was way different than any show we have ever done reminding me that Gravity is still an everchanging experience. I think Detroit has been through so much as a place that a film like ours that deals with a lot of harsh truths, harsh truths that the community deals with on a daily basis, made it a somber event for the small crowd that came to MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, pictured above) last night. We got a sense of the overwhelming sadness when we went on a driving tour of the city with artist Gregory Holm whose Ice House project I remember forcing Brent to read about awhile back after seeing the breathtaking images and reading of it's beautiful, timely comment on the state of the economy of housing in America.

We saw abandoned structure after abandoned structure- including a train terminal that rivals Grand Central (pictured), the world's largest (and empty) Masonic Temple and dozens of residential houses just falling into disarray. But, out of all of the rubble a lot of good has been coming to Detroit lately. The vast stretches of empty land have created pioneering urban farming projects thoughout the city, the Heidelburg Project has turned a few blocks of houses into sculptural masterpieces while also making the area safer from exposure alone, artists have been flocking to the region in search of an affordable way of life, viewing the desolate landscape as a blank canvas rather than a blighted wasteland- all of these good things are slowly proving that progressive change can happen in innovative ways to make Detroit a better place to live block by block.

There are a lot of great things happening in this city and I really hope that all of the different communities here can work together to make Detroit the thriving, beautiful place it wants to be. On to Minneapolis for a show at The Walker Art Center on Saturday! Stay safe Detroit!