I’ve been wanting to explore Detroit for ages and finally there were enough reasons and planning to make it happen two weeks ago over Easter.

At the outset it’s hard to prepare for Detroit’s massive abandonment, decay, and poverty, even though I knew to expect it. To fresh eyes, large swaths of the city look, no jokes, like the leavings of a war zone. It’s pervasive, you can’t go more than a block or two before encountering it. Once opulently designed & crafted buildings are now windowless skeletons, sunken and rotting like forgotten jack-o-lanterns, scrappers having come and gone long ago. A particular image that won’t be leaving my head easily is the sight of the former Packard Motor plant. It’s a carcass that goes on for literal blocks. When Christina from printmaking shop Perfect Laughter showed us around her brand-new printmaking studio in the Corktown neighborhood she told us of the rubberneckers on the hunt for “ruin porn” documenting as if Michigan Central Station were the Acropolis or the Coliseum in Rome. And I can certainly understand that pastime, though it’s not my particular style, because the ruins really are a breathtaking sight to see.

Yet it’s undeniable that there are just as many marvelous things happening despite the sad parts of the city. Everyone we met in Detroit is doing something or working for something, their efforts beautifully poignant in the face of the city’s hard edges.

Culture is also on the rise in Detroit too. Chicagoans would not believe the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) rivals our Art Institute, but you’d be wrong there. It’s every bit as good, if not better. MOCAD, the contemporary art museum, is consistently one of the most creative and innovative contemporary spaces out there. Every visit it’s completely remade new and you can expect to be surprised, that’s for sure. This time around we enjoyed an incredible installation by Joshua White & Gary Panter’s Light Show. The best way I can think of to describe it as a modern fun house, a huge echoing space vibrating with psychedelic rhythm and sound. So intense it’s almost repellent at first, but then little surprises and funny things start appearing and then it’s all smiles if you hang out awhile. It’s like a little mini vacation, and a pretty perfect metaphor for how the city is itself.

We stayed at the adorably rustic yet modern inn, Honor & Folly, run by Meghan McEwen of Designtripper. The space was filled with plenty of handmade and thoughtful cozy touches, just as I imagined when I posted about it before. We made good use of the full kitchen and even hosted a meal with our families who hiked in from the suburbs to hangout.

Every place comes with a story in Detroit. At the Peacock Room, a little boutique near the DIA, the shop owner told me how she tore down the drywall in her space, only to discover it was hiding a 1920′s ballroom with mirrored walls, marble columns and tin ceilings. Talk about hidden treasure, eh? Or Café D’Mongo’s, a former speakeasy which is a feast of 1920′s nostalgia. It only reopened recently, pretty much intact from it’s original heydays. The charming & feisty older lady running the joint seems like she came back to life with the bar too.

We ate really well, plenty of BBQ and soul food, as well as fresh picks from the open air Eastern Market. Lafayette or American for Coney Island Dogs, though I can’t say I can tell the difference between the two places. Maybe the joy of a boiled hot dog in a white bun with chili and mustard is lost on me though. There was also plenty of music, we saw live shows almost everywhere without even trying. Detroit’s got Motown in its blood and that influence is clear. If there wasn’t live music at a venue there was a fatty juke box instead – the real kind – not the cheesy wall-mounted electronic ones with the same 20 songs that are popular in Chicago pubs. One place we went to (The Bronx) even has a bench thoughtfully placed by the juke box so you can get comfy while you rifle through the extensive collection.
 

The Heidelberg Project, while not exactly new (it’s a non-profit art installation that’s been evolving since the 1970′s), is a totally unexpected response to the city’s downfall. There is color and brightness on every possible surface, with bizarre objects in not normal places, it’s like Dr. Seuss came and built landscape with trash. Here it’s okay if nothing makes sense, it’s a nice reminder that chaos can also have beauty and meaning.

For next time: bookbinding classes at Signal Return that come with home-cooked farm-to-table dinner, another visit to the DIA, Belle Isle Park, a closer look at the Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. I’m sure there’s plenty else to do and see, I just hope I get to come back for it soon!

{iPhone photos from Instagram & Banana Camera’s Cross-Process, Wikipedia, and Ina Weise.}

Big internet day for me today! Our house is on Design*Sponge! What a fun collaboration this was, Angela Finney-Hoffman (my Post 27 partner in crime) came over to help up hang some of the art and do some organizing and styling. And then our incredibly talented camera-head friends, Brian Guido & Julia Stotz took the pictures. I’m seriously pinching myself, I never thought our things could look so good. Also major high fives to Anne Stark Ditmeyer from Pret a Voyager & Design*Sponge for having us. Thanks, thanks, thanks. friends!!

Here’s some outtakes and some photos D*S didn’t publish, including one stereo & vinyl collection which is a particular favorite of mine.
 

Vintage magazine organizers, endearingly named after countries. Always make me ponder their previous & worldly life before they held our magazines. The little figurine buddy hanging out on the edge of the photo is by Friends with You. Instead of installing curtains or using the standard mini-blinds, we covered these bay windows with semi-transparent fabric. It’s adhered right to the glass with straight liquid starch (Sta-Flo). We rent so this will come off with a sponge & water once it’s time to move. 

Vinyl collection is almost exclusively inherited from our parents & grandparents. Runs a wide gamut from musicals, barbershop & oldies, jazz, disco, to more modern folk and electronica. Plays on a mint-condition 80′s Technics turntable with round speakers, also vintage. The speakers are unfortunately more style than substance and this shows in the quality of sound. I love how unique they are though so maybe we’ll one day get to commission a modern remix on them (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!).

Make sure you hit up the whole tour on Design*Sponge for the full rundown on the rest of the space!

Okay, go go gadget blog post. Finally. Doing it. Noting the time, even: 1:41am. I’m not sure I’ve gone this long without posting before and it’s equally freeing and guiltifying. It’s been really tough to find reasons to post here, to be honest. And sometimes participating in the whole rest of the social media world totally usurps anything else I would’ve shared. It happens. I get over it and find myself back here. Hopefully you do as well!

In the meantime, I have been working on some extracurriculars though, with the likes of some awesomely talented people like Peculiar Bliss magazine and… Design Sponge! Really excited for the day when I can finally show off the fruits of these. And for photos, here’s some instagrams of my weekend inspiration trip to Milwaukee, ganked from my tumblr.

Annnnnd. Fin. More soon!

+ Buy Some Damn Art got a new design! Aw yeah, good work as always, Ghostly Ferns! Artwork is by Kate Pugsley and is the most recent to be showcased on BSDA. So buy some damn art, would ya? Cause prints are great, but originals are better.

+ I’m giving a BIG speech in the coming months and I’m already prepping (gulp!). Scott Berkun’s speaker’s checklist is exhaustive and will prove to be quite useful no doubt. His point about making sure to get directions not just to the venue, but also within the office-park insanity, and within-building insanity made me chuckle. Nothing worse than arriving a few minutes early only to discover you took the wrong elevator and end up tearing through the building to make it to the room on time. (Not that I’ve done that, ahem.) Via Nickd.

+ Wired on why being sleepy or less than sober are good for creativity. Excellently reasoned article, in short it says our brains are able to free-associate more readily during these states which makes total sense to me. There is, obviously, diminishing returns on this phenomena so get it while the getting’s good I guess.

I didn’t think Pinterest was for me until one of my oldest friends, one who knows me better than almost anybody, called me out for not using it. As in, you’re crazy for not taking advantage of this resource…

That was six weeks ago and already it’s grown my traffic by a measurable amount (thanks, analytics). Better still, Pinterest – currently one of the fastest growing sites in the world – ranks as my #3 traffic source, right after organic google searches and direct visits. Pinterest is also ad-free at the moment, though there is the occasional and unintrusive sponsored/for sale pin. On Pinterest, there isn’t obsessive self-broadcasting and self-documentation; it’s just about curating and collecting cool stuff. The tone is more “isn’t this awesome?” rather than “look what I had for lunch.”

My friend, she was right.

Yet, I can’t unplug my brain from the rest of the negativity surrounding Pinterest. Snide pie charts mocking women who use Pinterest, wisecracks and reassertions against Pinterest are regularly cropping up in my feeds, and tech analysts and the media (Reuters + AOL, MSN Money) sure as heck don’t know what to make of the women flocking to this tool. And, as we know about online culture, these types of things can easily trigger and rapidly escalate to a place that is counterproductive. I’ve been watching this unravel, doing nothing with the hope it will blow over. I’m not doing nothing now.

Scoping out Pinterest’s home page, I totally understand the backlash. The topic is the day’s most popular content, pulled out of the context of that user’s particular stream. There’s no theme or structure otherwise. Individually, they aren’t inherently bothersome and most likely represent only a fraction of a user’s tastes. But put them together and collectively they are a hot mess of confusion, which doesn’t reflect the real experience of actually using the site, nor the amount of depth it offers. Instead it reads like a Barbie doll or a Cathy comic: exaggerated, out of proportion, and not indicative of reality. This makes it all too easy for the casual visitor to swiftly make their exit without need of return. Ew, indeed.

Still, every social network has its turn-offs. None is perfect; all have flaws and breakages. But it’s as though Pinterest must be bulletproof in order for it to be taken seriously. Which is silly. If any start-up waited until they were fully formed to launch and build users, there wouldn’t be any of them! That’s simply not how start-up culture works.

All of this boils down to the core idea that the site is somehow less worthwhile because women got to it first. It’s as if Pinterest needs a tagline: “No, really, it’s NOT just for women!” This conversation wouldn’t be happening if Pinterest’s early adopters were dudes, no doubt. Who knows if it would even still exist if Ben Silbermann & his team hadn’t decided to offer the first batch of invites to female design bloggers. Yet, he did and – stop the presses – it’s a big stinking deal because it’s never occurred to the world that a group of women can be early adopters of a technology. And as history tells us, women-folk bucking trends always seems to ruffle feathers.

Sure, Pinterest is dominated by women’s interests right now. Who says the site can’t grow and change? Who says there aren’t some open-minded guys out there who are willing to wade past the make-up tutorials and cupcake food porn to balance the playing field? Curating and sharing content is clearly not a behavior that will go away anytime soon, who knows, maybe Pinterest will fade into the background as similar sites like Gimme Bar and Dropmark emerge. (Both are still in beta, which means they are exclusive, still developing features, and can’t even begin to touch Pinterest’s growth yet.)

I don’t even really care how it plays out, I just don’t want it to be segregated and I don’t want to feel like I have to justify using a tool that is so obviously working for me & many others. Use it or don’t use it, but ragging on what doesn’t work for you is pretty declassé if you ask me. Capisce? Good. Now, how’s about we get back to getting inspired, making stuff, and sharing stuff shall we?

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Like the eye candy? Well, there’s plenty more, I don’t think I need to tell you where. #1 is Tangerine Dream by Jim Lambie, pinned by Chloé Douglas of Plenty of Color, #2 is a vintage tattoo, pinned by My Love For You, #3 is vintage buttons pinned by Christen Carter.

Thanks to Elizabeth Giorgi at The Mary Sue for inspiring this and supplying many of the sources. And also to Kate Singleton for directing my attention to this in the first place. Hugs + high fives, sisters.

Well, this week flew by in a breathless woosh. How is it Friday already? Not that I’m complaining, mind. Five deadlines this week ate all my blogging time and I’m cutting out early today to head to Purdue University to see Studio Visit, Chad’s show with Cody Hudson & Stephen Eichhorn.

Here’s some fodder to make up for the lull this week though:

+ I wrote about Post 27′s awesome new line of handmade jewelry by Portland artist, Emily Counts.

+ Major, major office supply lust courtesy of HAY, a little design boutique in Copenhagen. Itching to get on a plane just to visit this shop alone.

+ Okay Type releases their newest font, Harriet, to rave reviews including an award from the Type Directors Club. I can certainly see why, Harriet is no joke. Expertly executed with careful finesse, she’s smart and friendly, modern and classic, which means infinite uses. Hope to find an excuse to buy soon!