DETROIT * ANN ARBOR

Last weekend my friend Michelle and I went to the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Brenda, one of my most fun friends from UM days, lives there and took us to every inch of the Art Fair. I remember the Art Fair from years ago as being hot, sweaty, hot and crowded. Did I mention that it was so hot and crowded as to be unbearable? This year the weather was perfect, and the art was great, and the crowds were such that one could actually see the town while going through the fair.

The next day, Michelle and I went to Detroit. We drove downtown along Michigan Avenue, and it hasn't changed much since the last time I drove it, with the exception of this: This is all that's left of Tiger Stadium, formerly known as Briggs Stadium, and before that Navin Field. Time marches on. Someday, I suppose there might be a plaque.
We drove around downtown a bit, had lunch at Greektown, which is less than a shadow of the place it was before the casinos. I mean it's literally in shadow from a people mover and from the monster casino building.
Then up Woodward past the hole that used to be Hudsons, past Grand Circus Park and the Fox Theatre, past where I went to law school which is now the front yard of the new stadium where the Tigers play, and to the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is still across the street from the Main Public Library. The Detroit Institute of Arts, or DIA, was wonderful. The Diego Rivera Mural is something I can contemplate for a whole day. The building is beautiful and airy, and the modern and contemporary art collections were colorful and thought provoking. Michelle is an art teacher, so we did an exercise in front of a Jane Lackey piece, where you just keep drawing out impressions of the art. noticing and noticing.
We got back in the car and continued up Woodward. I really wanted to show Michelle a Sarinen designed building on the Wayne State Campus that was surrounded by dancing figures in a moat-like fountain. We asked everybody we saw for it's location. No one had even heard of it. No wonder. I apparently at some point confused some buildings at Wayne State with the dancing figures at Cranbrook. My idea would be really lovely, though. Anyway, we drove up Woodward, took a detour through the Boston/Edison Historic Homes district, passed through Highland Park, passed the State Fairgrounds (where was the giant old fashioned stove?), passed the Detroit Zoo, and went to Birmingham, where we walked around, ate dinner, enjoyed a wonderful gelato, and finally headed home. Michelle told me that she was going to run me around. I'm still recovering a week later.

On Sunday we headed back up north to Cranbrook, where we toured the gardens surrounding the house. After a little brunch at Little Daddy's on Woodward, we went back into Cranbrook and found some more grounds to explore. We saw the pools and fountains that I'd remembered from my childhood. Now they were all mixed up from what I'd remembered. At some point when I was much younger, I must have dreamed about these places. Or maybe they are some of my earliest memories all jagged and blurry like on TV when the characters are trying to remember something.