MBAD African Bead Museum

Art 

If you've ever driven along I-96 East heading downtown you may have noticed a building off to the
side of the expressway covered in mirrors. It's a curious covered structure to say the least, and it's part of the art you'll find at the MBAD African Bead Museum. There is a fascinating art installation that's on the grounds next to the museum located on Grand River near W. Grand Blvd. 

Dabls

The artist behind the creations is Olayami Dabls. Detroit Video Daily finally stopped by for a visit after passing the exhibit numerous times, and Dabls (as he introduced himself to me) is very personable, and he spoke with me about his gallery of African beads, and the art that he's created. To read more about this great artist and Detroit's jewel of a museum check out www.mbad.org.

Photos

The following Flickr slide show is just a sampling of the art on the grounds. I didn't take any photos of the bead gallery, and I strongly recommend that you visit the gallery because the beads there are simply beautiful. The video focuses on the sculptures, and when you visit the museum you'll want to check out the buildings that are nearby. Trust me they are incredible.

The slide show uses Flash and is not available for IOS devices

Video

Street Art Roll Number 3

More Art

Sifting through the digital archives I realized there were yet more street art photos that needed to be released from the vault, so here it is Street Art Roll 3! In case you missed the previous rolls here's the links to number 1 and number 2. First up is a colorful mural on East Jefferson.

Former Crown Cleaners

Graffiti House

On St. Aubin street

Fort Street

Over on the Southwest side of Detroit on Fort Street there is a unique mural on one of the businesses. Here it is.

Parental Discretion is Advised

Smelly

It's not always pleasant, and sometimes it's stinky. Just in case you didn't know here's a reminder.

eeeewww!

Eastern Market

This photo is actually from just outside of Eastern Market. There is some great artwork over there that I believe went up last summer. This photo was snapped from my car waiting at a light. Dirty snow and all. 

Click to enlarge

Gone to the Dogs

This bulldog is at the end of Iron Street, where one of Detroit Video Daily's early videos was shot. Don't bother searching for it, here's the link.

grrrrrr

Girl Power

This gem is straight to the point with its message.

Not too far from Eastern Market

Next Time

That rounds out Street Art Roll 3. Since art is everywhere in Detroit, you can be sure there'll be another roll in the future. 

Detroit Tigers Ice Cream

Ice Cream

Move over hotdogs, peanuts and cracker jack, a new flavor of ice cream is here just in time for Tiger baseball. Hudsonville Ice Cream has released the limited edition Tiger Traxx, and I thought I could wait until the home opener to try it out, but I couldn't. 

Delicious

The unique flavor is a blend of chocolate fudge swirls, chocolate covered pretzel baseballs (!) and vanilla ice cream. What does this all mean? Very simply, a delicious treat, and it's sure to be a hit :) Now we just need some warmer weather, so we can enjoy this ice cream in a cone outside.

Home Opener

The Tigers begin their season at Comerica Park Friday, so there's plenty of time to get some ice cream and celebrate the start of baseball in Detroit. Go Tigers!

Mmmmm.

Happy Easter!

Easter 

It's never too late for well wishes, so here is a late in the day Happy Easter to all that celebrate the holiday. Detroit Video Daily was in Chicago over the weekend and here is a photo from the trip. I was told that the lights that are planted around town in Chicago change depending on the holiday. For example green lights for St. Patrick's Day. Even though Chicago is nice and has the cool Crown Fountain, it's still good to be back in Detroit. 

Easter themed lights

Tall Grass

Beauty

I'm not going to lie, there are parts of Detroit that aren't beautiful. And there are plenty of photographers that like to shoot the run down buildings and document the destruction of abandonment. I'm not opposed to "ruin porn" photography, it's just that I think sometimes it gets more attention than other aspects of Detroit. 

Tall Grass

Which brings me to today's photo. There are patches of this tall grass that grow in various vacant lots in the city, and it's a nice visual break from all the buildings. It also provides a hang out for the pheasants. In fact, I scared a couple into flight as I moved close to snap this picture. I didn't have my camera ready, so you'll have to just imagine that one. At any rate, here's today's nature break.... 

Click on the photo to enlarge

Grocery Stores in Detroit

Grocery Stores

While this isn't the first time I've mentioned grocery shopping in Detroit, some readers may remember back in July when I made a short video on the subject. However, I had to run out to the grocery store this evening, in this instance I went over to Harbortown Market, and I got to thinking about how the "Detroit doesn't have any grocery stores" line really isn't true.

Comic

So I dusted off a comic I made using the site wittycomics.com, and thought it might be a good time to publish it before the Whole Foods store opens in Midtown and puts the "no grocery stores" line to rest for good.

Click on the comic to enlarge

Ambassador Bridge

Quiet

I took the following photo on New Year's Day and thought I'd post it before filing it away in the DVD archives. The color of the sky was impressive and made for an interesting reflection. It was a nice quiet end to the first day of 2013.

Click on photo to enlarge

Belle Isle Bald Eagle

National Bird

Close up of our national bird

I decided to take a different route on a Sunday drive around Belle Isle, and the new path led to a sighting of a bald eagle! To say the least I was pretty happy. After spotting the eagle and taking a few pictures, he flew on down the road to another tree.

The Video

I slowly drove on and got the video camera ready. I started filming but the eagle decided to take off, so there is only a little bit of footage. It was still one of my best bird sightings in Detroit.

Photos

Here are the photos I took...

Bald eagle on Belle Isle

He's chilling out

Eagle taking a look my way before flying off

Video

Here's the short video...

What's your favorite bird sighting on Belle Isle? Leave a comment and let me know!

The Street Art Roll Returns

Art

With all the interesting street art in the city I thought it was time to put together Detroit Video Daily Street Art Roll #2. Oh, and in case you missed the first art roll, here's the link.  

First Up

It may be Detroit's coolest garage. The garage behind Charlie's Bar in Springwells Village is one that catches your eye for sure.

Sports and pool

Hacienda Mural

This is flat out one of the best murals in Detroit. Located in southwest Detroit on West Vernor near Dragoon the mural is on the side of Hacienda Mexican Foods.

Great Mural!

Around the Corner

Yup, all you need to do is look on the other side of the above building and you'll find this fantastic piece of art. This is the view from the parking lot of E and L Supermercado a great place to buy groceries when you're in southwest Detroit.

Beautiful colors

Heading East

On the side of the Matrix Theatre in Mexicantown is this whimsical (yes, DVD used the word whimsical in a blog post) girl blowing on a flower.

Vibrant color

Heading North

Traveling north into the Corktown neighborhood on Michigan Avenue, not far from where Tiger Stadium used to be, is this artwork of former Tiger manager Sparky Anderson and the best baseball announcer in the history of the game, Ernie Harwell.

Two greats from Tiger baseball

Corktown

And in the Corktown neighborhood there's a nice mural at the Mercury bar that's worth a look.

Nice landscaping too.

Still Going

The DVD Street Art Roll continues with a trip back down to Springwells Village and the following mural on a curve.  

Slow down on this curve

The Southwest Urban Arts Mural Project brings us the next mural also in Springwells Village.

Beautiful message too.

There's More?

Yes, there is. But the art will have to stay in the digital warehouse until the next Street Art Roll... 

Driving in Detroit: Graffiti and a Mural

Graffiti in the Hood

Interesting signage

Traveling through southwest Detroit, I came upon a couple of blocks with some interesting graffiti and a mural by the Alley Project. More information about the cool Alley Project can be found at their Facebook page here.

Closed

The party store at the end of the video and pictured in the photo above is no longer in business, but they definitely had some of the funkiest signage for their store!

Horses in Detroit

Transportation

Tres hombres a caballo - Three men on horseback

As I've said before one of the best things about living in Detroit, or for that matter just spending time in the city, is that you never know what you're going to see. While heading home after dinner in Southwest Detroit, I got to witness an alternate means of transportation you don't see every day, horseback.

Casual Ride

One of the most interesting things about seeing the riders, other than the utter casualness of their ride, was when they pass through the gas station parking lot. They just cut right past a car that had finished getting gas. It was kind of an "old meets new" in the history of travel.

Video 

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory

Cold

The cold days of January have me thinking about the summer and how much I miss the lush green landscape. So as I was sifting through some photos from the DVD archive, I came across this one of the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Bell Isle. I took the photo while I was taking photos for the Peace Carillon video. Albert Kahn designed the the Scripps Conservatory, and it was constructed in 1904. While the photo may not be the best of the greenhouse, I like the way it's framed by the trees full of green leaves, so it arrives here in January to try and warm up the place a bit. 

Scripps Conservatory on Belle Isle

Happy New Year 2013!

Belle Isle

New Year's Day sunset

Happy New Year to all of the viewers and readers of Detroit Video Daily! I decided to head back out to Belle Isle to shoot a video of the Detroit River as I had done last year. Who knows maybe a tradition is forming?

The Future

This year there is no reflection. It's not to say that nothing much happened in Detroit this past year. Indeed quite a lot happened with one of the highlights being the Tigers making it to the World Series. Unfortunately, they didn't play well, and we're now looking forward to the 2013 season. And that's what this year is for me, and many others in the city, a look forward for better things to come. I had a great 2012, and if you click around in the categories on the right side you'll see some of the things I've been up to. But I'm excited for the new year and learning and experiencing new things.

The Video

The video is a quiet look at the Detroit River, and if it weren't for the family of ducks, there wouldn't be much action, if you want to call a few ducks swimming "action" :) So sit back and enjoy a minute of peace from a quiet cold New Year's Day, and I hope 2013 is a year full of success and happiness for you!

Reflection

Art

Art on the Wayne State campus

I finished my fall semester class at Wayne State University in Detroit, and as I was leaving the School of Education Building the sound of gurgling water and an odd pumping noise caught my attention. I stopped, and it was the sculpture titled Reflection. The noise was the water pumping through the unique bronze piece of art. 

A Pause

Closer inspection of the name plate revealed that Joseph Pozcinski created the sculpture and that it was a gift to the College of Education. It is aptly titled because "reflect" is exactly what I did for several minutes before deciding to shoot a video using the camera on my phone. I don't know if it was the relief of finishing the class, the quiet of the empty building or a combination of both, but it was nice to simply look at the water bubble up through the artwork.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays

Detroit Video Daily wishes a very Merry Christmas to all that celebrate the holiday! I hope everyone regardless of your beliefs enjoys the day. Here is a photo of the Blue Cross Blue Shield building in downtown Detroit. Each year they put up their "tree".

Blue Cross Blue Shield building near Greektown