Green Dot Stables Sliders

Good Food

Gotta love the horse on the roof

Simplicity is often the key to success, and Green Dot Stables bar in the outskirts of Corktown has that figured out. A co-worker suggested going to Green Dot for an after work get together, and it was so good I've been back a few times since. Green Dot is a comfortable place with a simple menu of sliders and side dishes. But these aren't your White Castle sliders. Their menu has everything from a traditional burger slider to one called the Korean that has a beef patty, peanut butter and kimchi.

Hamburger and catfish sliders

Good Drink

Not to get too wrapped up in the food, the bar has plenty of brews to cover your tastes. The menu also has suggestions next to each slider on what beer to try with your meal. If you're not into having alcohol, there's soft drinks as well. On one of my visits my dining companion asked for a Coke and the waiter replied it would be a cola. She said, sure Pepsi is fine. And he replied, no it would be a "cola" not Pepsi or Coca Cola. Still not sure what brand it was, but it was a cola. Side note, I ordered an iced tea, and it was one of the best iced teas I've ever had in a restaurant or bar. It really was.

Good Times

The ambiance at Green Dot is relaxed, and there is long bar with regular bar stools and also some swivel chairs. A few flat screen TVs adorn the walls, and make watching a sporting event easy. On one evening I was there cool R&B songs were playing on the sound system. All of this translates to a pleasant atmosphere to hang out, enjoy some low priced tasty food and sample some cold beverages. Good times in Detroit. Here's the the link to the Green Dot website that has their menu and a map on how to find the bar. They have plenty of parking and bike stands if you ride your bike. ---Trust DVD on this one, do yourself a favor and check out Green Dot Stables.

faux fire place, nice.

Mootown Ice Cream Shoppe

Hot Day, Cool Treat

Supino Pizzeria

We finished placing our order at Supino Pizzeria in Eastern Market and went outside to enjoy a cool breeze that was finally starting to break a scorching summer day. Mrs. DVD glances over at Mootown Ice Cream & Dessert Shoppe and states she wants ice cream. The pizza wasn't ready, so in we walked to Mootown the shop next door. The decision was made: today it would be dessert first, then dinner.

Motown Meet Mootown

Mootown, to put it simply, is a great place to get ice cream. They sell Hudsonville brand ice cream (delicious and Michigan made) and other desserts as well. In fact, I merely sampled the ice cream because the Sock-It-to-Me cake was calling my name. And I wasn't disappointed with the sweet moist cake that had just the right amount of cinnamon.

Inside Mootown Ice Cream

Friendly Service

The inside of Mootown is bright and comfortable, and they even have a gift area in the back with an eclectic selection of items from clothing to jewlery. Besides the tasty ice cream, the service can't be beat. Happy, friendly people and cooling ice cream make Mootown located on Russell Street in Eastern Market an easy favorite to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Not shown, but there are tables outside to eat your treat.

Even the cute dog outside the shop was friendly!

Watching the comings and goings

Have you been to Mootown? Where do you go for dessert in Detroit? Leave a comment and let me know.

Giant Bull's Head on Mack Ave.

A Vegan's Nightmare

At first glance all I could think of was this is one place that vegans would not patronize. Well, there's no chance of that, since this former carryout place is no longer in business. But it's also the placement of the billboard that made me smile. If the restaurant were still open, I'm sure they wouldn't be to pleased with a message like that next to their establishment. My guess is that this carryout was not known for its vegetarian offerings.

Click on photo to enlarge

Bull's Head on Mack Avenue

Carryout at Mack and Lenox in Detroit

The place doesn't seem to be in bad shape, but let's face it you're not going to put a fish fry restaurant there.

Close up

Side view

The bull's head has been there for years, and it seems like it's held up well given Michigan's winters can dish out some rough weather. Not sure if it's just me but he looks kind of sad, like he misses the attention he got when the place was open. 

Do you remember when this place was open? Did you ever eat there? Leave a comment and let me know.

Detroit Historical Museum Renovation Party

Opening and Closing

Dancing to beats by Carl Craig

It's been said before, and it's true, that Detroit knows how to throw a party. In this case the Detroit Historical Museum hosted a pre-Movement Electronic Music Festival party/kickoff event to the six month closing of the museum while it undergoes a major renovation. The technofest (aka Movement, I'm old school and still refer to it occasionally as technofest) is an annual Detroit electronic music festival that takes place at Hart Plaza during Memorial weekend. The dual purpose party at the Historical Museum featured a performance by Detroit's own Carl Craig, one of the most talented artists of the techno music genre.

Outdoors

Hand prints of techno legends

The party was held outdoors at the museum's Woodward Plaza. Part of the renovation will be the creation of a Detroit Legends Plaza, and before the party started Detroit electronic music legends Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Eddie Fowlkes cast their handprints in cement to be showcased later in the new plaza. The Detroit Legends Plaza is scheduled to open in September 2012 a month before the museum reopens on November 23, 2012. Detroit Video Daily (DVD) missed the casting of the hand prints but managed to snap a few photos of the cement casts before they were removed from the party area.

The Music

Carl Craig

Carl Craig's set energized a happy crowd of dancers, minglers and historians. I will admit that I haven't been to a technofest since they started charging a fee to enter. It's kind of funny because I attended the first electronic music fest at Hart Plaza in 2000, and it was an awesome event with great music and a positive vibe. It was also free, and subsequently whenever I talk to someone about the Movement Festival they always say it was better when it was free. The price (free!) of the pre-party at the Historical Museum made it desirable to attend, but it really was the featured performance by Carl Craig that solidified the deal for me. The music accompanied a warm evening, and plenty of people were moving to the electronic beats.

Last Visit to the Old Museum
The Detroit Historical Museum is a great attraction for visitors and city residents, and anyone who enjoys history will not be disappointed if they visit. Since the museum waived the admission charge during the event, DVD and Mrs. DVD ventured in for one last peek at the museum before the renovations start. This rounded out the evening, and now we can look forward to the reopening in six months. DVD will be sure to head back then, for a look at what promises to be an exciting time for the museum.

Here's the video from the event...

Enjoy Car Wash Cafe on East Jefferson

New Paint Job
Driving down East Jefferson near Belle Isle, I couldn't help but notice the new paint job on a vacant building. This building used to have a great mural that advertised the car wash cafe that was next door. The cafe had barbecue, ice cream and more. In addition, it always had some cool old cars out front.

Google Map Street View
Below is the way the car wash cafe used to look. Obviously it was quite a place. Larry Weeks, the man who used to own it passed away a couple of years ago. While I never had my car washed there, Mrs. DVD did and said he was a nice guy.

Photo from July 2009

Progress?
Here is a photo I took of the newly painted building. Another vacant building down the road was also recently painted. My guess is they are getting ready for the Grand Prix race on Belle Isle next month. Somehow this kind of bums me out.

Enjoy Detroit Car Wash in 2012

Bagley Pedestrian Bridge Photo

Sunny Day
After the recent Cinco de Mayo Parade, I walked over the Bagley Pedestrian Bridge to retrieve my buggy. There was ample parking in the area, although I'm sure that changed because one last fiesta was setting up in the open space near the bridge. Because of the beautiful weather I hung out for a bit and snapped a few photos. The one below is my favorite, so I thought I'd share it with you all. If you are wondering what it's like to walk over the bridge take a look at this older video.

View from the Eastern Side (click on photo to enlarge)

Islandview Village Pheasants Keep Life Interesting

A Pheasant at Home in Detroit

Detroit Pheasants
They are definitely skittish birds. Although you can't tell from the video (that is until about the 1.15 mark), the urban pheasants in Detroit are very skittish. Over on the East Side, nestled in some of the vacant lots, these beautiful birds go about their business clucking and, in some cases, ducking (more about that later), but try and stop to take a photo or shoot some video? — Heck, no. These fancy birds are skittish and run off at the drop of a hat.

Easy Viewing
Living in the Islandview Village neighborhood has many benefits, and one of them is catching sight of ring-necked pheasants milling about. It used to be somewhat of a rare occurrence, you would see one here and there, but most often just hear their loud clucking calls early in the morning. However, I don't know if it's because of the mild winter this past year and the pheasant population has gone up, but pheasant spotting has been pretty easy as of late.

Not Too Easy
So I decided to take some photos and maybe even shoot some video to share with you all, but every time I would stop my car, the birds would pick up on my presence and quickly duck for cover. Occasionally, they would fly off, but because they are horrible at flying, they would only go a short distance, to what they consider safety and then scurry away.

Perfect Photo Op?
Recently, though, as I started off on my morning commute, I spotted a pheasant in a clearing. I stopped my car and the pheasant froze and then started to rapidly walk away. He stopped, so I backed up, and he skipped off again. I backed up, and so did he. It was getting ridiculous as we played this back-and-forth game!  I finally got out my camera and sure enough, off he went for good. Rather then accept defeat, this only furthered my resolve to capture the elusive pheasant on film.

Evening's Best
Driving home from work, I started to notice areas where the pheasants would always appear. (I was still hearing one almost every morning and would get the occasional sighting in the alley but only to have my dog scare him away.) It seemed like my best opportunity would be early evening.

Success!
Sure enough, a couple days later, I come upon some pheasants, and with luck a male and a female, nibbling at some weeds for their dinner. I glide the car over and get the video cam going. As I said earlier, they are skittish, and when I get greedy for better quality footage, I open my car door and off they go. I decide to investigate a dark spot in the brush, and as you see in the video, a not-so-friendly neighbor of the pheasants is looking for his dinner. If for some reason you don't want to watch the video, think: meow.

Video and More Photos...
Nevertheless, the video I got was pretty decent, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. And for additional pheasant photos, check out this link to a Flickr Detroit Pheasant Set. So in your travels through the neighborhood, keep an eye out for these colorful birds; just remember they don't care for car doors being opened!

Globe Trading Company

Globe Trading Company (click on the photo to enlarge)

History
The Globe Trading Company building is located in the Rivertown area of Detroit. The structure has a long history with one of the first buildings of the complex built in 1892.  A Wikipedia article on the Dry Dock Complex has more information on the Globe Trading Company and the type of work that was done there.


In the News
The recently signed (between the city and state) consent agreement to manage the city's finances has brought the building back into the news.  In Sunday's Detroit Free Press (4/8/12) an article on the consent agreement said, "the documents call for DNR investment in the dilapidated Globe Trading Co. Building across from William G. Milliken State Park and the Detroit riverfront." Let's hope that this turns out to be true and the building gets funds needed for restoration.


State Park
As a side note, in case you haven't been to the William G. Milliken State Park it is an awesome park run by the Department of Natural Resources.  The park's simply a nice place to take a break and watch the river go by.  If you're ever near downtown, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Former Uniroyal Site - Detroit

Activity
I spent the better part of last week's gorgeous weather laid up in bed trying to recover from some sort of cold/flu, and for several days loud banging noises competed with my will to sleep. The banging noises were working in tandem with a high pitched, BEEP - BEEP - BEEP — from heavy machinery letting everyone know it's backing up.  So it was a constant, BANG BANG BANG BEEP BEEP BANG BANG…

Former Uniroyal Site - Detroit

Noisy but Okay
Turns out it was the clean up at the site of the old Uniroyal plant across from Belle Isle on East Jefferson that was causing all the ruckus.  However, the noise was welcomed because it's a huge positive for the city when a long vacant stretch of contaminated land is getting cleaned up.

Former Use
The space being cleaned is a 43 acre area that was also used by other industrial concerns such as Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. (now DTE Energy) and Michigan Amonia Works. This timeline from Crain's Business shows some of the history of the area.  The land was eventually purchased by the city in 1981, and any remaining buildings were demolished. Then came many delays that centered on who would pay for the industrial waste clean up. Finally, today there is some real progress. Well, at least progress you can see and hear.

Belle Isle Bridge in the Background

Plan for the Future
The plan for the riverfront property is mixed use residential townhouses or apartments along with retail shops.  The riverwalk will connect to Gabriel Richard Park which is at the foot of the the Belle Isle Bridge.  The current plan has generated a lot of excitement in part because of the involvement of the ex NFL star and former Detroiter Jerome Bettis.  Let's hope that this space will thrive in the future, and on a personal note the next time we have 80 degree weather in March that I can actually enjoy it!

Bagley Pedestrian Bridge - Detroit

Build It and It will Be Walked
The Bagley Pedestrian Bridge officially opened on May 5, 2010 as part of a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Mexicantown. This one of a kind bridge was created during the Gateway Project that was a major construction overhaul of the freeways that improved access to the Ambassador Bridge.  Ever since then, I've wanted to take a stroll across it.  "Why?", you might ask?  Well, I can only respond with, "Why not?"
  
Too Much Information?
It's an interesting bridge, and I've come to find out from a case study on lusas.com that it's "the first cable-stayed bridge to be built in the state of Michigan."  The detailed overview on lusas.com also contains this gem: "The bridge superstructure comprises a trapezoidal single-cell steel box girder of constant depth and varying width topped by a concrete slab that varies from 15ft-3in to 34ft in width over its length." -- Umm... Yeah.  I can tell you this, it took me a little over four minutes to walk across the bridge, and it's pretty cool the way it connects two parts of Mexicantown. :)

So here's the video, hope you enjoy it!

The music is from Suite Española Op. 47 - Leyenda

Belle Isle Ice Tree 2012

A Recent Discovery
I recently learned about the Belle Isle Ice Tree at the Detroit Moxie blog. Despite living in Detroit for years I had never heard about it.  Apparently it is tradition where the city stacks discarded Christmas trees, runs a pipe through them and turns on the water to spray like a sprinkler. Then add Detroit style frigid temperatures, and voila you have the famed Belle Isle Ice Tree!

It's a Family Affair

Belle Isle Ice Tree

On this cold January afternoon the sun was in a battle with the clouds to stay shining, and it provided a perfect backdrop to view the tree up close. There were several families that stopped by and let their kids investigate the ice (ha! not too different than yours truly). A couple of older kids (okay, grown men) were skating on the resulting ice rink surrounding the tree. Mrs. DVD stayed in the car and later remarked that she was impressed by their skating ability. They seemed to be having fun taking turns shooting slap shots at the base of the icy sculpture.
  
A Photo Op for Sure
Besides shooting the video I snapped some photos and have added them to the DVD Flickr page. Of course I wasn't the only one out there taking pictures, and as is the latest trend many people were simply snapping photos with their camera phones. It was definitely a good vibe as families shot pics of their kids, hustled them into the car, to be replaced by the next round of visitors. The tree isn't too far from the bridge as one exits the island, and I got the impression beside it being a destination it's also the last stop as people are leaving the island.

The Video
The video is a closer view of the ice tree, and it was a little treacherous as I walked on the ice, so keep this in mind if you go take a look. If you find yourself in the neighborhood of Belle Isle, I strongly suggest you check out this man and mother nature made ice art. It's not one of those things you see every day, and those are the ones worthwhile. :)

Fleet Specialty Warehouse Building - Detroit

An Old Building

The Fleet Specialty Warehouse is one of those abandoned buildings that always intrigues me and catches my eye whenever I drive by it on West Fort Street. The building is not too far from the Ambassador Bridge. It's a large structure, and there aren't any buildings right next to it, so I'm sure that's part of the reason it stands out. However, the date on the front of the building signifying when it was constructed is really what always draws my attention. So much so, that in the video I needed to zoom in on it. I almost felt that I had to get a close up and record the date to make myself believe how old this building is.  From the outside of the structure it appears to be in good shape. And like all old, interesting abandoned buildings in the city, one hopes that it can be redeveloped and put to good use. 

Not Always a Warehouse

Through some Internet research (read Google) I discovered a blog called International Metropolis that has an archived post detailing some of the history of the building. At one time this was the laundry building of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Reformatory for Girls. In one of the comments on that blog a person posted a link that tells the story that the Sisters of Good Shepherd eventually needed more space and moved from W. Fort Street to a location in Dearborn Heights. The new chapel was named Vista Maria and is where the Vista Maria organization to this day provides services to help girls and women. 

Check out the short video...

Update - July 4th 2014
Well, the Fleet Warehouse building didn't survive. The following link updates its sad demise.

Belle Isle Bridge

Note: Glogs are flash based and will not appear on your Apple mobile device.

Belle Isle Bridge

Mt. Elliott Park

Today's post is something a little different. As you know, Detroit Video Daily is about videos and more. This is one of the posts that falls into the "more" category. Basically it's a nice view from Mt. Elliott Park at the Detroit River looking east at the MacArthur Bridge. I took the photo in the early evening of October 2011 and decided to use it in a Glog. A glog is essentially an online poster that one can make using tools on their website. The MacArthur Bridge is commonly known as the Belle Isle Bridge, and a great place to get a view of the bridge is at Mt. Elliott Park.

Detroit Techno
There is a some techno music added to the glog just for good measure. Why techno? Well, as Wikipedia says, "techno is a form of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built." (My emphasis added.)  Hence, a bit of techno to celebrate Detroit's role in the electronic music scene. So go ahead and click on the "play" button under the boombox, and give it a listen. The song is by Vanderson, and while he's not from Detroit, it's still a slick song, so I added it to the glog. More of his beats can be found at his Jamendo page.


And there you have it... the first DVD glog.  :)

State of Detroit - New Year's Day 2012

New Year's Day 
First and foremost a very happy New Year to all of the DVD readers! The New Year is typically a time when people make resolutions to improve some part of their life. Well, this isn't going to be one of those posts, but because it's the New Year a little reflection is in order. The following video of the Detroit River was shot late in the afternoon on the first of the year 2012. It was cold, wet and windy. It was very windy as one can tell by the sound on the video. (If you haven't yet watched the video, you'll want to turn the sound down. It's noisy!) As the cold rain, almost sleet, slashed out at me as I shot the video, I started to think about Detroit. But quickly realized this pensive moment would be better suited to the warm confines of my car.  So the video is about two minutes long and captures in some ways where Detroit is right now.

Cold 
When I think about Detroit in the year 2011, I think of some very positive things (just two quick ones, both the Tigers and the Lions made the playoffs), but there are also some negatives. The economic state of Detroit is still in turmoil and far too many are without jobs. But what does this have to do with a cold, noisy rainy video of the Detroit River? Well to begin, it was cold, and just as Detroit has had some cold moments, there will be a change and it will get warm again. Just as the cold reality of Detroit's financial woes have surfaced, there will be a change, and it will turn around and things will warm up.  In some small ways (urban farming or art projects) there is warmth stirring and possibly economic benefits to come.  It was cold the first of the year, but give it time, it won't always be. Detroit may be in a cold spot now, but give it time.

Wet 
While not very easy to see in the video it was wet. Trust me on this :) But is that such a bad thing? Detroit needs a good cold rain every so often. The rain helps to clean things up a bit and wake one up too. This type of rain on New Year's Day is just the wake up call that Detroit needs. A fresh cold rain is sometimes needed to wake everyone up and get people ready for winter. Again a nice cleansing rain isn't all that bad, and the rain today will provide growth for tomorrow.

Windy 
Detroit is in a state of change. Just as a strong wind causes the Detroit River to make waves, a hard wind of economic decisions will undoubtedly make some waves in Detroit. At the time of this writing there is talk of receivership and appointment of an emergency financial manager. A financial review board has been put in place and even talks of bankruptcy loom. These are tough times to say the least. Hold on to your hats because the wind is picking up. Let's just hope that the winds of change will bring positive long-term results.

Bright Spots 
If you notice, the lights that are across the river follow the path of the river walk, and this is a straight up positive for the city. You can't help but feel that after years of inaccessible waterfront (for the average citizen) the river walk is turning into one of the brightest spots in Detroit. So the video is grainy and not very clear, just like the future of our city isn't clear. But there are bright spots, and in the cold, windy rain of New Year's day 2012 room for growth!

The Virgin Mary, Tamales and the Honeybee

Photos
Detroit Video Daily was pleasantly surprised regarding one of its photos. Let me explain. DVD has a Flickr set called Detroit, MI USA (I know not very creative, but oh well, it works), and just today a Flickr user named "On Being" added one of the recent photos to a Flickr gallery they created. The gallery can be seen if you click here.  Upon looking at On Being’s profile, I discovered that it is a group from the public radio program On Being that curates the online gallery.  I’m not familiar with the program, but it sounds like an interesting show, and I plan on giving it a listen. In case you didn’t click on the above link, this is the photo of the Virgin of Guadalupe that they selected.

La Virgen de Guadalupe - Detroit

The painting is on the side of a vacant building on W. Vernor near St. Anne Street. It looks as if someone may be prepping the wall for a mural, but I’m not sure. It caught my eye, and I was pleased with the way the colors came out.

Mmmm... Tamales
I happened to be on my way to pick up some tamales from Tamaleria Nuevo Leon when I saw the painting. (If you like tamales and haven’t been to Tamaleria Nuevo Leon, you should definitely stop over there.) Here is a photo of their shop.

Awesome Tamales

In case you’re wondering that’s a relief sculpture of Ponce de Leon above the doorway. Don’t worry if you didn’t recognize him, I had to ask. Check out this close up to really appreciate Ponce and his sunglasses.


Grocery Shopping
By the way if you’re in that neighborhood, you might as well head down the street and around the corner on Bagley to Honey Bee Market, La Colmena. They have incredibly fresh produce, and items that aren’t found at the chain grocery stores. They also have a deli and are known for their Mexican chorizo sausage.

Sign from the older Honeybee Market

If you haven’t yet done so, click on the Flickr Photos tab to view some additional photos mentioned in this post, and others from the beautiful city of Detroit!

An Urban State Park

The Park
Sometimes when people speak of special places in the city they'll refer to the location as a "hidden gem", well this is time to pull out the cliche card and say that the William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor is one such location.  Yep, it's a hidden gem. The park was previously known as Tri-centennial Park, named in a post celebratory fervor after Detroit's 300th anniversary.  Detroit celebrated 300 years as a city in 2001 and the park opened in 2004.  A few years later, additional construction was done to connect the park with the river walk.  There are some photos of the area as it was being worked on back in 2009 at FadedDetroit.blogspot.com (FadedDetroit btw is a really nice blog with some awesome photos, so you may want to go take a look.)

Photography
The photos in this Vuvox were taken November 4, 2011 in the early evening. The light from the sun was playing some fantastic tricks as it was setting, and this provided for some excellent views. The park is connected to the riverwalk and the Detroit Riverfront Conservatory is the site to go to in order to see just how many great spots have been developed along the Detroit River.

Presentation
So here's my first attempt at using Vuvox, and my conclusion is it's a pretty nice site to make presentations.  The music is from Jamendo (fast becoming my favorite site for music.)  Oh, and this hidden gem's location is just west of the RenCen on E. Atwater Street.  Enjoy!

Update: June 9, 2014
The site Vuvox is no longer in business, so I've lost the multimedia presentation that goes with this post. -- Guess I'll need to go and shoot an old fashioned video and make a new post. ;)

October Retreat - St. Paul of the Cross

The Weekend 
I spent this past weekend reflecting, praying, contemplating and resting while on retreat at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit.  I snapped a few pictures while walking the grounds, and decided to make them into a short video using the free online service Stupeflix.com.  The service is free, but the free version has a 60 second limit of video time.  Nonetheless, it's an easy way to make a quick video.  St. Paul of the Cross is a beautiful place and the staff and volunteers are awesome.  Learn more about this fabulous retreat location by visiting their website St. Paul Retreat.org.  My weekend like so many other retreats revitalized me and helped me to refocus on what is truly important in our lives.  Hope you enjoy this video.

Scott Fountain - Belle Isle Detroit

A Sunny Day

The beautiful Scott Fountain

As October rolled in, I found myself lamenting that fall was upon us. It wasn't so much that I was dreading autumn, but more a dread of what comes next. You know the season where the white stuff falls from the sky :) However, at the beginning of the month we were blessed with a stretch of warm weather with temperatures in the mid 70s. And the sun was shining as if to give one final nod to one of Detroit's hottest summers on record. As I headed home, I felt a gravitational pull to Belle Isle. Next thing you know, I'm circling a practically deserted Scott Fountain with video cam rolling. Later looking to add some music to the video, I found the perfect piano accompaniment. (Many thanks to the musician for granting me the rights to use the piece.) 


So here it is now for the world to enjoy. Detroit Video Daily's tour of Scott Fountain...

 

The Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights

The Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights - Wayne State University

DVD loves great architecture, and Detroit is one of the best cities to view impressive buildings. Recently after my class at Wayne State University, I walked past the new Keith Center that is adjacent to the Law School building on campus. As the sun was beginning to set, I turned around to view the building and was immediately struck with its presence. The building is so new that the opening ceremony hasn't even taken place yet. To find out more about the building visit KeithCenter.wayne.edu.
What makes the building truly special is that it is a tribute to a great defender of civil rights and freedom, the Honorable Damon J. Keith. If you are not familiar with Judge Keith, click on this link to Judge Keith's biography. Looking forward to when the building opens up and checking it out! 

Chicago's Crown Fountain

Goodbye orange barrels!

Well, well, well. It appears that Detroit Video Daily isn't posting videos daily. For that matter, it now appears that DVD isn't even posting videos about Detroit. So what's the story you ask? DVD recently packed up the buggy and ventured west to visit Chicago. A visit to the windy city that had one thinking of all sorts of Detroit vs. Chicago posts. But really does Chicago compare to Detroit? Hmmm. Don't answer that.

One thing Chicago has that Detroit doesn't is a wonderful public art exhibit in its downtown Millennium Park that involves towers, people and water. Designed by artist Juame Plensa the fountain is actually two 50 foot towers that have faces of numerous Chicago residents on their sides. The faces of course have to do something, and that's where the fountain part comes in to play. You can read much more about the art here on this link at ExploreChicago.org.

Suffice to say, Chicago=like, public art=really like, Chicago+public art = love. Here's the video, shot near dusk.  Oh, and don't forget to check out the photo tab's Flickr stream to see some more of Chicago. Enjoy, and the next video is from Detroit. Promise. :)