Hello Israel; Hi France; Hey Netherlands; Howdy Canada; Hey there Romania; Sup Nicaragua! Thanks for tuning in.

Quick update: We have revised our thesis question. We now ask “Should a young artist move to Detroit as opposed to other major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago?”

Today we ventured to midtown Detroit to check out the Detroit Historical Museum. It is a free museum, but very well executed (obviously financed through donations).

Before that, however, Kirk gave us a talking-to about that ticket from yesterday (what’s up, Gary?). At breakfast, he said “the ticket meter was broken? That’s a free-bee and he knows it. He clocked you when you pulled up — that’s bologna. Appeal it! And if you need a representative here, I’ll do it.” Good old Kirk looking out.

Matter of fact, Kirk keeps tabs on us. As we leave he says “now, tell me where you are during the day, even if it’s just a text. I want to know you’re safe.” He seems to do this out of reflex, something that’s reflected in general when people invariably ask “where are you staying?” (At this point we’re like “Indiana street around 7 mile???… But we are staying with a guy named Kirk and he is awesome! He’s a pastor and a PhD holder and…” Now we know landmarks and we’re prepared: around Palmer Park near John C. Lodge freeway — on point!).

First thing out of the house, we stopped in to the Wayne State University Welcome Center around the corner from the museum, which was quite informative. We talked to four Wayne State University students: Caitlin, Liz, Tevin, and Jack.

They corroborated what we’ve been hearing since our arrival: Detroit is on the rise, with 70-80 businesses opening in the area during recent months. They also mentioned that city officials are working to renovate specific areas at a time; the next one on the list is called Milwaukee Junction (named thus for the intersecting railroads, in northern Detroit, just south of Hamtramck).

They also shared that most of the negative media coverage on Detroit comes from outside of the city; local news reports very different, potentially more accurate information. They say this is due to long-standing public opinion that maintains Detroit is a crime-ridden city filled with abandoned buildings. This is not totally inaccurate. However, the criminal presence is not necessarily more pronounced than that of other major cities and that one avoids the crime using the same precautions one would take in New York City or Chicago. For example, it would be inadvisable for Ryan to walk down a dark alleyway in New York with his souped up camera. Also, they say that the inordinate percentage of carjackings, for instance, can be assigned to outlying neighborhoods, not downtown: areas that have higher numbers of abandoned buildings, and, obviously, those areas experience a heightened criminal presence.

We gave them all our brand-spankin’ new business cards (courtesy of Inland Press — thanks, guys!) and Caitlin honored us by sharing our blog on Twitter. Thanks, Caitlin!

After that, we spoke to Smothers, an older gentleman we met on the street (check out the Smothers Brothers, a comedy duo from the 60’s; he referenced them avidly). He shared some very interesting information: he bought a house for $6,000 several decades ago and just sold it for $100,000! He estimates the same property would have fetched less than $10,000 ten years ago.

I got that money in the bank, shawty what you think? 

Interestingly enough, we spoke to a gardener who is looking to flip a 3 bedroom, 2 story house with a full basement that he just bought for $8,000 cash. He plans to put $2,000 into it and sell it for $30-40,000. This is the second house he has done this with.

It seems that this could be a very profitable venture for us if we were to move here. Maybe we’d work on the house during the day, rehearse at night. We could even work to remodel one area specifically (maybe the basement) and use that as a performance space for the time being. If we flip several houses at $30K a pop we could have enough revenue to get going within several years! Ryan is a little skeptical…we’ll see.

Downstairs in the Historical Museum there is a fully rendered block of what Detroit may have looked like in the early days.

Did someone call about a fire? 

We delved deep into this fascinating part of the building and by the time we were done the place was closing. Needless to say, we’ll be back.

We taught this little guy about Stanislavski. Prodigy status. 

After that we stopped into a small coffeeshop called Fourteen East Cafe. We spoke to the barista, a twenty year old guy who said “no” initially to the question “Should we move to the D?”! Our first “no”!

He seemed to be speaking about visual artists though, so we specified “theater artist”. He changed his tune then: “yeah, lot’s of stuff is going on in downtown, midtown, Ferndale.”

The takeaway from this conversation, though was his fear of leaving his neighborhood. He said that bad things happen to people who step outside their bubble — he told us about a couple of kids who got scammed and beat up when trying to buy a small amount of marijuana in the wrong part of town. We noticed that he had several scars on his arms and face. This made us wonder if his fear was based in experience.

We also spoke to an older gentleman who, come to find out, is a visual artist from Detroit who wanted to move to Greenpoint, a neighborhood in NYC…but it was too expensive.

His response to the thesis question was complex. He said that yes, there were things happening, but it would be difficult. The two main quotes from him were “It’s hard to make it here” and “it’s going to cost more than you think, even with the cheap property costs”.

We’ve been hearing that downtown is expensive. We need to look into prices, but it’s not like the place is bankrupt. In fact, downtown is at 98% occupancy — people want to be there. Of course, it’s nothing like New York which has been arguably over capacity for decades. But it’s no longer a ghost town, which is the Detroit of five years ago as our priest from day two described it.

Unfortunately, we did not get the name of the artist. But he was a cool cat —  and his hat was killin’ it. He said he got it at a place called Henry the Hatter, saying “my dad and grandfather used to buy hats from them.”

Cute as a button and charmingly shy. Old man with the hat, if you read this please reach out — we’d love to hang out and pick your brain more.

The Owner of Fourteen East Cafe, Joanne Czerny. A former interior designer now coffee shop owner

We then made our way to Slipstream Theater Initiative’s all-female version of Hamlet…set in an insane asylum!

We got the in from Steve, the co-director and fight-choreographer of play as well as part founder of the company (by the way, we met him at yoga yesterday).

The concept went like this: the patients are putting on Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the patient who gives the most convincingly stable performance will gain their freedom from the asylum. This is set up quite clearly at the beginning, with two psychiatrists introducing the concept saying “and you, valued colleagues will help us decide which one will leave here tonight” (I’m paraphrasing); one played it straight, rolling her eyes at her enthusiastic, pollyanna-ish side-kick. Very funny.

So the first word spoken in the play proper was “fuck”. Hamlet said this as she entered the space and saw the audience. The pressure of her freedom being on the line kept her from connecting to the character…at first (a choice, obviously, and a bold one). But as she got her bearings and accepted the situation, she started to believe the words coming out of her mouth. Then the play came to life as we know it, but different. As each character entered, they too had to deal with the stakes set up by the concept; the insane thing was that they all dealt with it differently (continuing the trend of bold choices).

The two hand built benches fit a max of 20 people. Very intimate 

The concept truly lent something to Shakespeare’s play. All the text about madness really popped; and moments got real, and I mean real. Lines between Hamlet and Rosencrantz dropped to a new level, especially the line describing Elsinore as a prison. This is because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were played by the two psychiatrists from the beginning (plot twist!).

But the biggest plot twist of our evening was being allowed to sit in on the first read of Slipstream’s next show: the Importance of Being Earnest — directed by the actor who played Hamlet: Luna Alexander, assistant directed by the actor who played Ophelia: Egla Kishta (champs, both of them, taking notes with fake blood stained in their hair and hands), and starring Steve and the Artistic Director, Bailey.

The read was freakin’ hilarious. Without giving too many spoilers, this Earnest will be set in the deep south, present day…and it’s all male! (see a theme here?)

The energy in the room was electric, electrifying even. The beautiful thing was the way Luna described the way she wanted the read to go: “let’s just play. Do the accent; if it sucks, great.” (I’m paraphrasing). Also, before it all started, Bailey introduced everyone and gave a small spiel: this is what we do, this is how we do it and it’s all based on respect (I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist).

This lines up totally with how we want to work.

One of the actors, Richard Payton who was absolutely hilarious during the reading is opening a show tomorrow at the Ringwald called 10 Naked Men. Rory thought he said 12 Angry Men, I have a feeling the two plays are as unrelated as can be.

So, we’ve been seeing some interesting trends in demographics. For example, 99% of the faces at the yoga studio yesterday were white (Midtown). At the play and reading tonight, 99% of the faces were white — not a critic, simply a statement (Ferndale).

This is not across the board, of course: we saw amazing diversity at the Slow Roll and at the Social Club Grooming Company. But there is more to the story here.

Unfortunately, this is a hard subject to tackle and text does not give enough expression to fully understand the conversation. So, more on this in the podcast.

Again, we love the readership and the feedback. Thank you so much for your support!

Peace and Love,

R&R – 6:00AM

Our sleep clocks are done for.

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