Meetup in Mexican Town and Audra's concert

15.05.2009

Detroit is not that far away from Chicago. When we got there, the first thing we saw was a giant abandoned building. We got out and took some pictures of it. Ryan said that we are ghetto tourists. I guess so.

The boys were hungry, so they stopped for some Mexican food, and I had some sangria.

We tried to call our host Audra a few times, but she wasn't answering her phone, so after lunch we just decided to drive on over.

Detroit is an interesting place. The city is frozen in time. Driving and walking around in Detroit is like taking a time machine into the '70s.

We have an address, but the house corresponding to that address doesn't exist. Two men are mowing the lawn of a church, so I ask them if they know who Audra is. They don't. I keep walking and see some people sitting on a porch. Their house is the nicest one on the block, but it's surrounded in a giant fence, a castle, locked to the outside world.

"Hi! I'm really lost!" I call up to the couple six feet above the ground.

"Oh really? What are you looking for?"

"Well we're looking for Audra, we're supposed to be staying at her house tonight."

"Oh Audra! She's the singer right? She lives right across the street."

They were friendly enough, definitely not as scared of the world as their home seems to suggest.

So we go to Audra's house. There are all kinds of crazy axe murderer things in the front lawn. A gas mask dummy, about 20 child size plastic ponies, the colour long ago bleached out by the sun, hanging haphazardly over the fence and a strange tree stump with a window on the side of it. Peek through the window and you will see a dead bird. There are also a few cats roaming around. We knock on the door and no one is there.

Now what? I guess there's nothing to do.

The boys didn't want to come to the meetup tonight, so they went around exploring while I just set up shop in a restaurant, updating my blog and getting down to business.

As I was sitting there in the dark corner of Mexican Town, Arvid finds me. He is having a drink at the bar with his wife, Irina, waiting for me.

These two have traveled half the world over, and they've got a story for everywhere they went! I spend about two hours just listening to their adventures, and wondering when the rest of my posse is going to show up.

Eventually they do, with good news! They found Audra! Just randomly they went back to her house and she happened to be pulling up just as they were leaving. Thank goodness, because, now we had a plan for the night. Audra would be playing piano at a little hipster venue, Cafe D'Mongo's Speakeasy.

It's the perfect venue for our night in Detroit. You walk in and you feel like you're in a bad 70s gangster movie. Even the people that frequent this place are wearing the clothes. Skinny jeans, longish hair and mustaches for the guys, and rockstar hipster mullets and boots for the girls. Amazing how they are all so coordinated. We stand out.

Audra is great, and the other band is also great. They do a nice cover of Brand New Key that I thought was good, so I videoed it.

One of Audra's friends ate a space cake, so she is quite entertaining all night long. Every...word... she... says... seems... like... it... took... a .... while... to... come.... out.... of... her... brain... ha.

Soon everyone is tired, so we go back to Audra's. We end up staying up way too late, and never going to a "black person" bar, as was the plan earlier on.

The Golden Nugget