This Week’s Inspiration: Detroit - the City of Music, Revolution, and Hope
Maybe it’s not the first city that you’d want to visit – and I will not blame you. It’s the city of broken dreams, the city of deceived expectations, the city of lost souls. Empty skyscrapers and once-idyllic family neighborhoods shape its landscape. Torn apart by segregation and riots after and during The Great Depression, it became also the city of futile Renaissance in the 70s. During the last decade the city’s population fell by 25% turning its living areas into a ghost-hunter’s dream. The city whose back bone is the automotive industry and unions have fought for centuries for its people’s rights to fair job conditions. And yet it’s the city of music, the city of revolution, and the city of hope.
Detroit - maybe it’s not the first city that you’d want to visit – but it’s one of the cities that I’d want to visit. I was not much familiar with Detroit’s history until before I saw the Chrysler’s commercial “Imported from Detroit”. And even though I am not a fan of TV commercials and their brainwashing attempts, this one really moved me. I thought to myself – there’s something about this city and I want to learn more about it, I want to see it, I want to feel it because it seems to me that it still carries along so much of its past glory, so much historical vibe, so much emotion, and capability of revival. I do not know if that is indeed true – but it’s my first honest impression and I hope one day I could explore and feel Detroit myself.
My recent obsession with Detroit also brought me to a set of photographs of the metropolis called: “The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. The photographers themselves describe their work:
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.
The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires. This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time: being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.
Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.
Michigan Central Station
Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit
William Livingstone House
United Artists Theater
Vanity Ballroom
It’s time to lit up some aroma candles or incense sticks, pour yourself a glass of wine, relax on your couch, listen to Chinese Man and have an absolutely unproductive evening at home, reading a favourite book or magazine - that’s exactly what I did last night! “Racing with the Sun” is a beautiful trip-hop song with an epic video from Chinese Man - I fell in love with it!
The Honest Tales of Florence
Everyone knows Florence + the Machine. All the hipster say they dislike them because Florence is “too mainstream” for their taste and all the pop lovers worship them because Florence is “different than the rest”. Whether Florence + the Machine are indie or hip or pop is irrelevant in reality, though. What is important and interesting is the band’s tremendous success.
Florence’s lyrical honesty and ability to embed mysticism in everything she touches - from appearance to writing songs - is what sets the band apart in the industry. The real jewel of the ginger artist is her honest relationship with the listener - she does not reveal too much in her lyrics - they are universal and everyone can relate to them, and yet everyone interprets them differently and adds a different meaning to her music. In her blog she is completely honest about how she makes her music (often drunk or hungover) and what she feels like sometimes (breaking hearts, tables, glasses). I selected a few quotes from her blog that made an impression and mixed them up with her beautiful photos to depict Florence the way I see her - mainstream and hip, quirky and fun, a curious and enduring character that teaches us an important lesson in life.
“I want my music to sound like throwing yourself out of a tree, or off a tall building, or as if you’re being sucked down into the ocean and you can’t breathe. It’s something overwhelming and all-encompassing that fills you up, and you’re either going to explode with it, or you’re just going to disappear.” - Florence Welch
“You’re lucid, but you’re not really there. You’re floating through your own thoughts, and you can pick out what you need. I like those weird connections in the universe. I feel that life’s like a consistent acid trip, those times when things keep coming back.” - Florence Welch
“I feel things quite intensely, which is why the music has to be so intense. I’m either really sad or really happy, I’m tired or completely manic. That’s when I’m at my most creative, but it’s also dangerous for me. I feel I could write some good songs, or break some hearts. Or tables. Or glasses.” - Florence Welch
Ah, beautiful Florence, you are something else, aren’t you!
San Cisco - Awkward
Australian cutie pies!
