motor city madness.

today we laid into some hardcore tourism in what i like to think of as toronto's sister city, detroit. this mad day of outings was inspired by suggestions made to us by all of stephanie, shannon and jim.





we started our travels with a visit to hamtramck disneyland, a very special back alley folk art installation in a residential neighbourhood. it was constricted in the 1990's by ukrainian émigré, dmytro szylak. i actually guess there isn't much to say about it except that the place is a marvellous sight to behold.



after this, we drove north to see marvin's magnificent mechanical museum (which stephanie had suggested), an over-crammed stroefront full of automata, old animatronics, peepshow booths, gags and various other coin-operated marvels. we were blown away (and you would be in heaven, melissa).





i got my fortune read by zelda (the sign said she was from coney island so i like to think this was the same machine from the movie big). amid the nouveau photo-sticker machines were all sorts of sixty-plus-year-old machines and newer automata (some of which looks like the work of paul spooner, which it may well be - i just didn't see his name). aitor went all out by consuming a box of neon orange stale popcorn and i threw caution to my bladder with a cherry coke. when in rome, i figured. my only complaint: no penny squishers. don't worry, i will be sharing my collection of squished pennies with the internet at some point later. seriously, don't worry.





what they lack in deformed lincolns, they do make up for in advanced foot revitalizing technology. on the way out of marvin's, we got a call from stephanie to meet her at the bookstore. we had a date with her, some coupons, and faythe levine's brand spanking new book, handmade nation (it is designed to accompany her forthcoming documentary). i haven't gtten too deep yet but am brimming with friendly pride and congratulation to faythe and her book cohort, cortney.



tomorrow we shove off. i am going to miss this place. but there's that little michigan mitten sachet that stephanie gave us waving goodbye and reminding us that we should return. don't worry. we will. you'll hardy even have time to miss us, motor city.