A Holiday Abroad

Yes, we visited our favourite city on Friday, and took Amanda along for her first visit in several years.  Downtown Detroit is such a vibrant and fun place to hang out these days, though it always was to some extent.  But these days it has depth, with bars, restaurants and cool little shops scattered all over the downtown area.  We crossed the border using the tunnel around 10:30 a.m. and were in a line with only one car ahead of us once at US Customs.  We parked downtown and proceeded to give Amanda a quick tour of some of the beautifully restored old skyscrapers, most from the 1920s.  It's hard now to find any abandoned buildings downtown.  We began at the 1910 Dime Building, then went on to the Guardian building, one of Detroit's greatest treasures (it appears on the cover of the Detroit Michelin Guide).  We took the elevated train to the David Whitney Building, then went on to the cozy and very special Wurlitzer Building and then around the corner to the Metropolitan Building.  All three are now high end hotels, as were the next two.  The Shinola Building downtown and the Book Building were both busy and truly gorgeous.  We had lunch at Hop Cat, sampling some small pour ales before going to the Detroit Film Theatre for a special screening of early silent fantasy films.  All in all a great day, with beautiful weather that included mild temperatures and even some sun.

 

Detroit's newest skyscraper looks like a ghost image of the David Stott Tower.

In the lobby of the 1910 Dime Building, looking up.  This was Detroit's first tall building.

Stained glass in the Guardian Building.

Amanda and Deb in the Guardian Building.

Waiting for our elevated train at the Financial District Station.

After dropping us off at Grand Circus Park, our train departs.

Amanda bought us coffee before the movie. 

 

Amanda also visited us the night before, and we exchanged gifts (ales and gummies were part of it).  I also got her to play a round of our Bob Ross board game.  So we are all caught up for now.  She wants to return and spend a night or two in Detroit with her boyfriend, who was in Buffalo with his parents.

 

We have been gaming here at the Homestead.  I am playing two pc games, Tengami and Road To India. We have also played Scrabble (I lost), Bob Ross (I won), and a few others.  But mostly it's been business as usual, with Deb working on her film, and me practicing piano and reading.

 

Though I handily won this particular game of Middle Earth: The Wizards, I lost the overall tournament to Deb.

I also lost the Carcassonne tournament 2 games to 1.  I couldn't fill that central piece, which might have given me a victory.  Which makes me think there should be at least one tile in the game that is a "free" tile, and can be used once for anything. 

 

In home movie viewing, there are some to report, both chosen by Deb.  Most recent was a film by Bill Morrison called The Village Detective: A Song Cycle.  From 2021, the film traces the cinema history of one of Russia's most legendary and popular actors.  Clips from many films, from the 1920s through the 1970s, show Mihail Žarov in film after film, often singing his way through his part.  The film is highlighted by a damaged film that was cast overboard and ended up spending years in the ocean in a tight canister before being gathered in by Norwegian fishing nets. So we see damaged (but beautifully so) scenes from The Village Detective, a very low budget Soviet serial interspersed with some documentary footage of finding and restoring the found film, as well as scenes from the actor's other films.  All in all a pretty interesting film, making the most from a film find that didn't turn out to be anything special.

Leaving Criterion in 2 days. 

 

Before that (also Deb's choice) came The Holiday, from 2006, a film we have seen before.  Some of the film was on location in Shere, a tiny village off the beaten path in Surrey.  Deb and I were visiting there on a walking day when filming was taking place.  Fake snow was everywhere, and a lot of it had tracked into the village pub, The White Horse.  We asked around and found out about the film, so of course we looked for it when it came out.  Starring Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Carmen Diaz, Jack Black, and Eli Wallach, this is a really fun holiday movie to watch.

 

On our visit to Shere many years ago we were surprised to see snow on the village church roof.  We passed a movie set, with a scene in a car ready to be filmed.  We missed out on seeing any of the stars, and we didn't even know anything about the film at that point.  The Holiday is a great film, especially the parts with Eli Wallach as a very aged retired Hollywood screenwriter.

 

Now showing on the Roku streaming channel. 

 

More news as it happens.

 

Mapman Mike