I didn't know you could drink those. Hmmm. Got me thinkin'....
Listening Bars
- Thread starter Audionut
- Start date
Living here its a bit different. All that feels like tourist-Chicago vs living-here-Chicago. I've had memberships to a few of the museums but once you've gone a few times, what's the point? How many times can you be blown away by Hopper's Nighthawks? Downtown is mostly populated by people who don't live here, people just visiting (I lived in the loop downtown for about 6 years...It was fun but now its a bit dangerous and dirty and just not the same). And 9 out of 10 people I talked to were visiting (it was an interesting vibe to be around them- me jaded, them seeing something for the first time).
Its a city of neighborhoods and they're kind of run-down and grungy neighborhoods at that. Downtown is absolutely deserted on, say, a Sunday night, or most weekend evenings after 7. Because few people live there, and those that can afford to live up in their high-rise condos aren't exactly the fun going-out types.
And people here only associate with other people like themselves. There's the sports neighborhood (Wrigleyville), the hipster neighborhood (Logan Square), the trendy Latin neighborhood (Pilsen), the New Money neighborhood (Lincoln Park), the Old Money neighborhood (Gold Coast), and of course the many "let's all kill each other neighborhoods". The affordable neighborhoods are farther out, and they're interesting but nothing is concentrated, its all spread out and not really walkable (except Pilsen I guess, and Lincoln Square...also Andersonville, the lesbian neighborhood, now just kind of the gay neighborhood after boystown got too expensive, and one of my favorites). But these people don't mix. Everybody has a stick up their ass if you want them to do anything outside of their genre-comfort-zone. Seriously, Chicago people suck. Sorry but they do. Not EVERYBODY but man, people here without a stick up their ass who are willing to do anything they don't do every other weekend are hard to find. "Let's go to a mediocre overpriced restaurant in the west loop! Again! Because I read about it in the reader!"
Bands come through here but because of how big it is, you better get there early and even then it'll be packed and annoying. Its almost better to go see the same band in Milwaukee if they're hitting there, too. Plus the people are nicer up there.
Detroit was WEIRD. Chicago isn't weird, at all. And 'weird' is probably #1 in my list of admirable traits a thing can possess.
As a visitor, I much prefer Detroit to Chicago. Chicago is the US version of Toronto. Talk about an unflattering comparison. Except that Chicago has dramatically worse weather.
Now Detroit is something different. It has the energy of a city that is growing and thriving. I’ve had more fun conversations with folks in Detroit then any other US city I’ve been too. The city is genuinely exciting, in a way that others just aren’t. Perhaps a bit of a Wild West vibe? Anyhow, it is my favourite North American city. Mamas too. And I make sure we visit at least a few times a year.
Now Detroit is something different. It has the energy of a city that is growing and thriving. I’ve had more fun conversations with folks in Detroit then any other US city I’ve been too. The city is genuinely exciting, in a way that others just aren’t. Perhaps a bit of a Wild West vibe? Anyhow, it is my favourite North American city. Mamas too. And I make sure we visit at least a few times a year.
Funny as "This place is the wild west" was what me and my work partner always said when we moved to detroit in 2014. It was genuine and affordable in a way where you just encountered weird shit all the time. I'm referring to Detroit and the Woodward corridor up to Birmingham (maybe skipping Highland Park.....).
One of my favorite things from that time...there was a Christmas thing where all up Woodward in midtown, around where this Griot place is... where they had an open house for most of the businesses. So my partner and I go to this thing and stroll into this schmancy restaurant, the Whitney, both of us a bit tipsy, assuming EVERY place was open house, and my very drunk partner just grabs a bottle of wine off a cart that was sitting there looking left out for visitors, opens it, and pour ourselves each a glass, and sit down. "Detroit is awesome!"
Halfway through our glasses a shy kid comes up to us "Um, we're not part of the event" and whatever confused faces we made, made him run off to get the manager. So we.... booked it. For some reason. Though we easily could have just paid for the wine.
From then on I called my work partner "Mr Grand Theft Merlot".
Which was just another evening in Detroit. Every time I went out in Detroit something hilarious or odd happened. Also, Theatre Bizarre in October is THE BEST, biggest, and most insanely well presented party in the entire world and I'm not exaggerating. And it could only happen in Detroit. A year long labor of love from the arts community there.
JoeThePop
Known member
I don’t know. I guess it all depends on perspective. I went to Wayne State back in the 80s when I would never venture off campus. The whole Cass Corridor was infamous for crime and a poster child for urban decay. That’s no longer the case. It has transformed with new business including some excellent brewpubs. I’ve also taken bike rides along the Dequindre Cut and the Riverfront which has also been transformed from being a home to abandoned industrial sites to a continuous path from the RenCen to Bell Isle. Lots of great stuff to see and do in Detroit. The DIA is known as one of the best art museums in the country and there are lots of venues to see a play (been both to the Fischer and the Opera House) or catch a concert ( my daughter recently went to see somebody at St. Andrew’s Hall and I have plans to make it to the Fillmore later this year. I love going with my brother to Eastern Market on Saturday mornings for coffee and later beer in the establishments around the vendor stalls. What Detroit could use that Chicago has is a couple of rail lines (one along Woodward another Along Gratiot). I would use that rather than worrying about parking to get downtown.
JoeThePop
Known member
I forgot to mention Corktown close by where the renovated Michigan Central Station will be reopening. May go down there for that myself. Love Corktown.
I love the DIA, one of my favorite art museums that I've been to.
Every time I went anywhere in Detroit, people would stop and talk to me. Folks were quick with compliments. One time in the hamster habitrail that led from the courthouse (?) to the Ren Cen I even got a shout out from an actual pimp in a purple suit and platform heels, who liked how I was dressed. Older black women downtown especially loved opening up conversations and man did I love that, just hearing different people's stories and lives that were either different or surprisingly similar to my own despite are varied backgrounds. I must have a talk to me face or something, though it certainly doesn't work in Chicago as nobody ever talks to strangers here except for crazy people on the CTA. And they're more apt to yell.
JoeThePop
Known member
A shout out from a pimp in a purple suit and platform heels 🤣. You must be a hipster.
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I think I looked more like a pimp that day. Long coat over a suit, cuban heels... client meeting at Chevy.
JoeThePop
Known member
What I would really love to seen now from Dan Gilbert and company (e.g. GM, Ford, etc) is some kind of new commitment to neighborhoods. A nice downtown is important but so much more needs to be done for the people who live in the neighborhoods. Just helping to get rid of blight would be huge. The city is working on it but at the current pace I’m not sure they are keeping up with newly abandoned homes or businesses.
I remember that pre-pandemic they had this plan to revitalize downtown, then hit spots father out, hoping that if they got enough of them they could start to connect, and also connect back to downtown in something like the spokes on a wheel. But I haven't paid attention to any progress, or not, since I left.
The smartest thing he did downtown was hiring a private security force so that people felt safe and would move down there (plus the loss-leader mentality of cheap rent or no rent for businesses along Woodward).
Yep, that's us in a nutshell when you live here long-term. No tolerance for other opinions, walls are up, nobody trusts anyone else, etc. Hard to be happy living in a place with such cold receptions to anyone outside your sphere of acquaintances/friends/family. Complete opposite out west. Everyone out there makes me feel welcome. I always get their stories without even asking. They love sparking conversation. Here? It's a big "eff you."
I found one of the friendlier places to be was Texas, while I also enjoyed Colorado up in the mountains. And there's parts of the South that I really miss. So me saying I love Detroit is, again, in relation to the rest of the midwest. So kind of like a one-horse race. I grew up here (Ohio) and... um... yeah. Not the biggest fan.
There's life beyond the bubble of Woodward. 😁 I like our community here along the lake, but will also admit it has its issues. We have nice neighbors, yet there are some real crackpots living down our streets. (At least the flags they're flying outside their houses warn us ahead of time that they're unstable.) I've lived on both sides of town and each have their pluses and minuses as well. There are a couple of friendly enclaves in the burbs (as you've found), same as any area.
Get up into "near" farm country, once you avoid those flying those certain flags again, they're nice, down to earth people. (We'd considered moving far out, but the commutes would kill us. But with the bad weather for much of the year, yeah...we need to leave here to save our sanity.)
My thing is, I have a lifelong list of reasons, setbacks, losses, etc. that will never make me like living anywhere in this area. Encountering people out in public all day long with their walls up and chips on their shoulders? Nah. I'm done.
My youngest went to CCS for four years, which is just behind the DIA and not too far from Wayne. It's still dangerous around there. Everyone at the college wears a pepper spray on their lanyard or keychain, including my kiddo when she attended. They're advised to never walk alone, to stay in view of security to and from the garage, etc., and avoid staying after dark and/or into the evening. Can't say UDM is much better either, but at least the entire McNichols campus is behind a wrought-iron fence. And don't forget, one of the campus police officers at Wayne, Collin Davis, was shot on campus in November 2016 (he lived here in our city).
But for sure, Cass Corridor. Back in the day, those were the two words that struck fear into everyone who lived in this part of the state. 😁 It is much improved now.
Indeed. Ask anyone who works down there on a daily basis (like my better half), or some who have to deal with living down there (like some of her coworkers who relocated from out of town--they've had nothing but problems). Or what my kiddo had to deal with just a few years ago before she graduated. It's not all as rosy as it appears. But again, it appears in pockets. The downtown area itself has improved in many places. Others? Not so much.
I lived for six years in one of the Copper Alley neighborhoods on the fringe of east side of Detroit (just south of Moross, east of Kelly) back in the early 90s before the area really turned and honestly, it wasn't too bad. But we also knew it was a huge gamble. And it was inherently safer due to police officers, firemen, and city workers all living on the street due to the old Detroit residency laws.
And it was an open secret that many of the duplexes rented on Moross were simply "locker rooms" for Detroit police officers--they would get fired if their uniforms were ever found outside the city, so they'd all chip in to rent a duplex and use it to change from their street clothes into uniforms, and also as their mailing address so they could live outside the city.
The vinyl versus vinyls thing cracks me up. I try to use it whenever I can. If one thinks about it, isn't it just a natural progression?
"Hey Olson, what are you doing?"
- Listening to some tunes on the radio.
- Listening to some 45s.
- Listening to some records.
- Listening to some albums.
- Listening to some tapes.
- Listening to some CDs.
- Listening to some music files.
- Listening to some vinyls.
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Nah. I stop at "records," "albums" and "LPs." Vinyl to me is a shortcut, an adjective in this case (vinyl records...as there are also styrene and shellac records, and nobody says they're playing "shellacs" or "styrenes"). It's like someone saying "I'm listening to digitals." It doesn't work.
Saying "vinyls" just says to me the person is clueless and uneducated. 🤷♂️ The Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster (and others) still define the plural of vinyl as....yep, you guessed it--vinyl. As a writer, some of whose work is submitted to an editor who has way more experience than me, it's grammatically incorrect and I know to avoid it.
In my eyes, if the world's most respected and used dictionaries say it's not a word, I am not one to argue.
Tom Brennan
Junior Member
The plural of vinyl as a material has nothing to do with <a> vinyl as an object, in which case vinyls is a sensible plural. When enough people are using vinyl as an object or when the dictionary Tsars become aware of it the dictionaries will catch up and make it officially OK.
Or is that the dictionary Czars? I read a book by Woody Allen many years ago in which he he wrote something to the effect that the Russian Revolution happened when the peasants found out the Czar was really the Tsar.
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May not be in the dictionary yet, could be added any year, just by it being used. Dictionaries are not static and new words need to be defined. Personally I never use vinyl or vinyls. Mostly records or albums.
I'm not going to look down on anyone that uses it. I know what they're talking about and I like to be welcoming and try to mentor younger acquaintances that are into or curious about vinyl.
I'm not going to look down on anyone that uses it. I know what they're talking about and I like to be welcoming and try to mentor younger acquaintances that are into or curious about vinyl.
