I met Shara Worden's bees
So there's this musical act called My Brightest Diamond. It's the project of a very talented singer/ songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist named Shara Worden. It's also really good as you can hear from www.mybrightestdiamond.com and of course myspace as well. I saw them perform for the first time when they opened for the Decemberists a couple of years ago. We saw them in St. Louis and then in Champaign. Before the Champaign show, we ran into Shara during the day and talked to her for awhile. Jill and I have seen them (Shara and a variety of backing people) twice since then when they have played in Grand Rapids, MI. Every time, we've chatted with her after the shows. So, Jill found out that she was playing a benefit for an art gallery in Detroit and naturally we went. The doors were at 7 and we got there at about 6:30.
When I wrote a moment ago that it was at an art gallery in Detroit, I meant in the part of Detroit you hear about when people shake their heads and bemoan the collapse of the inner city. The neighborhood was definitely of the East St. Louis school of deterioration and urban decay. The gallery is called The Yes Farm and it is located in a building that definitely needs some love and care if it is going to continue standing. They have a blog here: http://www.theyesfarm.blogspot.com/ where you can see pictures of them fixing this place up. The benefit was so they could afford to wire it for electricity. It is currently being electrified by a series of extension cords running around the building and connected to a thick wire running to a nearby house (insert baby animal suckling from a teet metaphor). There are a bunch of artists and such living on this street in the heart of the ghetto and they have a little garden across the street.
Anyways, we arrive and Shara was doing a sound check in the front room of The Yes Farm. She immediately recognized us and after the sound check she came over and gave us hugs and chatted for a bit. Apparently, she has just moved back to Michigan from New York City and into this neighborhood with her husband. She walked us over to where her house was because she wanted us to see her new beehive. She has one of those drawer type things with tons of bees buzzing around. Several of her neighbors also have bees. It seems all the cool kids in decaying neighborhoods in Detroit have bees.
Anyways, she put on a great show all by herself. There was a mixture of neighborhood people with their kids and artist hippy-types. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I'm hoping that once Shara has some new songs and such this will lead to seeing more My Brightest Diamond shows in Detroit! Take that Portland! I was often told by Lansing folks that there was nothing happening in Detroit, but it seems like there's lots of things happening. Little galleries and theatre companies are popping up and whatnot. I'm actually excited about living near Detroit now. A woman read a delightful essay by Tennessee Williams called "Something Wild" about this sort of thing before the event began and I really liked it. It touched on the sorts of reasons why I like places like the The Yes Farm. I couldn't find it for free on the internet, but if you can find it, read it. It's collected in a book called "Where I Live" with some of his other essays.
When I wrote a moment ago that it was at an art gallery in Detroit, I meant in the part of Detroit you hear about when people shake their heads and bemoan the collapse of the inner city. The neighborhood was definitely of the East St. Louis school of deterioration and urban decay. The gallery is called The Yes Farm and it is located in a building that definitely needs some love and care if it is going to continue standing. They have a blog here: http://www.theyesfarm.blogspot.com/ where you can see pictures of them fixing this place up. The benefit was so they could afford to wire it for electricity. It is currently being electrified by a series of extension cords running around the building and connected to a thick wire running to a nearby house (insert baby animal suckling from a teet metaphor). There are a bunch of artists and such living on this street in the heart of the ghetto and they have a little garden across the street.
Anyways, we arrive and Shara was doing a sound check in the front room of The Yes Farm. She immediately recognized us and after the sound check she came over and gave us hugs and chatted for a bit. Apparently, she has just moved back to Michigan from New York City and into this neighborhood with her husband. She walked us over to where her house was because she wanted us to see her new beehive. She has one of those drawer type things with tons of bees buzzing around. Several of her neighbors also have bees. It seems all the cool kids in decaying neighborhoods in Detroit have bees.
Anyways, she put on a great show all by herself. There was a mixture of neighborhood people with their kids and artist hippy-types. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I'm hoping that once Shara has some new songs and such this will lead to seeing more My Brightest Diamond shows in Detroit! Take that Portland! I was often told by Lansing folks that there was nothing happening in Detroit, but it seems like there's lots of things happening. Little galleries and theatre companies are popping up and whatnot. I'm actually excited about living near Detroit now. A woman read a delightful essay by Tennessee Williams called "Something Wild" about this sort of thing before the event began and I really liked it. It touched on the sorts of reasons why I like places like the The Yes Farm. I couldn't find it for free on the internet, but if you can find it, read it. It's collected in a book called "Where I Live" with some of his other essays.