no strings

The diva's challenge this week was to not use a string but I rarely use one anyway.

I started with some cactus looking things then did my rope coils. I used Rain to tie them together with a version of Warts and Wobbles as a blocker in the top right. And to fill up some white space on the left side of the paper, Cockles 'n' Mussels made a simple, irregular background.

Hah! It almost sounds like I planned this ahead of time.

But what usually happens is I get a couple patterns on paper then go to Tangle Patterns and wait till something pops up that might fit in.

Detroit's Cooley High School - Part 1

September 4, 1928 - June 18, 2010

Cooley High School, 15055 Hubbell, is located at the corner of Chalfonte and Hubbell, just south of Fenkell (5 Mile) in Northwest Detroit. That's Calvary United Methodist Church on the other side of Hubbell facing Cooley.

The view from the north.

There's really no information about Cooley except the page from Wikipedia which is virtually the same as the pages from Mashpedia and Citizendia.

The school's architecture has been described as Mediterranean Revival but elsewhere it was said to be Spanish Revival or Moorish Revival.

Cooley High School was designed by the architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier, who were also the architects for the David Stott building, at the corner of Griswold and State, in downtown Detroit.

The view below is looking from across the street in front of the church.

Love the detail.

Years ago it was mentioned during a Red Wings game that Mike Ilitch, founder of Little Caesar's Pizza and owner of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers was a graduate of Cooley. The Wiki page said the same, and also that Ilitch played shortstop for the school baseball team.

Jimmy Hoffa's son James was also a graduate, so the Hoffas must have lived in the neighborhood.

Cooley High School will probably come down in the near future. On the way back from taking these photos, I drove by the rubble that used to be Redford High School on 6 Mile (McNichols) and Grand River.

I don't expect Cooley to be saved - it's inside a neighborhood that's at about the middle of its decline, though the area could come back if enough homeowners stick with it. 

Here's an interesting page mentioning Cooley High School from Detroit Transit History.

Detroit's Cooley High School - Part 2 has photos of the parking lot side and rear of the school.

in my travels 1

Redford Theater, Detroit, MI

on a fence along Fenkell (5 Mile) in Detroit, MI

on an abandoned house in Detroit, MI

over a walkway in Detroit, MI



Kovacs Bar, Detroit, MI

the Cooley High School Cardinal, Detroit, MI



Thunderbird Lanes, Troy, MI



JW Westcott on the Detroit River

mickey challenge

This week at the Diva's is a guest challenge for the 80-year anniversary of the Disney film "Steamboat Willie." I liked the Mickey pattern Courtney came up with so that's what I focused on.

Places I used to live - Part 1

I lived here on Custer in Clawson, MI from the age of 1 to 7, then we moved to Detroit. During my first year, I was on a small farm somewhere in SE Michigan.

I lived in the upstairs apartment of this building on the corner of Main St. and Farnum in Royal Oak, MI for about 6 months or so in the late 1970s. Today there's a pet store below, back then it was a custom, picture frame shop. I don't remember if a photographer went along with it.

And this apartment is about a mile north of the site of the 1991 fatal shootings at the Royal Oak, MI post office, the third of the postal shootings that led to the term - Going Postal. I used to do some bulk-mail drop off at this post office.

I lived here on the extreme Northwest side of Detroit on Wormer for a few years in the early 1980s. This house is in that small section of Detroit west of Telegraph where a lot of Detroit police and firefighters lived. Bounded on the south by Puritan, the west by Five Points, and the north by 8 Mile, it used to be a nice little neighborhood. And the beginning of the downward spiral for this area probably came in 1999 when the residency requirement was lifted for Detroit city workers. By 2011, more than half the police had moved beyond Detroit's city limits.

Beautiful Brick

It was the beautiful brick that attracted me to this home on the corner of Chalfonte and Robson in Northwest Detroit. Looks like it would be better suited to the Southwest US than in the midst of a burned out and ravaged neighborhood of Detroit. And yet here it sits.

Titan and William Dolard

I was nosing around the Detroit and Rouge rivers today and spotted the tugs Titan and William Dolard nestled on the Rouge.

And elsewhere about these 2 tugboats,

From TugboatHunter: "The tug William Dolard ... doesn’t run, and was formerly Princess No. 1. She is tucked up in the Old Rouge behind Zug Island. Titan, a former fish tug, is serviceable but doesn’t do much, if anything. She was previously Gotham."

And see a picture here of the Titan working (from BoatNerd).

I also got a look at the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. headed up the Detroit River.

weird ugly grey alien tower thing

I've ridden past this ugly thing on the way back from work for the past few years and since I had my camera with me I figured I'd stop and take some pictures. From the road, it looks like some weird, grey, metal, alien tower.

On closer inspection, it's not metal (that surprised me!) but an intricate structure built with jigsawed, half-inch pieces of plywood. Here's some closer pics.

It stands on the short Redford Street, northwest of the corner of Grand River and Lahser in Detroit. It's directly behind Detroit Tire and Wheel which sits on Grand River. The Redford Theater is close on Lahser.

Inside is this small plaque which reads -

The Society to Promote Art and Recreation in

the Community &

The Black Rock Arts Foundation dedicate

The Detroit Dream Project to

Motor City Blight Busters

and the People of the City of Detroit

June 2008

You're thinking -- Yeah, ok... so it's some weird, ugly, grey, alien, tower thing that isn't metal and it's really kinda cool looking, blah, blah... big deal. I've seen this kind of stuff on the internet a million times already. Right?

Well, I'd agree, except that's not the whole story.

When I was looking over the pictures before I uploaded them to Flickr, I was foolin' around with Google Maps, and I went to Street View...

I found the "thing" (this view is looking south down Lahser, that's Redford St. that angles off on the right, and you can see the top of the "thing" on the far right)

So there's the "thing" on the right with Detroit Tire and Wheel on the left and I moved the mouse to look around behind this view...

and I see this guy! The same guy I've seen most every time I've ridden by to look at that ugly, grey, alien, tower thing. Even in Google Street View - there he is!

laying out onions

Another diva's challenge (here) based on the tangle SOCC.

And I had my own mini ah-ha moment in my experiments with SOCC. I wasn't really getting it, this new tangle pattern didn't make sense, then I looked kinda sideways and it was like someone laid out some onions on a table. It was easy to draw after that.

Anyway, this is my interpretation of SOCC. But I'm going to see it as onions.

the look of coiled rope

I was looking around and I got this idea from here at the zentangle blog.

I like circles and there's something relaxing about coiled rope (it brings order to the chaos) and the way my camera takes pictures, the lighting in the room, this has a soft look. And if I added some shading, it might add some age. I'd have coils of old rope.

Anyway, I might continue and do a bit more with this picture but for now it's ok as-is.

And it's very easy to draw. Do your swirl then finish by drawing the red line.

some things make a something

I started with these things. They look like mcdonald's french fry holders.

I added eyeballs on the french fry holders and these other tentacle things.

Then I turned the tentacle things into mini-wormholes (I've been watching alot of Stargate Atlantis lately) and out the other side comes a ribbon each.

So I ended up with a bunch of things all put together making a something.