http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/t...nt?oid=4132988
She apparently had many interesting encounters with Black People. The mounting comments from the rightly outraged Detroiters are pure, vicious Motown Gold. Go get 'er!!!
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http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/t...nt?oid=4132988
She apparently had many interesting encounters with Black People. The mounting comments from the rightly outraged Detroiters are pure, vicious Motown Gold. Go get 'er!!!
She seems a bit crazy to me [[talking cat and whatnot). But many of things she has seen anyone who has been to Detroit can pretty much vouch for.
Well, that's 5 minutes of my life I won't get back.
Here's this chicks bio:
It actually sounds like she's bragging about her exploits in Detroit, not knocking it. And, if you check the references to Zoot's and 'The New Dance Show', it's been a long time since she went to school here, early to mid-90's at least. Dance Show ended mid-90's. Zoot's closed in '97.Quote:
In addition to photographing one extremely inebriated person, each and every week, since 2003, for The Stranger's Drunk of the Week, Kelly writes and makes original videos. Watch all sorts of interviews, profiles, and music-related good times on The Stranger's Video page. Kelly also enjoys watching and reviewing pornographic films, and is one day going to marry photographer Terry "T-Bone" Richardson.
The savage beauty of Detroit as experienced by an art student who "vacationed" in Detroit for 5 years. An honest depiction of the experience from her perspective.
Rock on!
I think to some degree people manufacture their own experiences because of the fear they bring with them, ignorance of local behaviors, and the presuppositions that they relentlessly project onto people different from them. I'm not saying it is all that, but there is a strong element of it.
What bothers me about the piece is that it just speaks more to her ignorance and stupidity. If it was really as bad as she says, why did she stick around? If a movie is that bad, I don't recall having to stick around until the bitter end just because I paid the full price of admission. If she loves Seattle or wherever she's at, then great- sing the praises of where you're at and what it is you do. This piece just stinks of things like talking about an old lover, even though you're now married. You can't change the past and pissing on it just re-affirms to the rest of us that you didn't learn from it. To me it's all experiences and until one has some distance [[and wisdom to look at it objectively) can one call it a good or bad experience.
And I'd say this about anyone's experiences-not a defense of our fair city here. Maybe I'm just not a huge fan of people pissing on their past like that. We all have little horrific things happen to us, but rather than "drive the car by looking in the rear view mirror", I guess I'd prefer to look forward in life.
I don't think she was pissing on her past, she was bragging about it.
She is first person bashing Detroit in order to get street cred in some coastal State.
Easy, lazy, boring.
I agree. Look at my post above; she's an odd girl to say the least.Quote:
Originally Posted by RickBeall
I don't see what the big deal is. Any one of us could've wrote the same story. Nothing to get worked up about.
I guess I don't really know what Detroit was like in 1995, say. I'll say that I didn't used to get called cracker and whitey while walking around, in 2005, and that I find it hard to imagine that that was a constant state of affairs back then. I had a positive impression of Detroiters and Michiganders, notwithstanding that there were outliers, of course. So she dwells on being a minority in Detroit way too much.
But I can relate to parts of what she's talking about as well. I'm surely betraying my "spoiled" frame of reference, but the drive down Lafayette from my downtown apartment to the dry cleaner, which was on Van Dyke or thereabouts, was jaw-droppingly surreal on its own, due to the degree of blight. If you're not from a place like Detroit, it's just a total stunner, the burned down buildings, the buildings in the process of falling over, the empty lots. Never mind if you then make a wrong turn, or maybe you're gonna check out the neighborhoods, and you run into a block with stuffed bunnies and junk tacked to all the houses [[Heidelberg Project). Jimminy Cricket!
It would be wrong to represent that as being entirely representative of my time in Detroit, and I don't ever hold it out as that. But yeah, I'll believe that she drove down I-75, the hood flew off her car, and it did not provoke an accident, or that one night, a gaggle of clowns showed up and threw faygo bottles at her building, sure, why not. After all, on my way to the dry cleaners, I drove past a block of houses with stuffed bunny siding. I gather it's a work of art, perhaps an ironic comment on blight?
Let's keep it real, people. I doubt that the Seattle fan-board holds itself out as the home of the fabulous ruins of Seattle. There's a lot to love about Detroit, but it is one of those places where weird things like these can happen.
Ah - nothing like the ever-exploring, self-anointed, self-appointed, existential musing of an art student, I should know as I ARE one -- well was one... back in the day :D !! LOL!Quote:
Originally Posted by RickBeall
It's hard to tell with some types. It all comes from some deep angst and pathos that can get ponderous...Quote:
Originally Posted by RickBeall
She's not a girl anymore. Her exploits took place at least 15 years ago. Maybe you knew her?Quote:
Originally Posted by Zacha341
LOL! I just skimmed... I've heard enough of that kind of writing from my own days in undergrad. Though some of it was interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by English
Keep in mind that we're not dealing with the Seattle Times here. The Stranger is what passes for a "alternative" newspaper out here. Someone should let this girl loose in Ranier Beach area of Seattle. Or Toppenish.
I wonder sometimes if people worry too much about the "image" of Detroit and not enough about the reality. Cleveland, no matter what it does, will forever be known as "The Mistake By The Lake", and I sometimes wonder if Detroit's moaning about what other people think of her just perpetuates the image of a hell hole.
LOL! I thought about that... but the style reminds me of that... we probably took the same creative writing class together!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcole
Why is she looking for somewhere to eat while driving on the freeway?
Reminds me of those t-shirts, "I'm so bad, I vacation in Detroit." Out there in Starbuck City this probably gives her street cred. I think it was cute. Something my pampered, sheltered kid sister might write to her friends after coming for a visit.
I've lived all over the place. London, Newark, Brooklyn, Houston, Philly, Los Angeles. And when I told people there that I was born and raised in Detroit I had immediate street cred. This chippy was only visiting. I'm sure she embellished a bit [[I do remember Nubs) and I don't think she was trashing our city. She's just a piece of Wonder Bread looking for some cred in a pumpernickel world.
Okay, suspicions confirmed. She spent all of her time in Detroit high on shrooms:
Quote:
The only other thing living in that house, aside from the three of us, is my roommate's spooky black Persian cat. Always hiding somewhere. Can never pet it. Once, we can't find it for almost a week. My roommate leaves to make a "Lost Cat" flyer at Kinko's, thinking it somehow got outside. Boyfriend is sitting in the living room, and I'm at one end of the long hallway near the bathroom. The cat comes stumbling out of one of the bedrooms and just sits in the middle of the hallway, not moving, staring intently at me. I say, all sweet, "Kiiiii-teee, there you are!" The cat just stares. Then its mouth opens slightly and a very deep man's voice says, "Hello." With that, the cat walks back into the bedroom. Boyfriend says, "Who just said 'Hello'?" Not making this up. I scream and lock myself in the bathroom. For hours.
this chicks an idiot. WSU/Cass area was never that bad. She's just trying to prove she has writing talent and is funny. She has neither.
Exactly. I wonder if she has been informed yet that this "story" has already been done to death and her work is about as original as a LeDuff piece.Quote:
Originally Posted by East Detroit
Some of you folks ought to spend a week in the UP or back out in the boonies. Afterwards consider what someone from those areas would think after spending a semester or two in Motown. Sometimes residents of the big city have lost touch with some things. I wonder how they would adjust to living in a county with no traffic light in 576 square miles, few if any houses for several square miles. Just think about it.
I grew up in detroit and spent many summers on farms in northern mi.... they arent angels either, even 15 years or more ago. Id say she is a drama queen and is embellishing every little thing to have something to talk about in her otherwise dull, counrty life. Im sure in some way she believes it was so aweful, but I think her narrowminded perspective just fed her own panic. I stopped reading at the "potatoes out the window" part, that to me shows she probably was looking for conflict and sh*t to complain about. ...... that being said, I didnt find ther story at all amusing. Just a bunch of random happenings that I dont even believe. Glad she drove her bumperless horizon to seatle..... with any luck she will mildew over................
any dumb country girl leaving money around in a apron unattended deserves to get ripped off...... apparantly by all her stories she knew she wasnt in say , oscoda.....
Are we supposed to be amused by her naiveté? I grew up in Detroit and I've also spent quite a bit of time in rural areas of Michigan. I'm not creative enough to sensationalize the time I spent in rural Michigan as she has done with her years[[?) in Detroit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stinger4me
Matter of fact, both my time spent living in Detroit and the time I spent visiting rural Michigan were largely uneventful. So much so that my bullshit meter goes off when someone who spent a fraction of the time living in Detroit that I have claims to have so many "wild and crazy" experiences while living in dirty, scary Detroit.
I do realize that my experience is anecdotal, but I'm pretty sure that I know far more people in Detroit than she does. And of the people I know, most of their experiences are probably far closer to mine than hers.
I dunno, it's just a random outsider's honest account of living in an imperfect, quirky city - a quirkiness, I might add, that is often celebrated on this site. I don't think she found it so awful as she did bizarre. After all, she did say she misses it. The potato incident - big deal - the actions of a bored college student. Also I don't know how you can embellish having a gun waved in your face. It either happened or it didn't. The fact that she can look upon her collective experiences with a any amount of fondness would sound ridiculous to some, except to Detroiters, who just . . . well they understand. They've been there. And they're still there.Quote:
Originally Posted by n7hn
Plus who hasn't wanted to chuck a f*cking potato at an ICP fan before?
I'm still waiting for the story of the black Detroiter, and how warmly he/she was treated during their 5 years in the UP back country.
I don't mind people bashing Detroit, but a lot of what she wrote seems to be made up.
Keweenaw County is probably about as Yooper as you get [[the little finger pointing up into Lake Superior). 2.1% of the population was black as of 2008 estimates. I would imagine they get treated well enough by the 96.7% that are white. If they were being ill-treated or were victims of white criminals in the county, I suppose they would leave. There are not a lot of red necks or crackers in the UP.Quote:
Originally Posted by EastsideAl
Ive know two people that seem to react like her to things. I think its hypersensitivity and exageration and alot of hype. Normally things that make a good storyteller and stories. I didnt find her credible or interesting at all tho. One of my friends used to tell stories like this all the time. One time she stopped for beer to bring to a picnic and couldnt make it as the store was robbed and everyone was held hostage for hours. Needless to say that never happened, could someone have grabbed her purse in the parking lot? sure, but there was no SWAT team standoff as she was saying. If this Kelly O is gonna tell these stories at least take us somewhere. Only story that had some kind of complete thought was her and the homeless guy she befriended after getting robbed. I find it hard to see what she has said as hurtful, as i dont find it credible.
Huh? You're kidding, right??:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
Visited, hunted & fished with locals forever.
UP Property owner for decades.
I would consider the exact opposite of what I bolded to be true.
So any minority would leave if they were treated poorly? Should we assume then that you can never make a claim that white people aren;t wanted or are treated poorly in the city of Detroit?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
That article is embellished nonsense. Reads like it was written by a 14 year old.
Well written in the style of Tom Wolfe although not very PC. The author did receive criticisms in the responses for not writing enough good things about Detroit and her ongoing innuendoes suggesting that blacks commit a lot of crime in Detroit. However, she notes that she was driving drunk and speeding even after she lost her driver's license. She even threw potatoes at clowns. As one respondent wrote, Detroit was lucky to survive her. On the other hand, she grew up dirt poor herself and wasn't connecting with what poverty has to do with crime and blight. She defended herself in a follow up response.
You can also stick all the white-privilege assumptions somewhere where the sun doesn't shine. I grew up on a small farm, in the middle of nowhere - Lachine Michigan. I shared a tiny bedroom, in a tiny house, with my younger brother until high school. We heated our entire house with wood, and one year, when we were too poor to buy enough food, my parents illegally poached deer so we'd have something to make Hamburger Helper with.
You shouldn't assume, that if someone's white, that they have money, and/or are a member of suburbian middle class.
That truck wasn't full of Mommy-provided nice-new apartment furniture - it was filled with thrift and garage sale crap I'd collected, for my dreams of making it the hell out of Northern Michigan. I bought most of it myself doing in-home nursing jobs. I changed many an adult diaper to buy that beat-up dresser. And the college education? I'll be paying those loans back until I'm old and gray.
Maybe I should have written about my memories of being poor white trash.
That story, however, has already been told.
http://amzn.to/ak5Tmf
-Kelly O's response #72
It depends on your definition of red neck or cracker. If your definition is anyone who is poor and white, then you would be right. If your definition is someone whose family migrated up from the rural south to Michigan, then you would be wrong. The roots of the UP population are largely in northern Europe with a massive disproportion of Finns.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikefmich
Here is a quote from a Wiki article on the UP
"Yooper differs from standard English primarily because of the linguistic background of settlers to the area. The majority of people living in the Upper Peninsula are of either Finnish, French Canadian, Flemish, Scandinavian, or German descent. Yooper is so massively influenced by these areas' languages that speakers from other areas may have difficulty understanding it. The Yooper dialect is also influenced by the Finnish language making it similar in character to the so-called "Rayncher speek" of the Mesabi Iron Range in northeast Minnesota."
The UP culture is mainland Europe, not the Scots-Irish culture of the southern poor whites.
I went to WSU in the same time frame. You don't remember the serial rapist hanging out on campus at that time? It wasn't super dangerous, but it wasn't exactly safe, either. I have a few dozen stories of physical assaults and armed robberies of people I knew, and countless petty thefts and car break-ins.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeinmotown
Cass had the reputation back in the eighties and nineties as being the hooker and junkie haven of the city. For a girl from Lachine, MI it must have been total culture shock, and she should probably be given some credit for even sticking it out as long as she did. I took a friend from Brown City, MI down there at roughly that time, and scared the living hell out of her just walking around in the New Center area.
As boring as my reply....
Hey, I'm white and I rode the Dexter bus on a regular basis in the 80s and survived. Do I get a book deal now?
I'll give you book deal Downriver Gal. ;-)
Yes, but their perceptions of Detroit more often than not has likely already been tainted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
I had an acquaintance who lived and worked in Rochester Hills tell me that her family up in Alpena were afraid to visit her, since they mistakenly thought that anything even close to Detroit [[such as Rochester Hills) was ghetto....:eek: :rolleyes: :D
So, this girl boozes and drugs herself silly, vandalizes, breaks into abandoned buildings [[I'm sure all of that rave traffic doesn't do those places a lot of good), laughs at someone getting their car torched, steals things that aren't hers, is so irresponsible she nearly gets expelled, endangers the lives of others by driving drunk, is so ignorant to world culture that the DIA is her "first museum"...
... and I'm supposed to be impressed by her while looking down at those around her? And appreciate her gratuitous racism? GTFO.