OK, OK, OK. Got an update coming via wireless signal straight from the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale.  21st century here, people.  The days have involved  a lot of folding, shenanigans with Apple’s PhotoBooth, ridiculously tasty craft beer (the WAB’s Porter is still gold in my book– just sayin’), an ungodly amount of well-dressed (mostly excited and adorable) children and a lot of interesting breeds of canines.  I didn’t realize there were such things as dogs with ridge backs, companies that makee slippers and head dresses for dogs, etc.  Clearly I am a ways out from owning/caring for such a creature.

ANYWAY (Catch that? Also re-reading Chuck Klosterman’s “Killing Yourself to Live” for the 8th time over here), the point of all this was to say that in my hot hands today is the brand-spanking new DL! catalog.  You betcha.  Coming in at a svelt 42 pages in length, this sucker is packing a powerful punch.  It’s a showcase of DL! wares from tees to medallions to posters— but more than anything, its a visual meet and greet with some of Detroit’s most excited (and exciting) doers.  Think of the Loveland super-combo Mary Lorene and Jerry “Nerd Alert” Paffendorf.  Think of Roland Legget and Connie Mangilin.  Or how about Margarita Barry over at I AM YOUNG DETROIT. Then there’s Jessica Hernandez and all the biz-nass she’s got going with her swampy blues band that’s making tracks and all the talk of Detroit Soup.  Andy and Emily Linn are featured as well, the brother/sister megateam that started City Bird in Midtown. 

The catalog substantiates DL!’s claim that there’s no better place in America to be young and hungry than Detroit by showing the young people that are on the ground making it happen. And hey, it serves the purpose of showing off DL! wares, too. It should be well known that Vanessa Miller did the photography and Courtney Burgam championed all the layout. A big high five to both of them. Here’s a look at the cover in space age low resoution via Apple’s Photo Booth’inator, but hey, I’m doing this remotely from the depths of Ferndale festival’dom:

The first pressing of the catalogs are headed to foggy London town and Pareee on Monday to try and see about getting some of the gear in shops over there across the pond.  In the very near future, however, the catalog will be available via MagCloud.

I drank coffee this morning staring at that picture. Containers.  Container homes.  Detroit!  Do it.  This is how my mind works.  I have yet to find a reliable local source for containers, though I haven’t actually  just gone out to the railyards and roamed around until I can find someone to talk with.  I have just been making phone calls and most of the time not getting a response.  Anyone with ideas on how to locally source shipping containers should direct them at once to talk@detroitlives.org.

After the culmination of DL! super weekend 9000, I am pleased to relay some good news.  For one, the exhibition opened on Saturday night at Whitdel Arts to a pleasantly petite crowd of interested participants.  Chazz’s butterflies looked great on the wall and the short film to accompany them (a DL! production) was fitting.  The ongoing documentary with Chazz is still in the works.  That being said, we should have a little teaser up soon.  It’s worth noting that many other film projects are in the churner, too.

The photo shoot on Sunday for the new catalog was a smash hit.  Vanessa Miller was like a hungry wolf with her Canon super-camera.  Talk about cool.  The girl’s got talent.  We got some good snaps, of which will be gathered and arranged in to a catalog of sorts that doubles as a picture show of the vibrant people that are pushing Detroit forward.  Team Loveland was there, Margarita Barry from IAM YOUNG DETROIT, Meeshter Roland Legget Junior and a whole ragtag bunch of smarty pants that do cool stuff around town.  It was ridiculously fun, we plowed through nearly 5 large pizzas, drank some ghetto blaster pitchers and generally enjoyed the excellency that is the backyard at the Old Miami.  I mean seriously, that patch of land and green grass and swings and chairs is a gold mine and oasis of cool.  So yeah, the shoot went well.  The catalog will be done soon.

Got another big week prepping for the brand-spanking new Third Thursdays event (I’ll be posting with Claire at Bureau of Urban Living with some new stuff from 5-9pm on Thursday, deets here) and DIY Street Fair in Ferndale.  Lord knows we’ve some new items together for the shop.  They gon’ be sweet.  Ciao for now.