Jhoan

I waited and waited.
I raised the interest, and then when I had some takers, I stalled.

The Burton Theatre in Detroit was recently written up in the New York Times. Someone came to the bar a couple of weeks ago, and told me about the article. I looked it up, and promptly posted it to my Twitter account.

Within a day, I had a conversation happening on Twitter and Facebook with a few folks who were very interested in taking a day-trip to Detroit immediately. Friends, Rino and Frances wanted to go right away but my schedule didn’t fit. We planned a week in advance, sent invites to hundreds of people to join us in our treasure hunt, and wound up with myself, my wife, and Frances.

To be fair, I assassinated the plan to go the week earlier when Rino was available. But once again, a few motivated bodies were completely alone in our exploration of ANOTHER of Detroit’s rare spaces. Yes, other Windsorites have been here, but this opportunity to go in numbers was supposed to coax others to join in.

The Burton Theatre is a converted section of an elementary school on Cass Avenue. It’s three minutes (or less) from Comerica Park, one block east of Woodward Avenue.
It has been re-purposed to house patrons of the independent-film-ilk.

The theatre is tiny, with proper theatre seats, and perfect theatre snacks.

Parking in the (as advertised) secure lot, there was one other car. And the lot was not fortified, or behind locked gates. But as we pulled in, I saw a hunched young man carrying some stuff toward the defunct school.

“Nathan!” I shouted. I added him on Facebook after I read the New York Times article, and told him how proud I was of his awesome achievement.

He spun around a looked.
“It’s Tom from Windsor! There is a show at 2pm, right?”

“Oh hey! Yeah. Just park, he’ll watch your car,” he said, then turned around and walked around the corner of the building.
My wife, Jhoan, and our friend, Frances, laughed at his response, because he simply gestured to the other car in the parking lot…which we eventually realized was the “guard tower” for the secured lot.

This was more than sufficient for us, so we parked, got out, and swiveled our heads.

Looking across the street, there was a questionable used furniture store called “Mantra”.

“Chickens!” Frances yelled.
And beside that, furniture store was “Birdtown”, with several chickens and roosters running free. It reminded me of something Stephen Hargreaves regaled to me once about a scene in Corktown he’d seen with goats and pigs.

We ran over, took a few photos, and crossed back to the theatre.

Walking around back, following directional signage, we were led by a string of light bulbs on a fence. On the other side of the fence was a new-ish orange and green playground, inaccessible. Fifty yards away from the quarantined playground was a building in severely plundered disarray. It was jarring. We stopped to take it in, visually, and conceptually.

Then onward.
Directly inside the front doors was the teeny-tiny ticket window, cut out of a door, with more than enough bars protecting the ticket seller. Bullets could barely fit through the slits.

We got our tickets from “not Nathan”, and headed upstairs into the quiet building. Large mural art and other strange accoutrements were on the walls, and a love-seat made itself available in the main entrance.

Getting upstairs, the food and drink counter stood, with the incredible smell of fresh buttered popcorn, and the popcorn maker sharing a frame with Nathan himself, behind the counter. We got chatting about the recent press. The good and bad times they’ve already endured since opening in October. Scarface seemed to be a great movie idea at the time, but according to Nathan, if you can rent it, people are very apprehensive to see it in the Burton Theatre.

Nathan told us that the developer that bought the building has now rented out other sections of the building to other artistic endeavors, including gallery space. We’re geeked to see more in that same building on our next trip over, if those other developments do indeed pan out.

I scored a Faygo Redpop, and Jhoan secured some Raisinettes, and we headed in…the three of us.

It was a dark, short theatre. A short walk to the screen. It was clearly on an old grade school stage. Something about the retrofitting made you look for all the signs of what this space WAS. The four lamps that hung were especially nice touches, and the wooden floors, wooden stage, and HUGE baseboard heaters on either side of the room were not lost on us. We loved them all. We sat, pointing out all the little things about the space we could find.

My favourite thing, through watching Cold Souls (starring Paul Giamatti, as himself), besides the movie was the heaters kicking in and hissing loud enough for me to notice. I loved that the history of this building was still getting in its words edgewise. “Thissssss wassssss a sssssschoool,” it seemed to say, “now it’sssss ssssssomething elsssssssse.”

We greatly enjoyed this film, which wasn’t playing in Windsor and likely never will, unless the Windsor International Film Festival brings it to town in the summer. Which means, upon extrapolation, that there will be many more great films showing daily at the Burton Theatre, which is a nice reassuring feeling. We found this gem of an experience, because it wanted to be found. Nowhere that I’m aware of can we yet see independent (small budget) films being screened daily in Windsor. So we went to where it was being provided.

A slightly less-exciting deviation from the films,  I had the supreme pleasure of taking the long, twisty walk to find the “Men’s Lounge” in the basement…where I was greeted with a pool table in a gigantic “boys” bathroom where it would be easier to wash my shins in the sink than my hands. Enjoy the photos below.

We were (I am) greatly appreciative that we have easy access to this place. Sitting quietly, largely, in one of the most unique cities in the world…15 minutes from my own business in downtown Windsor…on Cass Avenue…or as the baseboard heaters would say, “Casssssssssss.”

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Finally.

We got a respectable garden started!
If we can do it…trust me, YOU can do it.

We found the time to discuss, and discuss, and plan this thing.
Finding the time to construct the semi-bunny-proof body of the garden…well that took more time.

We have several rabbits in our area. They frolic in the backyard every day and night. This is a bad thing if you want to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, and yes, carrots.

In fact, we bought all of the vegetable plants, prepared them for planting, got overwhelmed with ground preparation and laying soil…and we had to leave them out overnight. No problem, as we put them on the picnic table, where rabbits (predictably) can’t get on top of…
Next day, laying more soil, preparing to put up the mini-border fence, and I notice the overturned vegetable seedlings on top of the picnic table.

Zucchini, broccoli, and other various treats were pilfered, dug out, and consumed.
On TOP of a picnic table.
I’m thinking maybe squirrels?

Anyway, we went to constructing the little fence, in back of our backyard, which was planned around a DREAM Jhoan had. You see, we weren’t sure HOW to set the wood up to make a good barrier to critters, while still being passable by us. She envisioned a 12-inch high fence, made of two 1X6 boards…which needed to span the 16-foot long and 6-foot wide garden. The idea was slick, and it was implemented with general ease.

The planting was done while I was at work, so Jhoan sent photos to me of the set-up, as if she were sending me images of a new niece or nephew.

I worried, like you might with a newborn, about it getting sullied (or eaten by critters, in this case). I wanted to protect those plants.
So, the next morning, I applied the “aluminum foil ground border” along the perimeter of the fence, outside of the garden area. Apparently, creatures don’t like the noise it makes when they step on it. Jhoan’s research says so.

I am not fulfilled with this solution. I will be constructing small domes, made of a ream of screening, normally used in storm doors.
These will be placed over groups of plants, allowing sun, water, and all other grow-friendly factors except pestilence.
I’ll keep you posted.

Jhoan has ALSO posted about this on her blog…which I was not ALLOWED to read until I wrote this post. You…and I…can read it here: EdgeOf49.wordpress.com

Here’s some more images of the wonderful new vegetable patch.

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Simply put, I had a wonderful birthday. Turning 29 was supposed to be uneventful. I would have gone to my in-laws for dinner and cake, swimming and fun. It turned out that Jhoan had asked some close friends, family (from Windsor and out of town) to come to my in-laws and surprise me. It was unprecedented for me, and it was incredible. I was a little shocked at the faces of MY parents in the yard of my WIFE’S parents. Shane was there, and the brothers who could make it…

It was sausages and hamburgers, salads and brownies, swimming and storytelling, children chortling and grown-up laughter. I was (unexpectedly) gifted Chapters gift cards to spend on books, and I cannot WAIT to go shopping for the best of the best. Also, I got SOLID books from Jhoan’s sister Lyn, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. My mother also got me some slick books to read, which are always the kind that I need. Inspirational as all heck. I will let you know about them when I get into them.

Oh geez, and my brother Cary’s family got me some Tim Horton’s gift cards, which are so perfect…I don’t know what to say. I will chug that brown death like it’s my job.

So, I just thought it was worth sharing, because I was feeling so taken care of today, it was overwhelming. So much work goes into this kind of thing, and from Jhoan, to Lyn, to my mom pitching in to help, it was a flawless day. Heard from several friends, and was flabbergasted at the plethora of birthday wishes on my Facebook Wall. Very unexpected.

I must say that I scored an Apple iTouch from Jhoan, who swore she was not going to get one for us…however, it is slick, and it will be used endlessly for blogging and many other functions while on the go. Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome…the only hitch has been that I had to pay $10 to get the software update just to get “iPhone” applications (as if they are made for one and not the other). That was the only “not-cool” thing about it. I mean, this thing must’ve cost over $300, maybe $400 and they want $10 MORE so I can put “free” online applications onto it in order to find movie show-times and to use a Scrabble Dictionary twice a year? Apple, get it together. I mean, everything else you do is mostly wonderful, but This. Is. A. Cash. Grab. I want my $10 back because it SHOULD be included in the purchase price. Plain and simple. You KNOW everyone is going to get apps for the thing, and you play it off like, “Oh, ohhhhhh, you want….you want apps from the iPhone?! (deep breath in between teeth) yeah…well…that’s not what we thought…we thought you’d just want it to be simple and stuff…without the cool free online gadgets and all that…yeah…(another deep breath in from the side of the mouth) maybe if you have $10 we can do the “upgrade”…”

Quit playin’ Apple. You know we all want the applications, so make some consumer-consciencious decisions here and pretend you actually MAKE HUNREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS because you cornered the market on audio/video/phone devices, okay? Thanks Steve Jobs. Thanks.

On to kinder, more level-headed thoughts.

Tell a loved one how much they mean to you. I heard it a few times today, and it was quite revitalizing.

And how could I forget…my brother’s Star Wars video has gotten quite the response! 12,000 views as of today (3 days since posting) and comments like crazy! Too awesome. Just so cool! Many thanks to Laughing Squid (Scott Beale) for posting this in the first place, especially after I sent him the link to the movie on a Twitter post…which is not the channel to go through for this sort of thing…so, extra thanks then, I guess. Now it has been re-posted to a few sites, namely the Geek Dad Blog on Wired.com, which is just jaw-dropping, as my brother Mark really had no intention of putting this thing online at all. Maybe eventually, but not without some prodding, it might have found its way to Youtube. Rodd, our other brother, however was prompt and golden for getting it onto blip.tv where the quality is money-in-the-bank.

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