OT: Detroit Lives Docu. by Johnny Knoxville
This documentary is awesome. Each part is about 10 minutes long. Johnny Knoxville (of all people) exploring the positive side and future of Detroit. It's nice to see some positive mention of Detroit in the media. Hopefully, with good leadership, Detroit can return to being a respectable city.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:43 AM ^
Awesome, I saw the trailer for this and was wondering when the whole thing was coming out. Also worth a look is David Byrne's Journal from a recent trip to Detroit, really great read: http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the-motor-city.html
October 15th, 2010 at 9:39 AM ^
This journal says in such clear prose what I try to explain to so many. This is why I am not a writer.
"The domination of the city by one industry, the riots, the nearsightedness and collapse of the car companies and now the financial crisis—all contributed to what one sees here. But this city is not alone. It’s just more iconic and extreme in what’s happened to it."
Thank you for directing me to this!
October 15th, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^
For all of his crazy JACKASS antics, Johnny Knoxville does some pretty great work in the documentary arena.
Look for "Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virgina." It is pretty damn good.
I feel as though he has tried to seperate himself from the JACKASS folks a bit, but he knows it is his meal ticket and you have to pay the monkey...
October 15th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^
I'd half-expect him to throw in a clip of him somehow getting punched by the Joe Louis fist given his Jackass background.
October 15th, 2010 at 9:45 AM ^
I lived in Detroit for a little while and I don't really buy what he's selling. Knoxville has good intentions, but he is blinded by what he is. By that, I mean that basically the whole documentary shows a bunch of twenty/thirty-something white hipsters (like Knoxville) doing whatever the hell they want in a forsaken city. They might have great intentions, but that's not exactly a recipe for rebuilding an abandoned city.
What you need is young couples that actually reproduce and then keep their families in the city, not a bunch of single starving artists. Unfortunately, the schools are so god-awful and the streets so dangerous that no parent in their right mind would raise their child down there.
I'm not saying I have a grand plan, but without better schools and safer streets it won't happen.
October 15th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
Schools are certainly the foundation on rebuilding, but there really needs to be some industry in order to create a middle class opportunity again. Creative minds can possibly foster that. I think, based on the title, he is just trying to show that Detroit isn't the waste basket the mass media has portrayed it to be.
October 15th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^
I agree. My brother lived in Detroit for a bit, my other brother currently goes to school down there, and both admitted that they really could not see themselves living in Detroit with families because of the schools, the lack of basic services, and the paucity of good jobs. I like what the documentary had to say in the sense that there is a misconception of Detroit as a wasteland, but none of these subjects really proposed any long-standing means of improving the city beyond vague words like "DYI" and "I'm fine if just 100 white kids moved in each year". Like the one female artist pointed out that Detroit doesn't need a corporate savior, just people caring and giving the city a chance. While I agree with the notion that the city should be self-sufficient, people need jobs, and being an artist commune is not going to support real growth.
October 15th, 2010 at 10:41 AM ^
Detroit needs to condense. Either by selling off lots to the adjoining cities or by making a park/farming/rural belt that surronds the inner core. This would help by consolidating resources to a more centralized location.
The fact that you can fit SF, Boston and Manhattan in Detroit but have 25% of the population says it all.
Also, the legacy of Coleman Young lives on in the public sector. Bing has an uphill battle, especially with the school system cronies.
October 15th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^
My sister's ex used to be a bartender at the Fox and Hound. Bill was a regular, he used to get sauced before he went on air. My ex brother in law had some classics about Bill, scotch and his famous toupee.
October 15th, 2010 at 6:35 PM ^
Ah I love that bar
October 15th, 2010 at 12:38 PM ^
Cool art, cool everything. It seems like there's a lot of innovative ideas happening and going down. It's nice to see that there's SOMETHING happening in Detriot rather than it just going to waste.