So how about the The Death of Detroit? Not glam enough? Pictured below is 1887 Grant Street, Detroit, MI. Detroit hasn’t got a lot going for it except a lot of people out of work and a ton of empty lots and houses, several on this very street. Possibilities, no?

And then there is Hudson, NY, a formerly down at the heels town in an ongoing rebirth, hand-in-glove with the continuing passion play of Marina Abramovic? And Abramovic has Lady Gaga. There is art in both cities. One may lose it (the Detroit Institute of the Arts, as well as the rest of the city), and the other, The Marina Abramovic Institute, (MAI), hopes to find immortality. AxeMan, in his typically elliptical fashion, is reminded of all those old Caddies buried in the Texas semi-desert; the once great Ant Farm’s Cadillac Ranch installation. Cadillac Ranch is facing destruction because the money guy, Stanley Marsh 3, has been accused of (but not tried for) possible sex offenses against youngsters. Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo lawyer who founded the Innocence Project, and is, like Marsh, a descendant of one of Amarillo’s first pioneer families, says, “I can tell you this town is better off for having had him in it for as long as it has. Yes, we’ve heard rumors, but they’ve always remained rumors. If it turns out they are true, then we’ll do the right thing.” He hopes (as does AxeMan) that it ends well, whatever that is. But AxeMan is wondering if a new iteration could spring to life in the urban desert of Detroit. Yes, there is a Grant Street (kind of short – about four blocks), but there are vacant lots on it. Thus, (GR)ANT FARM. AxeMan’s boss wonders what it would take to get hold of some funked up Detroit wheels that bit the dust and bury them nose down on those lots. You know the names (or maybe you don’t). Hudson, Edsel, Rambler, DeSoto, Studebaker, Packard, Henry J, … hell, too many to mention. AxeMan can see the rusting hulks, tails up, gathering weeds until something better comes along (like small factories). He’s even envisioning a Kickstarter campaign to get some weed, er, seed money. Hell, Marina Abramovic is doing it, or trying to. She’s asking for $600 Gs to build her Kool-House (ultimately $20 million) in Hudson, NY, coincidently only .6 km from AxeMan’s own abode. And there are a few weeds around that one too. If the Abramovic explanation about “Why Hudson?” is to be taken seriously, then they might have inhaled a whole lotta weed. In her/their words, “MAI’s mission of exploration is defined by an appreciation of time and space that is inherently obstructed by the pace and nature of the city. Hudson, where America’s first school of art was established (is she alluding to the Hudson River School?) has a rich history of slow and measured appreciation for nature and the arts, and thus serves as a perfect environment for the institute.” Neither AxeMan nor his boss have the foggiest idea what this means, but it does sound like (gr)antspeak, a lingua franca they had better learn, pronto.