Trots Around Birmingham in Yoga Pants

The following is an excerpt from a 3 September 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. 

Michigan Central Station, Detroit

Art:

Yes, the difficulty with the Rush thing is that it's so hackneyed at this point. So, having me standing among the ruins of Detroit might make sense just from the practical standpoint of that it's cheap and surprisingly quiet. But really that whole situation is more like The Picture of Dorian Gray. If Detroit is the ugly portrait, it's only a reflection of the true moral desolation that trots around Birmingham in yoga pants (or slouches toward Bethlehem?).

Will:

I think the non-hackneyed angle is that Detroit is supposed to fall. 

The narratives about Detroit are always tragic and hopeful: look at the hubris that led to this, but with a little pluck a new generation of people will fix it, because the people of Detroit and the people who love Detroit have heart. It's just been a victim of bad management and greed! I don't think I've heard anyone say that it's a head on a pike on a spiritual battlefield and a holy reminder that God's truth triumphs over the lies of the American dream. The thought is too disturbing. 

And yes...the Birmingham connection is interesting. Speaking as a Birmingham kid, I can say that Birmingham people either cut Detroit out of their existences, embrace Detroit albeit in a fairly touristy way to augment Bohemian cred or assuage liberal guilt, or are actually from Detroit, remember it fondly and try to preserve it in the past and act like authorities on it to other people, but avoid its present because they feel implicated in its collapse. Oh, I guess there are also the GM execs who reduce Detroit to their offices and a few restaurants...they stay in Birmingham even when they are in Detroit.