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Brotherhood 2.0: March 19th: Urban Exploration

2007-03-19 · John, M. T. Anderson, a private person · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · documentary visit

Stranded after cancelled flights, John goes urban exploring through Detroit's abandoned buildings with M. T. Anderson and a guide; past his anxiety he finds eerie beauty in the ice-covered decay of the United Artists Theatre, which the guide reads as a failure to use the past and Anderson as a reminder that every building will be ruins.

What is said

00:00:00 — Saturday greeting; M. T. Anderson and the guide introduced; how the Detroit urban-exploring tour came about; the Eastern Wig and Hair Company

  • ★★ John introduces Tobin (M. T.) Anderson as a world-famous children's book author and winner of the 2006 National Book Award. — 00:00:05
  • ★★ Before he and John met at a book festival in Kalamazoo, Anderson spent a day looking at abandoned buildings in Detroit, where he randomly met the guide. — 00:00:05
  • ★★ When their Friday flights east were cancelled, they called the guide, who offered them an urban exploring tour through the ruins of Detroit. — 00:00:05

00:00:47 — Failed fire-escape entry; inside an abandoned building, John's anxiety and a warning not to break into buildings

  • ★ Their attempt to enter the Eastern Wig and Hair Company building failed because its owner drove by while Anderson was pulling down the fire escape. — 00:00:47
  • ★★ John says viewers shouldn't break into abandoned buildings, especially without professional assistance, as it is unsafe, asbestos-laden, terrifying and generally illegal. (hedged) — 00:01:15

00:01:45 — Tic-tac-toe on the wall, fleeing voices, entering the United Artists Theatre

  • ★ Hearing people walking and talking in the building, the group had to flee. — 00:01:45
  • ★★ The group enters Detroit's United Artists Theatre, described as designed by C. Howard Crane in a Spanish Catholic style; inside everything is covered in ice and rubble. — 00:01:45

00:02:24 — Reflection on the ruins: eerie beauty, failure to use the past, every building will be ruins; anxiety and reverence

  • ★★★ Once past the anxiety of being somewhere he shouldn't, John began to think about the ruins themselves and the eerie beauty of the ice-encrusted decay. — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ John reports that to the guide the ruins represent a failure to recognise and use the gifts of the past. — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ John reports that to Anderson the ruins also speak of inevitability: one day every building will be ruins. — 00:02:24
  • ★★ John felt a mix of anxiety and reverence he had not felt since working at the hospital, and kept calling the theatre 'the cathedral'. — 00:02:24

00:02:59 — The stage and a 1968 National Geographic, the office building and safe deposit boxes, the theatre's former look; closing tease

  • ★ On the stage they find a 1968 National Geographic about the Shah of Iran crowning himself in Tehran; John remarks that it was a very different time. — 00:02:59
  • ★★ Through a hole in the fence and the 'troll hole' they went from the theatre into an office building with safe deposit boxes; John shows what the theatre used to look like. — 00:03:26

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