in which I post an overdue update, having forsaken my LJ for pithy one-liners on Facebook

[randomlypsycho]

Bullet points is about where I'm at this week, gotta say

Comments

[thecrazedhermit]

Regarding Detroit as a tourist destination: Having spent some time in the area immediately around Comerica Park and Greektown recently, I have to say that there is probably no place I'd rather spend a boozy, baseball-and-gambling-centric day than downtown Detroit. It's actually pretty nice. True, the rest of the city is beat all to hell, but you can definitely find a lot of fun for a day or two in that area. Ideally in this order:

Wake up, breakfast, DIA, lunch, wander around Greektown, bar, bar for dinner, Comerica Park for a game, bar for postgame cordial, bar for post-postgame cordial Irish Carbomb, casino, Greek place for drunken gyro and fries, bar, strip club, vomit, walk to hotel, pass out on stomach so as to not die.

It's everything spring break has, minus the babes (though a Tigers game has them by the metric asston, they're just not in bikinis), plus the satisfaction of doing it in a postindustrial wasteland where you can joke about the zombie apocalypse all night. What could be better?

[randomlypsycho]

But the point remains: cool as Detroit is for a day, perhaps a weekend if you enjoy the Tigers and gambling, do you feel that Detroit has anything to offer that would merit flying 1300 miles for, remembering that the target audience for the commercials can fly on Southwest to Chicago, Vegas, or any city in California for far cheaper?

[thecrazedhermit]

I'm not saying that The D is the new tourist Mecca of America. I think if you wanted to come to MI to do the whole Up North thing, flying into Detroit, doing a day there and then heading up in a rental car is a good way to do it.

I'm just trying to counteract the going opinion that there's nothing there. You could have a great weekend in Detroit, debauchery free, even. There's stuff to do.

Clearly, there are huge barriers to people believing that. I think it's good that the Michigan tourism people are trying, though.

[randomlypsycho]

Okay, that makes sense, getting people to do something other than maybe the obligatory stop at Greenfield Village as they flee the Metro Detroit area for Lake Michigan. I just enjoyed the thought that the pictures were trying to paint it as a midwestern Las Vegas, which it's... not.

[outlawferret]

maybe the michigan commercials are telling you to COME TO MY WEDDING

[caitlinleah]

oh, all winter long i've been hearing the michigan comercials on the radio. make me cry every time. the MOST SENTEMENTAL SHIT ABOUT SNOW YOU"VE EVER HEARD! and the sappiest music. the nostalga is apparently deeper than the snow. your heart longs for something like home and you will find it in michigan. michigan has everything your soul desires. and they can book a whole vacation package where you do nothing but intangables.

[randomlypsycho]

Funny, we're only getting the "Michigan in summer" commercials here. I guess that they don't need to sell the virtues of Michigan winters to a state with two dozen ski resorts...

[randomlypsycho]

I think you are all missing the point. The point I am making is this: how effective, seriously, do you think these commercials are going to be in getting people that do not already have a tie to Michigan to travel 1300 miles to go to Detroit? Do you seriously believe that people in Denver are going to watch a commercial and think "wow, we should go fly to Detroit for the weekend!" The Lake Michigan coast, okay, I see that. But do you honestly believe that people in the Denver metro area are going to fly to Detroit as a destination vacation for reasons other than visiting family and friends, when you can fly to any major city in California, or Chicago, or Vegas?