It's not quite the rusted belt it's made out to be. Despite the media conditioning, not that there weren't a smokestack or two, my experience began with the airport from the 22nd century, where one travels through ambient color therapy in the connecting tunnel. The Ren Cen and the river walk are as good as any revitalized urban harbourfront. I have no doubt that there are two Detroits, I just haven't seen the second one yet.

After the jump, a pic from the Escalade-sized party I attended last night (also above). It was over the top in a big top; a huge tent with three sections, one for the red carpet a la Oscars, another for a lounge and the biggest section reserved for a car catwalk. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, deliciously irreverent btw ("an unholy pairing of celebrities and cars"), the parade of said celebs was impressive. My personal favorite was Jennifer Hudson, I was a fan when she was unjustly booted from AI, and in person I can confirm that that nervous charm is real. And there were a lot of cars, the Sequel I mentioned before and a ragtop Camaro. All topped off by a performance by Lady Sovereign, another personal fave.

To my chagrin, I also discovered that my Sony Cybershot camera (DSC-W30) doesn't play nice with Macbooks. I connected the two and instantly wiped out two days worth of pictures. The pictures you see here are from GM (mine were better...).



Cars and stars.