Feeling so bohemian like you. Guess which movie I just watched...

Much like the mob, I know people. I have connections. This explains how I got a super exclusive tour of John King Books, a Detroit icon to any of you who ever gotten off at the Howard Street exit from the Lodge or headed toward the News/Freep parking lot at 12:30 a.m. after awaiting the lottery numbers for the two-dot edition. If you don't recognize what either of those things I just typed, read on. This post is for you and you'll realize why you need to be in Detroit. Right. Now.

http://www.rarebooklink.com/cgi-bin/kingbooks/about.html



I convinced my mom to get her sweat glands ready and take a browse through the store this afternoon while being mildly productive. She was game because I think she still feels bad for missing my birthday. We got there at about 2 p.m. We didn't leave until after 4 p.m. The purpose of my visit was to rummage through the Detroit ephemera case. It really has a lot of neat Detroit goodies. For example, I picked up a pack of swizzle sticks from forgotten bars and clubs, some postcards and a return envelope from the Detroit Free Press' patterns department. My mom was actually looking for old art books on muralists and sweating off all the Diet Coke she had consumed on our journey. King's is five stories and housed in an old glove-making factory. Air conditiong? Fuck that. Heat in the winter? Only for those in the suburbs. Essentially you've got about two safe months at King's. I'd say March and April. But I didn't care.

As we were getting ready to check out (leave your checkbooks at home, this place is cash only with plastic a second, quasi-sketchy option), I hear an employee yell, "SALLY!" at the top of her lungs. Sally is my mother and the yeller was Toni, a King employee of 19 years and the woman who has filled my Allegra prescription at Birmingham Drugs for about 10 of those 19. She works at King's because, well, she f'ing loves it. And I can see why. Toni doesn't have a degree in anything special. She just loves history and loves books. All of a sudden she started whispering about the "other building" and would we like to see it. I answered the question for my mother and it was off to Fort Street.

King Books specializes in rare, out-of-print, first editions, you name it. The special goodies are housed in the second building because they can't fit in the factory. That's how huge this place is. It's also important to know that the store doesn't have anything listed in a computer system, excpet for the rare books as they are online. Nope, the employees know exactly where to point me when I ask for a 1960s copy of "The Great Gatsby." Well, to look at the "other building" you have to have an appointment and a lot of money. I have neither, so I was feeling special, a lot like those urban explorers who talk about breaking into the Fort Shelby just for the helluva it... And a blog post.

The other building was amazing. The owner created a mini museum library to house the rare gems. It has books floor to ceiling, complete with those ladders that spin around the room. My mother is a librarian, so she was dying. The first room is the "collection" room, the place where you can get any set of vintage books. The second is the "first edition" room. Hemmingway? They've got it. Stephen King's first writings? Got loads of 'em. The first printing of the "Wizard of Oz?" Better have $650 with you. While the books were absolutely to die for (I can't tell you what I got in the room 'cos it's a future gift for a lucky reader), it's the weird bits the owner finds and puts up for sale. Sure, way cooler Detroit stuff is in here, but where else can you find a lock of Andrew Jackson's hair complete with an illustration of him dying, a note penned by him just before he bit the big one and a letter stating that all this shit is real? Hell, I have relatives in Tennessee. I've been to the Hermitage. I've seen the bastard president's grave but I never saw a lock of his hair. Not your fancy? Perhpas you'd like Abe Lincoln's signature. No? Autographed Babe Ruth 8x10 glossy? Original city maps of Detroit? Books with gold pages? I can go on. I was dying and despereately wished I had a lot of money because I knew I could make a lot of people happy with the contents of this room. I wanted a book about the Temptations, but it was $150 and I had already spent $80 on jewelry supplies for my new jewel business (stay tuned for future info). Toni asked if we'd like to see the "overflow room." Sweet lord, when would it end?

The overflow room... wow. This is where all the extra art, photography, culture, etc. books are housed. Name an art movement and it was there. I decided to try it out. My favorite movement happens to come from those crazy 1920s Germans. Yep, the Bauhaus, baby. Why do you think I love skinny, sans serif fonts so much?! Well, I found it. I picked up (for a more reasonable $35) a commemorative book from the Royal Museum of Art (London, duh) 1968 exhibit written by Walter Gropius himself. Oh, I'm in design heaven. There were tons of vintage posters, maps, etc. Toni said I'm allowed to come back and stay for however long I'd like AND look at anything I want. Oh god, sometimes it's good to be me.

Well, after two hours of sweating and dropping my jaw too much, it was time to go. King's is the type of place that gives you faith in the little guys. Fuck you, Barnes and Noble. Independent people can still make it. And they can still make it downtown. My mom and I got into a mini argument on the way home about the future of Detroit. I essentially summed up my thoughts by reminding her that it really all depends on attitude and the attitude from arrogant suburbanites is what's keeping the city down. I can tell she's pissed that I want to move downtown, but she needs to realize I'm a lot different from her and that if she wants a daughter who carries Louis Vuitton bags, shops at Pottery Barn and dreams of a white picket fence and 3.2 kids, she should really spend more time with her best friend's kid. 'Nuf said.

Anyhoo, there it is. Next time you visit Detroit, make sure you visit that place. Hell, make sure you visit a lot of places. Detroit is brimming with history and non-conformity. Oh. And deeeelishous music. If you don't where to look for it, call me and I'll show it to you.

P.S. I just watched "DIG!" for the first time. I know hoping for a band fight is like hoping Liam Gallagher will kick brother Noel's ass at a London club appearance, but I pray to gawd I get to witness Anton take a swing at Courtney during Lollapalooza. (I celebrate both bands, but I'm prolly a bigger Dandy than I am Jonestown). BOTH bands are playing and only one's had music featured on the "O.C." I see trouble brewing even before Benita and I hit the booze tent ;)