Love Hate the Building
I took this picture of graffiti and desolation from the 8th floor of the financial district parking structure across the way. This is one of the ABUS* in Detroit. There was a time when I was young and stupid and I seriously considered gearing up for an urban spelunking raid in one of the many such empty office buildings throughout the city.
I wanted to see if there were trays of unclaimed, petrified bagels in the decrepit conference rooms, or perhaps one or two vintage “you don’t have to be crazy to work here**” posters pinned to the paleolithic proto-cubicles. The ghosts of meaningless labors past simply must walk the halls at night. They have to! I bet you can hear them whispering about where they’d like to eat lunch, about how they are not working hard nor are they hardly working***.
If I sat in a filthy, half-broken chair behind the moldy old desk of a long-gone secretary named Catherine, would I hear someone whisper in my ear, “Cathy… you’ve changed,” or would it lament that Cathy grew a beard?
cathy… you’ve…. changed…
You want to know more about the ABUS*. Here’s how: www.forgottendetroit.com
* Abandoned Buildings of Unusual Size. Found in the fire swamps of Detroit.
** Say it with me, boys and girls: “But it HELPS!”
*** A quantum state through which one may become exhausted by the effort to become unproductive.
Posted in Uncategorized by SafeTinspector on May 29th, 2007 |
18 comments
“Pre-Depression” doesn’t say it. It looks like Thatcher’s Manchester.
A nice bunch of ironic fresh flowers would brighten the place up for everyone though.
‘working hard nor hardly working’
Rather like ‘busy work’, wherein you simply make it seem like you’re working, yet you’re not. Which is something that requires a lot more effort than one would be ordinarily led to believe.
New 3D SafeT logo.. nice.
Sam: Some buildings are more modern than others, but I agree. Almost Victorian.
DC: I was trying to evoke the old workplace chestnut, “Hey, buddy! You workin’ hard or hardly workin’? Heh-heh-heh-heh”
It’s one of those “funny” things people say when they really aren’t capable of actually being funny. But I agree: it is more tedious to appear busy than it is to actually BE busy.
Dan:It was a gift from PJWarez. I’ll announce it officially Really Soon Now.
It’s one of those “funny” things people say when they really aren’t capable of actually being funny.
Give yourself more credit, darling.
HA HA Just kidding. I know it doesn’t apply to ‘clever you’, thrusting yourself into the future…
I really mean it as a compliment. Being a ghost, a mere shadow of my former self, this is disconcerting, to say the least. Who wants to fade into the shadows, as well…a shadow?
l>t:What I meant was that it was a workplace cliche. How many hundreds of times in the last 14 years have I heard some schmuck ask, ‘you workin hard or hardly workin?’
And everytime I sit in someone’s desk to work on a computer, someone thinks they are being Completely Original in exclaiming, ‘My, person-who-normally-sits-there, you’ve changed!’
Other cliches:
When I arrive at a client site I’ve been to more than a few times in a month or so, someone always says, ‘what, moving in?’ or ‘we need to get you a desk!’
When I arrive bearing new computer equipment, regardless of wether it is a large server or a laserprinter, someone often says, “hey, you can put that in my car!”
‘Hey, you can put that in my car AH OH GOD AAHH THAT’S THE CLAW END OF A HAMMER YOU’RE STRIKING ME WITH’
Dare to dream, I say. Also: nice logo. Will you be moving to WordPress?
Yes, yes, nice post Cathy, but now onto something more important. Where did you get that funkeriffic Avatar? Did you make it? Is it you shrunken down? It’s way cool!
DC and Rich: PJWarez gave me the avatar because he loves me more than you!
WordPress will be Real Soon Now.
Ah, workplace humor. They sell it by the can, you know. “Workin’ hard or hardly workin’” generally comes in 6-packs, which is why you hear it so often.
I’m sure it would have been well underrated eh.
Those places are guaranteed to drain yer soul.
SafeT.. I never said I loved you, although I’ve always thought you had a nice ass. Don’t tell Heather!
Arth - You can have a new avatar too but only if you’re nice to me.
Office Cliche: “How was your weekend?”
It was great until Monday morning came!
arth: Not my kind of beverage. I would rather hear random, keening wails than another of those old chestnuts.
zuba:The abandoned ones?
pjwarez: So, how was your weekend?
Is that a moomin I see…
dan: Could be. What is a moomin?
OH! Now I know.
Never underestimate the power of these buildings, there’s a reason why people behave the way they do when they spend so much time there.
The corporate version of battery hens, and the buildings were made with a sprinkle of devil’s sack sweat in every foundation.
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