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September 6, 2026 / Grand Rapids

I went to Grand Rapids to attend the grand opening of Design within Reach, a high-end furniture store with locations all over the world. I learned that Grand Rapids is the real epicenter of mid century design, despite the designers going to school in Bloomfield Hills. Zeeland, Holland, and Grand Rapids ended up being the headquarters for Knoll, making the furniture easy to access and collect. I spent over four hours in a district dedicated to nothing but antiques, and endless menagerie of objects of all kinds. I ate at a punk bar that served incredible chicken and waffles as well as a sleepy spot near the school that served korean food with coffee. On a walk downtown, I came across the No Kings protest and happily obliged.

September 6, 2026 / Cleveland

I went to Cleveland twice in the fall of 2024-- once in September to visit a friend and again on my birthday to see my favorite band, Cloud Nothings in their hometown on my birthday. Unbelievable how that worked out. On my first visit, I went to Mahall's 20 Lanes, the first venue to give Cloud Nothings a chance, even going as far as to house them in the apartments upstairs. The employee at Mahall's gave me a tour of the venue, bowling alley, and apartments after hearing about my enthusiasm for the space. I then listened to my favorite album on the lake and was moved in a way I had never been before by that record. I truly believe songs sound special in their hometowns and can't wait to visit the homes of all my other favorite albums.

September 6, 2026 / KO Gallery

From 2016-2020, my friends and I ran a small art gallery in Hamtramck called KO. The gallery was truly meant to be a creative space, dedicating the front half to art exhibitions and the back half as an arcade full of cabinets provided by different members of Detroit Arcade Club. The space was a thriving nexus for film showings, workshops, classes, music, and just plain good times.

I did all of the web work, digital materials, and worked almost every single event from open to close. The curators did most of the heavy lifting on programming and exhibitions. I am so proud to be able to say the the space was a huge success. This tiny space would be pouring with visitors with lines down the block. It actually grew faster than we could keep up with it. The space was funded collectively out of each member's pockets, down to the refreshments at each show.

We were eventually priced out of the building and hit hard by the pandemic, which forced us to close. Years later, almost every artist that has shown at KO has gone on to become successful and internationally celebrated, with KO being one of their first breaks into the industry. It was incredibly hard work, long nights, lots of broken toilets and sinks, too much trash for the dumpster, and not enough money to have an event and eat a real meal in the same night. But it was wonderful and it was ours.

September 6, 2026 / Combo Breaker 2023

Combo Breaker is a fighting game tournament that takes place every Memorial Day weekend just outside of Chicago. I attended my first event in 2022 not knowing anyone or having any experience at events like these. Over the next year, I connected with many players, commentators, and friends of the fgc (fighting game community). By 2023, I'd return to Combo Breaker to meet many of these people in person for the first time, including my good friend Ayorichie and Pinya (pictured above, in that order). It was a lot of tun to meet my friends and introduce them to American culture.

September 1, 2026 / Van Dyke's Grocery

At the bottom of the hill on 4th street was a grocery store called Van Dyke's Grocery. It was about a block away from my middle school and was the perfect place to pick up a snack on the long walk home. Parents would send their kids here after school to pick up groceries for dinner every night.

Our town was so small that our parents could drop off schedules and grocery lists with the grocer and know that we would be able to pick it up every night. The butcher at Van Dyke's was amazing. He had a fridge full of already wrapped meat with families' names on them to take home.

Some parents, including mine, would put in an order for me once a week to get a sandwich. On my walk home, I'd stop in and see my sandwich with my name on it, waiting.

The lines here were always long, but the food was always so worth it. I filmed some sort of horror movie or something like that in high school here because one of my close friends worked here and had the key. Being at the store after hours to film was surreal.

It's gone now, but the memories aren't. I wonder if I'll ever be close enough to a place again to see my name on a sandwich again.

September 1, 2026 / Ball Bros Health Mart

Ball Bros Health Mart was one of my favorite places growing up. Though both of the Ball brothers were licensed pharmacists, they also developed photos, fixed bicycles, and ran a diner and a gift shop in the pharmacy itself. It was only a few blocks away from my middle school and my favorite place to eat and hang out after class.

You couldn't ask for a more classic look for a diner. The red swivel barstools, the checkered floor. The brothers' affinity for alchemy inspired them to run a soda fountain in the diner as well, where you could make and mix your favorite flavors for a malt drink or your medicine. I was prescribed a toothpaste once and remember Dr. Ball asking me what flavor I wanted it to be, completely blowing my 12-year old mind.

Downstairs was a bike shop and photo center. Again, it was just the work of the two brothers. The only other employees worked the gift shop and grill, but the bicycles, meds, and photos were the work of these two brothers.

One of my classmates got to work in the photo development department to start her budding photography career. I was really interested in photography at the time too and remembered dropping off my photos, learning about mattes, glosses, and paper grades while I was here.

The diner had a mean egg salad.

There's few feelings that live up to how satisfying it was to finish class, drop off or pick up a roll, or even have Dr. Ball show you what he did in the development room. He also taught kids to fix their own bikes if they stuck around for it. There'd be bikes hanging from the ceiling downstairs.

It was such a small town place, so personal and always active. I can't think of anything quite like this and haven't run into anything quite like it since. I think we're headed there, but growing up with it was a real privilege.

It's not there anymore, the brothers were nearly 70 when i was a kid. Nothing stands there now at the moment, but I'm glad I was able to find a photo buried deep on the internet, just as I remembered it.

/ webrings

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