Rivera's Murals
The Art Institute of Chicago does not play fair. After having been there not many museums can match up. The Detroit Institute of Art, though no exception has its highlights though. The DIA was under renovation and we could not see the famous Van Gogh - "Self portrait with Sun-Hat". The museum interestingly is organised thematically rather than chronologically which makes it interesting to see three-four hundreds years of painters at one time and their take on the same subject. The Seurat that they had was neither the size nor of the grandeur of AI's Evening on the Grand La Jatte but still pointilism still fascinates. You can look a hundred times and its still fascinating.
The whole trip was made worthwhile just by the Rivera Mural Commissed in 1932 by Ford and is a tribure to the auto industry. It is impossible to appreciate the whole thing at one go. It covers four huge walls. It consists of a main picture and then sub-panels. Each having a specific purpose to the theme. It was more like listening to a four movement symphony. In this case the movements having a much more tighter thematic structure. Its is about racial equality, the relation of industry and nature. The various industries are depicted and industry as depicted as a growing foetus from the womb of
Mother Earth. He merges Edison and Henry Ford as a manager in one panel. He and Frida spent a month photographing the Detroit plant before he spent about eight months finishing what he considered as one of his finest works.

Dodging Bullets in Downtown Detroit
It had to be my great idea to have lunch at the Mexican Town in Detroit, it took us one hour to get to a place which technically is 5 minutes away. Thanks to the people. The people who were not around in this 'ghost town'. I can give some benefit of doubt to the fact that it was a Sunday and it was cold outside, so not likely to see many people taking a stroll giving directions to four brown guys in a car.
There were no stories about dodging bullets in downtown Detroit. Just liked the title and since you are reading this so far. Its more hype than anything. I have lived to tell the tale.
The food at the Mexican place was great. The bowls of salsa and chips never stopped coming. The decor was of a mexican villa with its head of the bull and portraits of flamenco dancers and bullfighters. The waiteress starting talking to us in Spanish. Not surprising.
As part of adventure I ordered Napalitos,which is made from a type of cactus. I seem to have a weakness for exotic sounding dishes. It was not too bad. Tasted like dudhi. Next door was the Mexican store which looked, smelt and even would have tasted like any Indian store. It the identical spicy smell that assaults you the moment you get in. Similar with special foods re-packed in plastic bags by the owners, and the Mexican equivalents of Thums-Up and Parle G, including greeting cards in Mexican. Ironically printed in China!
A sign that you have you truly arrived in the USA
When I gave a quarter and a dime to an American beggar.