A reader of the site just sent this photo to me. I’d heard a while ago, from the former manager of the bar, that the roof had fallen in, but it’s amazing to actually see it. I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but this is where, about 17 years ago, I met Linette. I’d come with my friends from Ann Arbor to make noise on the foot-tall stage of Cross Street Station. I can’t recall if the band was Yeti Load or Prehensile Monkey Tailed Skink, but I remember everybody leaving that part of the bar once we started assaulting our instruments with vibrators and drills. One girl stayed, though… and I married her. I think there’s probably a lesson in there somewhere, but I don’t have time to think about it now, as she’s in the other room, waiting for me with a bottle of wine… Anyway, my hope is that the collapsing Cross Street Station isn’t somehow an analogy for our relationship. I mentioned this to Oliva, who took the photo, and she was quick to point out how beautiful the rays of light were, breaking through what used to be the roof of the building. So, maybe it is an analogy, but maybe it’s a positive one… At any rate, the building is condemned, and I imagine that, sooner or later, it will come down. I was never a regular there, but I know that it meant a lot to a great many people in the area, and I’ll be sad to see it go.
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I can’t where I saw it right now, but I thought I read something recently saying that the Cross Street Station building just received a redevelopment grant or loan.
Yes, here is is, in our own Ypsi Citizen…
http://ypsiciti.com/section/News/Ypsi+facade+projects+selected+for+competitive+grant-article-1647.html
The bad news is that Cross Street Station was submitted, but not approved, for a redevelopment grant for a new roof and a completely refurbished facade front to make the building usable again. The total project was expected to cost $40,155 with a $20,078 match.
see that light streaming in? it’s eric letting some light into the place.
I got to look in there when I was house hunting and it looked very much like that. I considered it a bit of an advanced rehab job for a first-time homebuyer.
If you can’t walk in already fucked up on open mic night, and proceed to drink multiple pitchers, smoke a bowl in the bathroom, steal a tamborine as you’re leaving, then projectile vomit on the way home, wake up wondering what the hell happened last night, turn on the TeeVee and watch the Challenger disaster, you Sir have no right to marry their customers.
You have to play Midnight Dynamite.
Is Eric the owner of Cross Street? I heard that he died recently.
There’s a Facebook group made up of the old regulars. And, yes, Eric was the owner.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38263123642&ref=ts
It’s scary how time erases things.
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
I knew that being friends with an English teacher would eventually come in handy. Thanks, Dan.
If you want to talk about depressing photos that capture the passage of time, check these out.
http://imgur.com/a/N0JK9/time_passing
What we need is something more spectacular and unique. Something that takes advantage of the specific qualities of the situation.
I vote rip the roof off altogether and do a seasonal open-air cafe. Something poetic and inspiring that has to be experienced first hand, something that will draw people into the magic of a town that is willing to take risks. A town where the barriers are low enough for non-conforming wonders to take place, even if only for a brief window of time.
And if the analogy for Mark’s marriage does hold true in some O. Henry, Last Leaf sort of way, we could all be spared from watching the dissolution of young love over the internet.
There will be a Cross Street Station on July 10, 2010. I plan to go to the Shadow Art Fair and then to the “Stockyard Stomp” for the reunion–I am hoping to see many of my old pals there. For info, check out the “We Met At Cross Street Station” on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1033229324#!/group.php?gid=38263123642
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