Brian du Bois is currently a student in the Cranbrook 3D Design program, and he is also the principal of 2:37am Studios, a design/build/model company, and 2:37am, an apparel company whose graphics visualize aspects of industrial Detroit.

Check out Brian’s studio blog for news and profiles of the artists and musicians who model the t-shirts in these photos. I would be remiss if I didn’t again mention the work of fellow Detroiter and Cranbrook alumna Bethany Shorb’s Cyberoptix Tie Lab and, along similar conceptual lines, apparel by Oaklandish, which celebrates aspects of that troubled, yet beloved, city.

Enjoy Your Weekend: tons going on this weekend, including the opening of a brand-new gallery in Covington tonight.

Clifton Arts Center Work Could Begin in January: Cincinnati’s already strong arts scene keeps growing.

Exhibit Makes a Statement: two medical students install A Beacon for Broken Health Care at the Heidelberg Project in Detroit.

The Cosmetology behind Civic Art: American Dirt examines the role of public art, particularly the acclaimed Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia.

Postcard: Philadelphia: more love for the over 2,500 murals that have been painted throughout Philly.

Vintage Travel Posters: yummy picks from the 1950s-1970s by the always inspiring Grain Edit.

Recycling Old Car Parts: car part art!

Enjoy Your Weekend: art and sports.

Daisy Mae’s Market: let’s all welcome this new produce vendor to Findlay Market.

The Art World Goes Local: according to the Wall Street Journal, the mantra “buy local” now extends to the art world.

Space Hotel Says it’s on Schedule to Open in 2012: a bit of anti-local news.

Detroit House Auction Flops for Urban Wasteland: sad tales from Detroit.

City Dreams Illustration Series: bizarre, dense illustrations of life in New York City.

Bike Racks by David Byrne: the Talking Head himself is an avid bicyclist and cycling advocate; now a bike rack designer as well.

Enjoy Your Weekend: it’s a wild weekend of roaring tigers, leaping carp, oh, my!

Raise the Rutherford!: check out the hijinks at last weekend’s birthday party for Rutherford B. Hayes.

QCD Detroit Gallery: more Detroit from our intrepid photographers here and here.

NYC Grid: exploring NYC block by block and corner by corner with a focus on the mundane and ephemeral.

7 Classic Blunders of Sidewalkdom: LOLs found via The Urbanophile.

World’s Longest Escalator: crazy photos and some video.

And the Pursuit of Happiness: Maira Kalman’s witty illustrated blog for the NYT.

Enjoy Your Weekend: this weekend, Cincinnati has art out the wazoo.

VisuaLingual for the Home: Queen City Survey makes our day! [See more of our work in situ here.]

About Cincinnati and How I Ended Up Here: The Walking Green shares her thoughts on the trajectory that’s led her from the suburbs of Chicago to Over-the-Rhine.

Metropole Should Stay: fighting words [and sound reasoning] from CityKin about a downtown Cincinnati SRO.

Re-Imagining Boston’s Stalled Projects: imaginative, inventive, and somewhat silly ideas for stalled construction sites in Boston.

What’s A ‘Spooey’? A Field Guide To Freeway Interchanges: Freeway Interchange Typology 101.

Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City: thoughts about regionalism and diversification in and around Detroit.

Enjoy Your Weekend: whether you feel like being a jock or a sloth this weekend, we’ve got your covered with a variety of event options.

Best Old House Neighborhoods 2009: Fixer-Uppers: say hello to Covington at #7!

Food Among the Ruins: “Detroit, the country’s most depressed metropolis, has zero produce-carrying grocery chains. It also has open land, fertile soil, ample water, and the ingredients to reinvent itself from Motor City to urban farm.”

Paris’ Dog House Is Damn Comfortable!: “The two floor dog house has a clay-tile roof with copper gutters, intricate ceiling molding and a crystal chandelier hanging in the bedroom complete with central air.” Shut. Up.

Japanese Map of America: apparently, there are a few details they got wrong.

Lettering in Cambridge: some of the best lettering and signage that can be found in Cambridge is assembled here.

Architects: As seen on TV!: LOL!

In the final rap battle in 8 Mile, Jimmy Smith, played by Eminem in a loosely autobiographical role, calls out Papa Doc for having attended “Cranbrook, that’s a private school.” Oh, the horror! Em, you should know that even the poshest private schools offer need-based financial aid.

I rushed out to see 8 Mile when it came out, ready to smirk at its portrayal of Detroit and its environs. I didn’t expect that the finale would hinge on a place I know so well. The reference to Cranbrook actually came up earlier, in passing during a party, so vaguely that I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly. During the finale, though, it was loud and clear.

It’s sort of funny to hear the immature bravado in B-Rabbit’s accusations — the horror of a suburban area code, the embarrassment of a silly first name, the shame of having happily married parents. He’s making generalizations for effect, of course, although a young, angry part of me completely agrees with his words. It’s one major aspect of this film that works to tell a compelling story — B-Rabbit may not be right, really, but he voices sentiments that many of us have felt. In the strangely divided world of the Detroit metro area, he wears his “white trash” pride on his sleeve.

I really was pleasantly surprised by 8 Mile. It wasn’t cheesy; it didn’t feel like a vanity picture. Eminem’s character felt so true — so desperate, so intense, so rabid at times, and not always sympathetic– that I easily forgot that this was a quasi-biopic. Sure, maybe his strong performance was due to the fact that he wasn’t really acting, but compare it to 50 Cent’s lackluster turn in the generally mediocre Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and you can come to appreciate Marshall Mathers’ acting abilities.

There’s something about this character who, when pushed, proclaims pride about his upbringing and his socio-economic circumstances, that rings true. When pressed, he claims the trailer park as his home, he acknowledges his embarrassing encounters, the bugs becoming features… What bridge-and-tunnel-718er can’t empathize with his plight? What have-not doesn’t resent a superior educational opportunity or a seemingly happy family? It’s all silliness, of course, and we learn and grow out of these chips on our shoulders.

Of course, on the other hand, what have-not doesn’t express a certain amount of pride at having survived unfortunate circumstances? Even when it elicits a certain amount of ill-placed schadenfreude? Talented people come out of unfortunate situations, and of course I’m proud of that fact. So, is the unfortunate circumstance actually a necessary catalyst, or can [creative] people be well off, or better off, without it?

Enjoy Your Weekend: lots to do this Friday and Saturday, in Over-the-Rhine and beyond.

Rediscovering Cincinnati: a NYC-based architect returns to Cincinnati and shares his adventure in words and pictures.

Zig Zag Roof Scavenger Hunt: another architect roams Cincinnati in search of Modern zig zag roofs.

First Ever Historic Covington Coloring Book to Debut This Fall: oh, to be a kid again!

Stripping Away the Darkness as Murals Are Reborn: restoration magic, one inch at a time, at 30 Rock.

opencitydetroit: “Dreaming of starting a business in Detroit?” Actually, now that you mention it, that’s a lovely notion…

Beef Posters: one designer uses his power to try to start beef between cities, e.g. “Cleveland will kill New York.”

Enjoy Your Weekend: awesome stuff going on this weekend, from the Redtree Gallery to the Cincinnati Fire Museum.

Cincinnati with Friends: a Chicagoan visits Cincinnati and, gasp, likes it!

Bike Among the Ruins: the rise of bicycling culture in the Motor City?

Mapping a Bird’s-Eye View of Foreclosure Misery: Damon Rich maps the foreclosure crisis onto the NYC panorama at the Queens Museum of Art.

Covered in Umbrellas: university students in Talca, Chile create a gorgeous, temporary public art installation using umbrellas.

Laser-Cut Art Book by Olafur Eliasson: from the artist who brought waterfalls to NYC last summer, here’s a laser-cut negative space rendering of his house in 85:1 scale.

Twitch: Hideous Sunday hunts down Mick Wiggins’ work in BART stations.

Enjoy Your Weekend: tons going on this weekend, mostly artsy-fartsy stuff in Over-the-Rhine.

Blog of the Month: Queen City Survey: Dan of Queen City Survey is interviewed by CINWeekly, with shout-outs to March[itecture] Madness and Rutherford B. Hayes.

I Didn’t Go to High School Here, All Right?!: crazy talk from one Adam Singer.

Luxury Single-Family Home in Highland Park, Illinois: the house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is on the market [for less than the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat was a year ago].

Street Sleeper: “Cummfy Banana offers alternative sightseeing in a motorised four-poster bed with top-speeds of 70 mph. Lazy London tourists can take it very easy indeed.”

Mid Century Modern Home Plans : illustrations from Second Homes for Leisure Living via the incomparable Grain Edit.

100 Abandoned Houses: oh, Detroit…