Book Review: Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't put this book down. I was slightly apprehensive at first about picking up a non-fiction, as its not really my style of reading, but this was just addictive.

I'm British, so for me this was a fascinating read. In England we don't have cities that are the polar opposite to another, with different culture, and attitudes the way America does, so this book was really interesting for me.

As much as this is a memoir, non-fiction book, its doesn't feel like one; or read like one for that matter. I love the way that LeDuff has told the story or these people, this city through anecdotes presented in a novel like style. It's very immersive and pulls you in. You connect with the people in a way that I don't feel would have been possible if you were just being presented with the facts. LeDuff's writing style paints a vivid picture of the decay, corruption and despair that is now the city of Detroit. I think possibly the saddest part of this book is the realisation that isn't talking about 30 or 40 years ago; this is talking about events of the last decade or so. This is talking about now, giving a shocking reality check about the world that we all live in.

Fantastic writing that is both engaging and enlightening. I strongly recommend taking a look at this.

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It Begins...

So after what has been nearly a year in the making, Tomb Buddies is open for business!! 

Yes it has been a long process, that is still far from over. But they are here! Finally!! 

You can check out the store here at www.tombbuddies.tictail.com/ 

There are a whole bunch of different items for you to get your hands on. T-shirts, Tank Tops, Posters, Tote Bags, Cushions and even Mugs. All items are made in the USA; meaning that you can be certain that everything has been produced ethically, without a sweatshop in sight. 

Also, for every item that is bought from the store, I plan to donate a pound to that amazing charity Random Acts. If you haven't heard of them check out their website here.

I'm back! And I'm Still Alive...Sort Of...

I'm back! Not that I really went anywhere, just had a really bad case of the Flu. Bad enough that I started planning my funeral (FYI, I want a funeral pyre, on a Viking boat, pushed out onto a lake/sea at sunset. For two reasons: 1) It'll be the last chance for me to be a complete pain in the backside for everybody involved. 2) It'll be very cinematic, so someone better film it; seriously I'm giving you a chance to make your big break as a film maker here.) So I basically spent bank holiday Monday playing catch up to all the things that I should have done last week.

I did use this time to have a good old think, a dangerous occupation I know, and to plan out a way for me to open the new Tomb Buddies store sooner rather than later. This is one of those times where being such a perfectionist isn't a good thing. I am quickly coming to the conclusion that, for me to wait until I'm totally finished with the drawing/designing part of things before I open shop, means that you will be waiting for a very long time. As in you may do nothing but wait. This is one of those projects that, even if you gave me till the Sun implodes, I still wouldn't be finished. I don't want you to have to wait that long; hell, I don't want to wait that long! Therefore I have devised a plan that means I can open the store and share all the great stuff that I have been working away on for what seems like an eternity, while I still continue to work on the project at the same time and that way everyone is happy. I already have a few products uploaded to the store, which is quite exciting. Store is looking awesome as well. Follow on Twitter (@TombBuddies) or Instagram (@tombbuddies) (or find the relevant buttons over on the right :P) This is were pretty much all the Tomb Buddies related updates are appearing.

Everything in the Tomb Buddies store will be made in America. This means all items will be made ethically; sweat shop free, and workers are payed a fair wage and work in a safe environment. The only downside to this is that things cost a little bit more, but to be quite honest, I think that it's worth paying the slightly higher price.

In other news:

• World Goth Day is on May 22nd and +Dead With Tequila will be having a sale. so keep an eye out for more details about that. 
• May 27th is WWF's Wear It Wild event you can sign up here. If yo have nothing to wear why not pick up Dead With Tequila's "Live The Wild Life" shirt here. For every shirt purchased we will donate £2 to the WWF. 
  

Also you may or may not have noticed the addition of the "Book Reviews" tab at the top of the page. It does what it says on the tin; basically I've created a page where I will be adding links to all my book review related posts so that they are in order and in one place. I only push reviews from Goodreads to my blog when they are lengthy enough to be worth while reading. The short ones are only on Goodreads. I'm trying to get better at writing longer reviews for books, but sometimes words don't cover, and can't explain how awesome a book is, which is when you end up with the " Oh My God THIS BOOK IS AMAZING" review.

Anyways, I'm going to stop waffling on and get back to sorting things out so that I can open Tomb Buddies!

A usual, questions comments leave below, find me on twitter, or send a flying monkey, unicorn, or even a carrier pigeon with your message. 

 

When The Voices Talk To Me

So I've been working away in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb lately mainly on my cartooning project that I mentioned ages ago. It come on a lot in the last few weeks, you'll be happy to hear.

Some of you may have seen this on the Dead With Tequila Instagram account (follow us @deadwithtequila) This a work in progress shot of that project. In the Tomb it has begun to be know as the Tomb Buddies collection. There will be eight characters in total: a Rhino, a Rabbit, a Bear, a Giraffe, a Rat, a Cat, an Elephant, a Lion and a Hippo. All of which have names, but you'll just have to be patient and wait and see what we have called each of them.

The reason that you can see random limbs and floating heads here is because this is essentially going to be a hybrid style of art. everything will be hand drawn, the old fashioned way, on paper and then scanned in and digitally cut out and posed to make the final designs. I have to draw each character then break them down into individual parts and then draw each part from every conceivable angel; hence the reason that things are taking so long. When it's done this will pretty much just be Posters, T-Shirts and Tote bags. I'm considering perhaps doing cushions and maybe even mugs, but I'm going to think on it some more. Cool handmade bookmarks were part of the original plan, but I still haven't quite perfected a design in my head yet, so that may or may not happen. We are talking about creating a separate store for this collection. Purely for that fact that already I have so many ideas of what I'm going to be doing with the characters, and also because we feel that as much as this continues the Day Of The Dead theme that we try and focus on in the Dead With Tequila store, we feel that it's different enough that it wouldn't necessarily fit in with the other collections. This is going to be kept really simple. Black and White, clean lines, and have an overall cute feel to it. There will also be a separate newsletter that you can sign up to, I'll give you more info on that at a later date though.

In other news, I added this to the the store earlier today. You can check it out in the store here. It's made in the USA, and ships from Los Angeles. If you didn't already know our store uses PayPal, so check out is secure.