<![CDATA[Ever the Outsider: Gonzo Travel]]>https://www.evertheoutsider.com/s/gonzo-travelhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qaQo!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd2ec47cd-1707-4623-a2ba-263029bae0da_1024x1024.pngEver the Outsider: Gonzo Travelhttps://www.evertheoutsider.com/s/gonzo-travelSubstackSun, 31 May 2026 07:03:18 GMT<![CDATA[Free Wine and Paul Simon in the streets of Birmingham, Michigan]]>https://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/free-wine-and-paul-simon-in-the-streetshttps://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/free-wine-and-paul-simon-in-the-streetsTue, 12 May 2026 14:03:13 GMTAfter meeting an old friend in Royal Oak, I pushed on into the outskirts of the Detroit metro area to discover smoothies and public hedonism.

Part 3.

]]><![CDATA[Royal Oak, an old friend and a password I wasn't supposed to have.]]>https://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/royal-oak-an-old-friend-and-a-passwordhttps://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/royal-oak-an-old-friend-and-a-passwordTue, 05 May 2026 14:03:02 GMTI didn’t have a plan in Detroit. I had a friend I hadn’t seen in years and a bar in Royal Oak that apparently an underground lair.

You say the password. Someone walks you in. You don’t ask questions.

This is Part 2.

(Featuring music from New Arcades!)

]]><![CDATA[New York was done with me—so I drove to Detroit.]]>https://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/new-york-was-done-with-meso-i-drovehttps://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/new-york-was-done-with-meso-i-droveWed, 29 Apr 2026 00:38:19 GMTTen years ago I got in a car and drove across the country alone. I told myself it was adventure. It was anxiety.

This is me going back out — older, slightly less stupid, and for the first time in a long time, not running from anything. Just driving toward something I can’t name yet.

First stop: Detroit. I knew two things about it. RoboCop. Beverly Hills Cop.

This is Part 1.

]]><![CDATA[Bougie Black Man Returns Home to Harlem]]>https://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/bougie-black-man-returns-home-tohttps://www.evertheoutsider.com/p/bougie-black-man-returns-home-toFri, 24 Apr 2026 14:07:25 GMTI grew up in Esplanade Gardens on 147th and Lenox. View of the Bronx. Harlem Renaissance women down the hall who took me hat shopping at Lord & Taylor and didn’t have to give a damn about me but did anyway.

I left when I was 18. I didn’t really go back.

Last month I did.

I was convinced I was going to find bike lanes and cat cafes and a neighborhood that had been quietly handed off while I wasn’t looking. What I found was more complicated than that — and honestly more depressing in ways I didn’t expect.

This is a 16 minute gonzo walk through the neighborhood that made me. It’s about gentrification, Mamdani, the classy Black women of the Harlem Renaissance, a minister who came to serve God and somehow ended up in my building, and why “affordable housing” is a promise that lands differently depending on who you are and what you’re starting from.

I just want to make sure people who want to stay here can.

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