Everything the Journal has published, in order.
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We started a journal
I started writing about Detroit in 2024. So did several other people, in their own places: Substacks, group chats, pieces published in places that don't exist anymore.
MOCAD reopens, renamed, rewindowed
MOCAD reopens Saturday after eight months of renovation. The 4454 Woodward building, a former auto dealership designed by Albert Kahn, has been the museum's home for the entirety of its 20 years.
Carole Harris comes back to where She started
The first solo show Carole Harris ever had was at Gallery 7, the Detroit space Charles McGee ran from 1969 to 1979 to give Black Detroit artists somewhere to exhibit.
Bar Chenin became Michigan's only James Beard award finalist on March 31
The James Beard Foundation announced its 2026 finalists on Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
Sunda lands a fifth restaurant in the district Detroit
Billy Dec is honest about the bet. He has framed Sunda's Detroit room as a step outside the brand's familiar model and called it an exciting risk that is still a risk.
Hamtramck Blowout 2026 dropped the wristband back to twenty bucks and pulled in 130 acts
The 2025 Blowout sold 220 acts across 25 venues with a thirty-five-dollar wristband.
Hamtramck joins Michigan Main Street and the Jos. Campau bet gets bigger
Governor Whitmer announced on March 3 that Hamtramck has been selected by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for the Select Level of the Michigan Main Street program.
Jeff Mills announced another album before the last one was cold
Jeff Mills and Jean-Phi Dary announced a new Tomorrow Comes The Harvest album in February 2026. It is called Forbidden Planet.
DJ Minx signed to Rekids
DJ Minx signed to Rekids in early 2026 and released the Energy EP in February. The title track features Kendra Foster.
Tec-Troit is moving to June
Tec-Troit announced in early 2026 that the festival is moving from August to June for the 2026 edition.
Antidote opens at the Detroit edge of Grosse Pointe Park
Nya Marshall opened her first restaurant, Ivy Kitchen + Cocktails, in East Village in December 2019. She bought the building a decade ago when there was effectively nothing on that block.
Medusa opens anthony Lombardo's Sicilian restaurant a block from SheWolf
Selden Street between Second and Third is Anthony Lombardo's block now.
GM moves global HQ to hudson's Detroit
General Motors began moving its global headquarters into Hudson's Detroit on January 12, 2026, ending a roughly three-decade run inside the Renaissance Center.
Castalia served its last drinks on New year's eve and closed with the afterlife menu
Castalia served its last drinks on December 31, 2025, eight years after Kevin Peterson and Jane Larson opened it in the lower level of an 1890s Victorian on Second Avenue.
Street Beet finally gets a Corktown address with its name on it
The pop-up has been Detroit's most ambitious vegan operation for seven years. McDaddy's. Taco Hell. The plant-based versions of the things you actually want to eat at one a.m.
Jeff Mills put out the Liquid Room record again for its 30th anniversary
Jeff Mills released i9 (2025 Version) on July 18, 2025, marking 30 years since his Live at Liquid Room Tokyo session.
Kyle Hall dropped four albums in nine months
Kyle Hall released four full-length records between May 2025 and January 2026, all on his label Forget The Clock.
Five Wayne State alumni open Rahha inside the Hannan Center
Rahha translates loosely from Arabic as comfort, peace of mind, the feeling of finally putting something down. The five founders chose it deliberately.
Saksey's opened off parker's Alley with cap'n crunch sundaes and Teeny 'tinis
Saksey's opened on Friday, November 14, 2025, with eight tables and 55 seats in the basement of Gilly's Clubhouse at 1550 Woodward. The entrance is in Parker's Alley.
An $80 million Brush Park development will bring 211 affordable units, including the Sanctuary
The City of Detroit broke ground on a $80 million Brush Park development on Friday, November 14, 2025.
Marrow in the Market opens in the Capital Poultry building
Ping Ho opened Marrow in the Market on November 13, 2025, in the former Capital Poultry building at 2442 Riopelle Street in Eastern Market. The space is 14,000 square feet across two floors.
Pingree Detroit makes Detroit a shoe city again, by hand
Pingree Detroit opened its first storefront at 11:11 a.m. on 11/11. Veterans Day, intentionally, because most of the company's co-owners are veterans.
Castalia announced its closing on October 27 and called the timing a chance to go out on top
On Monday, October 27, 2025, Castalia posted on social media that it would close on New Year's Eve.
Wilson Park opens on 22 acres of riverfront
Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park opened on October 25, 2025, on a 22-acre stretch of riverfront between 8th Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard.
The Riverwalk becomes continuous from Belle Isle to Wilson Park
The Detroit Riverwalk became continuous on October 25, 2025, with the opening of a new extension west of Riverfront Towers that links the existing path to Ralph C.
Ralph c. Wilson Jr. centennial Park opens, completing the western Riverwalk
Detroit's newest waterfront park, the 22-acre Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, opened to the public on Saturday, October 25, 2025 WXYZ.COM, after eight years of planning.
Mary-Ann Monforton's Heart Land plays house at the Mobile Homestead
The MOCAD main building closed in August for HVAC and infrastructure renovations through early 2026.
Autechre played the Russell Industrial Center
Paxahau booked Autechre at the Russell Industrial Center on October 21, 2025.
Joe Louis Greenway adds two miles and a statue
A new two-mile section of the Joe Louis Greenway opened on October 7, 2025, between Joy Road and Intervale Street on Detroit's west side.
Waka by Baobab Fare gets the old Russell Street deli
Hamissi Mamba's mother sold chapati and brochettes in the markets of Bujumbura, Burundi, when he was a kid.
Marble Bar turned 10 the only way it knows how
Marble Bar turned 10 on October 3 and 4, 2025, and marked the occasion by booking Octave One live and Danny Daze on the same weekend.
A Victorian pub on Mack Avenue is booking the Belleville three
Cannons Bar opened in October 2025. It serves oysters and books techno.
The DIA's first major Native American show in 30 years
Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation opened at the DIA on Sunday and runs through April 5, 2026.
DJ Stingray brought the Echogenesis Tour to Lincoln Factory
DJ Stingray 313 played Lincoln Factory on September 27, 2025, as part of his Echogenesis Tour. Akua and 1morning were on the bill.
Detroit's first contemporary Art fair lands at Michigan central
Detroit got its first contemporary art fair this weekend.
Foxglove ended its 2025 season at Dreamtroit with juan Atkins and a family-friendly Day party
Foxglove closed its 2025 season on September 20 by leaving the garden. The garden, the Leicester Court yard that has been Foxglove's home in the North End since 2023, only holds a few hundred people.
Apple finally opens a store in downtown Detroit
Apple opened its first downtown Detroit store at 5 p.m. on Friday, September 19, with Tim Cook in attendance. He greeted the line, then unlocked the doors.
Murals in the Market comes home for year 10
Murals in the Market spent two years in Islandview after 1XRUN moved its headquarters there. For the 10th anniversary edition, the festival came back to Eastern Market.
Ladder 4 became the first Detroit restaurant ever recognized by 50 Best
On September 9, 2025, the World's 50 Best announced Ladder 4 Wine Bar as the inaugural recipient of the Resy One To Watch Award for North America.
Dally in the alley returns for its 46th year, still without sponsors
Dally in the Alley filled the streets between Forest, Hancock, Second, and Third on Saturday, September 6, 2025, for its 46th year. Magazine Free admission.
BLKOUT Walls spreads out for its third edition
BLKOUT Walls came back this month. Ten days, September 4 through 13, the festival's third edition. The festival was founded in 2021 by Detroit muralist Sydney G.
BLKOUT Walls paints 10 new murals across Detroit under “A Beautiful Resistance”
BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival returned for its third edition from September 4 to 14, 2025, with 10 new large-scale murals painted across Detroit.
Detroit month of Design at 15, UNESCO at 10
Detroit Month of Design ran the entire month of September. The 15th edition of the festival lined up about 95 events featuring more than 1,000 designers and creatives across the city.
Tamela Todd built Sip-N-Read after waiting six years on the right space
Tamela Todd opened Sip-N-Read on a Wednesday afternoon in late August.
Sip 'n Read opens in Corktown with a michigan-only wine list
Tamela Todd opened Sip 'N Read on August 27, 2025, at 1620 Michigan Avenue in Corktown. It is a bookstore. It is also a wine bar. Customers have to be 21 or over to walk in.
Tec-Troit went off in August
Tec-Troit ran August 15 to 17, 2025, at The Container Globe. Free, three days, a lineup that leaned hard into Detroit's own catalog.
Charivari stopped being one festival and became five
Charivari Detroit ran August 14 to 17, 2025, across multiple venues instead of one. The festival dropped its single-site Fort Wayne model.
City Modern completes in Brush Park, Detroit's first ground-up neighborhood since the 1980s
City Modern, the eight-acre, 450-residence neighborhood Bedrock built in Brush Park, was officially declared complete on July 24, 2025.
Capitol Park reopens after a $3.5 million reset
The triangle of grass behind the Westin Book Cadillac is the first thing in Capitol Park that catches the eye after a six-month shutdown.
Detroit Bookfest fills three Eastern Market Sheds for the eighth time
The 8th annual Detroit Festival of Books ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 20, 2025 Eventbrite, in Sheds 4, 5, and 6 at Eastern Market BridgeDetroit.
Tacos Wuey opens on Vernor with a family Birria recipe
Eddie Vargas grew up around Vernor Highway. He spent the past several years cooking other people's restaurants for them.
Richie Hawtin made a short film about Detroit in 1995
NOWNESS released Kids Like Us on July 5, 2025. The 35mm short runs nine minutes and was executive produced by Richie Hawtin.
Purrfiction is a bookstore and a Cat adoption Center, intentionally
Emma Spadafore left corporate after six years to open the kind of store that probably sounds like a joke at a bachelorette dinner. Bookstore. With cats.
Juan Atkins brought Cybotron to Glastonbury
Cybotron played Glastonbury on June 27, 2025, inside the Block9 IICON structure.
Planet e put out the Carl Craig documentary soundtrack
Planet E released the soundtrack to Desire: The Carl Craig Story in summer 2025. The compilation tracks the documentary's chronology.
Lauren Ellis won Hatch Detroit. now she has to build the bakery.
Lauren Ellis pitched a French viennoiserie bakery on a Wednesday night at the Wayne State University Industry Innovation Center, in front of judges and a public that had cast 21,000 votes.
Haraz coffee opens its 30th location, in Corktown
Haraz Coffee opened its second Detroit store on Wednesday, June 11, on the ground floor of The Brooke on Bagley at 1501 Church Street. Mayor Mike Duggan cut the ribbon.
Underground music academy took the Stage at Movement
Underground Music Academy took over the Detroit Stage at Movement 2025 on Sunday. It was UMA's first festival showcase.
The Three godfathers played Hart Plaza together
Carl Craig went back to back with Moodymann on the Stargate stage on Saturday night of Movement 2025. Mike Banks was in the booth with them.
Theo parrish and moodymann played Lincoln Factory for 12 hours
The Nothing Is Strange party at Lincoln Factory on Sunday of Movement weekend 2025 had one lineup: Theo Parrish and Moodymann.
No Way Back turned 30 and nobody left before dawn
Interdimensional Transmissions ran No Way Back 2025 on Sunday night at Tangent Gallery, billed as a 14-hour Techno Thanksgiving.
Father Dukes headlined Movement
Father Dukes played a Movement 2025 stage on May 24. She came out of Seraphine Collective's beatmatch brunches two years earlier.
Soul clap's House of EFUNK turned 11
Soul Clap's House of EFUNK ran its 11th edition at TV Lounge over Movement weekend 2025. Two nights. Deep lineup.
Movement Music festival hits 25 years on Hart Plaza
Movement Music Festival ran May 24 through 26, 2025, at Hart Plaza, marking the 25th anniversary of Detroit's flagship electronic music festival. Memorial Day weekend.
HiTech had the year
HiTech released HONEYPAQQ Vol. 1 on May 23, 2025, and spent the rest of the year doing everything else. Coachella. Berghain. Primavera. Roskilde.
The Carl Craig documentary finally played in Detroit
Desire: The Carl Craig Story had its Detroit premiere at Newlab at Michigan Central Station on May 22, 2025. The room was full.
Kevin Saunderson put his son on the first e-dancer album in 25 years
Kevin Saunderson released a new e-Dancer album on May 21, 2025, the first under that alias in more than two decades. His son Dantiez produced it with him.
Flower Day brings 80 growers and a full Sunday of plant-hauling to Eastern Market
The 58th annual Flower Day ran from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at Eastern Market. Mix 92.3 Free.
Public thrift closes after three years on Joseph Campau
Public Thrift closed its doors on Joseph Campau in Hamtramck in May 2025, after almost three years in its brick-and-mortar location. The store ran a final $5 Fill A Bag sale on May 9 and 10.
Pocket Change's first rooftop pop-up brought Mink's sarah Welch and cameron Rolka shucking above gratiot
The first Sunday after Pocket Change opened, the third-floor rooftop was hosting a husband-and-wife oyster pop-up.
60th Cinco de Mayo parade walks West Vernor with three women leading
The 60th annual Cinco de Mayo Parade ran 2.4 miles down West Vernor Highway on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Organizers put the turnout around 8,000.
Mister Joshooa played Panorama Bar
Mister Joshooa played his first Panorama Bar set on April 26, 2025, as part of a Klubnacht lineup.
Pocket Change hides a cocktail bar above Eastern Market
The signage is one neon sign that says COCKTAILS in red. That's it. Walk past it and you will.
Nelson Kazan opened Pocket Change above Gratiot with a red neon sign and a third-floor patio
The only sign is a red neon \"COCKTAILS\" hung in the second-floor window of 1454 Gratiot. You miss it if you don't know to look up.
At 88, janet webster Jones is bookselling royalty
Donya Craddock, who runs Dock Bookshop in Fort Worth, called Janet Webster Jones the queen from a stage at Winter Institute 2025. The room agreed.
Robert Encarnación opened two restaurants in one West Village building
Robert Encarnación bought the building at 8016 Kercheval Avenue from the Detroit Land Bank in April 2021. It took him four years to open it.
La Fonda Street and Encarnación open as a coffee-and-cantina pair in West Village
Robert Encarnación was a Bank of America small-business banker in Miami before he moved to Detroit. He came up for a weekend in April 2019. By the end of June he had moved.
Roar brewing turns Nain Rouge into the city's first black-owned Brewery
Evan Fay learned to like craft beer in Wyoming. He was Air Force, and he kept driving down to Fort Collins because the breweries there worked like community centers.
Marche du Nain Rouge marches the red dwarf out of Detroit again
About 10,000 people showed up in Cass Corridor on Sunday, March 23, 2025, for the annual Marche du Nain Rouge CBS News, the costume parade that exists to chase a small red imp out of Detroit.
Hamtramck Blowout 2025 expanded to 220 acts and 25 venues, but the wristband price went up
The 2024 Blowout reboot had 17 venues, 150 bands, and a twenty-dollar wristband.
DJ Minx played the Pistons halftime
DJ Minx played the Detroit Pistons halftime show in March 2025. It was her second halftime booking at Little Caesars Arena.
Jeff Mills and his jazz band released a new album in March
Jeff Mills released a new Spiral Deluxe album on March 14, 2025. It is called The Love Pretender.
JJ and Anthony Curis, in TIME
TIME named Little Village one of the World's Greatest Places of 2025.
Dirty Shake opens an ivy-covered corner bar in Cass Corridor
The building at Forest and Second has been a corner bar for as long as the neighborhood has had memory of itself.
Dirty Shake opened on 313 Day with a wraparound patio, boozy slushies, and a hummer
Sandy Levine and Doug Hewitt opened Dirty Shake at Forest and Second on March 13, 2025. They picked the date for the obvious reason.
Bar Chenin tucks a 10-seat wine Bar into the Siren
The room seats ten people. There is a narrow shelf along the opposite wall where another handful can stand and lean. There is no reservation system.
Detroit raised money for Shake Shakir
A benefit for Anthony Shake Shakir happened at Tangent Gallery on March 1, 2025. The room was packed.
A 909, a Saturday night, and jeff Mills walking back into Detroit
Carl Cox pulled out of Movement three months before the festival. Jeff Mills is taking his slot.
Yvonne Byrd opened minnie's Detroit on Trumbull, the fourth Detroit bar She's owned
Yvonne Byrd has run a bar in Detroit since 2008. Vondie's on the River was the first, named after her childhood nickname. It ran until 2012, when the lease wasn't renewed.
AC hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle opens
The AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle started taking guests in early January 2025, the first AC Hotel in southeast Michigan.
Temple Bar fell down and got back up
Part of Temple Bar collapsed in May 2024. It reopened seven months later.
Yellow Light coffee makes Michigan Central its second home
The first food and drink tenant inside Michigan Central Station since 1988 is a coffee and donut shop from the east side.
Rebel Nell moves to Eastern Market and the materials follow
Amy Peterson found her first piece of jewelry-making material under the Gratiot bridge in 2013.
Encarnacion and La Fonda Street open in West Village
Robert Encarnacion opened La Fonda Street in June 2024 and the Encarnacion coffee shop next to it as a soft opening that November.
Book Suey runs as a co-op, in a building that used to be a bank
The corner of Joseph Campau and Caniff has had several lives. The 1920s building started as a bank, with stately limestone and ornamental tile that the present tenants kept intact.
The Belt turns 10
The Belt opened ten years ago this month. Library Street Collective and Bedrock unveiled the alley on November 13, 2014, with food trucks and live music and a mural in progress.
Filipino comfort food in a New Center bakery, finally
Jonathan Peregrino spent fifteen years in corporate America before quitting to bake.
Five alebrijes now live on Bagley
Five life-size animal sculptures went up along Bagley Street on Friday.
The High Dive reopened in October with new owners, a hibiscus tea base, and Jeopardy nights
David Lew, the L.A. artist who goes by Shark Toof, sold the High Dive in September 2024.
Rosette Market puts a bodega in the Perennial Corktown lobby
The Perennial Corktown apartment building at 1611 Michigan Avenue opened in late 2023 with two retail tenants on the ground floor.
Sepia coffee project lands a North End shop after a long detour
Martell Mason got into coffee through trade dynamics, not espresso.
Hamtramck Disneyland gets the New york Times treatment
On September 27, 2024, the New York Times Style Magazine ran a feature by Rachel Corbett titled \"Some of America's Best Art Is in the Yard.\" Hamtramck Disneyland, the folk-art installation a Ukrainian retired General Motors machinist named Dmytro Szylak built across two garages in his backyard on Klinger Street, was one of the pieces.
The old Lincoln motor factory is a techno venue now
Detroit has a new techno venue. It used to make cars. Dreamtroit opened in September 2024 inside the former Lincoln Motor Factory.
Hamilton's anchors the Godfrey hotel in Corktown
The Godfrey Hotel opened on Michigan Avenue in summer 2023, but its full-service ground-floor restaurant came later.
Michigan Central's New residency pays Detroit artists $30,000 to make things
The Michigan Central x Newlab Creative Residency launches its inaugural cohort this fall. Six artists. $30,000 each.
Hamtramck Labor Day festival closes its 44th year with a jack White surprise
The 44th annual Hamtramck Labor Day Festival ran August 31 through September 2, 2024. Joseph Campau Avenue from Caniff to Carpenter. Free admission.
Detroit Jazz Festival opens with Alice Coltrane's harp on stage
The 45th annual Detroit Jazz Festival ran Labor Day weekend, August 30 to September 2, 2024. Hart Plaza, Campus Martius, and the new Gretchen C.
Florian East opened in Hamtramck after eighty years without a brewery and put the name on the front in seven languages
The last brewery in Hamtramck closed in 1941. Auto City Brewing Company, gone since the early 1940s.
UFO Bar opens where UFO Factory stood
UFO Bar opened on August 16, 2024, at 2110 Trumbull Street in Corktown, in the building that had been UFO Factory for ten years.
Collect beer bar opened its license at 4 p.m. on a Friday and was pouring beer at 4:10
Collect spent six years on the second floor of a Gratiot building in Eastern Market, above what used to be Gather. In June 2024 the lease ran out.
Paramita sound earned national bar honors and andrey Douthard kept the menu the same
When USA Today named its first 27 Bars of the Year in July 2024, the only Michigan entry was Paramita Sound, the Black-owned wine bar and record shop on Broadway.
Concert of Colors fills Midtown for its 33rd year, free as ever
Concert of Colors ran for the 33rd time from July 16 to 21, 2024, with most stages at the Detroit Institute of Arts and additional programming across the Detroit Historical Museum, the Charles H.
African World festival returns to Hart Plaza for its 41st year
The 41st annual African World Festival ran July 12 to 14, 2024, at Hart Plaza. The Wright Three days of music, vendors, food, dance, and panels organized by the Charles H.
Supino pizzeria reopens in Eastern Market after fire
Supino Pizzeria reopened its dining room in Eastern Market on July 9, 2024, fourteen months after a two-alarm fire in the residential loft above the restaurant.
Michigan Central station reopens after thirty-six years
The last passenger train pulled out of Michigan Central Station on January 5, 1988, headed for Chicago. Thirty-six years and five months later, the doors opened again.
Michigan Central comes back, with Diana Ross opening and eminem closing
Six years of restoration, $300 million in tax incentives, and a lineup deeper than any single Detroit show in decades.
Mighty real/queer Detroit's second biennial hits 11 galleries
The second Mighty Real/Queer Detroit biennial opened tonight and runs through June 30.
Hatch Art keeps working on Hamtramck Disneyland
Michigan Public's Stateside podcast spent its May 29 episode at Hamtramck Disneyland, a backyard sculpture installation atop two side-by-side garages at 12087 Klinger Street.
The Vinyl Society opens nine years after Paradise Valley got its name back
Paradise Valley got its name back in 2015.
Erika linenfelser turned her North End yard into Foxglove and a custom four-point sound system
Erika Linenfelser's house is at 257 Leicester Court, in the North End.
The Shepherd opens, and the East side has a New Center of gravity
On Saturday, the former Good Shepherd Catholic Church reopened as a 16,000-square-foot arts campus run by Library Street Collective. The building has not held mass since 2016.
Charles McGee opens the shepherd
The Shepherd's first show is a Charles McGee retrospective. It is appropriate.
OMA drilled 1,353 holes in a bakery to build LANTERN
The first thing you notice on the south facade of LANTERN is the holes. There are 1,353 of them, drilled through the concrete masonry of the south wall and filled with cylindrical glass blocks.
Tiffany Cartwright wins Hatch Detroit, twelve years into the program's run
Tiffany Cartwright was the first finalist to take the stage on May 9 at the Wayne State University Industry Innovation Center.
Leña fires up spain in Brush Park
The hearth is the room. Walk into Leña, look left, and the kitchen opens out around a wood-fire hearth burning Michigan oak, cherry, and applewood.
Tiff Massey takes four galleries at the DIA
Tiff Massey opened her solo show at the DIA tonight. Four galleries in the contemporary wing. The most ambitious installation by a Detroit artist the museum has ever staged.
Detroit people's Food co-op opens after 14 years of organizing
After 14 years of organizing, Detroit's first Black-led, community-owned grocery store opened at Woodward and Euclid on May 1, 2024.
The 2024 NFL Draft pulled 775,000 people to downtown Detroit
The 2024 NFL Draft ran in downtown Detroit from April 25 to 27 and pulled an estimated 775,000 people across three days, the largest crowd in the history of the event.
Vecino bets a roofless Cass Corridor building on heirloom corn
Vecino opened on a Friday in April after a long buildout. The 1926 corner at 4100 Third had sat empty for fifty years before Adriana Jimenez and Lukasz Wietrzynski talked themselves into it.
Hudson's tower tops out at 681 feet
The final steel beam was set on Hudson's Tower on April 10, 2024, fixing the building at 681 feet and forty-nine stories.
The Hamtramck Blowout returned in 2024 with New organizers and the same scrappy energy
Nine years after Metro Times stopped producing it, the Hamtramck Blowout came back.
Sexy steak reopens the GAR building's castle
The Grand Army of the Republic Building has been waiting on a tenant since the pandemic.
Black opens at the Carr Center
The Carr Center's BLACK group exhibition opened Friday and runs through February 29. The full title is BLACK: A Built Language Across Culture and Knowledge.
The Aladdin Sane opens beneath Book Tower with 32 seats and a bowie-coded cocktail menu
Most new bars in Detroit pick a moment to announce themselves. The Aladdin Sane skipped the moment.
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