Should make for a good show...
Thank You, Detroit!
5 months ago
March 29, 2010
March 22, 2010
Talent Show Pics!
It shouldn't be too surprising that the 'hipster' recap of the Talent Show comes about a week after the 'gay' one. If you haven't read Supergay's piece, you should do that before reading this. He sums the night up pretty well (he's the one, after all that boils down the whole crowd into two equal parts: gays and hipsters). Pretty spot-on. He also had a pretty good vantage point for the night: he took home the gold from the talent show, he brought 'out' the most supporters (although most of them were likely 'out' already), and he took the cake in the pre-party hype.
We had a blast at one of Detroit's rarest and finest dives and succeeded in raising over $1,000 for Astro Coffee! Get ready for a flat white...
Alright, so on to the pics!
Here's the bar in back where people could smoke and mix with the vets...
Here's a portrait of the general himself, for whom we owe much thanks and respect...
This is what the scene was like in the 'hall' before the show got underway...
Act I: Phil Cooley does Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight". Yes, Jeff Anderson is helping me with the backup vocals by pointing a blowdart gun at Phil Cooley's head...
Detail of Phil 'keeping it real' on the keyboards...
Act II was a gentleman named Robert who is a singer. He is legit. I don't have a pic of his performance, but check out the first pic on Supergay's post...
Act III - Dave Mancini chugs a pitcher of beer and slightly vomits. I don't think we need to see that.
Act IV- Supergay "rings those bells". A very well-done combination of storytelling & singing...
Detail of the gold medalist (note Patti showing her support)...
Let there be light! You know Astro Coffee will be good when the future owner runs home during the event to grab christmas lights & spots so we don't have to sit in a pool of crappy fluorescent light...
Robert Nelson was hilarious. If you don't know his weekly advice column on D'Mongo's website- you should check it out. Act IV, Robert the comedian (bronze medalist)...
Act V- Miriam & Rob Smith. They sang two beautiful, sad songs that flowed as naturally as Rob's glistening afro (I was told that anyway, I missed it for an ill-timed bathroom run). A great last-minute entry to the show...
Act VI- Ms Cindy Elmwood gets on the CASIO. She did a great version version of the Magnetic Fields. She was terrific. But this happened to be the point where things really fell off the tracks. Look at Jeff Anderson looking at you. It's kinda fun.
Oops! he started laying down...
In the end there was a terrific band called Pink Lightening that played a great mini-set. All the guys in the band help make that super-fine pizza at Supino's.
We had a bunch of fun. If you're wondering about the silver medal, it was taken by Roland Legitt who did't even enter the show. His rendition of Tina Turner's 'Proud Mary' during the karaoke warm-up was legit. It's a pretty nice accomplishment to take home a silver medal when you don't even enter the show...
Thanks to Supino's Pizza for the terrific prizes ($15, $25, $50 gift certificates!) and Slows Bar-B-Q for the donated food. The mac & cheese was such a hit that two girls actually argued about taking home the leftovers. I was in the middle of cleaning up when I saw the beef start to happen and when I returned from taking a table back up from downstairs it appeared that they'd given up and decided there would be no leftovers. Six or eight people were hovering and devouring all remnants on the spot. I set down the table and grabbed a fork.
Here's to two "first annual" events that look like they'll be back for more next year (Le Nain Rouge was a hit)! And thanks to Jon Dones for these great pics!
March 12, 2010
On A Friday Morning Sidewalk
Three cups of coffee, this local soul gem, and I'm starting to feel like myself again today. Hangovers suck. Definitely not used to those Thursday night ragers anymore now that I'm a working man. But it was my pal Tadd's "28th" birthday dinner, so going big was a must. Add to the mix the Magic City Soul Club, and the train ran right off the tracks. We tried to invent 'the herringbone', a dance that goes along with the wood pattern of the stage. Great to see that event taking off. Had a blast & ready for the secret special guest next month.
Now that I'm starting to be coherent again, I just wanted to pass along four or five quick things.
First, a pic from the Talent Show...
*Apparently the M.C./"birthday boy" Phil forgot to leave the stage for this act. You might guess why by all the PBR cans on the table (this is turning into the "wasted" post, sorry). Anyway, more on the Talent Show- including pics, videos & winners coming next week. I slack. But I've been going full-force on rehabbing my new house, so I can't help it.
Which reminds me to post a little bit of... Wierd Stuff Left Behind in My New House
No idea what pressurized fogger is, but it's nice to know someone cared enough to leave some behind for me. I've got more Wierd Stuff on the way, once I figure out how to best capture it.
Mike Trombley's Aries mix is coming up next. He's the former record shop owner that makes up 1/2 of Macho City. I have a hunch it's gonna be great. Check out Chris Koltay's Pisces Mix if you haven't yet. I played around with the settings a bit so you can preview some tracks while you wait for the download. Check it out.
And finally, an update from the "real job" front. My official job description at Team Detroit is to make this ad company famous. Honest. That is what I do three days a week (when I'm not wearing my other hat as a designer for M1/DTW Weds & Thurs). My boss Toby and I have tried a few different things toward that end and had varying degrees of success. But it's moving forward (isn't that some other poor company's ad campaign?). As of this week I pitched a project that aside from being a potentially enormous liability for the company, could be really neat. I don't want to spill the beans, but it involves some wonderful, haunted, tragic abandoned buildings here in Detroit. Something about making them a little more pleasant. I'm an architect, not an ad guy so I think about buildings more than slogans.
I sent an email this morning (with head partly cloudy) to the director of the UCCA to set up a meeting to see if they'd like to help out. They have a great track record of organizing volunteer-based beautification projects and more. For now, my task is to figure out how to curb some of the liability. Or to get Toby on board with the concept of blind faith. That might be easier...
(More from My Job as a Ford Ad Guy coming soon...) If only I could find a link to that great old PBS movie A Job At Ford's...
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*Thanks to Rawberto Wells for the youtube soul gem & Jon Dones for the Talent Show pic
March 3, 2010
In Detroit, It's Easy Being Green
by Jim Boyle
—My initiation to Detroit’s rich, and at times rabid St. Patrick’s Day energy came on a cold, desolate February night not long after moving to the city. My brother and I were recent transplants and, although my parents grew up here, we didn’t possess any hands-on knowledge of what made Detroit tick. I don’t recall the exact occasion but were doing some serious boy bonding with my Dad, who was zipping us around on his own walk-down-memory-lane. The moment came, as it sometimes does, for us to choose a watering hole where we would go quietly to a corner booth and solve the world’s problems. We were somewhere near Corktown and my Dad suggested the Gaelic League, Detroit’s long-standing Irish American Club on Michigan Avenue, which is more like a bar disguised as a club.
We opened the doors and were, miraculously, ushered to a skirted table near the front, and seated with some rosy-cheeked folks who could have been my own aunts and uncles. As it turns out we stumbled into a major Detroit happening – what I now know as the infamous Maid of Erin contest. It was warm and the beer was cold so we decided to hunker down as people kept pouring in. Over the next several hours we were front-and-center for a part talent show, part family reunion that culminated in the boisterous, standing-room-only crowning of the young Maid of Erin. Weird? Cultish? Well, I’m not done.
You see, this was the mere kick off. Over the next month I had similar, surprising experiences. On the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day my parents called again, this time to invite me to mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, right across from the DSO. I arrived at a church bursting at the seams with seemingly every Irish and Irish-for-the-day person within 200 miles, all for the lively, once-a-year St. Patrick’s Day mass. Bag pipes, Irish dancers and a sea of green – my head was swimming. I’ve been told that the church sponsors a post-mass ½ barrel of beer but was swept away before I could confirm. Why? It was parade day and we needed to move on.
Yes, that very same day, every year, the bricked-paved Michigan Avenue jumps to life with tail-gate-like parties stretching over a mile on either side. Tents, local Irish music and dance, and green everything – hats, hair, beads – all in anticipation of the spectacle that is the actual parade. I ended up at Nemos – but could have been anywhere on the route – and wondered out loud “where did all these people come from?” And there, with the sun’s hi-beam bursting through the clouds like a spot light right on her, was a hand-waving Maid of Erin. Yes, the very same girl who won the pageant that started this surreal madness in the first place. We had come fill circle, and I was now a believer!
But wait, there was more! A cousin or aunt or someone purporting to be either tucked me under their arm and guided me over another Detroit institution – Nancy Whiskey’s. This hole-in-the-wall, hidden bar pulls you into the darkness and makes you forget time – not always a good thing. More of the same ensued until I went home very tired, yet amazed at my day. And St. Patrick’s Day was still 4 days away.
The actual day found me skipping the WJR St. Patrick’s radio morning show (which I would later find out is yet, another long-standing tradition) only to be invited later by my uncle for a celebratory pint somewhere along…you guessed it…Michigan Avenue. The tents were still up from Parade Day and the mob must have remained too. Whew!
Did I mention this happens every year, with this year’s version starting to amp up right now? And this year, I’m happy to say, there’s an added bonus. You can take in all the local fun and cap it off with “one of the foremost Irish traditional music groups in the world,” according to the The New York Daily News – Ireland’s own Cherish the Ladies (at the DSO on the weekend of March 18th). After that rush of activity you just might be ready for some more relaxing environs.
Link to the article: http://blog.detroitsymphony.com/2010/03/in-detroit-it’s-easy-being-green/
March 2, 2010
Talent Show Recap
Just finished reading a great post from the Readymade Mag blog, where the editors reminisced about their trip to Detroit earlier this year. Check it out, it's good stuff.
Also, wanted to drop a line to say thanks for coming out to the Talent Show. It was a great turnout and we had a blast- all helping the worthy cause of bringing great coffee to Detroit. If you have any photos from the event, please email them to remainsofthed@gmail.com. Videos would be great too (I know they're out there-!). Can't wait for Astro.
And lastly, this blog is gonna get a makeover. Once I finish the overwhelming task of moving. Please be patient, but know that it's coming- it'll be worth it.
Oh- and just one more thing. If you haven't heard about it yet, check out this festival:
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