tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55386012011-04-22T00:18:52.052-04:00You have found the detroitblog. This is about my wanderings and debaucheries in Detroit, as well as observations, news, commentary and ramblings about the city itself. I love Detroit, even the old Detroit of blight, waste and emptiness. Hockeytown. Motown. I grew up here, had my best times here. It's my town.Johnnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1123167335280344642005-08-04T10:55:00.000-04:002005-08-04T10:55:35.290-04:00

So it's Freman vs. Kwame, as expected. The final results of the primary came in, a scant 12 hours after the polls closed Tuesday night. City Clerk Jackie Currie is reducing her lag time behind every other community - way to go, lady! Word is, some equipment "went missing" for a while last night, causing the delay in full results until this morning. That's not alarming or incompetent or

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1122990510125356942005-08-02T09:46:00.000-04:002005-08-02T14:18:54.270-04:00

Today, of course, is Primary Election Day in the city. I'm not going to be one of those self-appointed public service announcers that exhorts people to vote. Do what you want - you're rational adults. Well, you're adults anyway, most of you. Except the ones who aren't alive but who still receive ballots from Jackie Currie, our 141-year-old city clerk. However, if you think that Mayor Kwame

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1122920217984343082005-08-01T14:11:00.000-04:002005-08-02T09:49:34.223-04:00

In what has turned out to be merely a short respite from this otherwise horribly swelterting summer, we spent part of this weekend outdoors in the temporarily nice weather, enjoying the Mexican Fiesta in southwest Detroit.Only in Detroit would they move the festival from the wide-open riverfront at Hart Plaza over to the edge of crazy Delray at a pre-Civil War army fort. Smart way to keep the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1122497337613952112005-07-27T16:48:00.000-04:002005-07-27T18:56:28.936-04:00

Illness and summer don’t mix well at all, I’m learning. The oppressive heat drags the situation to an awful new level of humid misery, leaving one with as much life as the Sharon McPhail campaign. Yes, only six days until the primary election, something obvious by the saturation of local TV with odd homegrown political advertisements.For Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s latest ad, his staff seems to have

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1122039639599126532005-07-22T09:40:00.000-04:002005-07-22T09:40:39.613-04:00

It's amazing how much something as small as a tooth problem can bring normal life to a screeching halt. Add to that an unfortunately timed illness, and you have the makings of a living hell. This is where my existence stands. It's hard to know whether to pass out or vomit at this point. Hence, no blogging lately. And no living. And no beers. And no meals. And no socializing, And certainly no fun

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1121285669856023912005-07-13T16:13:00.000-04:002005-07-22T09:45:58.030-04:00

What an odd coincidence. A day after I went roaming through the Jeffries Homes housing projects (the header photo on top), or what's left of them, on my own help-yourself photo tour, part of it went up in flames. When I was there, a lone person sitting on a chair eagerly waved me into the complex as I initially lingered on the perimeter; apparently I had stumbled into the "pharmacy" section of

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1121199996777538032005-07-12T16:26:00.000-04:002005-07-12T21:46:34.810-04:00

Note that the following post took until about 4 p.m. today to get done despite me having a light load at work today. That’s a reflection on the number of $8 beers I consumed last night to celebrate my free entry into the All-Star Home Run Derby, and the havoc said beers are causing in my brain today.Parking for events like these isn’t daunting to me, because I know every square foot of downtown.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1121109217986531142005-07-11T15:11:00.000-04:002005-07-12T22:02:04.366-04:00

Was all ready to post something, then had All-Star tickets fall into my lap for tonight, so I'm in! I didn't even have to abuse my press pass to do so. Thus, the posting will come tomorrow, written in hangover prose, complete with observations of tourists, mockery of security personnel, conversations with hobos, and maybe even a word or two about baseball.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1120851314589740432005-07-08T15:34:00.000-04:002005-07-08T15:56:27.186-04:00

Work is busy busy busy, so here's some random babbling:The Red Wings fired Dave Lewis as head coach today. What’s most remarkable about this story is that it’s actually news about hockey, something we haven’t seen in a year, apart from discussions about the NHL lockout, also known as the Worst Failure of a Labor Strike in History. Yes it was technically a lockout, but a lockout only because the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1120593045847034362005-07-05T15:50:00.000-04:002005-07-05T15:50:45.853-04:00

Busy weekend. Packed in several Tastefest visits, an impromptu Saturday stop at Comerica Park to watch the Tigers give up a 4-1 lead to the Yankees and lose, late-night movie watching in Campus Martius, Mexican dinners in southwest Detroit, fireworks at Greenfield Village, and luckily nothing involving walking on the ledge of a skyscraper trying to dodge security guards looking for me. And I

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1120152048528247602005-06-30T13:18:00.000-04:002005-06-30T15:39:09.476-04:00

The Freedom Festival fireworks last night went off without a hitch, a hitch being the shooting of people. And nobody shot = event success in Detroit. The crowds were a bit thinner, largely due to lingering gunfire fears from last year, but that didn’t stop the maddening traffic gridlock from forming once the fireworks were over as everyone fled the city at the exact same time.It seemed all my

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1119985043462599362005-06-28T14:56:00.000-04:002005-06-30T16:05:42.503-04:00

Man, it's hot. The kind of hot that makes being alive unpleasant. Being outside is out of the question. Yet couch-sitting isn't happening either, since my redbrick apartment, built in the 1920s in the unadorned, workingman's style apparently meant to keep workers suffering in the summer, not only absorbs heat, it almost seems to generate it, making it hotter inside than out, no matter what. The

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1119623814845258812005-06-24T10:36:00.000-04:002005-06-24T13:33:53.163-04:00

Well, that certainly sucked last night. For us, what began as a lot of drinking adding up to a happy buzz became a lot of drinking adding up to an unhappy hangover today. The Pistons were up by nine points in the third quarter, yet they still lost. Where was Tayshaun? Where was Chauncey? And now, because there’s no victory, we miss out on the mayor and others telling us to pat ourselves on the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1119463654783182732005-06-22T14:07:00.000-04:002005-06-23T09:38:48.880-04:00

This is going from being detroitblog to being Lost Detroit History blog. From Scovel Memorial Church to the Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church to the Statler and Madison-Lenox hotels to the recently torched Studebaker plant, it’s becoming hard to keep up with what is being destroyed around town so far this year. I can only imagine what the second half of the year will bring, as Superbowl pressures

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1119283056103503702005-06-20T11:57:00.000-04:002005-06-20T11:57:36.110-04:00

While everyone is going bonkers over the threatened removal of those goddamn whales from the Broderick Tower in favor of proposed advertising, a mural featuring a local icon that actually does have something to do with the city was removed in favor of crass automobile advertising by General Motors.While Wyland, who loves his homestate so much that he moved to California, got his wish to keep the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1119030873548247172005-06-17T13:54:00.000-04:002005-06-17T14:50:22.600-04:00

Just when I began wondering what happened to mayoral candidate Sharon McPhail, she pops back into the eye of the media by announcing a new McPhailesque idea – naming a “population czar” to stem the flow of people out of the city.The last we heard about her, she had arrived a half-hour late to a Detroit mayoral candidates' debate on Mackinac Island in true scatterbrained fashion — is there

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1118750337323585972005-06-14T07:58:00.000-04:002005-06-14T07:58:57.333-04:00

The Delray post was perhaps a bit, um, long-winded, so it’s probably even better that I kept out this stuff, which would have extended the post to attention-span-stretching proportions. After spending way too much of my spare time in Delray this spring, I’ve got a number of these kinds of leftovers, sort of like the extra tracks recorded for an album but left off at the last minute and later

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1118349610206985072005-06-09T16:39:00.000-04:002005-06-13T16:57:53.063-04:00

The city of Detroit as we know it today was formed in large part by annexing to its core a number of surrounding suburbs into a sort of supercity near the turn of the century. Yet a number of these former villages and townships retained their character and identity as distinct neighborhoods long after being swallowed by Detroit. One of the more notorious of these, on the southwest border of the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1118236641411462732005-06-08T09:17:00.000-04:002005-06-08T09:37:33.270-04:00

The Freep inadvertantly stole my thunder by writing an article about the Delray neighborhood yesterday, the topic of my next post, which I've been working on for a while and should be done later today. Suddenly my work will be about as spontaneous and fresh as a debate question for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. So much for surprises.On another note: dETROITfUNK has an article, a cover story no less, in

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1118154791767955562005-06-07T10:32:00.000-04:002005-06-12T00:30:43.746-04:00

Of all the abandoned buildings in Downtown Detroit, one is utterly unique: the castle-like Grand Army of the Republic Building at Cass and Grand River.A medieval-looking building constructed of rough-hewn stone, featuring turrets with battlements and fronted by a grand, two-story arched entrance, the GAR was built over 100 years ago as a memorial and meeting place for Civil War veterans from

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1118066182987263522005-06-06T09:56:00.000-04:002005-06-06T09:57:30.493-04:00

Got some killer posts — laden with photos and chock full of fascinating explorations — coming up this week, once I finish them. Now that I’ve got that self-pat on the back out of the way, a bit of news:Taking Off the Gloves, part two: As further proof that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is little more than a thug, he is now threatening to cancel the International Freedom Festival fireworks display if

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1117829620213927882005-06-03T16:13:00.000-04:002005-06-03T16:23:43.590-04:00

Time to break up the interesting, photo-heavy posts with some less interesting, dry, dull text:A new EPIC/MRA poll suggests just about anyone who can stand up on two legs can run against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and beat him in a head-to-head matchup.Even state Sen. Hansen Clarke, the classic, unknown, dark horse candidate, would beat him, according to the survey results. On the downside, EPIC/MRA

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1117551176194458742005-05-31T10:52:00.000-04:002005-05-31T14:00:20.080-04:00

Memorial Day weekend in Detroit means it's time for the technofest, also known as DEMF, oops I mean Movement, oops I mean Fuse-In. In reality, the event should be called Invasion of the Skinny White Kids.The constant name changes reflect the schitzy, haphazard way the thing’s been organized over the years, so poorly in fact, that for the first time in the history of Hart Plaza festivals, they had

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1117117112063211252005-05-26T10:16:00.000-04:002005-05-31T10:54:43.326-04:00

Lost sight of, perhaps, in the recent troubles in the city is the fact that it’s springtime, which, even amid hectic days, quietly compels us to savor it.And nowhere downtown does it seem more springlike than Campus Martius Park, formerly Kennedy Square, which had for years been a dirty, all-concrete home to pigeons and lunatics. Now redone and in its first year as a rebuilt public square, it’s

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1116870208836257082005-05-23T13:42:00.000-04:002005-06-03T20:10:20.476-04:00

The Madison-Lenox Hotel is now gone forever, with no remnant of its existence other than lingering clouds of dust borne on asbestos fibers and a giant pile of historic rubble. And as has become a habit here on detroitblog lately, here is an obituary for yet another piece of our history that's gone:The Madison Hotel was built in 1900 on the edge of beautiful Harmonie Park, on the swank corner of

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1116531235957269362005-05-19T15:30:00.000-04:002005-05-26T18:49:45.896-04:00

I went by the Madison-Lenox Hotel yesterday, the site of an unauthorized demolition that nobody seems to want to take full responsibility for, not Mike Ilitch the owner, not Kwame Kilpatrick the mayor, though both have vowed over the years to destroy it.The smell of freshly cracked, damp, century-old wood hung in the air around the structure. A huge pile of wood shards and brick sat where a small

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1116448173035405252005-05-18T16:29:00.000-04:002005-05-20T10:09:40.046-04:00

Talk about being absolutely busted. On the same day that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick made his official reelection announcement, the Freep further adds to his troubles by obtaining and printing the portions of his city-issued credit card statement that he tried to black out. Put side-by-side with his censored version, the Freep version points the reader directly to the charges Kwame didn’t want anyone

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1116258094604192722005-05-16T11:38:00.000-04:002005-05-16T16:14:30.036-04:00

Didn’t spend much time downtown this weekend for fear of the Hoedown, an annual event in its 23rd year in which pseudo-rednecks and those aspiring to act like pseudo-rednecks flood Hart Plaza in Detroit, of all places, and throw a country music/lifestyle festival.I don’t want to characterize an entire group of people with a broad brush, as is the annual delight of some self-appointed elites who

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1115991563002345972005-05-13T09:38:00.000-04:002005-05-13T09:47:37.980-04:00

Devil's night seems to be starting much earlier this year. Apparently, a frisky firebug has been making the rounds overnight in Highland Park, starting several separate fires at businesses and homes both occupied and abandoned, causing the local news anchors to go hysterical way too early in the morning. But I got the chance to stop by the scene of the one of the fires, just in time to get this

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1115820353813474452005-05-11T10:04:00.000-04:002005-05-23T19:05:13.510-04:00

Detroit is home to a number of stunningly beautiful and well-preserved churches, and while spending the entire weekend crawling around Southwest Detroit for Cinco de Mayo, I took time out to explore Most Holy Redeemer Parish at Vernor and Junction.The church began as a “daughter” of the Most Holy Trinity Church on Porter Street 125 years ago, and was founded to minister to the Irish population

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1115671346966183562005-05-09T16:42:00.000-04:002005-05-11T10:48:45.440-04:00

I’m still recovering today, in several ways, from the Cinco de Mayo parade Sunday in Southwest Detroit, land of elaborate wrought-iron gates, low riders, full-on gang warfare in the 80s, the slowest traffic in town, and Mexican everything.For those who don't know, Southwest Detroit is home to a large (and ever-growing) concentration of Hispanic immigrants, the vast majority of whom come from

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1115386141039088082005-05-06T09:28:00.000-04:002005-05-06T16:50:33.106-04:00

I really need to get some photogenic exploring in soon, because the whole Detroit politics saturation thing is starting to bring me down, not to mention it's blanding up the site here.Sure enough, it’s counterattack time in Kwameland. Facing accusations of purchasing lavish, booze-soaked meals on the taxpayers’ dime, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick struck back by saying first off, he didn’t do

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1115135551448698592005-05-03T11:51:00.000-04:002005-05-04T10:08:36.593-04:00

Finally, detroitblog posts something. I mean, where’s this guy been?I took a weeklong vacation and came back refreshed and happy, only to be stricken with the twin indignities of a late-April snow shower and a vicious virus that has wasted more than a week of my life and left me without energy or motivation.But that's all over, sort of, almost, and here I am once again, apparently just as the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1113597060984089002005-04-21T08:00:00.000-04:002005-04-21T10:54:22.696-04:00

Today's Scan of the Week was prepared for your viewing pleasure last week. I'm on vacation this week, and so I prepared this one ahead of time, Mitch Albom-style.Like a lot of artifacts posted here, it has several levels of history connected to it. It's a glossy ad from the magazine "The Detroiter" dated October 1974, a relic found in a filthy pile of papers in the Motown (Donovan) Building at

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1113835604958299792005-04-18T10:40:00.000-04:002005-04-18T10:48:29.690-04:00

The Detroit Screw Works warehouse on Atwater near the river got torn down this weekend, as did the already crumbling Ambassador Steel shell next to it, most likely as part of the whole cleaning of Detroit before the Superbowl. A brief historical recap of the two structures here.---------------------------Speaking of the Superbowl, what better advance publicity than to have a national magazine

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1113489673067777222005-04-14T10:40:00.000-04:002005-04-14T10:54:28.120-04:00

The huge mural of Steve Yzerman on the Cadillac Towers has been replaced by a moving, meaningful, Yoko Ono-esque white blankness:The mural that inspired Red Wings fans to keep hope alive is coming down, and it may be a new game of wait and see to find out who, if anyone, is going up.The 170-by-100-foot wall mural of Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman that graced the side of the Cadillac Tower

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1113316708854554622005-04-12T10:37:00.000-04:002005-04-12T16:44:42.220-04:00

The City finally bought out the last of the riverfront-marring cement silos, paving the way, so to speak, for a full beautification effort.City of Detroit representatives signed a $23-million deal Monday to buy out Cemex, the third and final cement plant operating on Detroit's east riverfront. The deal removes one of the last big obstacles to completion of the city's hoped-for riverfront

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1112969184856958462005-04-08T10:06:00.000-04:002005-04-08T18:12:37.306-04:00

The Belle Isle Aquarium is now closed for good, after staying open through two World Wars, two full-fledged riots, the loss of half the population, recessions and a depression, 22 mayors, and the ghettoization of a once-thriving city. But it couldn't survive Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.Now, faced with an ballooning budget deficit that's setting the stage for a state takeover of the city's finances,

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1112730899771183672005-04-05T15:54:00.000-04:002005-04-05T15:54:59.773-04:00

When a citizen gets something stolen, they go to the police. When the Detroit Police find something is stolen, they go to the public and ask them, in effect, to be police for the police:Detroit police officials are searching for a 2001 black Crown Victoria that may have been used in a Friday robbery.Cops are paying special attention to this case: The missing vehicle is an unmarked police

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1112370487432371032005-04-01T10:40:00.000-05:002005-04-08T19:03:42.650-04:00

I’ve gradually become preoccupied with a century-old rowhouse just outside of Midtown, something that I've passed hundreds of times over the years but never really paid much attention to, until the neighborhood surrounding it began to incorporate new development, causing the old parts of the area to start standing out in contrast. It wraps itself around the southwest corner of Beaubien and Harper

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1112284245424853242005-03-31T10:49:00.000-05:002005-03-31T11:39:17.853-05:00

A quick shot of news:A new building is going up near Kennedy Square, just in time for some people who obsessively insist that the unique, irreplacable and beautiful 1920s skyline of Detroit desperately needs to be interrupted by some cold, boring, steel-and-glass structures. How this is supposed to beautify things isn't clear. Those kinds of structures are all over Southfield and Troy, and nobody

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1112042602585353692005-03-28T15:43:00.000-05:002005-03-30T00:15:07.710-05:00

It was Easter Sunday yesterday, and before going to family functions I was heading towards a Detroit church, hoping to take photos as the parishoners cleared out, because no local churches are as beautiful as the old Detroit churches, and as I drove down Canfield I noticed that St. Albertus, a church I'd been eager to get into and photograph, was actually open and had people streaming in. Change

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1111673765304905712005-03-24T09:16:00.000-05:002005-03-24T09:23:56.413-05:00

One day after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's State of the City address, touting progress both real and exaggerated, Detroit takes another step on the road to receivership - the city's bond rating has been lowered to near junk status:Citing financial deterioration and "ongoing structural imbalances that could take years to cure," the agency lowered the city's unlimited-tax general obligation bonds to

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1111414194293018552005-03-21T09:09:00.000-05:002005-03-21T09:09:54.296-05:00

The latest Scan of the Week is a relic found in the famed Book Cadillac Hotel before crews went in last year and scraped everything out of it in preparation for either renovation or demolition. It’s a sticker the hotel put next to the light switches in the rooms. It hails from the Jimmy Carter era of energy-conserving malaise, when old President Cheerful would address the nation every now and

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1111176905212670672005-03-18T15:14:00.000-05:002005-03-18T15:17:11.980-05:00

There's a new documentary about Detroit showing here this weekend. By here, I mean nowhere near the city, but actually in Ann Arbor:In the latest attempt to decipher what has happened to Detroit during the past 50 years, some of the most thoughtful observations come from a European professor who is visiting the city for the first time."Where is the rebirth?" French sociology professor Loci

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1110828850558022202005-03-14T14:33:00.000-05:002005-03-16T13:41:51.776-05:00

So it’s 1:30 a.m. Friday/Saturday and as has become my new pastime, I’m wandering the streets of downtown with a camera and a tripod after being the last one standing following a bar hop. Nobody’s around so I’m driving like usual but worse, swerving, going down one-way streets the wrong way, driving British-style in the left lane, and all this was apparently too much to bear for a cop behind me,

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1110477562654136912005-03-10T12:55:00.000-05:002005-03-10T12:59:22.660-05:00

Sharon McPhail seems to be the most error-prone candidate for local public office in recent memory. Now she's got the Detroit News going absolutely spastic because she apparently blatantly lied to them, and now they're going to be out to get her all year. Smart move!It began when she told the News' editorial board that she had a plan to cut 6,000 employees from the city's workforce, a commendable

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1110401395188505592005-03-09T15:49:00.000-05:002005-03-09T15:49:55.193-05:00

Council member and mayoral candidate Sharon McPhail's judgement, already suspect, is again worth calling into question:Sharon McPhail, the Detroit City Council member who is running for mayor, participated in a so-called Sambo awards ceremony last month that used the racial epithet to mock her opponent, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and other black leaders.According to a spokesman, McPhail read

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1110209547125502052005-03-07T10:32:00.000-05:002005-03-07T10:37:01.976-05:00

Man, you know you’re drunk when you wind up in another country and can’t quite remember how to get out. Such was the case Friday, as a lead on a faraway party turned into a sudden and unexpected drive through Windsor, Canada. Found the party, did the necessary party things, left in a different state than I arrived in, and did my best to follow the river to the tunnel and back past the gruff

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1109970838586899992005-03-04T16:13:00.000-05:002005-03-14T19:15:10.276-05:00

What's that I feel? Temps nearing the 30s?! We're only about 10 degrees below average today. At this rate spring should arrive maybe five months from now, making exploration and photography much more appealing and giving me something original to post. In the meantime, I'll just shuttle everyone off to other people's hard work:So many places to buy drugs in the city, and these two dingbat chicks

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1109704313682624392005-03-01T14:11:00.000-05:002005-03-01T17:24:14.840-05:00

It’s the beginning of March, the month that ushers in spring, and it begins with yet another Michigan snowstorm. How grand. We've had 52 inches of snow so far this winter in Detroit, compared with 19 at the same point last year. The whole thing is beginning to wear on me considerably. So for the latest post, in lieu of going outside, we fall back on the old standby – scans! This Scan of the Week

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1109191908967124272005-02-23T15:50:00.000-05:002005-03-01T14:32:11.156-05:00

The Belle Isle Aquarium gets a 60-day reprieve. Might be essentially meaningless.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1109167354758572072005-02-23T08:58:00.000-05:002005-02-23T09:18:40.966-05:00

Nice:A stray dog was found with a body part in its mouth on Detroit's east side Tuesday afternoon. The remains may belong to 19-year-old Jalona Stafford, whose body was found burned and dismembered inside an abandoned pickle factory on Riopelle Street last week, Local 4 reported. Neighbors said the dog was carrying a leg with the thigh attached to it, the station reported. "A dog was carrying the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1109108649517815062005-02-22T16:43:00.000-05:002005-02-22T16:44:09.520-05:00

Perhaps one last chance to keep the Belle Isle Aquarium open:Fish enthusiasts pleaded Monday for a reprieve for the 101-year-old Belle Isle Aquarium, arguing that cost of operating it is a small price to pay for preserving the educational and cultural institution. Councilmember JoAnn Watson said she'll introduce a resolution Wednesday that would grant community and philanthropic groups one year

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1108755251888199432005-02-18T14:32:00.000-05:002005-02-18T14:34:11.900-05:00

Last year, the Free Press published a couple of articles on the high number of abandoned buildings in Detroit, and accompanied them with a list of what they considered the top 12 abandoned skyscrapers. All the urban explorers I know used this as a checklist, visiting each one and trying to finish the list. Though we'd all been in dozens if not hundreds of empty buildings in the city, those 12

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1108479382395915812005-02-15T09:56:00.000-05:002005-02-15T10:00:31.463-05:00

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and what better, more romantic way to spend it than to head to some dank building in the middle of the ghetto and watch old-time, hard-core porno flicks projected onto a screen as dildos pop out at you from paintings. Yes, gentlemanly traditionalist that I am, we headed to the Dirty Show at the Tangent Gallery, a "skintalating display of erotica from around the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1108391792884741782005-02-14T09:36:00.000-05:002005-02-14T11:50:24.436-05:00

The 107-year-old Scovel Memorial Presbyterian Church, on the corner of McGraw and Grand River, went up in flames this weekend. It was essentially destroyed. The preliminary guess, as relayed on the TV news, was that some homeless person(s) started a fire to keep warm and torched the entire building. It's one thing to be mentally ill, as many homeless people are, it's another thing to be deeply

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1108048798443061942005-02-10T10:19:00.000-05:002005-02-18T10:04:07.983-05:00

There's a world-famous music venue on the West Side that sits in decay, dying a slow death at the hands of time and the elements, as so many historical buildings in Detroit do.The Grande Ballroom, designed by architect Charles Agree in Moorish Deco style, was built in 1928 on Grand River near Joy on the city’s West Side. It was for years a favorite Detroit dance spot, featuring one of the largest

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1108047305220912532005-02-10T09:51:00.000-05:002005-02-10T11:46:29.710-05:00

The Madison-Lenox Hotel gets yet another stay of execution: The Detroit Historic District Commission said "no" Wednesday to plans to demolish the Madison-Lenox Hotel in Detroit. The commission, on a 4-2 vote, ordered Olympia Development LLC to stabilize the buildings from further decay and to sell the property if it doesn't plan to redevelop it. Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, who spoke in

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1107983699076353362005-02-09T16:14:00.000-05:002005-02-09T16:30:18.730-05:00

In the midst of a municipal financial crisis, when all eyes are on the city and the media are clamoring to bust somebody for something, it seems someone is double-dipping: A woman working for Detroit City Councilman Alonzo Bates has been earning thousands of dollars during similar hours that she has filed for her job at a hospital, according to a televised report. WJBK-Fox 2 reported Tuesday

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1107892466521712722005-02-08T14:54:00.000-05:002005-02-10T19:12:00.086-05:00

I've been away from work for a few days, and since the home computer has faded into a quiet death, no work = no blogging. Posts galore starting later today or tomorrow. Also, there are finally – finally! – new exploration tales and photos from a building I hadn’t yet been in, a skyscraper I’ve been targeting for more than a year and finally busted into this weekend and will post soon. Hopefully

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1107352805483613962005-02-02T08:59:00.000-05:002005-02-02T16:07:23.120-05:00

The Scan of the Week, about two weeks late now (sorry!), is a reminder in this season of political discontent in Detroit that there once was a mayor who made current Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick seem utterly press-friendly and cooperative. I’m talking about “Hizzoner,” otherwise simply known as Coleman, the man who put the fear in thousands of suburbanites, the man who gave Oakland County Executive L.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1106949016700269352005-01-28T16:50:00.000-05:002005-01-28T17:02:40.743-05:00

The latest Photo of the Week features a faded mural on a brick wall on the West Side, photographed on some forgotten summer night when going outside wasn’t pure frozen hell as it is now. But I digress. It's a bit of agitprop for the Detroit Police Department from the early 1980s that paints an idyllic, multicultural picture of law enforcement in Motown. An elderly white lady sits on a bench,

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1106839746894930012005-01-27T10:28:00.000-05:002005-01-27T14:45:32.346-05:00

I might normally use this space to review the weekly embarrassments caused by the mayor, but it’s been requested that everyone cease and desist, Lent-style. Tired of what she calls "diabolical negativity" in city government, Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson is proposing a resolution that would call for a 40-day fast in the legislative branch. During this "ecumenical fast" there would be

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1106597768238309682005-01-24T15:12:00.001-05:002005-01-27T10:31:24.736-05:00

On Saturday we went to the Motown Winterblast, which was delayed by … winter. I’m not sure what, exactly, got delayed by the huge snowfall - the snowslide, the snowmaze, the dogsledding in snow, but I was too busy getting my car stuck in snowbanks all morning to get over there early enough and find out. Apart from getting stuck, I love blizzard driving because you can drive like a drunken

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1106233070415664582005-01-20T09:57:00.000-05:002005-01-20T09:57:50.416-05:00

The Lincoln Navigator controversy has grown into a huge symbol of everything that’s wrong with the Kwame Kilpatrick administration – the corruption, the use of taxpayer dollars for personal luxury, the thuggish climate, the shady answers, the whole imitation hip hop star lifestyle. The Navigator, a relatively extravagant vehicle suspected to be purchased for First Lady Carlita Kilpatrick’s

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1106073919316808082005-01-18T13:45:00.000-05:002005-01-18T13:47:16.266-05:00

We're not even three weeks into the new year and already I'm breaking resolutions left and right, including the promise to make the Photo of the Week an actually weekly phenomenon. But here's to second efforts! Who among us hasn’t, in the midst of a busy day, been overcome by certain substances coursing through our systems and said "What the heck? I’m gonna lay down right where I am right now

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1105977941988786132005-01-17T11:04:00.000-05:002005-01-17T11:16:36.360-05:00

Thanks to a budget crunch caused by incompetent city leaders, the century-old Belle Isle Aquarium, the oldest public aquarium in the country, is closing. This will apparently save a whopping half-million dollars, thereby addressing about 1/590th of the current budget deficit. It’s certainly not the most impressive aquarium, nor is it even very large or particularly pretty design-wise, but it’s a

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1105640783387355522005-01-13T13:26:00.000-05:002005-01-14T10:56:22.586-05:00

In honor of yet another delay in the attempt to knock down the abandoned, 100-year-old Madison Lenox Hotel, the Scan of the Week features an item I found last year still taped to a wall in one of the Madison Lenox's rooms, yellowed by age and stained by mysterious fluids. It's a flyer promoting the Harmonie Park area circa 1983, a fact I deduced because someone was helpful enough to desecrate it

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1105542082905930062005-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:002005-01-18T09:14:29.440-05:00

Time for a blast of undiluted negativity: It’s a new year – let the mayhem begin! Starting right away: One New Year's reveler was arrested early Monday for allegedly firing a sawed-off shotgun into the air while on the porch of a house on the city's east side. Shortly after midnight New Year's Day, Detroit police said patrol officers in the 19300 block of Runyon heard gunfire and saw a group

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1105381633531205732005-01-10T13:26:00.000-05:002005-01-10T14:01:52.663-05:00

This weekend marked the beginning of press days at the North American International Auto Show, and guess who got credentialed! I had to arrive early, and alone, because the press passes are non-transferable, and you can't bring guests. The journalists had to stand in a very long line for about a half-hour very early in the morning, waiting to have their press credentials confirmed. That's a

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1104962081994979012005-01-05T16:54:00.000-05:002005-01-10T14:04:17.970-05:00

Ooh, watch out! It's time for the first installment of the Scan of the Week, featuring this business card-sized item I found in an old wood cabinet in an upper floor of the David Broderick Tower. For languishing in a sometimes-open cabinet for 55 years, it's held up remarkably well, even escaping the attention of the dopey vandals who've run rampant in there recently, in addition to wave after

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1104876376208303472005-01-04T17:04:00.000-05:002005-01-04T17:06:16.206-05:00

Happy New Year, a little late. Quite a year ahead for Detroit in 2005, including the baseball All-Star Game, a Tuller-like hole where the Statler Hotel used to be, more lighted and occupied buildings on Woodward, the completion of all sorts of downtown roadwork, probably at least one Hart Plaza Fireworks-type shooting somewhere in the city, a lengthy mayoral election campaign, still no hockey

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1104775720503051642005-01-03T13:08:00.000-05:002005-01-03T17:06:59.230-05:00

On the east side of Detroit sits a huge old church that’s abandoned and boarded up, a haven for squatters and hookers, and an extravagant coop for pigeons, yet despite these troubles, it still retains almost all its former beauty within. Though the sign currently on the property identifies it as Powerhouse Temple, it was for most of its life the Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church. The church was

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1104332570371282112004-12-29T10:01:00.000-05:002004-12-29T10:19:31.376-05:00

More old stuff in the city is being cleaned up and preserved: For years, pigeons and geese have been the most obvious visitors to the 60-foot-tall {Nancy Brown Peace Carillon}, located on a grassy expanse not far from the U.S.-Canadian border. But the carillon is again attracting human attention on both sides of the Detroit River. A digital carillon has replaced the old 8-track system and it

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1104244991499462122004-12-28T09:43:00.000-05:002004-12-28T09:51:58.840-05:00

I notice that the Metro Times has a brief piece about exploring the Roosevelt Warehouse on Detroit's southwest side. Gee, what an original idea: exploring an abandoned building in Detroit and posting a handful of photos of the interior along with a brief account of the exploration written by the explorer. I wonder where they could've come up with an idea like that? Shockingly unique. Keep up the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1103828188868586882004-12-25T11:00:00.000-05:002005-01-04T08:59:57.813-05:00

Merry Christmas from all of us at detroitblog, which amounts to me, really. This Santa photo was one of the rotating headers for a while, but I couldn't allow him or Mrs. Claus to vanish forever since he is an excellent Detroit Santa Claus, even fortuitously sitting with the official City of Detroit flag as a backdrop, so here they are, enshrined permanently in another substance-free post.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1103901821567559212004-12-24T10:15:00.000-05:002004-12-28T09:58:40.796-05:00

Demolition of the Statler Hotel looks to be obstacle-free now that the city has decided no more fussing around with potential redevelopment and whatnot. It must come down now, lest it scar up the Grand Circus Park landscape of well-maintained, flourishing buildings surrounding it. And remember, above all, we must impress the outsiders on that fateful Superbowl Sunday one year away. Otherwise,

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1103825351502180252004-12-23T13:08:00.000-05:002004-12-23T14:25:44.576-05:00

Jesus Christ is it snowy outside in Detroit. Woodward was a disaster this morning. To top it off I have a terrible cold, the third cold I’ve had since November. Apparently I have the immune system of a Nigerian prostitute. And as soon as all the snow settles, along will come an arctic blast that will seal the top of the foot or so of snow we’ve gotten into a sort of permafrost that will last

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1103664677426926202004-12-21T16:25:00.000-05:002004-12-27T09:16:23.226-05:00

It’s been too freakin’ cold to go out taking pictures of buildings, occupied or otherwise, so it’s back to the headlines for today’s post. So what follows is a quick roundup of what’s worth mentioning this month. Actually, what follows is what I can still find links for from this month's newspaper articles. Less than comprehensive, in other words. But first, today's Random Photo of the Week, a

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1103126997054603152004-12-15T11:09:00.000-05:002004-12-15T11:09:57.053-05:00

For a change of pace, instead of breaking into abandoned skyscrapers to look at faded splendor, I went on a small tour of a building that’s open and occupied, to look at renovated splendor. To put it another way, I'm running out of abandoned buildings to explore, so this just might be the start of the Actually Legitimate Building Tour, at least for the time being. The recently refurbished

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1102712055619340862004-12-10T15:54:00.000-05:002004-12-10T15:54:15.620-05:00

Ah, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, when, like today, daylight is at a premium and you come to work when it’s dark and leave work when it’s dark, when cold rain falls all day long from perpetual, undifferentiated grey skies. Fun! I like this sign. It says so much. Signs like this arouse the perfect combination of cringe and fascination. It’s bad enough that the creator of this banner

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1102452444308204702004-12-07T15:45:00.000-05:002004-12-07T15:47:24.306-05:00

In lieu of real posts about exploring, that is, in place of something interesting, you get today’s filler! This past weekend was Noel Night in Midtown, an annual tradition where museums, stores and school buildings open their doors and let people in for the hell of it. Free admission, access without questions, no need to commit to something for more than five minutes, you can’t beat that.

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1102022904367784512004-12-02T16:27:00.000-05:002004-12-02T16:28:24.366-05:00

The old Boblo Island Detroit boat dock, known originally as the Detroit Railway and Harbor Terminals Building, later shortened to the Detroit Harbor Terminals Building, was built in 1925. The building is only peripherally connected to the history of Boblo Island and the Boblo boats, since it was simply the place you left to get somewhere else that was much more interesting. A giant, concrete

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1101851445888420222004-11-30T16:49:00.000-05:002004-12-02T16:30:27.496-05:00

Sunday was Wild Lights at the Detroit Zoo, a holiday event in which they transform the zoo's walkways into brightly illuminated, Christmas-themed trails that you stroll in the darkness and cold. Inside zoo buildings, a select few exhibits, including amphibians, reptiles and butterflies, and the Rainforest exhibit, remained open. Friendly staff opened doors, cocoa steamed from booths, little

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1101764657729811642004-11-29T16:44:00.000-05:002004-11-29T16:44:17.730-05:00

Up bright and early Thanksgiving. Bitter cold does wonders on hangovers, I’ve found. Same for sleepiness. We had to walk only a couple blocks to a decent vantage point near the library, watched the floats, some of which threatened to come crashing down on the marchers, but never quite smothered them, much to my disappointment. In an attempt at getting a better view and better pictures I got

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1101313208935293522004-11-24T11:18:00.000-05:002004-11-24T11:43:21.360-05:00

Big Thanksgiving parade tomorrow, televised nationally. In keeping with recent Detroit traditions, perhaps someone in the crowd can throw a drink at a parader, who will then jump into the crowd and start fighting, and the crowd can go berserk with fists and drinks flying. Thanksgiving in Detroit, bitches! The dilemma now is whether to leave the apartment, with its cozy, hangover-coddling

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1101247072962297002004-11-23T16:57:00.000-05:002004-11-24T15:46:03.850-05:00

The Freep has an article today on the great job the Detroit Public Lighting Department is doing fixing streetlights, except for the fact that they're really doing a lousy job fixing streetlights, thousands of which are dimmed across the city. Having a broken streetlamp is great for when you want to do bad things unseen, but not so great when your car is parked beneath one or your house is

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1101154656417844482004-11-22T15:17:00.000-05:002004-11-22T19:33:59.646-05:00

On Sunday morning I stood tired and disoriented in Campus Martius Park, looking lost, waiting on a friend roughly near where Kennedy Square used to be in the center of downtown, actually where Woodward used to be before they messed it up, trying to figure out what the hell all these new things were that had suddenly appeared - skating rink, Au Bon Pain food provider, giant Christmas tree, public

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100789744940429802004-11-18T09:55:00.000-05:002004-11-18T09:57:23.563-05:00

Compuware is laying off employees again. I always wanted to check out the interior of their new building at Michigan and Woodward, but, based on their recurring layoffs, perhaps now I’ll just wait until it, too, becomes abandoned when they go out of business, and then check it out in my own usual way. ----------------------------- The mayor's fading fortunes are the topic of an article in the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100621287522364182004-11-16T11:06:00.000-05:002004-11-18T09:58:40.270-05:00

Last week there was a mild outcry over General Motors’ plans to cover the infamous whales painting on the David Broderick Tower with advertising. But a couple days’ worth of bitching coming from various quarters put the kibosh on that plan, and now - thank God! - the whales remain on the wall, looking much like their counterparts in the Detroit River, swimming merrily under the Ambassador Bridge

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100275566515593892004-11-12T11:06:00.000-05:002004-11-12T16:39:50.986-05:00

The good news is the irritating mural on the side of the David Broderick Tower might be covered up. The bad news is that it would be replaced by advertising. If that's the case, they might as well leave the damn mural there, unmolested. So there's no good news after all. I'll take art, even bad art, over advertising any day. No offense to mural lovers, but that painting never made much sense to

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100197505903378232004-11-11T13:24:00.000-05:002004-11-11T13:31:33.110-05:00

You know you’re running out of abandoned buildings to explore when you revisit buildings that weren’t that great the first time. Such is the case with a relatively small, two- and three-story (depending where you're standing when you're in there), not particularly enthralling building at Second and Amsterdam that’s had many uses by several not particularly interesting businesses. Sounds

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100095607001063972004-11-10T09:00:00.000-05:002005-01-06T09:12:43.326-05:00

As detroitfunk has chronicled, the crew filming the movie "The Island" decided not to leave without adding a bit of vandalism of their own to our fair city by putting an absolutely lame piece of graffiti on the Statler Hotel, with the giveaway notation "LA" painted at the bottom. The design, the concept, the color, all seem too effete and fem to be locally produced. Even the name, "Sash," is soft

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1100012427747981102004-11-09T10:00:00.000-05:002004-11-09T10:00:27.746-05:00

Found this charming article today: A fur coat giveaway sponsored by the animal rights group the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, turned into a battle of the have-nots and have-nots Monday outside a Detroit homeless shelter. PETA, the group known for splashing red paint on fur-wearers and stripping naked to protest furs, gave away 25 fur coats to homeless women. But the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1099931748237628012004-11-08T11:35:00.000-05:002004-11-09T11:42:05.913-05:00

I stepped out of my work offices at Vita Corp. just as the clock ticked off 5 o'clock. Walking out the front door onto Spring Street, I could either head towards Flower Street and towards the subway, or just stand in the bus stop at Fifth Street, waiting for one of the many crisscrossing busses to take me home, down towards Interstate 101. Was it a dream? A drug-and-alcohol induced hallucination

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1099512118747528202004-11-03T15:01:00.000-05:002004-11-16T11:45:53.136-05:00

Man, it sucks when the local daily publicizes your quietly performed hobby by splashing it on the front page of the local section. I knew this was coming, because other explorers told me the reporter had tried to contact them for the article. Not much to say about it, apart from the appaling instance of the explorers using a crowbar to pry a board off a window. That not only ruins it for the

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1098978222523357012004-10-28T11:40:00.001-04:002004-10-28T21:41:18.780-04:00

Somewhat removed from downtown sits a lovely red brick church, at the corner of McGraw and Grand River, its windows boarded up, its entrances sealed, and its walls and doors covered in graffiti. The Scovel Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1898, was originally a mission on McArthur Place founded by a trio of elders of the Trumball Avenue Presbyterian church, whose members met in small homes

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1098806699592161712004-10-26T13:02:00.000-04:002004-10-26T12:04:59.593-04:00

My recent infrequent posting is starting to annoy even me. But right now is election crunch time, and because I work for the news industry, this time for us is like Christmas for retail workers - pure busy hell. It's been a bunch of 12-hour days and overrun deadlines and lunatic candidates and crises all around. Democracy right now is ruining my days. So is this strange Detroit trend of gloomy,

Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538601.post-1098284766741490742004-10-20T11:05:00.000-04:002004-10-20T16:00:23.196-04:00

OK, here's the Random Photo of the Day, which lately is replacing new material produced by actual effort. In the spirit of the election season, here's an example of political expression found in the Continental Plant on the east side. I particularly like the joining of the pro-Bush sentiment with the pro-pot sentiment. "I partied with Bush" is one of the more effective campaign slogans I've heard

Johnnoreply@blogger.com