On the food note...Supinos Pizza

Supinos has some of the best pizza around. Especially this little gem entitled the Bismarck. It is small place and it is great.

detroit guide

Here's a Detroit city guide written by the Sweet Juniper bloggers (which is in itself a great link). Lots of places to see/eat/shop by neighborhood.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/01/detroit-design-guide.html

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/

Detroit Blog

Here's the link to a great blog with many glimpses into the lives of different people living in Detroit: http://www.detroitblog.org/. There are some very interesting personal stories in here- reflecting both the struggles and quirks of living in Detroit.

Some Detroit performances of the musical variety

This is some information compiled by wife to relay to the group for those that are interested in some of the music happening in Detroit.

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56862.0 - BMG and Secrets,
http://interdimensionaltransmissions.com/

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56951.0 - Patrick Russell is
who I would go to see!!

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56938.0 - benefit for Haiti,
Terrence Parker is pretty special - uses a telephone instead of
headphones and is a turntablist. Kevin Saunderson and Al Ester -
historically important djs in detroit

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56931.0 - Secrets - great music

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56737.0 - excellent
musicians, should be a great party.

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56831.0 - another great
party, esp. Luke Hess and Kevin Reynolds - probably playing early in
the night.

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56833.0 - K Hand and
Punisher are ladies, and great djs. K Hand is first Detroit woman to
start making techno in early 1980s

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?topic=56722.0 - Ryan Elliot is on
Ghostly International, Ann Arbor based record company
http://ghostly.com/artists/ryan-elliott

Most of these events get promoted on Facebook as well, just search the
djs if you're interested.

Also, Todd Osborn every Sunday night 10-2 at the Elbow Room in Ypsi.
Always excellent music, pool, and pac-man. :)
http://ghostly.com/artists/osborne

http://blankartists.blogspot.com/ - always good for great music
information, record label local to detroit

Also, WCBN on Thursday nights from 10pm-1am, Carlos Souffront, local
dj, plays fantastic music. You can listen to it streaming live on the
WCBN website. He's a favorite of a lot of talented detroit djs, he's
often called the dj's dj. He's awesome!

Detroit Theater

Hi everyone,

Thanks to Charlie's suggestion at our last meeting, I've come across the Matrix Theatre Company, which is located in Southwest Detroit. A glimpse of their Mission Statement:
Matrix Theatre Company uses the transformative power of theatre to change lives, build community, and foster social justice. It creates opportunities for children, youth, adults and elders, especially those in isolated or challenged communities, to become creators, producers, and audience of original theatre.

Matrix Theatre Company will be premiering their newest production on March 12, created by Matrix's Young Playwrights: "Vanished". I would like to go to this. Here's the description of the show, about immigration to the U.S., and in particular in Detroit:

Matrix Theatre Company premieres its newest original production, “Vanished” on March 12, 2010. “Vanished” is a creation of Matrix’s Young Playwrights, who will perform the play in partnership with adult mentors trained in the Matrix way. “Vanished” is the story of a family literally torn apart by immigration laws and enforcement policies.

Set in present-day Southwest Detroit, “Vanished” shows one family’s struggle to live the American Dream, a struggle that is defined differently for parents born abroad and their kids born in the U.S. It deals with the realities of life for immigrant families without preaching or choosing sides.

“Vanished” was created in keeping with Matrix’s mission, to use the transformative power of theatre to change lives, build community and foster social justice. The Young Playwrights who created “Vanished” researched the history of U.S. immigration laws, learned about the recent changes made to enforcement policies, and explored the myths and prejudices at work in the formation of public opinion about immigrants. The result of their efforts is a new work that is designed to open discussion, so that audiences can share their ideas and experiences about an issue that impacts the lives of tens of thousands of Detroiters.

Check out Matrix Theatre Company's blogsite: http://matrixtheatre.blogspot.com/, along with their website: http://www.matrixtheatre.org/index.html.

There's also an interesting article about several theater groups in Detroit who are alive and thriving, one of them being Matrix Theatre Company. You can read the article here: http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/theater011910.aspx.

I'll also plan on discussing this more on Monday!!

Thoughts about Murder City

Glad Brad stopped us for a few minute talk after Murder City. I suppose my question about the film pertains to audience. Who was this film made for? Was it made to instill pride in the gangstas being represented? It definitely seemed like the filmmaker (Al Profit) had inside relationships with most of his subjects. Maybe he wanted to make a film that represented his subjects the ways in which they chose to be represented. I did not get the impression that he was adding a veneer of glorification. It seemed to me that his subjects, rather, created personae that were based on the glorified model of the gangsta or hood.

Here is Profit's Statement from themurdercity.com

“Murder City” is an important film for one reason: it gives a voice to people that are rarely heard in the American media and uses the history of crime in Detroit as a backdrop for the real stories of real Detroiters, not the neatly packaged tales told to us by police, reporters, and politicians. The amazing way that the interview subjects opened their personal lives up to the world gives a truly unique look into the real way that the social disorder and economic decay in Detroit leads normal people into extraordinary events like robbing people for their coats with a 12 gauge shotgun, smoking crack cocaine with their brothers and sisters around the family dinner table, and dispensing complimentary plates of soul-food alongside bags of heroin.

Profit does not discuss the need to develop a gangsta persona or "shield" which might be wise (he's not a sociologist). On the other hand, I do question a possible voyeuristic thrill in which words like "extraordinary" sum up the conditions that have cost many human lives and caused communities to crumble.

Belle Isle

"The decadence of Belle Isle contribut­ed to our gloomy reappraisal. We remembered the delicate fig-​shaped island, stranded between the American Empire and peaceful Canada, as it had been years ago, with its welcoming red­-white-​and-​blue flag-​shaped flower bed, splashing fountains, European casino, and horse paths leading through woods where Indians had bent trees into giant bows. Now grass grew in patches down to the littered beach where children fished with pop tops tied to string. Paint flaked from once-​bright gazebos. Drinking fountains rose from mud puddles laid with broken brick stepping stones. Along the road the granite face of the Civil War Hero had been spray-​painted black."

-from The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

This past August, Riva and I took a day trip to Detroit. We began with a stop at the Heidelberg Project, which Riva was seeing for the first time, and lingered about while we explored the bizarre, utopian vista.

Next, we drove out to Belle Isle, which had an even more idyllic feel about it. Although many of the islands attractions seemed a bit run down and neglected, like the Belle Isle Aquarium (America's Oldest) which has been closed since 2005 for lack of funds, there was a feeling of excitement in the air. It seemed that everyone in Detroit had the same idea that hot August afternoon - to head out to Belle Isle for a barbecue with their closest family and friends. As we drove around the island, there was a new party around every corner, each one complete with its own PA and moonbounce. I think we were the only white people on the entire island.

Belle Isle was a kind of in-between world that day. Not America and not Canada, as Eugenides describes, although you could see one with each eye. It was a safe haven from the problems of a failing economy and a neglected city; a place where celebration was the only rule.