This weekend was one of the best I’ve spent in the city as coffee and sushi are a few of my favorite things. I spent Friday night dining on some beautiful and delicious sushi at the funky, but classy, Asian Village, which overlooked the River Days festival. This weekend only the sushi and coffee bars were open, but I hear that there will be other Asian food offerings very soon. There are very few rolls on the menu; however, they include the delightful Pink Cadillac and Hummer rolls each wrapped in pink and yellow seaweed respectively. I would love to have seen a roll with salmon in it, but the disappointment didn’t last too long as the California and Spider Rolls were absolutely divine. From the rooftop you could see the entire festival. This will be the place to be for the fireworks, and they are selling tickets on the website.

Couldn’t have a more beautiful day to be on the lake yesterday. Cruised on out to Gull Island with some friends for the early summer session of Jobbie Nooner. It was the usual celebration of life, (young life) and the amazing display of fiberglass. I don’t usually go on the island. The crowd is intense and there is a lot of debauchery. (Geez, I hate that!) But, I have to say, it was just a great day on the water. Didn’t witness any arrests or trouble of any kind although just about every law enforcement branch on both sides of Lake St. Clair are represented, not to count the helicopters and the commercial blimp. Had to take on board a twenty something lady who was too drunk to swim and forgot which boat she was on. LOL If you’ve never been, try to make it in September. GPYC has their sailing regatta today and I have been invited to crew the race officials boat so it looks like it’s going to be a boaters weekend for double r. Have a great weekend!

Today is the official Grand Opening of the East Riverwalk and the Detroit International River Days. While USA Today made a less than flattering mention of the city and its efforts, I am very excited to see the amazing performers and attractions that this festival has rounded up. I am particularly excited to see the river carousel – which is something I envied about Grand Rapids – and from what I hear, portions of Asian Village will also be open to the public. The extravaganza will be continuing for six days. Get out and support the city.

If you’re ever looking for a place around town to find some delicious, inexpensive, and healthy food I recommend you go check out Tango Bravo. It’s on Vernor in Mexicantown just west of Clark Park. If you’re coming from downtown, take Vernor west over I-75, past most of the Mexicantown restaurants, past Clark Park and it will be on your right.

They have some really delicious and healthy salads. I had the spinach & mozzarella salad and it was damn good. I hear they also have good steaks and beef, as well.

The owner of the restaurant came out to our table while we were eating to tell us that they have dancing on Saturdays, as well.

Tried taking Jefferson to work this morning but had to turn around because the Jefferson was closed for Jazz on Jefferson.. It looks like it’s a two day jazz fest and I might make my way down there tonight to check out Marcus Belgrave. The festival is easily within walking distance from the neighborhoods in Grosse Pointe Park.

The actual festival itself is on Jefferson and Chalmers on the far east side. It’s a pretty sad part of Jefferson, since most of the neighborhoods north of Jefferson look like they were hit with a nuclear bomb. Things do seem to be improving though, they’re renovating/restoring the old hotel on Jefferson just east of Dickerson and there are some big plans to boulevard Jefferson from Grosse Pointe to Connor.

it’s me…i’m the new guy and they call me Max. to get the ball rolling i’ll introduce myself by telling you what i’m all about so here goes something: i’m about 50% rock & 50% roll. wether the wheels i’m rolling on are attached to an SE Floval Flyer, a Dogtown longboard or a ‘31 chopped & channeled Ford Coupe it’s fine with me. i’m about driving fast and listening to Van Halen; i’m about driving slow and listening to Loretta Lynn. i’m about chicks in guys pants instead of the other way around. i’m about not feeling guilty about guilty pleasures. i’m about waffle soled Vans. i’m about getting a tattoo that you’ll still think is cool twenty years from the day you got it. i’m about an un-restored Vespa scooter. i’m about Generation X…the band, not the pop culture label. i’m about the search for Animal Chin. i’m about the sexiest girl you’ve ever seen who can’t go out with you tonight because she has to change her oil…but she tells you to stop by her place later if you want to, she’s got a sixer of High Life and she’s willing to share and most importantly i’m about not being bought & not being sold which means that greedy, corporate, fat-cat, blowhards will always have more time and money than i do but i believe that ultimately i’ll end each day not looking over my shoulder as i lay down for a good nights sleep. i understand that only one out of ten of you will get this so you other nine can either skip my posts or learn to deal with it. i’ll try not to ruffle any feathers here but don’t quote me on that, sometimes i get all worked up and let the un-checked facts, half truths, lies, slander and non-sense hit the ol’ Air King. so to quote the mighty Steve Perry, “i come to you with open arms”.

I have been trying to contact the city for the last two weeks to find out why the hell the fountain in Grand Circus Park is not turned on yet. They ususally fire it up right after Memorial Day and it is still not up and running. It’s a beautiful site both in the day and at night with it’s lights turned on in the pool. Well, they finally called me back yesterday. Guess why? Someone stole all the copper plumbing and wires! Can you believe it? —holes!!!! I was told the city can’t afford to fix it so they are looking for some financial donations to repair it. Mmm, I have to think about it. Maybe a fundraiser at a local pub.

Yesterday, I had the fortune of attending the International Heritage Development Conference at the Renaissance Center put on by the Alliance for National Heritage Centers. The Motor Cities National Heritage Areas organization hosted the 2007 here in Detroit and did a wonderful job showing off our beautiful city. Attendees were led on field trips to see what Detroit and Windsor have done with their riverfronts, treated to a Princess River Cruise, and also led out as far as Flint to study our region and state. However, I had the misfortune of overhearing some out-of-towners excited about the fact that they had confirmed all their stereotypes about Detroit because they heard gunfire. This is America. America allows people to own guns. Police officers and civilians are armed with guns. The likelihood of one facing gun violence in this country is too high for comfort, no matter where you are. Unfortunately this is a part of life – be it in big cities, rural areas, or “quiet” suburban utopias – and not just a part of life in Detroit city. Don’t ever think that you may never be affected or that gun violence is limited to geographic boundaries.

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Aloha from sunny Hawaii! I’m currently on vacation for the next week or so, but wanted to point your attention to the Leadership Next launch event on Wednesday evening in Detroit. If you’re under 40 and want to get involved in the community, click here to find out more. I’ll be back later this week with my list of things Detroit and Kauai have in common. Surprisingly, the list is longer than you might think!