Detroit Metblogs » det_tom

Big Weekend Coming Up!!

det_tom — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:18:07 +0000

I haven’t posted in a while (I’ve been busy moving and working hard!). This weekend is the big break I need, where I can relax with a lawn chair in downtown Detroit and do the jazzfest thing. The jazzfest this year is probably one of the best lineups in recent history. There are some other big events coming up for this weekend too:

Arts, Beats & Eats – Big art & food festival in downtown Pontiac.
Detroit Grand Prix – Auto racing returns to Belle Isle this weekend.
Detroit Jazz Fest – One of the best lineups in years – Herbie Hancock on Friday, and an insane lineup on Saturday (including Martin, Medeski & Wood), Kenny Barron on Sunday.

Also, on August 30th (Thursday) you can catch the Great Lakes Myth Society, one of my favorite new bands, at the Union Ballroom in Ann Arbor.

Crazy Water Main Break!

det_tom — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:45:55 +0000

I went out to pick up some chicken fried rice for lunch today and pulled out onto the I-96 service drive (at Farmington). Holy moly!

Apparently, there was a huge water main burst on the I-96 service drive at Middlebelt. It completely flooded the expressway and traffic is a giant mess through Livonia today. Cars are stuck in the flood and they haven’t sealed the burst yet. There’s a live feed on clickondetroit.com

Awesome Granderson Snag

det_tom — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:14:13 +0000

If you haven’t seen it yet, you have to see Curtis Granderson’s awesome catch from Sunday’s game.

Article in Free Press
Youtube Video of Catch

Awesome Argentinian (healthy) Food

det_tom — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:25:29 +0000

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.

Jazz on Jefferson

det_tom — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:05:03 +0000

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.

Year of the Insect

det_tom — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:29:33 +0000

I am officially proclaiming 2007, the Year of the Insect.

First there were moths.

Tonight, I tried to go jogging tonight but could not make it very far due to the insane swarms of fishflies underneath every damn lamppost. For those of you not on the east side, it’s fishfly season and it seems particularly bad this year (doesn’t it every year?) Along those lines, I’m pretty sure the New Baltimore Fishfly Festival (or whatever it’s called now) is coming up soon.

Does anyone know the origin of the Michigan fish fly? I googled it but couldn’t find much. Is it because most of the coast of Lake St. Clair used to be swamp (maybe?)? Either way, it’s a good time to be alive if you are a bat, seagull, or bass.

Can’t we all just get along?

det_tom — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:55:39 +0000

As a follow up to Rickus’ post about healthcare (and the ensuing debate), I needed to cheer myself up a little bit. So I started looking around the web and found this awesome link on WXYZ:

http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0B08E6AE-127E-4EE4-A231-1F3422B19482&gsa=true

Watch the video. In retrospect, it’s a lot like arguing on the Internet.

Commuting to Ann Arbor?

det_tom — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:49:07 +0000

Coming this fall, I will be working towards a Master’s Degree at the University of Michigan: School of Information. I’ll also be keeping my job in Livonia but scaling my hours back a little (or a lot, depending). However, I’m still going to need to be able to commute between Ann Arbor, Livonia, and Detroit pretty often. Does anyone have any experience commuting to/from Ann Arbor? Where are the best and cheapest places to live on the west side of town (I currently live on the East side)?

I’m going to drive down to Plymouth next week and check out some of the apartments there and then probably check out Ypsilanti or (ehhh) Romulus. Any other suggestions of cheap places in the I-275, M-14, I-94 corridor?

Detroit: Not That Sucky

det_tom — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:08:18 +0000

A few weeks ago, I ventured out to New York City. I stayed with a friend of mine in the Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn. I went all over the city, from Brooklyn, to Battery Park, to Central Park, to (accidentally) Queens. It was a pretty cool trip and New York is a pretty cool place but some aspects of the city really made me appreciate some of the cool things Detroit has that you really don’t get in NYC. Read ‘em after the jump.

Less Hipsters – For the most part, Detroit has a very small hipster population. Maybe a few hipsters on the eastside, a few in Ferndale, and a couple downtown but that’s about it. To the contrary, New York (especially Brooklyn) is crazy hipster central. While in Brooklyn, I went to a hipster bar in Williamsburg with my friends. It was a pretty chill place but hipsters still weird me out. It was strange hearing Coldplay on the radio at a bar.
Better Graffiti – Graffiti sucks in general but New York’s graffiti sucks more than Detroit’s. Seriously, the graffiti in Brooklyn is insane, almost every building is either tagged or covered with just random graffiti. At least, here in Detroit, when people tag buildings or vandalize, they’re usually fairly creative or obscene.
No Weird Neighborhood Transformation – The Bushwick neighborhood we stayed in was insane. When our cab dropped us off from the airport, a hooker was being arrested on the corner and a dealer was being busted farther down the street. At night, the place looked like Highland Park. During the day, the character of the neighborhood totally changed, kids play in the street and businesses operate by the train stop. It’s a weird transformation. In Detroit, your neighborhood is either shady or not, there’s none of this change thing going on.
Useless Mass Transit – Mass transit is cool for a very short period of time. After about 48 hours, I just wanted to be able to drive my car. Fortunately for me, Detroit’s highways are somewhat more navigable than New York’s (or at least the deathtrap called the BQE).
Less Insanity – New Yorkers are impatient and always in a hurry. Perhaps, to our detriment, Michiganders are just more relaxed and friendly.

Vicodin

det_tom — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:02:16 +0000

My girlfriend pointed this out to me in the most recent WSU Police Watch email:

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT: Two incidents of aggravated assault were reported during April. Both occurred on April 13th. The first incident took place at a WSU Physician Group medical clinic at 50 E. Canfield when a 53 year old patient’s demand for a vicodin prescription was refused. The woman became irate and threatened to “blow the place up”. The patient then attempted the strike a physician with her cane. The patient was arrested and her case is pending in the Wayne County Prosecutors Office.