Today is the final day of the Detroit Film Theatre’s (DFT) Autumn programming schedule. Given the cold, drab weather outside, it’s the perfect day for some culture in the form of a film.

Director Ingmar Bergman’s-The Magic Flute is being shown at 4 and 7 today. A 1975 adaptation of Mozart’s opera, the DFT describes the movie as, “A simple, eloquent story – about a devoted young man determined to rescue the woman he loves …” Right up my alley.

Tickets are just $5.00 for DIA members, students and senior citizens, or $7.50 for non-members. Tickets may be purchased at the theatre box office, which opens an hour before showtime. Parking is available on John R, directly across from the entrance to the DFT. If you have time, get there early and take a walk through the new DIA before the show.

Tomorrow finds the People Mover turning 20 years young. To celebrate, the City of Detroit is offering free rides all day.

Yippee!

In truth, I’ve always found the People Mover to be a rather shabby, ill-founded thing–more trouble than it’s worth, really. Unlike the massive subways of New York, DC, or other major cities, the People Mover doesn’t move you very far. It doesn’t take you from the suburbs to the city. It doesn’t take you across town. It shuttles you to and from stations that often can be just as easily reached by walking. If it took you from Cobo to the New Center or Cultural Center, then it would be something.

But how could it be a serious mode of transportation in the Motor City? I’m sure the automotive power players have allowed it to be, regarding it these 20 years with nothing but nudges and winks to each other, encouraging its construction twenty years ago with tongues planted in cheeks. It would never cause any threat to their industry, at least in this city. To them, and to many others, it’s nothing but a coy little joke.

But I’m going for a ride tomorrow. A visit to The People Mover’s website, created by the Detroit Transportation Corporation, has given me an urge to visit The People Mover itself. The site offers pages dedicated to the art at each of the different stations, with interesting descriptions and vivid photos. I’d like to see these all in person. It should be a fine day for riding, stopping off for a nice drink every few stations perhaps.

I truly hope that reliable public transportation is a possibility for Detroit. Groups like Transportation Riders United, or TRU, are fighting for it, and with a new consciousness in America about the climate crisis at hand, maybe some change will occur.

Until then, The People Mover is still a bit of a joke compared to other transit systems in the US. But it’s not a bad little joke, after all. Might as well enjoy it.

Okay, I know that I’m posting this a little bit late, but I’d like to highlight three Detroit bands worth seeing this afternoon at the CityFest if you’ve taken the day off or have managed to get out early.

I saw Carjack a couple of months ago at Northern Lights and I was pretty blown away by the sound emanating from this one (sometimes two)-man band. It’s difficult to stand still and look cool at a Carjack show, since you’ll surely be taking your dancing cues from the various gyrating toy robots and other various mechanical trinkets flailing about the stage. He appears on the Pure Detroit stage at 4:30.

At 5:30 on the very same Pure Detroit Stage come The Come Ons, who will play their soft soulful 60s-pop which, as I sit here writing and listening to their music, should make for a fine soundtrack to a lullful afternoon in the city.

Then stick around the area for The Satin Peaches. I haven’t heard too many songs from this foursome, but what I’ve heard seems like the perfect kind of music to watch on a bright Summer’s day as the sun begins its downward assent to the West. Music can either be heightened or deadened by atmosphere. Case in point: At last year’s TasteFest, Cat Power played a good show, but at 4:30 on a huge stage on a swelteringly hot day, and her music just doesn’t fit with that atmosphere. The music needed a small dark room with candles lit. A breezy summer day at the spacious Pure Detroit Stage with lots of fine, happy folks foot-tappin’ and hip-swayin–seems like just the kind of atmosphere for The Satin Peaches to fulfill.

Do you have to work Thursday too?

Ugh. Me too.

Well, Thursday at the CityFest doesn’t really hold any of the acts that I really want to see (my apologies to your band if you’re playing Thursday. I’m sure you’re great), but I can’t honestly pass up a chance to see Weird Al for free. He’s one of those performers that I wouldn’t pay to see, but I wouldn’t possibly miss seeing him gratis, at least once. I’m sure there will be lots of costume changes and it should be interesting.

Do think Weird Al will ever drop the Yankovic? If I were him, I would have a while ago. I mean, I can’t think of time when someone mentioned Weird Al and someone else interrupted to say, “Um, do you mean Weird Al Yankovic or Weird Al Jablonksy?” I kind of wish he would pull a John Cougar Mellencamp…I mean, John Cougar…or do I mean John Mellencamp? I kind of wish he’d just change his name to just “Weird Al” and then an album later to “Weird Yankovic” and then, maybe a couple albums later, to just “Al.”

“Hey, did you see Al last night at the CityFest?”
“Is a bear Catholic? HELLS YEAH I saw Al last night. Boyo, that’s guy’s weird!”

Tomorrow is the first day of the Comerica CityFest and what an awfully nice time it has been in years’ past under its original moniker, the TasteFest (my conspiracy theory is that since the renaming of the State to the Fillmore, the ClearChannel people have surreptitiously plotted name changes for hundreds of different venues, events, and people (yes, people) all over Detroit, just for kicks. True story: I ran into a guy at the bar last weekend whom I knew from high school as Dave. He explained that his name was now Graham, that he and several others in his building were offered lifetime subscriptions to XM Radio by suited executive types with dark sunglasses if they would change their names to either Bill or Graham, but that the XM only played Top 40 pop or country stations. He then introduced me to his girlfriend, Bill.).

Anyway, I’m a fan of the music and will be at the CityFest every day and would like to offer a preview of some of the music you’ll have the opportunity to hear each day. I will proffer the disclaimer that I’m more a music lover than an expert, that my picks lean more toward the Indie Rock-type performances, and that you can go to see whomever you please, by gum. That’s how free is our freedom really is.

After a morning of procrastination and lying about in my pajamas watching game shows, I’m going to be hungry for some Indian cuisine and relaxing afternoon music, and so will purchase a plate of chick peas, curry, rice, and veggies from the American Masala booth and traverse to the MetroPCS Jazz and Blues stage at 4pm to catch Jesse Palter, the female pianist and singer who occasionally plays at Cliff Bells, and just chill in the shade for awhile as I eat.

After eating I’ll walk about a bit, do some people watching, and keep an eye out for people I may or may not want to run into on the street before heading to the main stage to allow the music of Femi Kuti to compel me to dance in place in the singularly peculiar way that I do (That’s how you’ll know me amongst the crowd: Worst dancer in Detroit, but implausibly fearless nonetheless).

All this will be leading up to what I’m sure will be a stellar performance by Spoon, who graced the cover of last week’s Real Detroit. Have you seen Stranger Than Fiction? Yeah, the background music that follows Harold Crick around as incessantly as Emma Thomson’s voice is their song “The Way We Get By,” and quite a catch tune it is. They promise to be one of the highlights of the weekend.

Well, that’s what I’m doing tomorrow. Please comment to tell me why I’m heading in the wrong direction and let’s all hope it doesn’t rain.

Clean, well-organized, and stocked with great music I would say that this years Festival of the Arts was the best that I have ever attended. Never had I enjoyed myself so much in years past. One of the features was definitely the delightfully terrifying silver dinosaurs (good show!); I believe anyone else who met up with these creatures could say the same. My thanks also go out to the fine gentlemen of both American Mars and Great Lakes Myth Society
for putting on such a keen show at the Magic Stick Saturday night, a perfect accompaniment to the day.

Christine from Detroit sent us some interesting information a few weeks ago about an alleged incident her boyfriend Rob had last November involving the Detroit Police. It is a pretty long story — click here to read the full version — but here are the basics according to Rob’s blog:

Rob lives in a neighborhood just south of Boston-Edison. Rob’s next-door neighbor moved to Ypsi 2 years ago because of high crime levels in the neighborhood, but she hasn’t been able to sell her house in Detroit yet. Since she now lives 40 minutes away from the home in Detroit, Rob keeps an eye on the house (which he alleges has been ransacked several times) and has a key to it.

Last November, Rob noticed “a suspicious white van with a broken-out back window” and then saw 2 men and a woman exit the van with a cordless drill and a flashlight. A few minutes later, “we hear loud cracking noises from wood boards on the front of my neighbor’s home” says Rob, so he unsuccessfully attempts to get his old neighbor on the phone and then calls the Detroit Police. Rob alleges that when the police officers arrived on the scene, they didn’t do anything to catch the alleged intruders and instead scolded Rob for not minding his own business.
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Detroit may not be the most green city in the country, but thanks to NextEnergy – a fledgling non-profit dedicated to advancing alternative energy technologies – we are improving. Plus, NextEnergy is helping diversify industry in Detroit and the state. To see what NextEnergy has up its sleeve for the future, check out this podcast between WWJ’s Vickie Thomas and NextEnergy’s Jim Croce from this morning. It is a little over 8 minutes.

Thanks to Erica in Minneapolis for tipping us off on this one …

This happened a week and a half ago, but I found it so odd that I’m posting on it now though it’s a tad bit late.

Apparently, on January 26, a Detroit man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for a breaking and entering arrest that took place back in October in Ferndale.

What was the man after? Not cash. Not jewelry. Not electronics.
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