You are here

Detroit

Rest in Peace, John Warren Geils Jr.

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 04/12/2017 - 07:45

 

They may have come out of Boston, but if you're a Detroiter of a certain age, you know for a fact that The J. Geils Band is ours.

I don't even know how many times I saw this band, for a while there it seemed like they were in town nearly every week.

Here is J. Geils on guitar, Seth Justman on organ and piano, Stephen Jo Bladd pounding the drums, Danny Klein on bass, the always magnificent Wooba Gooba With The Green Teeth, Peter Wolf on vocals and the great Magic Dick on his lickin' stick.

One of the surest things in the history of Rock and Roll, this is J. Geils live and at the height of their powers in 1977.

 Whammer Jammer.

"Let me hear ya Dickie."

 

 

Yeah, Yeah, I know ..... Whammer Jammer was Magic Dick's moment. But J. Geils always seemed perfectly happy in the background gluing the whole thing together.

At least that's how I remember him.

 

The City of Detroit declares bankruptcy

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 07/18/2013 - 17:59

 

The City of Detroit declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy in federal court this afternoon.

The following is Gov Rick Snyder's letter to Emergency Manger Kevyn Orr authorizing the filing.

We took the liberty of marking in red the items having to do with the city's complete failure at providing services for it's citizens.

We did this especially for them that have been going on and on with their whine about the city's lost sovereignty under the Emergency Manager provisions of the State of Michigan.

This letter makes it perfectly clear that Detroiters are unable to manage their own affairs at an acceptable level for a civilized society.

Feel free to construe racism if that is your bent, the evidence is incontrovertable the rest is just excuses.

 

Kevyn D. Orr

Emergency Manager
City of Detroit
Coleman A. Young Municipal Center 2 Woodward Ave., Suite 1126
Detroit, MI 48226

Andrew Dillon
State Treasurer
Michigan Department of Treasury 4th Floor Treasury Building
430 W. Allegan Street
Lansing, MI 48992

Re: Authorization to Commence Chapter 9 Bankruptcy Proceeding Dear Mr. Orr and Mr. Dillon,
 
I have reviewed Mr. Orr's letter of July 16, 2013, requesting my approval of his recommendation to commence a bankruptcy proceeding for the City of Detroit under Chapter 9 of title 11 of the United States Code. As you know, state law requires that any such recommendation must first be approved by the Governor before the emergency manager may take that step. MCL 141.1558. For the reasons discussed below, I hereby approve that recommendation and authorize Mr. Orr to make such a filing.

Current Financial Emergency

In reviewing Mr. Orr's letter, his Financial and Operating Plan, and his report to creditors, it is clear that the financial emergency in Detroit cannot be successfully addressed outside of such a filing, and it is the only reasonable alternative that is available. In other words, the City's financial emergency cannot be satisfactorily rectified in a reasonable period of time absent this filing.

I have reached the conclusion that this step is necessary after a thorough review of all the available alternatives, and I authorize this necessary step as a last resort to return this great City to financial and civic health for its residents and taxpayers. This decision comes in the wake of 60 years of decline for the City, a period in which reality was often ignored. I know many will see this as a low point in the City's history. If so, I think it will also be the foundation of the City's future — a statement I cannot make in confidence absent giving the City a chance for a fresh start, without burdens of debt it cannot hope to fully pay. Without this decision, the City's condition would only worsen. With this decision, we begin to provide a foundation to rebuild and grow Detroit.

Both before and after the appointment of an emergency manager, many talented individuals have put enormous energy into attempting to avoid this outcome. I knew from the outset that it would be difficult to reverse 60 years of decline in which promises were made that did not reflect the reality of the ability to deliver on those promises. I very much hoped those efforts would succeed without resorting to bankruptcy. Unfortunately, they have not. We must face the fact that the City cannot and is not paying its debts as they become due, and is insolvent.

After reading Mr. Orr's letter, the Financial and Operating Plan, and the report to creditors, I have come to four conclusions.

1.    Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its citizens.

2.    Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its creditors.

3.    The failure of the City to meet its obligations to its citizens is the primary cause of its inability to meet its obligations to its creditors.

4.    The only feasible path to ensuring the City will be able to meet obligations in the future is to have a successful restructuring via the bankruptcy process that recognizes the fundamental importance of ensuring the City can meet its basic obligations to its citizens.

I will explain how I came to each conclusion.

Inability to Meet Obligations to Its Citizens. As Mr. Orr's Financial and Operating Plan and the June 14 Creditor Proposal have noted, the scale and depth of Detroit's problems are unique. The City's unemployment rate has nearly tripled since 2000 and is more than double the national average. Detroit's homicide rate is at the highest level in nearly 40 years, and it has been named as one of the most dangerous cities in America for more than 20 years. Its citizens wait an average of 58 minutes for the police to respond to their calls, compared to a national average of 11 minutes. Only 8.7% of cases are solved, compared to a statewide average of 30.5%. The City's police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances are so old that breakdowns make it impossible to keep up the fleet or properly carry out their roles. For instance, only a third of the City's ambulances were in service in the first quarter of 2013. Similarly, approximately 40% of the City's street lights were not functioning in that quarter and the backlog of complaints is more than 3,300 long. Having large swaths of largely abandoned structures -- approximately 78,000 — creates additional public safety problems and reduces the quality of life in the City. Mr. Orr is correct that meeting the obligations the City has to its citizens to provide basic services requires more revenue devoted to services, not less.

Inability to Meet Obligations to Its Creditors. The City has more than $18 billion in accrued obligations. A vital point in Mr. Orr's letter is that Detroit tax rates are at their current legal limits, and that even if the City was legally able to raise taxes, its residents cannot afford to pay additional taxes. Detroiters already have a higher tax rate than anywhere in Michigan, and even with that revenue the City has not been able to keep up with its basic obligations, both to its citizens and creditors. Detroit simply cannot raise enough revenue to meet its current obligations, and that is a situation that is only projected to get worse absent a bankruptcy filing.

Failure to Meet Obligations to Citizens Creates Failure to Meet Obligations to Creditors. Mr. Orr's letter and prior report put in stark reality the dramatic impact of the City's plummeting population. While many who love Detroit still live there, many other Detroiters at heart could not justify the sacrifice of adequate services. The City's population has declined 63% from its peak, including a 28% decline since 2000. That exodus has brought Detroit to the point that it cannot satisfy promises it made in the past. A decreasing tax base has made meeting obligations to creditors impossible. Mr. Orr is correct when he says the City cannot raise the necessary revenue through tax increases, and it cannot save the necessary revenue through reducing spending on basic services. Attempts to do so would only decrease the population and tax base further, making a new round of promises unfulfillable.

Only One Feasible Path Offers a Way Out. The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services. The City's creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the City can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the City and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations. Despite Mr. Orr's best efforts, he has been unable to reach a restructuring plan with the City's creditors. I therefore agree that the only feasible path to a stable and solid Detroit is to file for bankruptcy protection.

The past weeks have reaffirmed my confidence that Mr. Orr has the right priorities when it comes to the City of Detroit. l am reassured to see his  prioritization of the needs of citizens to have improved services. I know we share a concern for the public employees who gave years of service to the City and now fear for their financial future in retirement, and I am confident that all of the City's creditors will be treated fairly in this process. We all believe that the City's future must allow it to make the investment it needs in talent and in infrastructure, all while making only the promises it can keep. Let us remain in close communication regarding measures Mr. Orr might take so we can discuss the possible impacts that might occur both within and outside of the City.

Contingencies

2012 PA 436 provides that my approval of the recommendation to commence a Chapter 9 proceeding may place contingencies on such a filing. MCL 141.1558(1). I am choosing not to impose any such contingencies today. Federal law already contains the most important contingency — a requirement that the plan be legally executable. 11 USC 943(b)(4).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I find Mr. Orr's Recommendation Letter to be persuasive, especially in conjunction with his prior reports laying out the level of services the City can provide and its financial ability to meet its obligations to creditors. I am also convinced that Mr. On has exercised his best efforts to arrive at a restructuring plan with the City's creditors outside of bankruptcy, to no avail. Given these facts, the only feasible path to sustainability for the City of Detroit is a filing under chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code. Therefore, I hereby approve Mr. Orr's recommendation and authorize the emergency manager to make such a filing on behalf of the City of Detroit and to take all actions that are necessary and appropriate toward that end.
Sincerely,
 
Richard D. Snyder Governor
State of Michigan

 

Detroit

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 06/18/2013 - 07:06

 

We took this piece in it's entirety from Michael Snyder's Economic Collapse Blog, which is something we rarely ever do.  

It's just that as lifelong residents of Southeastern Michigan and former residents of Detroit ..... a couple of us at least ..... we've been pointing to this stuff for ....... ever seemingly.

So, as is the case with any slow moving train wreck, as we were scrolling down the page copying items to tease you into reading the entire post, we could neither look away nor lift a finger from the mouse.

Two generations of Liberal/Progressive political activists complete their masterpiece in the city of Detroit, Michigan USA.

 

Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit

The Future Of The United States - Photo by Albert DuceEventually the money runs out.  Much of America was shocked when the city of Detroit defaulted on a $39.7 million debt payment and announced that it was suspending payments on$2.5 billion of unsecured debt, but those who visit my site on a regular basis were probably not too surprised.  Anyone with half a brain and a calculator could see this coming from a mile away.  But people kept foolishly lending money to the city of Detroit, and now many of them are going to get hit really hard.  Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has submitted a proposal that would pay unsecured creditors about 10 centson the dollar.  Similar haircuts would be made to underfunded pension and health benefits for retirees.  Orr is hoping that the creditors and the unions that he will be negotiating with will accept this package, but he concedes that there is still a "50-50 chance" that the city of Detroit will be forced to formally file for bankruptcy.  But what Detroit is facing is not really that unique.  In fact, Detroit is a perfect example of what the future of America is going to look like.  We live in a nation that is rotting, decaying, drowning in debt and racing toward insolvency.  Already there are dozens of other cities across the nation that are poverty-ridden, crime-infested hellholes just like Detroit is, and hundreds of other communities are rapidly heading in that direction.  So don't look down on Detroit.  They just got there before the rest of us.

The following are some facts about Detroit that are absolutely mind-blowing...

1 - Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, and in 1960 Detroit had thehighest per-capita income in the entire nation.

2 - Over the past 60 years, the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.

3 - At this point, approximately 40 percent of all the streetlights in the city don't work.

4 - Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.

5 - 210 of the 317 public parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down.

6 - According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.

7 - Approximately one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.

8 - Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.

9 - If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

10 - According to one very shocking report, 47 percent of the residents of Detroit are functionally illiterate.

11 - Today, police solve less than 10 percentof the crimes that are committed in Detroit.

12 - Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police officers in the city of Detroit.  Today, there are only about 2,500 and another 100 are scheduled to be eliminated from the force soon.

13 - Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the publicfor 16 hours a day.

14 - The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.

15 - Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".

16 - Right now, the city of Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.  That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.

As Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orrnoted last week, it took a very long time for Detroit to get into this condition...

“What the average Detroiter needs to understand is that where we are right now is a culmination of years and years and years of kicking the can down the road,” said Orr, adding that his proposal should not be seen as a “hostile act” but as a step in the right direction.

Does that sound familiar?

It should.

U.S. politicians have also been kicking the can down the road for "years and years and years".

But eventually you can't kick the can down the road anymore.

Sometimes it is helpful to step back and look at what we have done to ourselves over the past several decades.

For example, back in 1980 the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars.

And our debt binge has greatly accelerated under Barack Obama.

During Barack Obama's first term, the federal government accumulated more debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

Isn't that insane?

In fact, if you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 184,000 years to pay it off.

The following are a lot more facts about our exploding national debt from one of my previous articles entitled "55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances That Every American Voter Should Know"...

#1 While Barack Obama has been president, the U.S. government has spent about 11 dollarsfor every 7 dollars of revenue that it has actually brought in.

#2 During the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. government took in 2.449 trillion dollarsbut it spent 3.538 trillion dollars.

#3 During fiscal year 2011, over a trillion dollars of government money was spent on 83 different welfare programs, and those numbers do not even include Social Security or Medicare.

#4 Over the past four years, welfare spending has increased by 32 percent.  In inflation-adjusted dollars, spending on those programs has risen by 378 percent over the past 30 years.  At this point, more than 100 million Americansare enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.  Once again, these figures do not even include Social Security or Medicare.

#5 Over the past year, the number of Americans getting a free cell phone from the federal government has grown by 43 percent.  Now more than 16 million Americans are enjoying what has come to be known as an "Obamaphone".

#6 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, about 32 million Americans were on food stamps.  Now, 47 million Americans are on food stamps.  And this has happened during what Obama refers to as "an economic recovery".

#7 The U.S. government recently spent 27 million dollars on pottery classes in Morocco.

#8 The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar at a time when more families than ever are having a really hard time just trying to put any food on the table at all.

#9 During 2012, the National Science Foundation spent $516,000 to support the creation of a video game called "Prom Week", which apparently simulates "all the social interactions of the event."

#10 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the largest snack food maker in the world (PepsiCo Inc.) a total of 1.3 million dollars in corporate welfare that was used to help build "a Greek yogurt factory in New York."

#11 The National Science Foundation recently gave researchers at Purdue University$350,000.  They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.

#12 If you can believe it, $10,000 from the federal government was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes up in Michigan.

#13 The National Science Foundation recently gave a whopping $697,177 to a New York City-based theater company to produce a musical about climate change.

#14 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is studying the benefits of watching reruns on television.

#15 The National Science Foundation has given1.2 million dollars to a team of "scientists" that is spending part of that money on a study that is seeking to determine whether elderly Americans would benefit from playing World of Warcraft or not.

#16 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $548,731 to a team of researchers that concluded that those that drink heavily in their thirties also tend to feel more immature.

#17 The National Science Foundation recently spent $30,000 on a study to determine if "gaydar" actually exists.  This is the conclusion that the researchers reached at the end of the study...

#18 Back in 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.

#19 The U.S. government spends more on the military than China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.  In fact, the United States accounts for 41.0% of all military spending on the planet.  China is next with only8.2%.

#20 In a previous article, I noted that close to 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year.

#21 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year.  Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do.

#22 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do.

#23 During 2010, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000.

#24 The U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning $170,000 or more back in 2005.  When Barack Obama became president, the U.S. Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more.  By June 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense had 994 civiliansearning $170,000 or more.

#25 During 2010, compensation for federal employees came to a grand total ofapproximately 447 billion dollars.

#26 If you can believe it, close to 15,000retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually.  That list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.

#27 During 2010, the federal government spent$33,387 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators.

#28 During 2010, U.S. Senators pulled$72,370 out of the "Senate Restaurant Fund".

#29 During 2010, an average of $4,005,900 of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on "personal" and "office" expenses per Senator.

#30 In 2013, 3.7 million dollars will be spent to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

#31 During 2011, the federal government spent a total of 1.4 BILLION dollars just on the Obamas.

#32 When you combine all federal government spending, all state government spending and all local government spending, it comes toapproximately 41 percent of U.S. GDP.  But don't worry, all of our politicians insist that this is not socialism.

#33 As I have written about previously, less than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person received financial assistance from the federal government back in 1983.  Today, that number is sitting at an all-time high of 49 percent.

#34 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for just 32 percent of all health care spending in America.  This year, it is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in the United States.

#35 The number of Americans on Medicaid soared from 34 million in 2000 to 54 million in 2011, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#36 In one of my previous articles, I discussed how it is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.

#37 If you can believe it, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

#38 In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits.  By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.

#39 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

#40 When Barack Obama first took office, the U.S. national debt was about 10.6 trillion dollars.  Now it is about 16.7 trillion dollars.  That is an increase of 6.1 trillion dollars in a little more than 4 years.

#41 The federal government has now run a budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars forfour years in a row.

#42 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

#43 If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

#44 Some suggest that "taxing the rich" is the answer.  Well, if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.

#45 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.

#46 The United States already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain does.

#47 At this point, the United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.

#48 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times larger than it was just a decade ago.

#49 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.

#50 The U.S. national debt is now more than 37 times larger than it was when Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard.

#51 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first created.

#52 The U.S. national debt jumped more on the very first day of fiscal year 2013 than it did from 1776 to 1941 combined.

#53 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent.  If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.

#54 A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.

#55 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay.  Kotlikoff speaks of a "fiscal gap" which he defines as "the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue".  His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead.

Please share this article with as many people as you can.  We are in the process of committing national financial suicide and time is rapidly running out to do anything about it.

Just like Detroit, a day is rapidly approaching when America will not be able to kick the can down the road anymore.

Sadly, our politicians don't seem inclined to do anything about it and most of the population seems to think that our exploding national debt is not a significant problem.

By the time it becomes clear how wrong they were, it will be far too late to do anything about it.

 

The MC5

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 16:42

 

If you're a Detroiter of a certain age, the MC5 is a part of you that just ain't gonna wash out.

Arguably the first ever punk band, 10 years before punk was even identified as a thing, the MC5 invented riffs, moves and attitude which are nowadays de riguor for rock and roll bands the world over.

In light of recent events and building tensions in Detroit and Cyprus, not to mention still fresh memories in Egypt, Greece and Spain, here is Rob Tyner on vocals, Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith on guitars, Michael Davis on the bass guitar and Dennis Thompson on the drums in what was for them a very reserved performance in 1972 for the televison show Beat Club.

From Lincoln Park, Michigan this is the MC5 covering John Lee Hooker's account of the "67 Riot" in Detroit.

Motor City's Burning.

 

 

On the morning of July 19, 1970, with the memory of the Joe Cocker fiasco still fresh in my mind, I told my mother that I was going to The Beach to play some basketball and then meet up with some friends for a boat ride.

Instead, I picked up Donny W. and drove downtown to Tartar Field on the campus of Wayne State University to see The Früt, Savage Grace (soon to be better known as Rare Earth), Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and the MC5 at the WABX free concert.

If you look real close that's me all the way over to the right, the scrawny little guy with the straight hair and goofy glasses ..... rockin' hard.

Just kidding, you can't see me ..... I know because I've been looking.

Anyway, this is Wayne Kramer, who on that day I thought to be the single coolest guy on earth, taking his star turn on Ramblin Rose.

 

 

And now ..... and now ..... and now it's time to .....

KICK OUT THE JAAAMMMS .......

You know the rest.

 

 

Fooled ya, we went for the John Sinclair produced, clean version.

Here's the way it went at Tartar field.

I post this despite the annoying advertising running through only because Wayne Kramer gets guitar face on the opening chords.

 

 

Rest in peace, Rob Tyner, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Michael Davis and John Sinclair .... we could use some guys like you around here just about now.

 

A tale of two cities

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 03/03/2013 - 06:56

 

This was one of our earliest posts.

We grabbed the idea from an email that went viral back in 2008 and still comes around occasionally today.

We bring it back with the news that the city of Detroit has been taken over by the state of Michigan whose Governor Rick Snyder has appointed a financial manager under Michigan law to manage the city of Detroit's finances in an effort to avoid the alternative of banktuptcy.

 

How is this possible ??? 

August 6, 1945

    Detroit                                  Hiroshima

     

          

          

 

2009

 

       

           

          

 

 

Must be John Engler's fault !!!

 

That's an inside joke there.

You see, John Engler was a former Republican governor that Michigan Democrats used to like to blame for everything they could imagine not including "global warming/climate change" only because they had yet to imagine "global warming/climated change" while absolutely refusing to address responsibility for any problems they might have had a little something to do with creating their own selves.

Sort of like what we have going around here nowadays at the national level.

 

The Supremes

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 02/17/2013 - 17:31

 

I was able to come up nothing regarding this performance of my all time favorite Supreme tune except the stuff you likely already know.

This is Diana Ross up front where she belongs, Mary Wilson (center) and Florence Ballard (left) 

The Supremes, also mostly unknown as the Primettes.

Itchin' In My Heart.

 

 

That's about as lame an ending to a Motown tune as I can imagine, but ...........

 

Bob Seger and the Last Heard

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 11/12/2011 - 16:33

 

If you are a Detroiter of a certain age, you have very distinct memories of hustling home after school to catch your favorite musical group lip sync their newest hit on Detroit's version of American Bandstand, Swingin' Time hosted by WKNR then CKLW disk jockey Robin Seymour.

They were all there as all of Motowns greats appeared, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, The Amboy Dukes, Question Mark and the Mysterians, Parliment, The Stooges and I'm pretty sure the MC5 along with most of the national acts that came through town.

Dick Clark was wishing his show was so cool.

Long before the Silver Bullet Band was even a glimmer in Bob Seger's eye there was Bob Seger and the Last Heard and then the Bob Seger System.

This is a very young Bob Seger on vocals and cheesy organ, Pep Perrine on drums, Dan Honaker on bass and I'm pretty sure that's Carl Lagassa on guitar, performing what is in my opinion one of the greatest stories in the history of Rock and Roll and Bob Seeger's first local hit record.

Bob Seger and the Last Heard.

East Side Story.

 

 

Mr Excitement

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 18:17

 

We have about 57 partially finished posts and no gumption for finishing any of them.

Our friend Richard Nolle just posted a Dexy's Midnight Runners cover of Van Morrison's Jackie Wilson Said.

One of the youngest Roanboy's favorite tunes.

Inspired, I figured we should just go with the genuine article.

Here's Detroit's own, Mr. Excitement, live in the studio, effortlessly hitting notes dead on that mere mortals can only dream about.

The great Jackie Wilson.

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Highe and Higher.

Quite possibly the youngest Roanboy's favorite song. The youngest being a good deal more soulful than his brothers.

 

 

I've no idea where these guys came up with that Mr. Soul thing.

 

Diego Rivera

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 07:38

 

We have deemed our project to spruce up the site to have been a glorious success, as not one of you including even the most irascible among you, has contacted us to tell us how much they hate our every idea ..... at least as it applies to the decorating ..... yet.

And since we're practicing avoidance with regards to a couple of posts that either we have promised and have not yet completed, most notably a post on health care reform we promised Madelyn M. and ..... somebody else, or posts that are finished but are in truth so ugly to contemplate we'd just rather not for a while longer.

Here's a little more art to brighten your day.

The following are some photo's of the Court of Industry at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

In 1932-33, that well known mexican, marxist, muralist, Diego Rivera with the unbending support of that well known capitalist, industrialist and rich white guy, Edsel Ford, painted one of the greatest works of the 20th century on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

And while the caca did indeed hit the fan, fortunately none of it got on the mural.

Click each image for the DIA's wonderful interactive on each of the four walls holding the 27 panels that comprise this treasure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll get serious tomorrow.

Maybe.


The End of Free Light Bulbs in Detroit

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 17:57

 

Over at the Facebook site, Georgia D. has a complaint, the new light bulbs cost more and don't work as well.

Which caused me to think of Lawrence Cantor, the single most reviled man in the long history of the city of Detroit.

More hated by Detroiters of a certain age than even Kwame' Kilpatrick .............. seriously.

As always click the bulb for the whole story, well told by "Detroit History Examiner" Patrick Bernhardt at Examiner.com Detroit

 

The end of free lightbulbs in Detroit

 

 

Each year millions of lightbulbs are purchased in this nation, maybe even in this city alone. At one time, despite the massive amount of bulbs needed, only a small percentage of them were bought in the store; instead, residents took advantage of Detroit Edison's ongoing program: free light bulbs.

This program, which had run for so long, was finally ended by one man: Lawrence Cantor.  This man was a Detroit drug store owner who brought suit because Edison's program denied him the ability to sell lightbulbs in his store.

 

What a maroon!!!!!

 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Detroit