Tag Archives: Detroit

Tiger Stadium

I’m not a big sports fan but I just drove by Tiger Stadium and they’ve started tearing it down already. It made me kinda sad…

Waiting at the Airport

So we got to the Detroit Airport super early, but it really made it ultra-low stress since we weren’t in a hurry at all and the lines were all pretty short so it’s been pretty easy going so far.

My cool PacSafe secuity backpack got put through the xray machine a few times. I’m not sure if that’s from the wire mesh that’s in it or all the electronics…

A Fine Frenzy Part 2 – Detroit at The Shelter – March 2008

As music goes, I’ve talked about A Fine Frenzy as much as any musician, probably more and that’s a lot since I hadn’t heard of them 6 months ago. I started liking as soon as I heard of them (they were opening for a Brandi Carlile concert I had tickets for) and I wanted everyone to know know about them!

Aff-Autograph-Pict2351.CropSo Alison Sudol is a super sweet person and seems very sincere. She’s got these great songs and wonderful voice. Alison talks between the songs but I think she’d rather just play, because when she plays it’s like she forgets were there (this is a compliment, not a complaint). When I saw Liz Story, a pianist, play a few years back she talked between the songs because “her agent/manager made her” since if not, she’d just play for an hour non-stop; so she’d stop and tell us stories about the song and the song titles. I think of that sometimes when she’s talking, either that or she’s shy when not singing/playing.

So I keep thinking of two things she talked about. One was her mother and how much they got along and she really liked her (her Mom was there too, right up front). And the other is that she likes the word “shucks” and she’s thinks people should use it more. “Shucks” And she said something like, ‘I know I’m a nerd’ (but I can’t remember if ‘nerd’ was the actual word).

She’s uses Twitter occasionally and the few MySpace e-mails that I’ve gotten from her seem like they were really written by her, that’s got to take a lot of time.

And she’s super nice when I’ve talked to her. And gotten her autograph both times. The promo poster from when I saw her at The Shelter (above) is signed by her you can see a bigger version

I’m looking for Detroit Local Tweeters (Twitters)

Can you suggest some Detroit-area people to follow on Twitter? I’m looking for something that has a local geographic flavor, like Dearborn (or Detroit) Michigan.

I’m always looking for more people to follow, but today I’m soliciting suggestions for the Detroit area just to get a slightly less global feel for this Twittery goodness/chaos. I’ve got a lot of great people that I follow, but I’d love to see some tweets about local restaurants, bars and music.

So send me a message @GaryLaPointe with suggestions or tell someone you know to follow me and I’ll find them or just leave a comment. Thanks!

A Fine Frenzy – Detroit at The Shelter – March 2008

Alison Sudol was excellent last night. A very small venue at The Shelter, the cancert was sold out but I’d guess there were only about 300 people there, lots of room. No one was back farther than about the equivalent of about 10 rows (no seats, general admission standing only with just a few tables). I’ve seen A Fine Frenzy before and it was a smaller venue so it was great having the small crowd and as a bonus it was a non-smoking show. A Fine Frenzy Alison Sudol March 2008 Detroit

She’s has such a lovely voice and writes her own songs. She’s got this voice that’s kind of a Sarah McLachlan / Tori Amos voice and she’s just incredible. She so beautiful and has this sunning red head, and while it might not be naturally that red, she’s got that anemic porcelain look that so many red heads do, I’m assuming she’s actually a redhead. My camera in my phone takes pretty crappy pictures, but I tried to take a few.

She’s so into when she plays, and every so often she looks at the audience, I feel likes she’s forgotten us and that her manager told her she has to make eye contact every so often and that’s why she looks up. I always think of ‘gracious’ when thinking about her personality, that’s just how I feel when she’s talking to us and that’s how I feel when she talks to you personally. I did get to get to say ‘hi” and get her autograph on a promo poster after the concert. She’s just so nice, even with just a 30-second conversation… Continue reading

Jobs I’ve Had

I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life, even since I was little. Not that Mom didn’t buy me stuff, but I always had some hobby that needed ca$h so I often had jobs. Beside maybe shoveling show or leaves and stuff like that I’ve started pretty early. I was thinking about this since I saw Miss. Britt do a section like this for her 100 things list so I started thinking about it.

  • I delivered the shopping news once a week (maybe every other week), a local ad newspaper, it didn’t pay much but it got me some money. I know I was pretty young but I really don’t know.
  • The little bookstore down the street gave me stuff to do here and there. The wonderful lady who ran it gave me cash or credit for books.
  • I had some paper routes for the regular newspaper too, The Detroit Free Press, but I hated the mornings. I think I gave it up for a while and then got it back a few years later (the money was pretty good). I quit the second time because the Lions club (or some other organization) did a fundraiser by selling subscriptions and they tripled my route size. I couldn’t get it done in the morning and the manager wouldn’t shrink my route (the assumption was after the 20 week promo ran out, many would drop, but I didn’t have three hours every day before school for the larger route).
  • I baby sat for my younger cousins pretty regularly in the ninth grade for a while.
  • I worked at the local bowling alley, Hartfield Lanes, in the evenings just picking up bottles and stuff as the leagues drank their way through their frames.
  • Eventually, I started working at the snack bar. This was a much better job and George pretty much let us run the place so it was a great job.

    These were most of my jobs up to the time that I started getting computer jobs (not that there weren’t some non-computer jobs later on too). So I think I’ll wrap this up for now and make that a second (or third) part, this gets me through age 15…

  • A Fine Frenzy is in Detroit this weekend

    One Cell in the Sea A Fine FrenzyA Fine Frenzy is playing in Detroit at the Shelter this weekend. It’s a really small venue so it should be a great show! I saw A Fine Frenzy in the fall (upstairs at St. Andrews)and it was an incredible show (they/she opened for Brandi Carlile). Ferras is opening for them, but I have no idea who that is, maybe someone American Idol-ish?

    If anyone is going please leave me a comment or send an e-mail and we can say “hi” while were there…. My mission for the evening is Happy Hour for dinner in Dearborn, a fund raiser auction for school in Redford (this is while we’re missing Ferras) and then get over to the theatre to see Alison sing and sign autgraphs…

    Speaking of the auction, once again as an auction prize you can buy bags of coffee, straight from costa rica with some chocolate covered coffee beans. Brought to you from central Amaerica by Moi! Also you can by a basket of Cat in the Hat stickers and books which includes a visit to your house from the Cat in the Hat himself!

    Well rested!!

    BalcondelmareveningI was SO tired yesterday. I think I managed to sleep at least 10 hours, it might have been more, but I’m sure I went to sleep at least that early. I get confused since I wasn’t sure about the time change and all I kept seeing were my Michigan clocks (it is one hour earlier here than the Detroit Michigan area).

    I almost missed breakfast but I get down there a few minutes before they were supposed to close. It’s a beautiful morning nice and sunny and I’m heading down to the beach in a few. This is the view from my hotel room yesterday evening before sunset, it’s a little dark but you can see the Pacific ocean is right there and it’s a great location!