10.28.2009

WEDNESDAY NIGHT WITH AL GREEN



Kimmer was making a fan page tonight for Scott Morgan see it HERE and I happened upon Al Green and was instantly dancing around my office. So I thought I'd share some hugs and moves with you guys and make you wanna be with me until I die!

From Rolling Stone Full Story HERE

To a greater extent than even his predecessors Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Al Green embodies both the sacred and the profane in soul music. He was one of the Seventies' most popular vocalists, selling over 20 million albums. His wildly improvisational, ecstatic cries and moans came directly from gospel music, and in the late-1970s he returned to the Baptist church as a preacher. He continues to record albums in a pop-gospel style (to date he has earned eight gospel Grammys) with close ties to the Memphis soul music that made him famous.



Green (who dropped the third "e" from his surname when he went solo) was born to a large family of sharecroppers. When he was nine, he and his brothers formed a gospel quartet, the Greene Brothers. They toured the gospel circuits in the South and after the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, three years later. Green's father dismissed him from the quartet after he caught him listening to the "profane music" of Jackie Wilson.


At 16 he formed a pop group, Al Greene and the Creations, with high school friends. Two members of the Creations, Palmer James and Curtis Rogers, founded a record company, Hot Line Music Journal, for which the group — renamed Al Greene and the Soul Mates — cut "Back Up Train" in 1967. The single went to Number Five on the national R&B chart. Follow-ups failed, however, and the group broke up.

As a solo act no one can top Al Green...

10.25.2009

SCOTT MORGAN AND THE RATIONALS AT THE BLIND PIG



We had a blast last night at The Rationals Cd Release Party at The Blind Pig. We were there to see Scott Morgan sing The Rationals songs! We loved the energy and Scott was in a really great mood. I got there early and the big burly bouncer demanded to know who I was and Scott came over and said, "Let her in that's Kimmer, she is here to shoot photos!" So the bouncer moved out of the way and kindly held the door for me to bring in my equipment. Whew!


We especially came out to see our talented friend Chris "Jukebox" Taylor play guitar. He is the hardest working young musician around. Don't know how Chris manages all the events he promotes, gigs he plays, his day job, blogging and his family too. I am exhausted just typing his routine! Nice work Chris!

We came in and set up the best spot for the shoot stage left. Bought the poster whic is totally cool see... Nice I have my poster autographed and hanging on the fridge for a few days before it goes into my portfolio of rock posters. This one is done by local artist Jeremy Wheeler. He was busy multi-tasking as he DJ'd last night too.

We met up with Jeff and Amazing Alice who we met online in Myspace... They were so nice and what a great pair to spend the evening with. Jeff is an encylopedia of Detroit Rock and asked Kimmer to sign his Detroit Yearbook. We signed at the bottom of the page with the MC5 photos.

THREE CHORDS AND A CLOUD OF DUST.....
http://www.ScottMorganMusic.com
http://myspace.com/ScottMorganDetroit
http://www.sonicsrendezvousband.net

We were also really happy to run into Singer Hiawatha after many years since we met at the Underground Bar in the 1970's. A bunch of us went to an ABP (after bar party) at Hi's house. we all danced and laughed till early in the am.


We were having some technical difficulties with the still cam last night and the very charming guitarist from Devil Elvis jumped in to assist me with the shoot and he grabbed some great shots for this post. Thanks so much Dr.KK! We hope to go out Halloween and shoot their show. My daughter the photographer will be shooting stills for this and I'll shoot the video.

10.24.2009

DENIZ TEK AND THE SOUL MOVERS/I 94 BAR



The Barman did a fantastic job reviewing The Soul Movers recent gig in Oz and I loved it so much... I asked him if he cared if we nicked his post....He of course ever so generously gave us permission.

We haven't gotten to meet the famed Dr. Tek aka the ultra handsome fighter pilot Iceman yet. Soon I hopefully will get to meet him in Ann Arbor closer to the holidays. Stayed tuned on the ongoing plans in the works involving Machinegun Thompson, Deniz Tek, and Scott Morgan.

I just got home at like 1:09 am from the Scott Morgan and The Rationals show at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. I will do that post tomorrow. We got some great pics and video too. Sssh don't tell Willie! We had a gas singing along to our favorites with Scott tonight! Kimmer got to hang with some big Detroit rock fans and rockers too.

Here is Barman's bit on Deniz Tek's new band The Soul Movers:

FROM THE I94 BAR:

THE SOUL MOVERS
THE INTERCONTINENTAL PLAYBOYS
Notes, Newtown
Friday, October 16, 2009

By THE BARMAN

Some people don't like their reviews cluttered with colour and personal reflections. I'm just an unassuming guy who's starved for time, so I'll cut to the chase: The Soul Movers exceeded expectations created by their excellent long-player and put a sock in the gobs of those anticipating a karaoke show or a cabaret.

For the uninitiated - and there seem to be a few with the show mildly under-attended - the Soul Movers are an updated exercise in Memphis soul, led by ex-Radio Birdman leader Deniz Tek and featuring a newcomer on vocals, Miss Lizzie Mack. They have a new album in the racks ("On The IN Side").

Tek and Mack are at the core with extra players added as geography dictates. Gigs in Montana, Paris (as an acoustic duo), Newcastle, Australia (with this line-up) and Cronulla, Sydney, precede tonight so although reports had been good no-one's expecting an overly slick combo. More on what they did give us in a minute but first to openers (and I-94 Bar Records artists!) the Intercontinental Playboys.

The Playboys have been lying low since their album launch with vocalist Tom Von Spatula on an overseas mission to replenish his collection of antique handmade Bolivian rainforest timber smoking stands. They hit their straps quickly with a smart set that's peppered with should-be hits and fuzz-organ nuggets.

The 'Boys find themselves pulling out a few lesser-played stuff in the end, having pushed through and exhausted the stock of recent tunes. "Circle Girl" goes over especially well and the enthusiasm grows from that point on. Damned if Ray Charles wouldn't have been spinning just a touch with the fuzzy but affectionate treatment he copped at their hands but it all sounds pretty cool.

"Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Kill!" is a staple and that's no bad thing. I know the band has moved away form its early Cramps influences but channeling the trash esthetic and the raw sounds of the original rock and roll makers is as valid now as it was then, so more power to them when they look back.

Melbourne dates are locked in for the end of the month and there's a buzz down there because the bass-less Playboys are so unlike stock standard rock quartets. Miss them at your peril.

Tonight's Soul Movers line-up of Tek, Mack, piano-organist Pip Hoyle (Visitors, Radio Birdman), bassist Andy Newman (Visitors and the reconstituted Decline Of The Reptiles) and drummer Calvin Welch (more on him soon) mightn't have had much time to coalesce but are excellent players in their own right. The backline has been working to stamp their own mark on the material with some significant re-arranging of the songs.

Word from one source was that the Cronulla gig at the Brass Monkey supper club was quiet enough to hear after-dinner gastric reflux. Notes is a bigger room. So show us what you got…

"Krazy Kats" from the album is the opener and breaks the ice while the band find its feet. The Soul Movers and audience understandably are feeling each other out, with most of the crowd seated at tables. Evidently this is an odd sounding room from the players' perspective, with a "dead" ambience similar to a studio. It's clear that if the crowd's going to sit back then the band's going to kick the energy levels up, and these accessible songs sound ballsier much than on the album.

A barefoot Lizzie Mack is full of confidence and showing off the power in her vocal that prooves she's not just a studio quantity. She's working under the handicap of a scratchy throat tonight but it doesn't seem to impair her apart form some gravel in the between-song patter.

Pip's stage get-up is killer. Soul Movers? The Professor looks more like he's been moving female flesh on the streets of Harlem. This is the Best Dressed Man in Rock and Roll. On a musical point, it's wonderful to hear him so prominent (and integral) in the mix. If anything his playing seems more suited here than in Birdman, which is a moot point I know but I'm gonna make it regardless.

"Baby I Love You" is a keeper and a more than respectable piece of early Aretha to cover but for mine it's another borrowed and more obscure song, "Dead", where things really get interesting. The band drops anchor on a stinging groove, Newman and Tek in simultaneous eye-lock with their drummer. As they wind the song down to its tense conclusion there's a set of grins wider than the one worn by Donald Trump's offshore accountant at tax time.

Calvin Welch is an American expat - a Michigan homeboy like Tek, no less - who has a musical c.v. longer than a Rolling Stones backstage rider. I first saw him with Mark Sisto's Detroit Actual where spontaneity ruled. Off the back of little in the way of rehearsals, the guy bounced into the venue one night and despite being on only a nodding basis with the players in that band, proceeded to dazzle a small crowd withsome awesome feels. His higher profile credits include Earth, Wind & Fire, The Party Boys (the Joe Walsh line-up), Jacky Orzascky, Marcia Hines, Buddy Guy, Chrstine Anu, Marc Hunter and Kevin Borich.

Tonight, Calvin is the show-stealer. The band slips into "Natural Born Woman" a third of the way through - and Calvin goes to a higher plane. The power in his wrists is mind-blowing and the accents have him physically lifting off his drum stool to the point where he seems to be playing his kit with his whole body. The crowd is ecstatic and one audience member (hi Frank!) is moved to leap to his feet and exhort them to even more generous applause. Lizzie declares the Soul Movers are spoilt and won't play with another drummer. We believe it.

A Mack-Tek duet on the Stones-via-Willie Dixon's "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" is playful as all get-out and is a well-placed rocker leading into "Hold Me" and the steamy "Low 'n' Slow", the latter embellished with some superb Hoyle touches.

Deniz's "Mona/Who Do You Love" centre-mic medley spot sounds primal compared to surrounding tunes like the single "Piece O'Me" and "Few Good Reasons". He's restraining his usual volume in a big way and there's a scorching solo in a place I can't recall that strips paint from the newly re-touched venue walls and sounds like something Robert Quine would have liked to have owned. Of course some lost soul calls out for a Birdman song but you know there's one in every crowd, dontcha?

Miss Mack resists but inevitably succumbs to band intentions not to let "Heatwave" slip off the set list. Good thing too, because it was a goodie. There's a newie called "Hey Baby" in there towards the end as well that sounds like it needs to be recorded.

It's a non sequitir to say that this style of material has a potentially huge live audience, if outside the traditional rock and roll rat-holes and hide-outs most of us know best. It's a shame that two Melbourne gigs were blown-out due to a local drummer being unavailable, because that's the place where where word about music in Australia spreads the quickest. I'd love to hear the Movers supplemented by horns where appropriate but this brief mini-tour was an effective toe in the water. The good news is that we can expect more Aussie gigs in February 2010 and maybe in Europe after that, if interest permits.

Read Machinegun Thompson's post on Deniz HERE
Read Deniz Tek's Guest Post on Machinegun's Blog HERE

10.23.2009

SOUPY SALES.HAS DIED... DETROIT COMEDIAN



Oh we are so bummed to hear that one of our Retro favorites passed away today at 83. Poor soup he had been in failing health and he is finally at rest now. Kimmer grew up with Soupy as her absolute favorite TV show as a kid. JUst loved him and all his characters. OUr thoughts are with Tony and Hunt and the Sales family.

Read My Post on Soup HERE I LOVE THIS VIDEO HERE
COMPLETE SOUPY TV SHOWS HERE


OBIT From the Detroit Free Press today
Soupy Sales, slapstick legend for generation, dies

By TIM KISKA
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian who made an art form out of taking a pie in the face and delighted a generation of Detroiters with his loopy TV show on Channel 7 in the 1950s, died Thursday night in New York.

Sales, who had been in ill health for several years, was 83. His former manager, Dave Usher, said Sales last week entered a Bronx hospice, where he died. He is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony.

“He was the first person from Detroit television whose first name had instant recognition from coast to coast,” said former Channel 7 anchorman Bill Bonds. “If you said ‘Soupy' in New York, they knew who it was. If you said ‘Soupy' in Los Angeles, everybody knew who it was. I'd worked in both markets, and the first thing anybody said when I mentioned I was from Detroit was ‘Soupy.' ”



Born Milton Supman in Franklinton, N.C., and raised in West Virginia, Sales was best known to Detroiters as the goofy yet cerebral host of “Lunch with Soupy,” a half-hour show that featured Sales hamming it up in a variety of sometimes surreal situations.

The show, which began airing in Detroit in 1953, featured a cast of unforgettable characters: an incorrigible dog by the name of White Fang, “the meanest dog in all Deeeetroit,” who communicated via a series of guttural noises; Black Tooth, an overly affectionate dog whom Sales would constantly tell “don't kiss”; Hippy the Hippo, and Willy the Worm.

Of course, there were the pies. Sales once estimated that he took 9,000 pies in the face during the course of his career.

But the most famous of Sales' bits was “lunch.” A typical menu might include a hot dog as the main course. Before Sales would take a bite, viewers would hear the sound of squealing pigs. Or, viewers might hear the sound of mooing cows as Sales sipped milk.

The lunchtime show was also known for its unpredictability. Sales would leave the set, camera in tow, and harass other Channel 7 hosts.


He once left the set in mid-show and hunted down Channel 7's Edythe Fern Melrose, a woman of unyielding dignity who was known as “The Lady of Charm.” Sales blasted her with a pie.

“She didn't know it was coming,” once recalled former Detroit radio personality Mark Andrews, himself since deceased, who watched the program as a grade-school student at Fraser's Eisenhower Elementary. “It might be the funniest moment I've seen on television.”

The show was “must-see” TV, long before NBC came up with the phrase. Thousands of Detroit baby boomers would become “Birdbaths,” the designation given to members of his club.

Tom De Lisle, a Detroit writer and TV producer, once recalled to the Free Press growing up on Detroit's east side and watching the show. He and his brother, Skip, lived close enough to their grade school that they could go home for lunch to watch Sales.

“We calculated that we could catch the last joke on the show and make it back to our desks by the time the bell rang if we ran like hell. And that's what we did,” recalled De Lisle. “We stood in the doorway, hung right to the last second of Soupy's show, said ‘Go!' and ran. The show was creative, different and live every day.”

10.21.2009

$9.99 REEBOK SIT DOWN STRIKE IN LOUISVILLE



A little detour out of my normal 60's and into the 80's just for fun tonight! I found a way to convert my old public show videos and commercials in you tubes. They are soooo bad but hey they are show history for the Kimmer and I loved em at the time...

Turning back the way back machine to the 80's and 90's when I was a public show manager. The biggest show tour I managed brought me to the West Pavillion of the Kentucky Fairgrounds in November of 1986.

Back then Reebok shoes had just debuted and were the "shoe" of the moment. Reeboks were very expensive and NEVER ever sold at a discounted price.



The Super Sale Show featured over 100 stores selling things at a discount and our newspaper ads looked just like this one above. almost microscopically next to $9.99 is the word FROM. NOw nearly every shopper in America knows that FROM in an ad means the price begins at 9.99 and gets higher from there.

Well we had some really sharp (re: annoying) ladies invade my show and organize a sit down strike in the shoe booth. They began demanding that we sell them Reeboks for the "advertised" price of $9.99.

No way Jose was that happening! Those shoes were normally $65-125.00 a pair. After we told these ladies the answer was no... they all sat on the floor in the shoe booth and refused to budge.


My show manager trainee Jack Grant, just couldn't be tough enough to get those ladies to motivate out the door. Jack was a southern gentleman after all. He came into my office and I stomped out there with my high heels clicking across the cement floor. My Detroit Police bodyguards were running to keep up.

"Get out of my show!" I told those women that under no uncertain terms that they were to leave my show immediately or I would have them arrested. They got up and left the show in a big hurry.

Shortly there after the local TV news hawk lady appears and tried to intimidate me. They turned the cameras on me and I did just what Lee Iococca had done about the odometer scandal Chrysler just encountered. I said oops, sorry, won't happen again!

Then I called my furniture booth owner to the office. He was a huge advertiser for that station and he told them that if they killed my show he would pull his million dollar a year ad schedule as well. Soooo they made this little clip and it was FREE advertising for the show....

This video is really crappy because we taped it on vhs tape without an antenna or cable on the TV inside the arena. But after all these years it is still funny!

10.20.2009

ANN ARBOR IN THE 60'S MOVIE



It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

JFK, MLK, LBJ, and RFK. Hawks, doves, panthers, and pigs. Black power, red power, brown power, and flower power. Folk rock, garage rock, acid rock, and throwing rocks. Sit-ins, teach-ins, love-ins, and be-ins. Revolutionaries on the left, reactionaries on the right, and a great mass of mystified in the middle.

The sixties were without doubt one of the most turbulent decades in American history, a time of tremendous and remarkably rapid social, political, and cultural change.

And the tiny Midwestern town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was right in the thick of it.



Ann Arbor doesn't get as much recognition for its contribution to the sea change of the sixties as do other places such as Berkeley or Madison, Wisconsin. But it was just as important to the growth and evolution of the sixties as either of those two cities.

SIXTIES FORUM HERE

Ann Arbor saw the birth of Students for a Democratic Society — one the biggest and most influential youth groups of the sixties — in 1960, and was the home of the SDS leadership for the first half of the decade. Ann Arbor spawned the first "teach-in" of the sixties, in March 1965, about the widening war in a small Southeast Asian country most Americans had never heard of. (That would soon change.) Ann Arborites also played a key role in the establishment of the Peace Corps, following a speech by presidential candidate John F. Kennedy on the steps of the Michigan Union in October 1960.

Ann Arbor was the birthplace of the White Panther Party, which would eventually play an important role (although an indirect and highly ironic one) in the downfall of the Nixon administration. In addition, Ann Arbor (not San Francisco) was the city that saw the election of the first openly gay person to public office in the United States in early 1974.

Many important leaders of the sixties movement came out of Ann Arbor, including Tom Hayden, Dick and Mickey Flacks, Bill Ayers, and Carl Oglesby. A host of other notable and interesting people contributed to and were influenced by the social, political, and cultural energy of Ann Arbor during that time, including Bob Seger, Gilda Radner, Dennis Machinegun Thompson (center of collage), Cathy Guisewite, Larry Brilliant, Christine Lahti, Ken and Ric Burns, Robin Wright, Larry Kasdan, and Carole Simpson — as well as countless others who are not as well known but whose contributions were equally as important.



Modern Major Films is currently at work developing a documentary film about Ann Arbor in the sixties, with a working title of, straightforwardly enough, Ann Arbor in the Sixties. (At some point we'll choose a different title.) The film will cover what historians would call "the long sixties," in this case the years 1960-1975, approximately. It will chronicle the contentious transformation of a small Midwestern town of stern German heritage, proudly embodying the conservative ideals of mid-century middle America, into an epicenter of social, political, and cultural radicalism in just a few tumultuous years.

HALLOWEEN CLASSIC: THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH 1964


My most favorite of all Halloween specials was Walt Disney's Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. This Disney Event was an adaptation of a series of English stories featuring "Doctor Syn," aka Christopher Syn -- a Vicar by day, and the fearsome Scarecrow by night. The Scarecrow series of novels was written by Russell Thorndike.



The idea for the story came from true smuggling tales of the Romney Marsh region of England's Kent/Sussex coast. the Romney Marsh in the 18th century. The stories take place in 1775. In the Disney version, the Scarecrow/ Reverend Syn character is played with maniacal relish by Patrick McGoohan. This was by far my favorite of Patrick's movies. My second favorite was The Three Lives of Thomasina.


We waited all week for another episode of Scarecrow to air on NBC. This was an early incarnation of the Mini-series. This show seems a bit tame by today's standards but the Scarecrow's laugh and the foggy mist across the English countryside are still really spooky to me.


Patrick McGoohan played Dr. Christopher Syn, the mild-mannered innocent vicar of the small village of Dymchurch, England. Little do the villagers know that by night he doubles as The Scarecrow, the leader of a ruthless gang of smugglers (many of whom, like The Scarecrow himself, don menacing masks to hide their faces) who’ve been importing brandy illegally and reselling it to help the townsfolk pay the outlandish taxes imposed by the greedy King.

Naturally, when His Highness hears of these unlawful activities, he sends out his soldiers and Naval pressgangs to put a stop to The Scarecrow, regardless of the fact that he is a hero of sorts to the people of Dymchurch and his shady deeds are the only thing keeping the town afloat.

Will the clever Dr. Syn be able to continue his covert criminal operation for the benefit of the people while safely concealing himself and the identities of his accomplices all under the watchful eye of the ever-present King’s men?
 

10.19.2009

SCOTT MORGAN AND THE RATIONALS 10-24



We are gearing up for the Scott Morgan show this upcoming Saturday at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. Hurry and get your tickets because it will no doubt sell out in Scott's hometown.


MORE INFO CLICK ON THIS LINK BELOW

IRRATIONAL: RATIONALS CD RELEASE ANN ARBOR

My favorite Rationals song which I'll play all week to get ready.

WARLOCK'S GRAVE



Rumor has it that there is a small cemetery near an apple orchard about a mile from town on Huron River Dr. My brother has been there before and we decided to make a little trip there on a sunny Autumn Sunday. Jason said that there are only a few gravestones, but there is a particular tree that is said to grown and surrounds the grave of a warlock. The tree has thorns growing on it although it isn't really a thorn tree. People say that if you lie on the ground in front of the tree you can see a shadow come at you and pass through you into the ground.

THE WARLOCK'S GRAVE is located on Huron River Dr. just before Zeeb Rd. heading towards Ann Arbor. Its located on the left and is a ancient rundown private cemetery. Its hidden and tucked away into the woods so its very hard to see. "His grave" is located under the giant oak tree.

It's actually grown into the tree so you can barely see the stone from the grave. Someone has dug a hole in an attempt to find Willie (really its just willies as in goosebumps but apparently it's become a person haha). You're supposed to lay down on his grave and a shadow person/demon will sink through you and into the ground.


There are some graves nearby, probably 20-30ft away which I feel aren't haunted and belong to some young girl who's not satan's child :). Across the street, past the railroad tracks, and down the hill there's an old Tepee foundation with a fire pit, benches and a round base. Its pretty cool and in a pretty location...I'm assuming a hippie built it but now the pubescent goths have turned it into a freak show.

The entire area along Huron River Drive in Dexter is haunted. It used to be populated by the Huron tribe, many people see native Americans walking on the side of the road at night only to see them disappear in the rear-view mirror.

Here is Kimmer and Jason's video of Warlock's Grave...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE SLICK!



Ms Slick is one of the most fabulous Retro Icons of all time. She is a rock n roll heroine and has inspired millions of young girls to achieve their dreams. Grace was even inspirational to me to stop drinking back in the 80's.


Grace said she couldn't image how bored she's be without getting drunk. Then after she stopped she realized it was more boring to be drunk... Excellent

This photo is my favorite of all of Grace's images. If anyone knows the photographer (HH?) please write in and let me know who the kudos go to....Now Grace has expanded into painting. She is quite good and here is a video interview featuring her art work...

10.18.2009

JANE MIXER DENTON RD BRIDGE AND THE HUTCHINSON MANSION


A body found yesterday afternoon on a Superior Township farm was tentatively identified as that of a 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University coed who disappeared without a trace July 9."

This report in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, August 8th, 1967 described the first of a string of coed murders in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area of Michigan over the next two years. The body was that of Mary Fleszar, 19, who was last seen by a roommate when she left their apartment near the university campus to go for a walk. She was wearing a bright orange tent dress with large white polka dots, and a pair of sandals. She was five foot two, weighing about 110 pounds, wore glasses, and had brown hair. She had not taken her purse, but her car keys were gone, and her car was parked across from where she normally left it, which her mother thought was odd.



Half an hour after she left the apartment, a university police officer had spotted her walking alone. Later, a man sitting on his porch who knew her saw her walking toward her apartment. Then he saw a young man driving a bluish-grey Chevy stop beside her, open his window, and talk with her. She shook her head and walked on. He drove by again and pulled up in front of her. She again shook her head and walked around him. He backed out, accelerated with an angry screech, and left. Concerned, the man on the porch watched her draw close to her building and then lost sight of her, but did not see the car return. He was the last person to see her alive.



ON 48 HOURS

Jane Mixer was murdered in Ann Arbor, Michigan in March 1969. She was 23 - about the same age her niece, Maggie Nelson, was when she resolved to learn all she could about the aunt she never knew.

“Jane was many things I wanted to be - driven, disobedient, brilliant, independent. And I also knew that she died horribly,” says Maggie.

Maggie says she didn’t feel she could ask anyone in her family for details about Jane’s murder but says the case has haunted her.

Maggie’s mother, Barbara, Jane’s older sister by two years, admits there was a pall of silence. “We didn’t talk about what had happened to Jane,” says Barbara. “One, it was painful. And it seemed almost lurid to think about it or talk about it.”

But Maggie felt compelled to unravel the mystery surrounding Jane. She went to the public library and pored over old newspaper reports, finally learning the details of her aunt’s death.

Back home, she dug up some of Jane’s diaries and began to read.

Maggie discovered that Jane was high school valedictorian and, over the objections of school officials, had given a fiery graduation speech calling for social justice. She went on to the University of Michigan and was committed to changing the world.

Maggie also tracked down Phil Weitzman, one of the people closest to Jane in 1969, when she was one of just 37 female law students in a class of 420.



“Whatever she got involved in, she was extremely passionate about,” remembers Phil.

And she was passionate about Phil. Early that spring, Phil says, they were ready to announce their engagement. “Jane said that she wanted to go home and talk with her parents, and felt that she could convince them that this was a good thing.”

Jane planned to go home first, with Phil following a few days later. So she posted a note on a college ride board, looking for a lift from Ann Arbor to her home in Muskegon.

Phil says no one thought anything of it, because everyone did it in those days. He says Jane found a ride with a man named David Johnson.

Jane Mixer

“We talked on the telephone and I thought she should come with Phil," her sister Barbara recalls. "She told me that she thought it would work out better if they came independently, and I said it wasn’t right and she said, ‘Trust me.’ And those are the last two words she ever said.”

Jane had told her parents she would be leaving Ann Arbor around 6 p.m. and was expecting to arrive by 9:30 p.m. that evening.

As time ticked by and Jane didn’t show up, her father grew concerned. Finally, around 11 p.m., he simply couldn’t wait around anymore, and Maggie says he set out looking for her in his car, driving around for several hours.

Sometime that night, Jane Mixer was killed. SEE MORE HERE


THE GILBERT MANSION echoed the Quirk Mansion across the Huron River and their families sent signals back and forth from the tall towers on dark and stormy nights...

Few towns can boast such a perfect setting for a ghost story as Ypsilanti with its famed Gilbert Mansion at 227 N. Grove. Its mansard roof, tall chimneys, and looming tower call out for tales of other worldliness.William H. Gilbert built his spectacular Second Empire home on a knoll overlooking a scenic curve in the Michigan Central Railroad as it approaches Depot Town from Detroit.

Colorful gardens, ponds, and waterfalls from a spring on the property made the entire countenance a showplace. While some might think this a strange place for a houseof such style and dignity, Gilbert enjoyed the view––because he was a high official with the MCRR.

Mrs. Gilbert regularly opened the house to the children of her neighborhood at Halloween so they could climb to the top of the four-story tower to survey the city’s many towered skyline.


Even in its declining years of disrepair, the Gilbert Mansion maintained its dignity and fostered stories worth repeating. Although the place was uninhabited for several years, some contend there were other kinds of inhabitants in that grand edifice.

When the Boys & Girls Club occupied that building and played basketball in the former dining room, Randy Carpenter was the handyman who strove to maintain the failing structure. He reports sleeping on the floor after working late and waking to find his heavy toolbox moved and hidden elsewhere in the building. Carpenter and others testify to hearing “strange noises” throughout the building, but have never made visual contact with anything suspicious.

In later years the Gilbert Mansion was converted to elegant apartments and, since the central chimney collapsed in 1990, nothing more has been heard from this apparition. Perhaps it was crushed by the tons of bricks cascading to the basement..


DENTON RD BRIDGE

There are many legends surrounding the Denton Rd bridge. The bridge is said to be haunted by a woman who's child was killed by a car, she walks the bridge and legend has it that you can hear the baby cry. Dark figures chase cars over the bridge.




HUTCHINSON HOUSE IN YPSILANTI


A large house stands overlooking the city at the corner of Forest Avenue and River Street, known as the Hutchinson House for the man who had it built. The house is a local landmark, and the subject of some conversation. The story is the stuff of novels, but is true.
Shelley Byron Hutchinson was born in a log cabin just north of Ypsilanti on Oct. 19, 1864, in Superior Township.


The family soon after moved to Ypsilanti, and the father, Stephen, became the town constable. The young Shelley made his living as a dancing master.


It was while working as a clerk in a store in Battle Creek that the young Shelley came up with the idea for trading stamps. The stamps were given to customers to encourage sales, and customers saved the stamps until they had enough to exchange for premiums.


He opened his first store in Jackson, and from this modest beginning the business grew. Then Hutchinson took in a partner, Thomas Sperry, and the business became S&H Green Stamps.


The business was a great success. Hutchinson once told a friend, "The money came in so fast he couldn't take care of it with a scoop shovel."


In 1899 Hutchinson married the 18-year-old Clara Unsinger in San Francisco. The couple lived in New York for a time, and then came to Ypsilanti for a visit in 1901.


On his arrival, he informed his father the household furniture was on the way. A few days later he said to his father: "I think I will build a house here or in Detroit. Which place do you prefer?" "Here, of course," said his father. Work on the new house began in August of 1901.

10.17.2009

KIMMER'S ANNUAL PUMPKIN DONUT TRIP



What a gorgeous chilly Autumn day to go on our annual trek to Dexter, Michigan for the famous Jenny's homemade Pumpkin Donuts. They need a 12 step program for the withdrawing from these awesome treats!. sigh....


Jenny's Farm Stand was packing with folks and children too. There was this cute baby goat (wearing a little U of M sweater) who kept scooting around my feet but was too quick for my camera! Darn he was sooo cute. Well we shot his family members who were considerably slower moving...

Enjoy our fun trip to Jenny's Farm Stand Dexter Pinckney Rd in Dexter, Michigan



10.15.2009

CAROL SCOTT: RETRO FANTASTIC ART


 
ARTIST CAROL SCOTT

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."



Carol Scott is a budding young artist that I met at my day job. Ms Scott uses all mediums and if you look at her work closely you'll see the influences of all the great women artists that I love


The above painting looks heavily Frankenthaler influenced though Ms Scott was unaware of Ms Frankenthaler's work until I did a post on her HERE



These Carol Scott paintings remind me of Bridget Riley's OP ART combined with POP ART of the 1960's her colors are definitely a throw back to Marijke of The Fool's Psychedelic Art whic you can see my post onher work HERE


Carol Scott has an ART Gallery on line which if you belong to Facebook is HERE

DETROIT MAYOR JEROME (JERRY) P CAVANAGH 1962-1970



Jerome Cavanagh, 1928 - 1979) was the movie star handsome and very charismatic mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1962 to 1970. In Jerry’s FIRST campaign ever, 33 year old Mayor Cavanagh stunned EVERYONE by defeating incumbent Louis Mariani.


Cavanagh got off to a very popular start as mayor, appointing a reformer to be chief of police and implementing an affirmative action programs. Jerry Cavanagh’s forward thinking was so ahead of it’s time . Jerry welcomed Martin Luther King, Jr. to Detroit, and marched with him in 1963 down Woodward Avenue in the 100,000 strong March for Freedom.


Mayor Cavanagh was successful in getting money from Washington, DC through the "Model Cities" program. New skyscrapers were built downtown. People were very hopeful about where Detroit was going.


Beginning with his election in 1962 until the 1967 riots, Detroit enjoyed a vast African /American middle class. Many of the then Detroit residents were employed by the large automotive plants. Detroit was then seen as a model city and Mayor Cavanagh was credited with implementing many of the best programs to promote business, tourism, education, sports, science and the auto industry. Many thought that Jerry Cavanagh would run for US President but that was not to be.


In 1967 the Detroit Riots erupted and Mayor Cavanagh watched his dreams of the "Model City" burn along with the neighborhoods and businesses of Detroit. Tragic.



The Mayor was once widely praised for reviving the city of Detroit and being an influential spokesman for America's cities, he also bore the brunt of criticism for circumstances surrounding the infamous Detroit riots in 1967. He was one of the most brilliant, influential and controversial mayors in American political history.

Read my story on the Riots of 1967 HERE

Great Video Featuring Mayor Cavanagh HERE

For David Cavanagh
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