THE RUINERS AND THE SEATBELTS THIS SATURDAY!

The Ruiners

The Ruiners
Rick Ruiner
Nina Friday
Rob Ruiner
Liz Ruiner
Justin Ruiner

This Saturday night at Smalls in Hamtramck!. My good friends The Ruiners and The Seatbelts are joining forces the blow the roof off of Smalls this weekend. It was over a year ago that I first saw The Ruiners in Hamtramck and they blew me away... Funny when I met Rick Ruiner in Hamtramck I asked him where he lived and turns out he lives just down the road from me! Here we were 40 miles from home and we were neighbors out in the boonies.

The Ruiners Video Sugar Buzz

Such a fun band to watch and hear as well. They have a new cd out which you can get from my Amazon store .

Smalls in Hamtramck

Small's - Your favorite neighborhood corner bar and premiere rock venue all in one. Located in the wonderful city of Hamtramck - nested in the heart of Detroit USA. Did you know? - Small's is one of the best venues in town for live music! ... and a damn fine place to grab a drink and see a show.

The Seatbelts Photo: Sue Rynski thanks Sue!
The Seatbelts
Greg Upshur
Rick Mills
Gaetano Urso
Tony Bojanic
Skid Marx

I loved being at Smalls to see The Seatbelts reunion show recently and I have to say... Singer Greg Upshur stepped away from his chef gig and blew everyone away with his voice and showmanship. Skid Marx and Rick Mills were both just off the wall and unbelievably wild!

Check out the video that Dan Boyd the Wizard of Livonia shot of my fav Seatbelts tune

Seatbelts Video

Don't miss this fun show! Come out and meet my friends at Smalls this Saturday!

Read More on RK:

THE RUINERS, CIRCUS BOY AT ROCK STOCK AND BARREL
THE RUINERS NEW CD LAUNCH!!!!!!
THE SEATBELTS ROCKED THE HOUSE
I LOVE THIS SONG BY THE SEATBELTS

QUESTION MARK'S HOME FIRE UPDATE

HELP ? REBUILD HIS HOME!

Rock and roll legend loses priceless memories

By Cathy Shafran
VIENNA TOWNSHIP (WJRT) (WJRT) -- (01/13/07)--A Michigan rock and roll legend is sifting through the remains of his Vienna Township home this weekend after a fire destroyed more than 40 years of music history.

For four decades now, he's gone by the name Question Mark and was the frontman for the band Question Mark and the Mysterians.

The group is best known for their song "96 Tears", a garage rock classic recorded in 1966 that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100

When his Clio area home went up in flames this week, most of the mementos went up with the house -- including the gold record for "96 Tears".

'Q' has been scouring the debris with his longtime manager Luverne Thompson, and his wife Joy ever since dawn broke on the overnight fire.

But while the memorabilia it important, he is desperately searching for the remains of four of his seven Yorkies that he was unable to save from the burning structure.

Tiffany (RIP) and Q

'Q' says he has no insurance and he's not sure how to recover documentation on some of his lost musical accomplishments, such as the gold record and the BMI award for his three-millionth air play.

He's asking anyone with Question Mark memories to contact him on his MYSPACE page, or write him at his post office box:

Question Mark and the Mysterians
P.O. Box 96 Clio, Mi 48420

(Copyright ©2010 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE
Go to PayPal.com
Click the Send tab
put in this email address
questionmarkdonations@msn.com
put in the amount, continue and follow the rest of the instructions and...the donations will go directly to Question Marks' account.

QUESTION MARK'S FIRE SALE ITEMS

Autographed Photos - $10 w/shipping

Bandanas - $10 w/shipping

? T-Shirt - $23 w/shipping

? Solo 45 Record- $10 w/shipping (new fire sale price)

Read More on RK

Question Mark and the Mysterians

DETROIT FANFARE 2010!

Detroit Fanfare Website

Halloween weekend in Dearborn was the first annual Detroit Fanfare Comic Con. The show mixed comic book nostalgia with some great Halloween happenings and featured none other than Stan Lee as Guest of Honor making his first appearance in Detroit in 20 years. Read More HERE

My daughter Lesley went to the Detroit Fanfare 2010 at the Hyatt Regency on October 30. I really wanted to go but had other plans. Lesley shot the show for us to see! Looked like a bunch of fun!

Froggy and Les with her Last of the Badmen hoodie!

Les and super hero friend

THREE DOG NIGHT 1969!

 

 Three Dog Night

My very first arena concert was Three Dog Night in 1969. The teen club from Ft. Benning Georgia took me and a hundred of my friends! The concert was held at Auburn University in Auburn Alabama. It was a no parents night and a ROAD TRIP too at age 14!

What a gas it was that night and arena rock shows were new unexplored territory for me. My big crush was on the bus going with us too. One of the most fantastic experiences of my life.

The band came on stage and played for at least 2 1/2 hours maybe more. They had 2 hit songs out and we got to hear their new songs too. I'll never forget hearing Eli's Coming live before it was released was so great. This was before I discovered the fabulous Laura Nero...

After the show we spied the guys packing up their own gear onstage! So we made our way down there an talked with them while they worked. That sure doesn't happen today... But it never occurred to me to ask for an autograph or shoot any photos. Heck none of us even thought to bring a camera! Not true anymore. I never leave home without my cameras!

From 1969-1974, nobody had more Top 10 hits, moved more records, or sold more concert tickets than Three Dog Night. During this period, they were undoubtedly the most popular band in America: twenty-one consecutive Top 40 hits, eighteen straight Top 20s, eleven Top 10s, seven number 1s, seven million-selling singles and twelve straight gold LPs. By late '75, they had sold nearly 50 million records. The band was unique for it's time, featuring three separate lead singers, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells (my favorite).

Had such a crush on Cory Wells after seeing that show and seeing how nice he was talking to us silly girls... He was so fine.

The story of Three Dog Night begins with its three lead vocalists, all fixtures on the late-Sixties L.A. scene: Chuck Negron, an unsuccessful solo artist recording on Columbia, Danny Hutton, a semi-successful solo artist for MGM and Hanna-Barbera, and Cory Wells, a mainstay at the Whisky a Go-Go who had signed on to tour with Sonny and Cher. . Discography Official Website

THE FOOL: PSYCHEDELIC DESIGN COLLECTIVE

The Fool Design Collective

The Fool were a Dutch design collective and band who were influential in the psychedelic style of art in British popular music in the late 1960s. The colorful art draws on many fantastical and mystical themes. The name is a reference to The Fool tarot card.

The original members were Dutch artists Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koger, who were discovered by photographer Karl Ferris among the hippie community on the Spanish island of Ibiza in 1966. He took photographs of clothes designed by them, and sent them to London where they were published in The Times (London) and immediately caused a sensation.


Ferris took The Fool back to London, and together they opened a studio, with the Dutch artists producing clothes and art, and Ferris pursuing photography. Barry Finch and artist Josje Leeger, joined later. All had been involved with Beatles manager Brian Epstein's Saville Theatre.
THE FOOL DESIGNS:

 The Hollies 1967 Album Cover of Evolution

The colorful clothes worn by The Hollies on the cover of their 1967 album Evolution were designed by The Fool.

 The Apple Record Building Mural and Boutique

Stage costumes and the front cover design for the self-titled 1967 debut LP Move by The Move

 

 Jack Bruce's Fender VI (six-string) bass Stage costumes and decoration to instruments used by Cream. including Eric Clapton's famed Gibson SG guitar, Jack Bruce's Fender VI (six-string) bass and Ginger Baker's drum kit, created for the group's 1967 tour of the US. 

 

The Fool Wiki Myspace Marijke

ULTRA COOL 1960'S ADVERTISING

Top TV Commercial Slogans of the 60's

Punchy, the Hawaiian Punch character, Atherton-Privett ad agency, 1961

Pillsbury Doughboy.Leo Burnett agency, 1965

Pepsi-Cola, "The Pepsi generation", Batton, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, 1964

Blackglama-Great Lakes Mink, "What becomes a legend most?", Jane Trahey Associates, 1960s

American Tourister, The Gorilla, Doyle, Dane Bernbach, late 1960s

Right Guard, "Medicine Cabinet", BBDO, 1960s
"Take it off... take it all off with Noxema Medicated Shave."

HARRY BENNETT'S CASTLE PM MAGAZINE VIDEO

Exciting news! My friend actually taped a PM Magazine TV interview inside Harry Bennett's Castle circa 1984 on her VCR. The interviewer takes us inside the castle! Watch this video taken from a very old VHS tape.

In the video I found for the first time that Harry was shot in the foyer of this home. He survived and thus began his campaign of building gun turets and the many secret tunnels to be used for escape from real or imagined enemies.

Also actual footage of the lion and tiger dens built under the home. I thought the big cats might be a rumor but they really were allowed to run free on the fenced in property at night.

Story on who shot Harry Bennett in the Foyer of the Castle

My friend also saw the customized/authentic sized bar in the basement. The new owners had packed the bar full of stuff for storage space! What a waste! He had the built to look like a ship. She couldn't see if the original billiard table was still there or removed. The property had an extensive security camera system built in for added security and Harry kept up to 64 gun men in the gun turrets and on the roof top as well. IN 1984 there was a jacuzzi spa on the roof too! Only accessible from the master bedroom. All the bedrooms were on the upper floors. Notice too how low the ceilings were for a "castle". Also how narrow the staircase is going to the second floor. The interviewer has to duck his head to get through the doorway. Read more on Harry: The Castle Rise and Fall of Harry Bennett Harry's Lodge in Clare, MI NEW PHOTOS Henry Ford Unmasked at Last!! June 2, 2003 BY SHERYL JAMES DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER It was Sept. 21, 1945 -- the date of the famous executive shootout at the Ford Motor Co. On one side of Henry Ford II's office at the company's Rouge complex in Dearborn was young Henry himself. He was 28, a tall man with a boxy build. Moments earlier, he had been voted president of his grandfather's company. Facing him was Harry Bennett, 53, America's most-reviled corporate thug, the very stuff of wax museums. Head of the infamous Ford Service Department and for years a Rasputin-like confidant of an aging, ill Henry Ford, Bennett was vicious and powerful and everyone knew it, including Henry II. It was an understatement to say the men disliked one another. Ford eyed the short, stocky Bennett. Inside, he admitted later, he was flat-out scared of the guy. Bennett had good friends who were gangsters, several pet lions and a gun in his desk. Worse, he had everything to lose: Until that day, he believed old man Ford had fixed it so he would be president, not this spoiled Ford brat. But that was before the Ford women got involved, and now -- well, it was time for Henry II to rid the company of this cancer.

FROM MARKMAYNARD.COM

LIDDY WROTE:

It’s funny to see the coverage that PM did. My mother is the one interviewed. Yes, Bennett had lions roaming the tunnels, watch dogs, 50 armed guards with a personal body guard as well. The design of the house was continuously changing. There use to be a tower off my bedroom. 

HB Pool in 1984

Rumor was a third tunnel leading down to the pool and the boathouse; as well as, a tunnel from the boathouse under the Huron river to the “island”. The third tunnel does exist.  Access to it is through the hidden room behind the hidden room. Which is where Bennett would lock people in at times. The Roman bath was indeed tiled and had a sink and toilet. at the end of the west tunnel Bennett signed his name is the concert along with his kids name and wife.  The house was my play ground. There were cement trees (only two). The Starks were the second owners of the 152 acres. Which they had broken up the land and selling it. When my parents bought the place we owned 9 acres. Which included the main house, the mother-in-laws house, the guest house (theater), an old pool (which use to be an indoor pool), two pastures, the boathouse (which has the mural painted inside), then there was what we called “duck land”.  Duck land had little houses with a damn and a replica of the White House! And ,yes there was a light house as well. In Bennett’s day the property was beautiful. At some point, the property didn’t have the same care as in Bennett’s time. Indoor pool collapsed. Overgrowth. On another note: it was a fun house to throw a party in! :) It was also, a scary place at night. From experience, this place was very haunted! The basement and tunnels were filled with noises. Foot steps, televisions turning on, the sinks turning on, and much much more. I know, because I grew up there.