Midwest Guest

Explore the Rivera Court at Detroit Institute of Arts with new iPad app

We're planning to head on down to the Detroit Institute of Arts in coming weeks to check out the museum's new exhibition featuring the art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, but while we're waiting for a good opportunity to go see the show, which runs from now through July 12, I'm checking out the museum's multimedia tour of Rivera's famed Detroit Industry murals.

 

 

De Temps Antan at the 2012 Concert of Colors

 

Rivera's murals are in a spacious court as a focal point at the museum. I remember them always being there, and they often provide a backdrop during major events at the DIA, including shows I've seen there during the annual Concert of Colors festival, a special performance of the Alloy Orchestra and (for real) a 2001 performance by the White Stripes before Jack White decided to leave the city that always supported him during the early days of his career.

Alloy Orchestra set up in Rivera Court

The tour, available on handheld devices at the Rivera Court Information Desk, is also available as a free app to iPad users, delves into the murals, their history and the life and times of Detroit during the era of the murals creation during the 1930s.

Mexican muralist Rivera envisioned the frescos as a tribute to Detroit's manufacturing base and the laborers of the 1930s. They also portray industry and technology as an integral part of Detroit's culture.

The murals took Rivera eleven months to create, and he considered it his best work. Both Rivera and his artist wife, Frida Kahlo, lived and worked in the city during the murals' creation, and the city influenced the work of both artists.

Catch a preview of the multimedia tour at the DIA's Web site, or go to the app store on your iPad and search for "Detroit Industry murals" or "Detroit Institute of Arts" to download the app as I did.

The easily downloadable app contains several tours on topics that allow users to examine each individual panel of Rivera's masterwork, learn more about the symbolism behind the artwork, learn more about the some of the controversy the murals stirred up among viewers, to learn more about the inspirations Rivera drew from and to learn more about the industry and issues Rivera depicted in his work.

Each major section of the tour runs about 10 to 15 minutes long, and the entire tour runs around an hour long. I also liked how you can just dip into the tour and isolate individual images from the larger work to view and learn about.

I particularly loved seeing some of the archival photographs of the creation of the murals and images of Detroit during the 1930s.

A computer app or image is, of course, not the ideal way to see the murals, but the multimedia tour and iPad app is as a way to augment your understanding of the murals and a way to prepare for a visit to see them in person!

Want to learn more about the time Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo spent in Detroit and their art? Check out the exhibition's catalog, Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo in Detroit.

To learn more about the artists, try checking out My Art, My Life: An Autobiography by Diego Rivera and Gladys March or The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo and Carlos Fuentes.  

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for December 2014

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Winter Magic: Our First-Time Family Excursion to Grand Rapids!-We frequently visit Grand Rapids on the western side of Michigan, but it was fun to see the city and it's attractions from the point of view of a parent with young children. Amy's post about her family's visit to the city at the My Experience Grand Rapids blog included one of my favorites-riding the carousel inside of the Grand Rapids Public Museum-and a couple of other things I thought would be fun for "big kids" like Tim and me-root beer tasting at The Electric Cheetah (which is already on our GRap bucket list) anyone?

Traverse City: A Beloved Getaway for Michiganders-Traverse City Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula is another favorite destination for us. We're planning to head up that way later this winter. Meanwhile, Max takes readers of the Go Nomad blog to some of our favorite TC destinations like Horizon Books and Cafe, Cherry Republic, Leland's Fishtown and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Fishtown harbor during winter

28 Fun Things to do in Indianapolis-Natalie shares this great list of Indianapolis area attractions at the Doing Indy blog. We've visited places around the city in recent years, but it's been years since we've visited the city itself. Spending a little more time in Indianapolis is another item on our Midwest bucket list, and this list looks like a great place to start planning future visits there!

Cheap Winter Getaways-Check out this great list of winter travel suggestions from the crew at the Midwest Weekends blog. I'm a big winter fan, and although I've visited places like the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin, Copper Harbor in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, some of Chicago's museums and places like Ely and Duluth in northern Minnesota during the summer, several of the things on this list have long been on my personal Midwest travel bucket list.

Grand Forks' Ralph Engelstad Arena offers hockey fans great facilities, play-Hockey in North Dakota? I'd be all about that. We've seen the University of North Dakota play at college tournaments in Detroit in the past (including one memorable time when we sat through two overtimes to see UND win a Great Lakes Invitational tourney). I really loved getting this glimpse of the team at their home arena from Tim at The Walking Tourists' blog.

4 Reasons to Love Detroit (Yes, I said LOVE. And, no, I'm not kidding.)-And I LOVED this post about Sally's recent visit to the D at the unbrave girl blog. Again, I see another visitor came to Detroit with some less than stellar memories of previous visits here and surprise themselves by finding a lot to like about Detroit.  I thought Sally did a great job of capturing some of the city's highlights and resurgent spirit. Go ahead Sally, get out there on the street corner with your pom poms and give us a cheer...I'll have your back :)

Thirty-One Thresholds: Discoveries at the National Mustard Museum? Indeed!-I love this idea from Wisconsin photographer an blogger Bo Mackison that requires her to head out of her home and visit some Madison-area attractions with her camera and write about those experiences on her personal blog. The National Mustard Museum has long been on my Midwest travel bucket list, so I loved getting a glimpse of the museum and its history here.

Mayberry Cafe: Blast from the past-Visiting this quirky eatery in Danville, Indiana is a special treat, especially for fans of the old Andy Griffith television show from the 1960s. Tim and I ate here a couple of years ago, so I especially enjoyed revisiting it virtually via this post from Kayleen on the Indiana Insider blog.  

Wordless Wednesday: Randolph County Courthouse in Winchester-I'm a big fan of old county courthouses, and Indiana seems to have a number of great ones worth visiting. Check out one of Jessica's favorite Indiana courthouses with this story at her little Indiana blog.

Indiana Bridges: Ferris Wheel Turned Dunns Bridge-I'm also a big bridge fan, so I loved learning a little about the creation of the Ferris wheel and this unique bridge in northern Indiana that may, or may not, be able to trace its origins to an attraction at the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair. This story is also at Jessica's Little Indiana blog. (For what it's worth, I also love true crime books. Want to learn more about Chicago's historic World's Fair? Check out The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson).

The City That's Using a Trail to Unite Its Citizens-Check Max's story at the National Swell blog about the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The pedestrian and bike path official opened in May of 2013, and this story cites its positive effect on the city's cultural life, economic health, community life and the health of residents and visitors to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis area has several other nice pedestrian and bike trails, including the Monon Greenway, which we spotlighted in a story here after our visit to Carmel a couple of years ago.

Monon Greenway

History through headstones-We often visit old cemeteries when we travel, and we don't see that as creepy at all. Cemeteries can be interesting places to learn about an area's history, take photographs of beautiful statuary or architecture and opportunities to geocache. This story from The History Center of Allen County and Fort Wayne spotlights historic cemeteries and the Little Turtle Memorial in downtown Fort Wayne, which we discovered ourselves a couple of years ago. Check out the story at the Visit Fort Wayne Insider blog.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Midwest reads: Great Midwest-related books to give or receive!

Here are a few Midwest-related books that I've enjoyed reading recently:

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made the Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin-What made this 1970s television show set in Minneapolis such an enduring classic? This show inspired Oprah to pursue a career in television and inspired many more women with the idea that they could do anything they wanted to do in their lives. Folks watching reruns of this show today may think that they are watching a typical 1970s sitcom, but many of us watching this show during its first run had the idea that we were watching something far more revolutionary. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the first to have a female lead character who was a "career woman" making her own way in life without relying on a man to carry her through life. I remember loving this show for its "family" of characters and for the idea that housewife, teacher or nurse might not be the only viable career options for girls growing up at the time to consider (says the girl who had a high school counselor tell her she should consider taking cooking instead of an advanced Geometry class because it cooking would surely be more useful than math in her future). It was fun to learn what later happened to the people who created the show and played the characters and how the show changed the television industry...for good.

 

Mrs. Lincoln's Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini- I featured the historical novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, on one of my book lists early last year. This is another engrossing Civil War-era story from Wisconsin writer Chiaverini. This time, Chiaverini bases her novel on the life of Kate Chase, the "Belle of Washington", who engaged in a fierce rivalry with Mary Todd Lincoln for primacy in the Washington D.C. social and political scene. The book runs through the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln's assassination and the first year of Chase's contentious marriage to William Sprague (Rhode Island's "Boy Governor"). Chase loved her husband, but his alcoholism, infidelity and abuse made remaining married to him impossible. In real life, after the time period covered by this novel, Kate took the then relatively rare steps of divorcing and taking back her maiden name. The end of her life was rather sad as a son committed suicide and Kate lived the rest of her live as a poverty-stricken recluse. I'm curious to read a good biography of this woman, and I'm also curious to learn more about her younger sister, Nettie, who I later learned authored and illustrated children's books.

 

The Spymisstress by Jennifer Chiaverini-Another engrossing historical novel from Madison, Wisconsin author Chiaverini. This time, the novel focuses on the tale of Union loyalist Elizabeth Van Lew who lived in Richmond and served as a spy during the Civil War. The book gives you a real sense of the despair, poverty, wartime casualties and prisoners from behind Confederate lines up until the day that Richmond finally fell to the Union Army. Van Lew experienced the wartime poverty, as well as the ostracism and suspicions of her neighbors as she carried on her work with other Union loyalists to get essential information to the Union forces. I later read a biography of Van Lew (Southern Lady, Yankee Spy by Elizabeth R. Varon) and found that Chiaverini's fictionalized version of the story hewed pretty closely to the events and spirit of Van Lew's true life story).

 

Capitol Park: Historic Heart of Detroit by Jack Dempsey-Michiganders know that the beautiful state capitol building is in Lansing, but how many people know that the first capitol building was in Detroit, Michigan? This book is an interesting history of the location of a little known Detroit landmark and the city's history as Michigan's first state capital.  I found Dempsey's writing style a little stilted and flowery and thought that the inclusion of so many entire documents and event transcripts bogged the book down. Still, I found the book valuable as I learned a lot of interesting things about Michigan's early days as a state.

 

Come back later this week as I share my thoughts about other Midwest-related books I've read recently.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for November 2014

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Three great reasons to Visit Detroit now-I love seeing people discover the good things in Detroit, especially when they come from elsewhere in the state or country! Deb visited Detroit recently and says it surprised her with some real gems. Some of her Detroit discoveries like the city's architectural gems, the Motown Museum and the beautiful riverfront are among my favorite Detroit destinations. Read all about it at the Just Short of Crazy blog.

Amelia Earhart hails from Atchison, Kansas-Whatever happened to aviatrix Amelia Earhart may be one of history's biggest mysteries, but Lisa and Tim shed a little light on the famed flyer's humble beginnings in Kansas. Read all about the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum at The Walking Tourists blog.  

At peace along the Findlay Reservoir-This story about Aaron's explorations in northern Ohio show readers his discovery of a manmade wonder along a seemingly deserted open country road which offers visitors fishing and boating opportunities, along with a lengthy waterside walking trail. Check it out at The Adventures of elATLboy blog.

Detroit ragtime's founding fathers-Many people know Detroit for Motown, techno and home-grown rock music, but Amy shares the stories of some of the city's earlier musical ragtime and jazz pioneers in this post at The Night Train blog.

It looks like any other hardware store, but there's a jazzy surprise inside Meyers-Venture behind a false wall behind the standard stock of this neighborhood hardware store with Bill for a glimpse of the building's history as one of Chicago's early integrated jazz clubs more than 50 years ago. The Sunset Cafe, opened in the 1920s, hosted the likes of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman over the years. Check out the remnants of the Sunset Cafe's stage and a colorful mural at the Chicago Architecture blog.  

Dating the Dunes-An accidental discovery in the dunes of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore turns out to be important archaeological evidence that could reveal much about the geology and Native American activity in northern Michigan along the shores of Lake Michigan. Check out Bob's story and pictures of the site of a possible pottery factory from 1,000 years ago at Cherry Republic's blog. Cherry Republic, by the way, is one of our favorite places to find jellies, jams, candy, wine and more made from Michigan cherries.  

A riverfront tour in Minneapolis: Where history flows with the Mississippi-I think most people think of the southern portion of the Mississippi River when they think about the river's rich history, but Terri takes readers of the Off the Beaten Page Travel blog on a tour of Minneapolis as an historic Mississippi River mill town.

Why restore the Sutherland Depot?- I found Muriel's story fascinating because it gives readers and inside look at the possibilities, benefits and budgeting issues people consider when deciding how, or even why, to restore and repurpose local historical landmarks like this 1890s train depot in southwestern Nebraska. Check it out at the Nebraska Outback blog.

The end of Suburban Cincinnati's Alpine Chalets-Check out Ronny's story about the Kings Island Inn and Resort, which was an upscale destination during its 1970s heyday when it attracted a groovy crowd and appeared as a set for episodes of television shows like The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch. Read about it on the Queen City Discovery blog.

Shell shock: The Hidden wonder of St. Anne's Chapel-We once had a family friend who collected sea shells and created shell-covered boxes as gifts for friends. This story about the shell-covered interior of a small Indiana chapel reminded me of Miriam and her shell covered boxes with their intricate designs. Check it out at Indiana Landmark's Hidden Gems blog.

Budget Weekend Getaway: Michigan's Thumb-I've seen a lot of stories about Michigan destinations like Detroit, Grand Rapids, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Upper Peninsula, but Michigan's Thumb area doesn't seem to get the same amount of love. We've found a lot to love about the Thumb over the years with attractions like lighthouses, petroglyphs, giant ice cream cones and more, so I liked this story from Shalee about her adventures camping, kayaking and touring in the Thumb. Check it out on her Shalee Wanders blog.

Quirky Attraction: The Leaning Tower of Niles-Can't make it Italy to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Check out Scott's story of the Leaning Tower of Niles, a half-scale replica of the more famous Italian tower near Chicago, Illinois, on his Quirky Travel Guy blog.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Yalla Eat! A culinary tour of Dearborn, Michigan

When the folks at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) said, "Yalla eat!" (Arabic for "Let's go eat!"), I immediately signed us up to join them on a culinary walking tour of East Dearborn, a Detroit community that is a hub of Arab-American culture in Michigan and home to one of the largest concentrations of Arab-Americans in the country.  

Food can be one of the best ways to explore an area's culture, and it was a special treat for us to find a program like this offered so close to home.

Isra El-beshir, Curator of Education & Public Programming for the AANM, told us that food is often the first exposure to a different culture for many folks before leading us on the tour.

Our tour guide, Isra

This metro Detroit neighborhood saw its beginnings as an Arab-American enclave during the 1920s when workers immigrated here for jobs at the Ford Motor Company's nearby Rouge Factory Complex.

Changes in East Dearborn over the years reflect a century of Arab-American and Middle Eastern immigration to the neighborhood and, especially, the revitalization and commercial development of the area starting in the early 1980s.

El-beshir told us that about half of the 200 businesses currently in the neighborhood are food-related, giving us an incredible opportunity to sample many tasty experiences in a single afternoon.

Plentiful Arabic restaurants, food stores and other specialty service and commercial businesses draw Arabs from around the region, as well as fans of intriguing culinary experiences and the Middle Eastern cuisine with its emphasis on vegetarian dishes, grilled meats and spices like cumin, cardamom, nutmeg and turmeric.

Tim and I met El-beshir at the Super Greenland Market on Warren Avenue at Miller Rd. along with about a half-dozen other foodies anxious to begin our culinary adventure.

Founded in 1993, Greenland claims to be the largest Arab grocery store in the country and boasts five locations in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

We toured the bulk grain, dairy, produce, and deli sections to see many of the store's specialty imported foods, as well as an amazing display of locally sourced produce and prepared foods.

Super Greenland Market

One of the store's butchers met with us to briefly describe the preparation procedures for the store's Halal-certified meats and told that this location prepares as many as 14-17 cows each week according to Halal requirements.

We tasted a few of Greenland's in-house prepared foods like Kubba Fries, a vegetarian kibbeh made with tomato and bulgar, halva (a wheat-based treat that tasted like chocolate) and hoummos with pita bread.

Check out Super Greenland Market's Web site or Facebook page for more information.

 Our next stop Hashem's Nuts and Coffee Gallery, a business started by Abu Ali Sheik Theeb in 1959 at the village of Bint J Bail in southern Lebanon.

The founder's grandsons now offer specialties like freshly roasted nuts, finely-ground Turkish coffee, sweets and Middle Eastern spice mixes at their Dearborn store.

Adam shows off spices at Hashem's

We also got a short tutorial on the preparation of Turkish-style coffee, which struck me as a perfect recipe for staying awake 24/7/365!

Explore Hashem's Web site and Facebook page for mail-order offerings, the Turkish coffee tutorial and recipes.

We stopped at LaBon Sweets where brothers Samir and Mohammad Majed perfected a recipe for the kanafa sandwich, a popular Arab sweet consisting of sweet fried cheese on a sesame seed bun, which they recommend for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks or dessert.

Kanafa samples at LeBon Sweets

The store opened in 2005 and has a second store in Dearborn Heights. Check out LeBon Sweets' Web site for mail order info.

We made a quick stop at the Gift Warehouse to check out kitchen and serving ware that included tiny cups for Turkish coffee and, my favorite, a good supply of evil eye amulets that many people use to ward off evil looks or curses.

Next stop was the New Yasmeen Bakery for samples of their large thin pita breads and a cheese-topped pita snack from their huge in-store prepared foods case.

Check out the New Yasmeen Web site for information about online ordering.

New Yasmeen Bakery

Shatila, a bakery founded in 1979 by Riad Shatila, had some beautiful French-style pastries and Middle Easter sweets, but the real hit here for us was Shatila's house-made ice cream.

Shatila's 11 ice cream flavors include the highly recommended pistachio, as well as more unusual flavors like kashta (with rosewater as one of its ingredients). We returned to the store after the tour to buy some pineapple and lemon ice cream to take home with us! The fruit-flavored ice creams were not sorbet-type concoctions as you might expect, but had a nice creamy texture and taste.

Visit Shatila in Dearborn or West Bloomfield, Michigan, or visit the Shatila Web site or Facebook page.

Our last stop was the Al-Ameer Restaurant, a place which scored a visit from celebrity foodie Tony Bordain a few years ago.

Established in 1989 by Khalil Ammar and Saki Hashem, the restaurant strives to provide an authentic ethnic experience featuring a menu of Mediterranean food made with locally sourced produce and Halal-certified meats in a family-friendly atmosphere.

We digested our tour experience as we shared plates of beef and chicken shawarma and the restaurant's fresh-baked pita bread with our tour mates.  

Check out the Al-Ameer Web site to see the menu at the restaurant's Dearborn and Dearborn Heights locations

Shatila

Want more information about culinary adventures featuring Arabic and Middle Eastern cuisine? Check out the Visit Detroit Web site for links to other restaurants, recipes and suggestions for day trips around the Detroit area.

Also keep an eye on events listings at the Arab American National Museum over the next year as it plans to add more food-related programs and events during the run-up to its 10th anniversary in 2015.

Want to try creating your own Middle Eastern culinary experience? Check out The Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook by Tess Mallos.

I found that a lot of spellings for food items and ingredients varied from source to source, so I opted for using the spelling used by the specific business I was referring to at the time. Kibbeh? Kubba? Kibbee? Hoummos? Hummus? If anyone has a more definitive answer about the English versions of these terms, feel free to let me know!

Thanks to the Arab American National Museum for hosting us on this tour.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Concert of Colors at the Detroit Institute of Arts

We love metro Detroit's annual diversity festival, the Concert of Colors, which takes place across several different venues in Detroit's Midtown each July.

Here are a few images from this year's Friday evening performances on the North Lawn at the Detroit Festival of the Arts.

PanaMO took the stage first that evening, entertaining the crowd with a mix of spirited Latin jazz and salsa music. The band name, PanaMO, comes from combining "Panama" and "Motown", and the group's leader, Panamanian percussionist Obed Succari, studied with many great Latin percussionists. PanaMO's performance included a mix of jazz standards with unique arrangements, as well as original songs reflecting a strong Latin influence.

Cuddle Magic, joined by toy pianist and composer Phyllis Chen, took the stage next, performing what they called a show of  barogue avant garde music accented by the use of a number of tiny and toy instruments. Chen's compositions and performances on the toy piano encourage listeners to view the traditional children's toy instrument with new respect, and her music complements the band's quirky shows that mix jazz and pop into an intriguing musical buffet. Find the latest Cuddle Magic album, featuring Phyllis Chen, on Amazon.

Be sure to check out my other 2014 Concert of Colors recaps, Detroit's Concert of Colors spotlights a tasty stew of diverse musical styles and Detroit Concert of Colors 2014: Don Was All-Star Revue Tribute to Bob Seger's "Live Bullet".

What are your favorite Midwest musical festivals or who are your favorite performers from the Midwest?

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

 

Detroit's Concert of Colors spotlights a tasty stew of diverse musical styles

Some of my favorite moments at Detroit's annual Concert of Colors diversity festival seem to occur when seemingly disparate performers take the stage to create beautiful music together.

The festival's final Sunday this year showcased a couple of performances that were particularly good examples of this type of musical synergy.

We've long been fans of Detroit Blues diva Thornetta Davis, and we've had a package of tickets for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for several years now, so we particularly looked forward to seeing Thornetta and the DSO perform together.

 

 

Conductor and violinist John McLaughlin Williams, well known for spotlighting the work of modern American composers and as the first African-American conductor to win a Grammy Award in 2007, took to the podium to preside over the program he created to spotlight the artists.

The show kicked off with about a half-hour of modern jazz, theater and classical tunes performed by the orchestra.

This proved to be a good way to introduce a crowd that wasn't necessarily classical music fans to the DSO, and one of the best examples of why the DSO enthusiastically welcomed the Concert of Colors to its Orchestra Hall when organizers needed a new venue for the annual festival after losing their previous venue about a half dozen years ago. I remember hearing that the DSO and Orchestra Hall management told the festival organizers that they would love to host the event on one condition--that the DSO could perform at the festival! This appearance, like the symphony's appearance with Ozomatli in a Latin-hip-hop-rock flavored show last year, helped demonstrate the orchestra's versatility across multiple genres and with different artists.

Thornetta then took the stage with her band and backup singers, starting with about 20 minutes of gospel-influenced music.

 

Williams stepped down from the conductor's podium to accompany Davis on violin on "Sunday Morning", a song from her first solo album. I remember purchasing the album shortly after its 1996 release, but the song wasn't one I really remember hearing her perform at bar shows around town, so it was a special treat to hear the song in a live version with Williams and the orchestra.   

The last forty minutes of the show started as Davis sassily introduced it as her "naughty girl" music, launching into some of the blues and R&B tunes fans around town most know, love and remember hearing from her.

The show ended with a rendition of what must be regarded as one of Thornetta's signature covers, a rollicking rendition of the old Jeannie Cheatham tune "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On" with the crowd lustily joining in on the chorus refrain.

We stuck around for the rest of the evening so we could catch the final show of the festival, a performance from Wayne Kramer and Melvin Davis billed as the Rock & Soul Summit.

Don Was spotted Kramer and Davis greeting each other like long-lost friends at last year's Concert of Colors festival during the Don Was All-Star Revue.

Was learned that the pair really were long-time friends who hadn't seen each other in many years, but who performed around town together during the 1970s as a band called Radiation.

Davis began his music career as a songwriter and performer during the early 1960s. He released a series of soul songs as a singer, enjoying a bit of regional success and performing as a drummer behind acts like Smoky Robinson and the Miracles (he played on studio sessions for "Tears of a Clown") and Dennis Coffey (Davis played drums on Coffey's first solo album "Hair and Thangs" during the late 1960s).

Meanwhile, Wayne Kramer became famous as co-founder of the MC5 (Motor City 5). The band subsequently gained fame for its blistering live performances and became infamous for its radical politics and the song "Kick out the Jams" with its unexpurgated opening.

Kramer saw his music career interrupted when he did a prison stretch of more than two years during the mid-1970s on drug charges. He subsequently continued to perform as a musician off and on through the years and sometimes supplemented that income by working as a carpenter.  

Davis also continued to work as a musician through the years, but incredibly ended up working a regular post office job from 1984 until retiring from there about five years ago.

The combination of Davis and Kramer may look, at first glance, as unlikely. Kramer still embraces his left-wing political stance as an advocate and supporter of Detroit's working class on stage, while Davis has a looser stage presence and patter that encourages the audience to believe in love and dreams. Both men, though, have musical careers that cover more than five decades, and both have their own history as part of Detroit's sometimes struggling working class.

Davis and Kramer proved that they still have strong musical chops and demonstrated the versatility that served them well throughout the years as they backed each other's big hits.

Unexpurgated opening for "Kick out the Jams" You've been warned!
Unexpurgated opening for "Kick out the Jams" You've been warned!

The highlight of the show came when Kramer got his old friend Davis on stage behind the drum kit and told the audience that he thought it was time to "Kick out the Jams...." (If you're from the Detroit area, you know what comes next!)...and they did!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Detroit Concert of Colors 2014: Don Was All-Star Revue Tribute to Bob Seger's "Live Bullet"

Regular Midwest Guest readers know that Detroit's annual Concert of Colors is always one of our favorite events of each year.

The festival always fields a great bill of music from Detroit and beyond, but more importantly, the venerable diversity and world music festival, now in its 22nd year, seeks to reignite Detroit's unique spirit of unity and perseverance in the face of adversity.

No doubt about it.

Detroit is facing some serious challenges, especially in recent years.

But we leave the festival as it concludes each year with a renewed spirit of hope and faith in metro Detroit and its people.

 

Don Was

One of the festival events that most epitomizes the celebration of all that is the best in Detroit's spirit is the Don Was All-Star Revue, a presentation of some of the city's best classic and emerging musical talent presented by uber producer Don Was.

Was works with an amazing array of people and projects throughout the year, but the Concert of Colors is obviously quite close to his heart. He always looks forward to coming home to promote Detroit's diverse and deep pool of talent while basking in the festival's chill vibe of unity and hope.

The All-Star Revue started seven years ago when Concert of Colors festival organizer and a friend to Was, Ishmael Ahmed, asked Was to help pull the festival out of a jam when one of its headline acts had to cancel at the last minute.

Spyder Turner

Was suggested that he could pull together a program of Detroit talent, structuring the show as an old-style revue where each act performed one song. That way, each act only had to learn and rehearse one song, and the audience got to see a diverse show of vintage and brand-new talent performing in a variety of genres.

The show was a hit with audiences, and Was found he enjoyed doing it so much that he agreed to stage an encore show the next year, and the next year...with the All-Star Revue becoming an annual tradition at the festival.

Was isn't someone who is content forever repeating himself, though.

He strives to keep the format fresh, and this year's twist for the Revue was revisiting an iconic Detroit album with a diverse group of artists representing different musical genres, generations and ethnicities.

Was chose Bob Seger's "Live Bullet" album, a true Detroit classic for many folks who can identify with Seger's take on the working class' struggle to achieve something better for their families, or to become, in Seger's words, "part of the U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)".

Caleb Gutierrez, Infatuations

The 1976 album is a Detroit document of an era many of us remember living through, but in the hands of Was and his team of talent, the music expressed a far more universal spirit than casual Seger fans or critics give the music credit for doing. It clearly spoke across an audience far more diverse in age, experience and sentiment than many people envision Seger's audience of working-class stiffs encompassing.

I am a fan of fairly heavy guitar rock, soul and blues music, so some of my favorite performances of the evening included Spyder Turner's straight-forward and muscular soul take on "I've Been Working" (give the man his beer already!), a blistering funk-filled and soul-drenched performance from Nadir and Steffanie Christi'an of the incendiary "Lookin' Back" and a rollicking "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" from the Infatuations.

The Infatuations

But I couldn't overlook the power of some of the quieter takes on Seger's songs like Lamont Zodiac's reflective performance of  "Jody Girl" that included an extended spoken-word interlude about memories of long-ago love and Mayssa Karaa's haunting version of "Turn the Page" that had her alternating singing the verses in English and Arabic.

One friend told me that maybe Seger critics just had too difficult of a time banishing visions of Tom Cruise sliding across the floor in his underpants and playing air guitar during a scene in the movie "Risky Business" to the strains of Seger's "Old-Time Rock and Roll" to take Seger's music seriously, but I think they're really missing the message behind a lot of Seger's music.

The audience hearing the All-Star Revue's take on Seger's tunes seemed to get the message.

Steffanie Christi'an

Detroit is a fighter, Detroit is a lover, Detroit is a dreamer, Detroit is a doer. Detroit may have its back against the wall at times, but Detroit will always prevail because you can't quash Detroit's spirit.

Nadir

Here is the set list and artists for this year's revue:

Nutbush City Limits-Scott Morgan & The Sights (Rock/Soul)

Travelin' Man-Corktown Popes (Celtic Rock)

Beautiful Loser-Jess Domain (Pop/Soul)

Jody Girl-Lamont Zodiac (Soul)

I've Been Working-Sypder Turner (Soul)

Turn the Page-Mayssa Karaa (Arabic Classical/Jazz)

U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)-Doop and the Inside Outlaws (Roots Rock)

Bo Diddley-Detroit Cobras (Garage Rock)

Ramblin' Gamblin' Man-The Infatuations (R&B/Rock)

Heavy Music-Luder (Progressive Rock)

Katmandu-Liz Larin (Rock/Electronic)

Lookin' Back-Nadir and Stepffanie Christi'an (Funk/Rock)

Get out of Denver-Blair Alise and the Bombshells (Power Pop)

Let it Rock-the All-Star Revue

Thanks to Tim Marks for allowing me to use several of his photos from this show with this post. Check out more of his photography at his SmugMug page.

©text Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

©photos Dominique King and Tim Marks 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for June 2014

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Les Cheneaux Islands: Dancing Waters B&B-I've followed Loreen's tales of her trek around the Great Lakes on her 1000-Mile Great Lakes Adventures blog for quite some time. It was a lot of fun to discover that she "followed" us to the Dancing Waters B&B in Cedarville, Michigan. I loved seeing photos of owners Jim and Betty and the progress Jim's made in the past year on the B&B addition. 

Oddball Michigan: A Guide to 450 Really Strange Places-Jessie reviews this book, which is definitely screaming my name, on the Wandering Educators blog. We love strange stops, like the Teenie Weenie Pickle Barrel Cottage featured in this review, and the quirkier, the better.

Grand Traverse Commons Tour: A Popular Tourist Attraction-Touring the former mental hospital buildings at Traverse City, Michigan has long been on my bucket list, although we did manage to visit the grave of the famed Traverse Colantha Walker (a champion milk cow) on the grounds of this mixed-use development. Mike has tour info at the Traverse City True North blog.

The Last Covered Bridge in Wisconsin: Cedarburg-I love covered bridges and cringe when one falls victim to vandals, a hit-and-run or simply crumbles because of the ravages of time. We have so few of these covered spans in Michigan (arsonists recently destroyed one, and another suffered damage when an over-sized construction vehicle hit it), so I was particularly interested in Kenneth's story about the Cedarburg Bridge on the Wisconsin Explorer blog.

14 Things to do in South Dakota-We found plenty to do when we traveled through South Dakota, and I see that Deb and her family also enjoyed places like Wall Drug, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, and Corn Palace that Tim and I enjoyed on our travels. Check out her story at Just Short of Crazy.

The famed Wall Drug "jack-a-lope"

Historic Park Inn: Last Remaining Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel-Connie takes readers on a tour of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel in Mason City, Iowa. The structure, built as a bank in the early 1900s, went through decades of neglect after the bank failed and the building remained mostly empty. A dedicated group of locals raised enough money to restore the building for use as a hotel and, in 2011, the historic hotel reopened to the public. Check out the story (and lots of photos!) at the Midwest Wanderer blog.

Rockford Offers Collection of Unique Architecture-Chere ventured north from her home in Louisiana to check out some cool Frank Lloyd Wright homes and buildings in Rockford, Illinois. Check out her story about Rockford and its many attractions (gotta love a place that claims to be home to the Sock Monkey!) at the Louisiana Road Trips blog.

Dubuque Incline is a Historical Ride-I loved the views we had of downtown Pittsburgh while riding the Duquesne Incline, and I loved reading about Tim and Lisa's ride on a similar incline in Dubuque, Iowa. Like the inclines in Pittsburgh, the Dubuque Incline opened during the late 1800s as a way to ease the trek between places in a hilly town. Check out their story at The Walking Tourists blog.

My Midwest: Summertime in Indy-Lisa found some great things to see and do in Indianapolis, a town that seems to be experiencing a rejuvenation in attitude and revitalized, or new, attractions. The new eight-mile Cultural Trail through town and a chance to ride a gondola with singing gondoliers especially sounds like fun to me! Check it out at the LL World Tour blog.

Edith Head's Hollywood Costumes Will Show You How to Dress for Success-I'm a fan of classic movies and costumes (check out my Vintage Fun board on Pinterest if you doubt me!), so I loved Bee's story about an exhibit featuring the work of the famed Hollywood costume designer at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster. I may not be able to get down to this exhibit before it closes in mid-August, but I'm enjoying the photos and story at beesfirstappearance blog.

Quirky Attraction: Michael Jackson's Birth Home-Scott shares the story of visiting the gloved one's birthplace in Gary, Indiana on his Quirky Travel Guy blog. Jackson's story still fascinates fans and others five years after his untimely death in June, 2009, and Scott tells his readers that fans still stop by to see the site. I know that the story I wrote about a tribute headstone in a Detroit cemetery (which is not Jackson's actual burial place) still draws interested readers today.   

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Where I live: Detroit's Concert of Colors showcases a diverse bill of new and classic talent

Regular Midwest Guest readers know that the annual Concert of Colors diversity festival is one of my favorite summer events in Detroit.

This free festival always fields an intriguing bill of world music showcased in several great venues around Detroit's Midtown cultural center near Wayne State University.

A festival preview, or "tune-up" concert, happens with Chicago AfroBeat Project and the Afro-Latin music of Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca at 7-11 p.m. on July 5 at the New Center Park.

The main festival launches with performances at the Scarab Club and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on Thursday, July 10. Mike Ellison returns for a performance at the Wright that night with a program of hip hop, African beats and rock. We saw Ellison at the Concert of Colors a couple of years ago when he MC'd a great show for an SRO crowd.

Show with DJ Mike-E, 2011 Concert of Colors

The festival action moves to the south lawn at Detroit Institute of Arts on Friday July 11. I look forward to spending the evening on the lawn, enjoying the chill vibe of the festival on a hot summer evening with Latin jazz and salsa performances by PanaMO and the "barogue avant garde" sounds of Cuddle Magic and Phyllis Chen.  

The festival moves to the Max M. Fisher Center (home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) for two full days of music, food and other activities on Saturday, July 12 and Sunday July 13.

A Detroit Food Truck Rally alongside The Max is a great place to catch a bite to eat as you move among the festival's three stages to enjoy the music.

The Main Stage in Orchestra Hall and the more intimate Music Box inside of the Max showcase the bigger acts.

We always look forward to the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue as uber producer Was strives to keep the revue format fresh while finding some really great new and classic Detroit talent. We've seen all six of the previous All-Star Revues, and this year's promises to be fun as a wide range of Detroit talent takes on the music of Detroit Legend Bob Seger by offering their versions of songs on the "Live Bullet" album from 1976 that really launched Seger, then a regional favorite, into the national consciousness. Spyder Turner, Detroit Cobras, Corktown Popes, Mayssa Karaa, Liz Larin and Doop & the Inside Outlaws are just a few of the folks on the bill for this show. Don't miss it!

Don Was, 2011 Concert of Colors

I'm also particularly jazzed about seeing Detroit Blues Queen Thornetta Davis perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on Orchestra Hall's main stage (and home stage for the symphony). We have a group of season tickets to the symphony, and we've seen Davis perform several times over the years around town. I can't wait for what promises to be a great show with Davis and the symphony!

Thornetta Davis, 2006 Detroit Festival of the Arts

The outdoor courtyard showcases an even more eclectic bill of entertainment that includes Wisaal with Arabic/techno, blues with Royal Blackbirds, Southwest dance with the Living Arts Youth Dance Ensemble and more.

Want a preview of some of the music you'll hear at the Concert of Colors?

Check out the radio dial at the top of the Concert of Colors Web site. I found some great tunes from folks we've heard at the Concert of Colors in the past (October Babies, Wayne Kramer, Melvin Davis, Thornetta Davis), cool covers of classic tunes (White Rabbit by Mayssa Karaa and Papa Was a Rollin' Stone by Was Not Was) and things I haven't heard before (like Celtic/hip-hop from Black 47).

Wayne Kramer, 2013 Concert of Colors

Meanwhile, check out my recaps for Friday, Saturday and Sunday for last year's Concert of Colors and a story about my interview with Don Was who said, when asked about staging the festival's Detroit All-Star Revue, "It's my favorite night of the year. There's a great spirit and great music."

I'm with Was. It's a great festival. Don't miss it!  

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved