Whatever Works

You know how all of Woody Allen's movies start with the credits, always in the same font? Well that font is actually called "Windsor Light Condensed." That trivia was revealed in a great feature from New York Magazine that unravels the evolution of jewish humor, then asks whether or not it still really exists. It's also about Woody Allen's new film, Whatever Works, in which Larry David stars.



(go here to see some vintage Woody photos from Life Magazine.)

"Pioneers"

I realize that I'm two years late in acknowleding a really wonderful and cool project, brought to us by Jon Brumit. You might recognize Jon from ABC news. He's the guy, who, with his wife, recently bought the 100 dollar house in Hamtramck. Now he and the Mrs. are getting ready to move here permantly, from Chicago. He's also one of the people directing NPR, Neighborhood Public Radio!

So, about the project. For the Shrinking Cities exhbit in Detroit in 2007, he made a "radio-based driving tour of Detroit featuring 12 mini-programs continually broadcast at 107.9 FM from short-range transmitters in 12 different locations." Learn more here.

La Petit Zinc

I ate lunch yesterday, and the day before, at Le Petit Zinc in Corktown. If you haven't yet been (I hadn't), you've gotta go. Amazing coffee. For my first lunch I had ratatouille served on a fresh baguette, and yesterday I tried their house special, the crepe, mine with chocolate and banana. Here's the menu, and you can read the owner's interesting story here.

The place seems to be a really refreshing symbol for what Detroit is right now. It was teeming with hipsters, elders, professionals on their lunch break, and a Eastern European guy looking for the police department. There's a really charming outdoor eating area, and behind that are two raised soil beds, which I'm assuming (hoping?) will be used to grow fresh herbs for their menu.

More pictures and context here.

I find it really encouraging that in the last year or so, two CREPE restaurants have opened in the city!

There is No Alternative to Building Alternatives

The Creativity Stimulus

"Deeply rooted in the communities that made Obama's victory possible, these centers understand their work as transformational. Their communities are the most vulnerable to assaults on creativity, but they are also incubators of the most innovative ideas and movements of our time. This "creative communities" approach has created a vigorous and vital alternative to neoliberal and neoconservative versions of change." Jeff Chang from The Nation talking about how places like The Boggs Center are integral in "collevtive leap(s) of imagination."

Speaking of The Nation Magazine and Detroit.

MELTDOWN AND RECOVERY IN DETROIT
The Economic Collapse and a People’s Plan for Recovery
May 23, 2009, 5pm to 7pm
Detroit MI
Cobo Hall 1 Washington Blvd.
Moderated by John Nichols of The Nation Magazine

America's economy is in meltdown. The banking system has crashed, millions are losing their homes to foreclosure, and unemployment is skyrocketing. As fears abound that a second Great Depression may be upon us, the crisis is clear—but what is the solution?

Join Congressman John Conyers, lifelong civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs, bestselling author and Nation contributor Barbara Ehrenreich, Detroit City Councilmember Joann Watson, noted economist and Nation contributor Robert Pollin, long-time Detroit organizer and community leader Elena Herrada, and documentarian and activist Michael Moore* (invited) in a wide-ranging town hall conversation about what caused the economic collapse and how we can find a path to recovery for Detroit and for the country. .

The event marks the publication of Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (Nation Books) by Katrina vanden Heuvel and the editors of The Nation.

The event will also preview national and local organizing efforts leading up to the 2010 United States Social Forum (USSF), to be held in Detroit. The USSF will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences, share analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.

Audience questions will be taken, and a book-signing will follow the conversation.

Good Smells

Yesterday JB and I drove around parts of the city, including Belle Isle. Naively, I didn't even know about the Conservancy or how beautiful it's kept. The only other people there were an energetic elementary school class, and maybe one or two others.

With The Needle That Sings in Her Heart

A new play about Anne Frank's last months at Bergen-Belsen, inspired by In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, is a meditation on the transformative power of music, art, and creation, and it's being performed by Massachusetts high school students!

Steal Away

Aha Moment: The Underground Railroad

In the 19th century, the First Congregational Church of Detroit was a safe-house along the Underground Railroad. Today the church houses the "Underground Railroad Living Museum." For Therese Peterson, playing an Underground Railroad hero inspired her own act of bravery. Produced by Zak Rosen.