Spring Cleaning in Detroit

In recent history, much of  Detroit's urban redevelopment has been high profile building projects to lure people from the suburbs back to the city with its sprawling sports complexes and flashy gambling casinos. The long time complaint of many inner city residents is not enough is being done in Detroit's local neighborhoods.

In addition to clearing blocks of burned out or abandoned buildings, the city has instituted an ambitious program to repave streets, repair street lamps, and utilize the vacant lots for the benefit of local residents. Mayor Dave Bing and his administration are making slow but steady progress to rejuvenate areas of the city other than the downtown commercial area.

For more specific information on what Detroit is doing, check out the following link:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=RJCu3OrwjAM

Going Viral - Every Writer's Dream

The publishing business has never been easy to break into, but in this brave new world of independent, digital on-line publishing, the business of writing is suddenly wide open.

With so many players in the game today, how do independent authors get their books noticed on a national and an international level?

First, write a great book; next, promote it; then, hope it goes viral on the net. Word-of-mouth sells novels. Blog it and flog it. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Try it sometime!

That's why I love articles like the New York Times story that I've linked below. Vintage Books is about to publish a trilogy that has been described by some critics as "mommy porn."

50 Shades of Grey has sold like crazy as an ebook on the net and garnered the attention of main stream publishing. The author recently inked a seven figure contact, and the publisher is creating a buzz in the book world - I hope it's more than just hype.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/business/media/an-erotic-novel-50-shades-of-grey-goes-viral-with-women.html?pagewanted=2&hp

It Takes So Little To Save A Life Sometimes

A gentle reminder to readers of this blog: CPR can and does save lives.

Rather than panic and wring your hands until the EMS unit arrives, get down and start pushing firmly on the center of the stricken person's chest with a rhythmic action.


Be a hero in someones life. Read and see how now!  http://handsonlycpr.org/

Hurray for Hollywood - The Los Angeles Book Festival and DIY Indie Film Awards

Last evening, my wife and I spent a wonderful night in West Hollywood at the Los Angeles Book Festival and DIY Independent Film Awards held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel, site of the first Academy Awards in 1928. Located on Hollywood Boulevard - across and down the street from the Kodak Center - we were there on a Saturday night, and I couldn't help but feel like a tourist.

My novel, Zug Island, won an Honorable Mention in General Fiction. After a very nice awards presentation and the acceptance speeches, we viewed a dozen clips from independent films which had won awards. See the films yourself at the link below.

It was a fun night, and I got to meet some interesting and ambitious people. Hal Holbrook won an award for a children's book he had written, but he couldn't be there to accept it because he was on tour.

Some of the authors had remarkable stories to tell. I particularly liked the story about blind people using power tools to build toys and their self-confidence. Seriously!

Afterwards, I took my sweetheart to Mel's Drive-In and made a night of it. I couldn't help but think of Marion Ross and the Fonz - their pictures were all over the place.

Happy Days!

DIYFILMFEST.COM

San Diego Notables #2 - Marion Ross - "Mrs. C"

One of the nice things about volunteer ushering at the Globe Theater in San Diego is, of course, seeing some amazing theater; the other thing is occasionally getting to meet some of the actors.

Recently, I noticed Marion Ross of Happy Days fame in the theater as a patron rather than an actress. Marion holds an Associate Artists status at the Globe for her many years of dedicated service to the theater.

Over the years, I've seen her perform in several Globe productions, and I've seen her in Balboa Park, most notably at the Prado restaurant, where many of the Globe actors go to eat between performances.

When I first arrived in San Diego thirty-five years ago, the Old Globe theater had burned to the ground like its more famous predecessor had over four hundred years before.

Our local theater survived the wrecking ball after the Pan American Exposition in the 1930's, when the local community players raised the $200 to save the building. During World War II, the Navy took over the park for the war effort, and many radio stars, Bob Hope among them, broadcast and performed for the troops on the Globe's stage.

In 1978, disaster struck the Globe; a transient trying to warm himself or maybe an arsonist, no one ever found out who, built a fire next to the cheap wooden structure and the worst happened. The building burned to the ground. The community pulled together to raise money for the rebuilding of a far grander theater.

This is when I fell in love with Marion Ross. She was appearing on a local telethon to raise money for the new theater and the phones were barely ringing. She took her position in front of the camera and made her teary appeal.

Marion is a local San Diego State graduate and long time resident, so she started calling people out who she knew in town. She talked about what this theater meant to her and this community, and the phones lit up and the tote board went wild. She stayed with it for the rest of the telethon. I tear up just thinking about it.

Fast forward thirty-five years later. I see Marion Ross sitting with her personal assistant during intermission on a bench in the theater's lobby a couple of weeks ago. I gently walked up to her and said politely, "Miss Ross?" she looked up at me. "You really freaked me out a few weeks ago."

She must have been thinking, "Where's security?"

"I saw you on an episode of Showtime's Nurse Jackie," I told her and rolled my eyeballs in disbelief. She had played a bag lady of shocking decrepitude about to die in the hospital emergency room.

Her defenses immediately went down. She reached out and touched my forearm and her eyes lit up, "I sat in a makeup chair for four hours," she told me, "and when they gave me a mirror to see myself, I was shocked and cried." Marion Ross was barely perceptible under all of that masterful makeup. I went back to work and was thrilled that I finally got to talk to her after all these years.

I've been a fan of Marion Ross for a long time, since I saw her in a supporting role in Operation Petticoat with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. To see Miss Ross in one of her early roles and compare her with her most recent Showtime appearance brings to mind what Macduff says in Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Two extremes - too difficult to comprehend at once."

wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Ross

Detroit's Plum Street Turns Sour In The Sixties

One of the quirkiest neighborhoods in Detroit's long history was the establishment of an artsy "Hippie" enclave in a depressed neighborhood just south of downtown called Plum Street. In the spring of 1967, young counter culture types, self-described as "freaks," set up head shops, clothing boutiques, alternative bookstores, and several small eateries within a two or three block area.

Among the first supporters of this area, which might be described as Detroit's answer to San Francisco's fabled Haight-Asbury district, was a Wayne State graduate named John Sinclair. John became a local celebrity when he got busted for selling a joint to an undercover agent and was sent to jail.

The group he led, Trans Love Energies, lobbied for his release and held a rally at the University of Michigan's basketball arena, attended by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. By the time the Lennons arrived late that evening, only hard core supporters of Sinclair remained.

Few people were as impressed with John Sinclair as he was with himself. His outspoken manner was one reason he was targeted by the police. He advocated the legalization of marijuana. Today, many people find it difficult to imagine what a huge story this was in the local newspapers.

I knew John Sinclair from a distance and saw him in Ann Arbor many times. He was a large man with a huge mane of hair, who stood out in a crowd and attracted a moderate following of young sycophants and musicians. John was a charismatic figure who could be verbally aggressive if challenged or disagreed with - though usually his imperious bearing was enough to keep his followers in line.

Once Plum Street started to became successful, it attracted crowds of  "tourists" from the suburbs which robbed the street of some of its charm. Worse than that, it captured the attention of a local motorcycle gang - The Outlaws. They rolled in and started taking over and roughing people up.

After a stint of bad publicity and little help from law enforcement, the Plum Street "experiment" failed and the area once again became deserted and depressed.

"Unconditional Surrender" in San Diego?

For the last several years, J. Seward Johnson's twenty-five foot tall statue, "Unconditional Surrender" has graced Tuna Harbor Park in San Diego, California.

Dubbed "The Kiss" by locals, the statue commemorates the famous Life magazine - Alfred Eisenstaedt - photograph of the spontaneous kiss a young nurse received from an unknown sailor in Times Square, New York, on August 14th, 1945, V-J Day.  World War Two was finally over - the Japanese had surrendered.

The statue is nestled near the shoreline on San Diego Bay between the historic aircraft carrier, the USS Midway, on the north and Seaport Village to the south.


"Unconditional Surrender" has become dear to the hearts of San Diego locals and of Navy personnel everywhere who have shipped out of this Navy port. Now, the statue is in danger of being moved to another city as per the city's lease agreement.

Interested parties are trying to find a way to keep what has become an iconic landmark in San Diego. There is talk that another statue could be cast in bronze, but I personally like the painted statue. It makes a great photo opportunity for tourists and locals alike. I took this shot from the deck of the Midway.