Movement, from the Detroit Electronic Music Festival to today

man-hour, photo by TerryJohnston

We were not used to listening to techno outdoors in the day, this was not something that ever happened in Detroit.
~Josh Glazer, 2000 Detroit Electronic Music Festival

Movement (formerly the Detroit Electronic Music Festival aka DEMF) comes to Hart Plaza in Detroit Memorial Day Weekend, May 26-28, 2012. Detroit is widely considered to be the the birthplace of techno, and Movement remains true to those roots. In 2012, 107 acts will perform across five stages with headliners including Zeds Dead, SBTRK, Public Enemy, Claude Vonstroke and Major Lazer.

You can see a great video from 2011 at the link above and you are heartily encouraged to dig into the DEEP story of this festival from 2000 to the modern day at Resident Advisor. It takes you from the first murmurings about a festival celebrating Detroit’s electronic scene, through the planning stages and to the nervous dawn of the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival Memorial Weekend of 2000, all told through photos and the words of the people that have worked on it and followed it through the years:

Richie Hawtin: People who wouldn’t go out to a nightclub, people who had bought a Derrick May record but didn’t really know who was behind it, friends who had stopped going out, people with their kids. The whole family aspect was incredible.

Matthew Dear: Sometime during that first year, I remember walking by a big circle of dancers. Everyone was happy, dancing and watching some guys jit in the center of the circle. Then I realized that the Mayor of Detroit, Dennis Archer was standing on the inside of the circle with his family, smiling, dancing and enjoying the show alongside everyone else.

Phil Talbert: A lot of kids walked up to the Mayor, and said, “You’re the Mayor? I just want to say thank you for doing something for young people.” I think he realized, then, how important it was.

Ernest Burkeen: The Mayor was shocked. Whenever you do a first year event, you’re happy just to make it happen. I never expected the crowds that we saw.

Check this out on black and in Terry’s Movement – DEMF slideshow.

Ernie Harwell, gone but not forgotten

The Old Ball Game, photo by dblstripe

“Ernie (Harwell) is probably the most beloved person who has ever been in Detroit with the Detroit Tigers. He is loved by everybody and rightfully so. He’s a great broadcaster but even a better person. That comes across on his broadcasts.”
~ Detroit Tiger Hall of Famer Al Kaline

Two years ago today, one of the greatest members of the Detroit Tigers organization passed away. It’s no coincidence that Ernie Harwell received a baseball announcer’s highest honor by winning the Ford Frick Award from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Here’s his Hall of Fame induction speech, set to a scrapbook of photos. There’s much more about Ernie Harwell on Michigan in Pictures.

Bryan shot this photo of the pitchers mound at old Tiger Stadium aka Ernie Harwell Park last fall. Check it out background big and in his Detroit slideshow.

We’ll close with words from Harwell’s farewell address that you can read in full at the Baseball Almanac. Click head over to “Ernie” on Absolute Michigan to read about the play about him by Mitch Albom and to see Ernie with thousands of the fans he talks about here…

“Thank you for letting me be part of your family. Thank you for taking me with you to that cottage up north, to the beach, the picnic, your work place and your backyard.

Thank you for sneaking your transistor under the pillow as you grew up loving the Tigers.

Now I might have been a small part of your life. But you have been a very large part of mine. And it’s my privilege and honor to share with you the greatest game of all.”

Detroit’s First Amusement Park: Electric Park

Inner Court Electric Park Detroit, Mich, photo by H.C. Hawkins

Today on Absolute Michigan we’re featuring a new festival called DLECTRICITY that is slated for October 5-6, 2012 on Detroit. DLECTRICITY organizers said that the name for the festival was inspired by Detroit’s first amusement park. The Detroit News Rearview Mirror page on Electric Park explains:

Electric Park, Detroit’s first mammoth amusement enterprise, opened May 26, 1906, near the Belle Isle Bridge approach. The Free Press heralded the opening of the park, “Detroit’s new Electric Park will be one of the largest in the world. Rome, with its seven hills will be a poor second to the roller coaster which is to be installed on the western site of the park. Here will be found l4 hills and any amount of hilarious fun my be derived within the enclosure.”

Owned by the Arthur Gaulker family, Electric Park, before it closed in 1928, went through many name changes and lengthy court battles over property rights. Some oldtimers remember the park’s nicknames: “Pike’s Peak, Lunar Park, Riverside or Granada.” Many of these names came from concessions located along the riverfront grounds.

You can read some more and see a whole bunch of great old photos at Electric Park on Water Winter Wonderland.

April 20, 1909: The World’s First Mile of Concrete Highway

Paving Woodward Avenue in 1909, photo courtesy Woodward Avenue Action Association

On April 20, 1909,construction of the world’s first mile of concrete highway was begun in Detroit. The History of the World’s First Mile of Concrete Highway from the Wayne County Road Commission begins.

The year was 1909, and it was a big year in Detroit. Ty Cobb led the Detroit Tigers to a League Pennant at Bennett Park, Henry Ford introduced the Model T and J.L. Hudson was scouting out a location at Woodward and Farmer for his department store’s new location.

Also that year, the Wayne County Road Commission introduced the world to a new kind of road: Concrete. The only place it could be found that year was Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads in Greenfield Township, which is now northwest Detroit.

Roads up to that point – if they were paved at all – had been built with brick, cobblestone, or a material called macadam, which was not much more than stones sprayed with a tar to form some kind of wear resistant surface. Unfortunately, brick and cobblestone were uneven and labor intensive, while macadam didn’t last long.

Read on for more about this Michigan first, from the creation of Michigan’s first road commission in Wayne County in 1906 (Henry Ford was a charter member) to the details of this and other transportation innovations from the Motor City. They also have the facts about that first mile including the cost ($13,492.83) and daily pay of workers.

See more photos from the Woodward Avenue Action Association and read a whole lot more about the history of Woodward Avenue.

More cars on Michigan in Pictures.

It’s playoff time in Hockeytown

Jimmy Howard, photo by Seth Christie

The Detroit Red Wings open the 2012 NHL playoffs at 8 PM tomorrow night in Nashville. As the game preview on the Red Wings site shows, the two teams finished with just 2 points separating them. The Predators have Pekka Rinne, the NHL’s leader in wins in the net and home ice in the series. The Wings have Jimmy Howard, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and 2004 and 2008 playoff series victories over Nashville with 2008 resulting in a little thing called Lord Stanley’s Cup. Should be a great series – get more in Five Things you need to know about the Detroit Red Wings on Absolute Michigan.

Seth shot this great shot of Jimmy Howard from his seat in row K after being kicked out from by the glass. He has a better plan next time that involves not wearing the away teams jersey to the game. Check it out bigger and in his short but sweet Detroit slideshow.

Much more Detroit Red Wings action on Michigan in Pictures.

We’ve got you covered

DSC02766_tonemapped, photo by ansonredford.

I thought I’d feature a photo from our Michigan Cover Photos Group. You can add pics to it if you want to have them featured on our Michigan in Pictures Facebook and also the Absolute Michigan Facebook.

Recently we featured Donald’s photo of one of the sculptures on the Wayne County Courthouse. This is one of four that depict Law, Commerce, Agriculture, and Mechanics. They were executed by sculptor J. Massey Rhind.

Check it out background bigtacular and see some more including an amazing HDR of the courrthouse in Donald’s slideshow.

If baseball is the national pastime, why isn’t Opening Day a national holiday?

Tigers ROAR!!, photo by Jesse Welter

The Detroit Tigers open the 2012 season today at 1:05 PM at home at Comerica Park vs. the Boston Red Sox. The game preview begins:

Opening Day will dawn Thursday afternoon. And in Detroit, it dawns in a big way.

You’ve got reigning AL Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander facing MVP runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury in the first inning. You’ve got Prince Fielder’s Detroit debut and Bobby Valentine’s first game at the steering wheel for Boston. You’ve got Miguel Cabrera manning the hot corner for the first time in four years.

…Regarding that aforementioned Verlander-Ellsbury matchup, it’s pretty rare stuff. The last time a reigning MVP pitcher faced the man who finished second to him in the balloting in his first start of the season? You have to go all the way back to 1932, when Lefty Grove faced Lou Gehrig.

Head over to Absolute Michigan for our Detroit Tigers 2012 season preview that includes all kinds of links and a look back at the very first Detroit Tigers Opening Day!

Jesse took this photo at game four of the playoff series vs. the Texas Rangers last October. Check it out on black and in his Tigers slideshow.

Much more about the Detroit Tigers on Michigan in Pictures!

Corktown, the Irish and St. Patrick’s Day in Michigan

Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, photo by *Alysa*.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Detroit had their parade last weekend but there are events on tap today and tomorrow in Bay City, Clare, Flint, Kalamazoo, Grand Ledge,  Saugatuck, Traverse City and Muskegon.

Ground zero for the Irish in Michigan is Corktown. Wikipedia notes that it is Detroit’s oldest neighborhood explaining:

The roots of Corktown lie in the Great Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. The Irish immigrated to the United States in droves, and by the middle of the 19th century, they were the largest ethnic group settling in Detroit. Many of these newcomers settled on the west side of the city; they were primarily from County Cork, and thus the neighborhood came to be known as Corktown. By the early 1850′s, half of the population of the 8th Ward (which contained Corktown) were of Irish descent

The Corktown Historical Society has a cool slideshow of historic photos and brochure images and you might want to check out the Corktown Explorer blog.

The Irish in Michigan from Seeking Michigan has some information about Corktown but adds that:

Irish immigrants to Michigan certainly did not limit themselves to settling in the urban hub of Detroit, with many of them making their way up north. In the 1830s, Irish immigrants settled in fishing camps on Mackinac and Beaver Islands. Today, a large portion of Beaver Island’s year-round residents are of Irish descent. Wexford, Clare, Emmet and Antrim counties in the northern Lower Peninsula are all named after counties in Ireland. Irish immigrants were also instrumental to the copper mining boom in the Upper Peninsula. Nearly one-third of the area’s foreign-born population was from Ireland in 1870, though the Irish population would decline by 1920. Many small Irish communities could also be found scattered throughout the Lower Peninsula in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Wherever you are and whoever your ancestors were, here’s hoping you have a fun and safe St. Patrick’s Day holiday!

Check this out bigger and in Ann Lysa’s slideshow.

Happy Birthday to you, Thomas Edison

Detroit – Edison Illuminating Company high line crew, photo courtesy Seeking Michigan

The Life of Thomas Edison from American Memory at the Library of Congress says that:

Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. Known as “Al” in his youth, Edison was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Edison tended to be in poor health when young.

To seek a better fortune, Sam Edison moved the family to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, where he worked in the lumber business.

Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison “addled,” his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint.”(1) At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.

In 1859, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the Grand Trunk Herald, the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.

Read on for much more, and also see Thomas Edison at Wikipedia. While Edison’s life in Michigan didn’t include much of what one of the architects of our modern lifestyle was famous for, there’s some great places to visit to learn more about him. Two of the best are the Thomas Edison Depot Museum in Port Huron and Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory at Greenfield Village.

Get this photo from Seeking Michigan big as the 20th Century and see a few more Edison-related photos from Seeking Michigan.

Post #350 on Michigan in Pictures!

Happy Martin Luther King Day

JELLY BEAN HOUSE-MLK, photo by marsha*morningstar.

I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job.

~Martin Luther King, June 23, 1963 Detroit, Michigan

Martin Luther King delivered the above lines first in the massive Great March on Detroit in 1963 – click that link for the full speech and more on MLK.

See this photo bigger and see more in Marsha’s Heidelberg Project Detroit 2009 slideshow.