Say a little prayer for Aretha

Say a Little Prayer… by Tom Hughes

“From the time that Dinah Washington first told me that Aretha was the ‘next one’ when she was 12 years old until the present day, Aretha Franklin set the bar upon which every female singer has and will be measured. And she did it with the professionalism, class, grace and humility that only a true Queen could. I treasured every moment that we spent together from working in the recording studio, to performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, or simply hanging in the kitchen, and I will miss her dearly. RIP Ree-Ree. You will reign as the Queen forever.”
-musician & producer Quincy Jones

Aretha Franklin, the unquestioned Queen of Soul, has passed away. Her career spanned 6 decades and in that time she won 18 Grammy awards and such honors as the Presidential Medal Of Freedom and membership in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame & the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

I really liked The Guardian’s Aretha Franklin photo gallery , Rolling Stone’s list of Aretha’s 50 best songs and their article about her multi-level impact as an artist are both excellent, and you can see what folks are saying about Aretha on Twitter.

View Tom’s photo bigger and see more in his Detroit photo album.

Here’s Aretha singing Amazing Grace <3

Walking on the Moon: The Apollo Capsule in Grand Rapids

Now That Was Just Weird by Daniel E Johnson

July 20th is 49th anniversary of our first steps on the moon. The Mix 95.7 Grand Rapids tells the story of the Apollo capsule in front of the Grand Rapids Public Museum:

It turns out that the capsule is an actual Apollo Capsule, but it wasn’t a capsule that sat atop an Apollo Rocket. The capsule was made for training astronauts. But don’t let that news get you down, the capsule still has quite the history to it!

This type of capsule is known as a “Boilerplate” … built, along with dozens of other capsules, in the 1960s to test various systems on the Apollo Rockets. 

BP-1227 was lost at sea in early 1970 during a routine training drill to recover the Apollo boilerplate capsule by UK-based naval units. Later that same year, the capsule that was lost was miraculously recovered by a Russian “fishing vessel.” Many believe that the fishing vessel was actually a spy boat that was tracking the capsule as part of an intelligence operation.

The capsule was taken back to Russia and in late 1970 the Russians invited the Americans to recover their capsule. On September 8th, 1970 the US Navy Icebreaker, Southwind, made a stop in Murmansk to recover BP-1227. This was the first visit to a Soviet port by a US military vessel since World War II.

After the capsule was returned, the Smithsonian Institution spent the next several years restoring BP-1227 before it was eventually given on loan to the City of Grand Rapids in 1976. The boilerplate capsule was dedicated to the people of Grand Rapids on December 31, 1976. Students from local high schools filled BP-1227 with everyday items from their lives to form a time capsule. The time capsule was sealed on the last day of our nation’s Bicentennial year and it is to be opened on July 4th, 2076, as our nation celebrates its Tricentennial.

Read on for more. About the photo, Daniel wrote: We had a huge, odd cloud float over Grand Rapids today. Wednesday October 1st, 2008. HDR from one exposure shot in raw and split out three times , re-compiled in Photomatix.

See more in his HDR gallery.

The Firefly Boom of 2018

Faerie by Brian Laskowski

The Great Lakes Echo shared a feature from Great Lakes Today entitled Ideal Conditions for Firefly Boom. It says (in part):

Whether you call it a lightning bug or a firefly or perhaps by its scientific name, Lampyridae, chances are you’ve had some experience with the tiny flying insect that flashes and blinks its way through summer evenings.

And if you’ve been noticing more fireflies in your backyard this summer, you’re not alone.

“A lot of people are enjoying it and I’m thrilled that people are enjoying it,” says Sara Lewis, an evolutionary biologist at Tufts University in Boston, and writer of the book “Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies.”

“As firefly scientists, we’re just trying to understand it.”

Lewis says the first thing you have to know about fireflies is that they live underground for two years before they hatch into the blinking bugs we associate with this season. And, she says, they love wet conditions, like those in the spring of 2017.

“Those were great conditions for baby fireflies, called larvae, because they live underground and they feed on earthworms and snails and slugs so those wet conditions mean that more are surviving.”

That wet soil also makes it easier for eggs to hatch, larva to metamorphose, and adults to lay eggs for future generations — which could explain why the population seems to be booming.

Read on for more including the fact that fireflies remain threatened and how you can help reduce the threat!

Brian took this in the Maple River State Game Area. Check it out background bigtacular and see more in his Michiganscape album on Flickr!

Lots more summer wallpaper for your computer background!

Happy 131st Birthday to Michigan’s Best Porch!

Mackinac Bridge from the Grand Porch, photo by Marilyn Bogle

Happy 131st Birthday to The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island which opened on July 10, 1887. Here’s some historical highlights about Michigan’s most iconic hotel:

1887 Grand Hotel opens, billed as a summer retreat for vacationers who arrive by lake steamer from Chicago, Erie, Montreal, Detroit, and by rail from across the continent. Rates are $3 to $5 a night.

1890s Grand Hotel’s Front Porch – longest in the world—becomes the principal meeting place for all of Mackinac Island, as well as a promenade for the elderly and a “Flirtation Walk” for island romantics. Grand Hotel Manager James “The Comet” Hayes invites an agent of Edison Phonograph to conduct regular demonstrations of the new invention.

1895 Mark Twain lectures in the Grand Hotel Casino. Admission: $1.

1897 The West Wing is added to the hotel.

Turn of the century – The automobile finds its way onto the island. Grand Hotel supports an island-wide ban. A law is passed, but not strictly enforced until the 1930s.

1919 Hotel rates: $6 a day per person.

1935 A radio salon where patrons can listen to Jack Benny and other popular programs is added.

1947 This Time For Keeps starring Jimmy Durante and Esther Williams is filmed on the island and at Grand Hotel.

1960 Grand Hotel owner W. Stewart Woodfill appoints R.D. (Dan) Musser president of Grand Hotel.

1976 Musser and wife Amelia begin the redesign of the hotel’s interior and exterior with the help of architect Richard Bos and decorator Carleton Varney.

1979 The Mussers purchase Grand Hotel.

1980 Somewhere In Time, filmed at Grand Hotel and starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer, is released.

1989 The U.S. Department of Interior designates Grand Hotel a National Historic Landmark.

View Marilyn’s photo background bigilicious and see more in her Mackinac album.

More Grand Hotel and more Mackinac Island on Michigan in Pictures!

Happy Independence Day, Michigan!

Bay City Independence Day Celebration, photo by Charles Bonham

Happy 4th of July everyone!

View Charles’s photo bigger and see more in his Bay City Michigan album.

Morning on the Dunes

Morning on the Dunes, photo by Owen Weber

Here’s a phenomenal shot of the sunrise on Glen Lake from atop the dunes in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

View Owen’s photo bigger and see more in his Michigan album.

Happy World Turtle Day from Phillip the Box Turtle!

Phillip the Box Turtle, photo by Kevin Povenz

May 23rd is World Turtle Day, created by the good people at American Tortoise Rescue to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world.

Every year I’m happy to report that one of the most popular features on Michigan in Pictures remains Know Your Michigan Turtles that I wrote back in 2013 and have added to through the years with photos and articles about every one of Michigan’s 10 native turtle species including Eastern Box Turtles.

Kevin took this at the Blandford Nature Center in Grand Rapids and you can click that link to learn all about them and the wildlife you can see there. View the photo bigger and see more in his Animals photo album.