It’s that time of year again— time of course for what is being touted as the country’s biggest local music festival. The Metro Times Blowout takes place starting tonight until Saturday, March 3. We figured it was probably a good idea to give some recommendations on bands to check out, and polled guru Travis Wright, Arts and Culture Editor at Metro Times and host of WDET 101.9′s All Things Considered. The survey says:

1. Wednesday (“Tonight is definitely NOT to be missed,” says Wright): Matt Jones, Walking Beat, KIDS, Belle Ghoul
2. Thursday: Timothy Monger, Lettercamp, Vatican, Danny Brown, Bars of Gold, Child Bite, House Phone, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, Passalaqua, Johnny Headband
3. Friday: Troy Gregory, Lightning Love, Katie Grace, Smoke AKA the Black Cal Ripken, Kenny Turdick, Duane the Teenage Weirdo, The Mythics, The Crooks, Darlene, Twine Time, The Sights, Future Slang
4. Saturday: Skeleton Birds, Illy Mack, Phantasmagoria, Rai Knight, Buttermade Records All-Stars, Glossies, Hentch, Dirtbombs, Jeecy & the Jungle

The whole weekend can be had for a mere $20. Individual night tickets are not available, just get the full sheband. Tickets will be for sale at the select locations during the event: at the Garden Bowl on Wednesday, Feb. 29th, and at the PNA Banquet Hall and Detroit Threads entrances Thursday, March 1st through Saturday, March 3rd.

Hot off the presses, check out our time lapse video of the first MANTRACITY Mural. This baby is located at Brush and Milwaukee in Detroit. There is a really long list of folks that were involved in arranging this mural, coming up with the concept, paying for it, designing it, painting it, doing the video, providing the music…. and on and on and on. Those folks are, in no order of importance:

Organizational Partners – Public Art Workz, Motor City Blight Busters
Concept – Travis Wright
Design – Philip Lauri, Nick Jaroch
Painting – Chazz Miller, Philip Lauri, Nick Jaroch, Dom Bisquiat
Music – Ish and Artwork
Film – Sean Redenz
Financial Support – Patrick Thompson, Courtney Roschek, Chris Damico

Stay tuned for more MANTRACITY murals around town!

The IDEA Conference in New York has become something of a household name ala TED talks and the like. This year, Advertising Age and Crain’s teamed up to produce one in Detroit. The results couldn’t have been any better. A powerhouse lineup of speakers discussed the relationship between their ideas and success, and to top it off, five Detroiters submitted their ideas for the city and were awarded with recognition at the event and a $1,500 check to move it forward.

First, the speakers. Eric Ryan, founder of Method Soap says “Don’t start a business, start a cause.” His soap company makes household cleaners and hand soaps that are non-toxic, something very different from other company’s products. They use their innovative role in the industry to begin phasing out the harmful chemicals that currently exist in other products. David Morrow, founder of Warrior Sports, headquartered in Warren, says “Have the courage to follow your passion and just do it.” His company, now a $100 million enterprise, started as a father/son effort to just make David’s lacrosse team’s sticks. Pretty cool. Josh Linker, of ePrize fame and most recently the force behind Detroit Venture Partners, took the stage with a storm. His message: “Be creative.” Linkner says we learn to follow the directions instead of using our imaginations. But then, interestingly enough, our imaginations are what get rewarded in business and the workplace. So, awaken your curiousity he says, bring on the everyday creativity and break down the imaginative barriers that stall success.

These three gentleman aside, easily one of the most impressive speakers of the day was Veronika Scott, a Product Design student at CCS responsible for the Empowerment Plan. Her school project to design a coat that keeps the homeless warm and then doubles as a sleeping bag at night has turned in to a global sensation, with media outlets all over the world covering her work (see one of the coats here). The Empowerment Plan is the portion of her efforts where she pays local people a living wage to produce the jackets. The results? Three employees at this point, one that is now able to pay rent on a house and give her daughter proper childcare while simultaneously feeling immensely invested in a great cause. Very, very inspiring work.

To top it all off, one of the five user-submitted ideas awarded throughout the course of the day is a program titled “Do it in Detroit” that I have been developing with Travis Wright of Metro Times fame. Our goal? Facing the fact that 48% of Michigan’s college students leave the state, we want to hit schools in the state and region with an achingly hip multimedia presentation discussing the opportunities that exist in Detroit for young entrepreneurs, artists and urban planners. Right now, young people are getting the wrong story about the city, and sure, while this place may not be for everyone, it presents an intoxicating blend of opportunities for the right self-started, ambitious people. Detroit is a city for builders, and we want to get on the road to tell that story. It’s happening. Sooner than you think. Stay tuned.

So, let’s just put it this way: I’m tickled pink that someone is finally giving Whitey Morgan and the 78s a pat on the back. I have been awkwardly talking about a country band, from Flint and Detroit nonetheless, that plays about the most authentic contemporary outlaw music you can stumble upon, for quite some time now. You might remember mentions of them—- oh, here, here, here, here or here for starters.

Well, fear not, Travis Wright, in his “Best of” music for the year, has placed Whitey and the boys (and girl) in the top 10 albums. Finally. Some validation that I am not a complete lunatic recommending you listen to a (really excellent) country band that sounds absolutely nothing like the stuff you hear on the airwaves these days.

Happy New Year. Celebrate enthusiastically. And you betcha there’s some cool DL! stuff coming in 2011– more on that next week.

Legendary Detroit photographer Bill Rauhauser got some well-deserved attention in this week’s Metro Times courtesy of an article from Travis Wright. Rauhauser has been taking pictures in the city for 60 years, and as the byline says in the article, he’s not done yet. His signature move of taking only one shot in the moment, not five or six let alone two, is iconic in a day and age where the digital SLR and Adobe Photoshop have shifted the way photographers capture a moment.

“You have exciting new technology, what with digital cameras and Photoshop and all of that, which is fine, and when you’re older there will be even more advancements in technology, which is OK if you want to do that sort of thing. I’m not telling you how to make art, but the basic rules of photography will always apply, … and what the camera shoots will always be true. The true negative never lies about what was shot; only the photographer can lie.”

Within the article and an embedded image gallery are many of Rauhauser’s photos that show a wide-range of imagery characteristic of the city in years past. From his days spent sitting in Kresge Court observing women smoking cigarettes to capturing the antics of young Wayne State students, there is such an extensive sampling of imagery that gives us such a vivid look at Detroit’s past.

With sixty years of documentation in Detroit, we have such a historically significant collection of visuals in his work to provide insight as we look at a new future. What cues can Rauhauser’s work give us on the future of our city?

See the full MT article here.
See Rauhauser’s personal site and bio here.
Learn about his new book release and signing this Sunday at Book Beat in Oak Park here.

So, maybe a month or so ago, I unleashed some of the details about the new mural series project called MANTRACITY– a play on the words mantra, city and monstrosity. The idea is to paint large-scale murals throughout the city that impart a positive, witty and slightly motivating message. There are a few locations secured, some of the designs are still being worked on, but it’s looking like this baby is set to start this week:

The mural is at the corner of Brush and Milwaukee in New Center. The Kahn reference is playing up to the fact that as you look at the wall, the Fisher Building, GM Building and Argonaut are all in sight just off to the right– each of which was designed by the famed Albert Kahn. It’s been a pleasure working with a pretty swell team on this– Chazz Miller, man with the plan at Public Art Workz, Travis Wright, Arts and Culture Editor at Metro Times and Patrick Thompson of Patrick Thompson Design.

Hoping to have some sort of film or slideshow to document the process of getting this first mural up. Keep your eyes peeled!

Five Awesome’isms, another installment of THIS DOESN’T SUCK:

1) Travis Wright did a great writeup with photos of all the Detroit Banksy pieces on the Metro Times Blog. Check it. One step further, the Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop is playing at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak.
2) I talked about it a few weeks ago, but you should probably check out Honky Tonk Throwdown tonight at PJs Lager House. Whitey Morgan et al will be bringing the heat. Tickets are cheap and its chock full of all the local honk talent. Laughing about honky tonk in Detroit? Why don’t you watch this, punk.
3) Slowly but surely, more entries are coming in for the DL! Guidebook Project, that is, the user-generated attempt at producing a guidebook on Detroit. We still need more testimonials, stories, entries, etc. Fill out the form and be a part of it.
4) Flower day is this Sunday at Eastern Market. I mean, come on, that’s some good ol’ fashioned fun right there.
5) The Alley Deck opens this weekend. Enough said.

Attribution Detroit is setting out to accurately reflect the creative genius that resides in Detroit. So, how they doing that? Well, a few weeks ago, TIME started a contest, a call to arms of sorts amongst the ad agencies in the area, to create compelling ad copy that accurately reflected Detroit’s creative culture. The results were seen across the table as sort of less than ideal, and as a result Attribution has set out to change the game. The group, headed by Metro Times arts and culture editor Travis Wright, is now commissioning local artists and others to create new ads that are more accurate in their portrayal of Detroit. Work is underway as we speak, the website is launching soon and the press seem to be receptive to what Attribution is trying to do (hear this interview). And so where will this take us? Will the local papers run the ads? Will some major international periodical pick up the content to piggyback on all the hooplah around Detroit? Just have to wait and see. The good news is that in the meantime there will be a launch party of sorts to celebrate the release of the first round of ads. Never a bad thing, hoss. Never a bad thing.

Metro Time’s Arts and Culture Editor Travis Wright put together a compelling cover story in the Metro Times this past week. The topic: the Moth StorySlam– an improv storytelling event at Cliff Bell’s, where folks that put their name in a hat get up on stage and tell a story based on the story theme that night. This isn’t a new concept. Moth StorySlams have been happening for a while, having originated in New York. They are podcasted even, and they happen to be one of the most popular downloads on iTunes each week. And now, the concept has landed in Detroit. In a weird way, it’s another story of positivity amongst the stuff that is traditionally reported in Detroit, and in another way it’s just a great way to spend a weeknight. The next Moth StorySlam is November 5, at Cliff Bell’s. The theme: “Blunders.”

As a pre-party of sorts for the second annual People’s Arts Festival at the Russell 8/29-8/30, the 323 East Gallery in Royal Oak is holding an event on Friday, curated by Robert Del Valle, called Post-Apocolayptic Motor City. Vanessa Miller, a participating artist in the show, is also featured in Metro Times in an interview with Arts Editor Travis Wright talking about avoiding cliches in Detroit as a photographer. OK. That was a lot. Go on now, read ahead.