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Things we’d buy if we were buying:

1953 Chevrolet 150/210

S-10 frame, V-8 mill, add says “Don’t try to pick it apart. It is what it is.” But for $2800, we like it.

1980 Porsche 928

The add says “Runs and drives strong. No major mechanical issues.” Porsches are notorious money-pits, and this one has a lot of miles, but for $2500, it isn’t very Risky Business.

1983 Jeep Cherokee

This rides on a 1978 Camaro frame, looks clean as can be. Ditch the ketchup/mustard paint, put some non-rusty wheels on it, and you have a pretty interesting ride.

That’s all for now….

Here is a lap of the Formula 1 Detroit Street Circuit. The car starts along the river, heads over to Congress, shifts over to Larned (going the “wrong way” since Larned is a one-way), under the Millender Center, over to Jefferson and into a hairpin turn in front of Cobo, down a ramp and under the Ren Cen through a tunnel and finally back along the river.

Letter from Detroit Mayor William C. Maybury written Dec. 31, 1900 to be read to the citizens of Detroit in the year 2001.

To his honor, the mayor of Detroit in 2001 and the generation whose privilege and, I trust pleasure, it will be to read them contents of this box: Health and Greeting

The papers herein contained for the first time brought to light by you after a retirement of one hundred years, prepared at my request by men and women prominent in the activities of Detroit at the close of the nineteenth century. Our desire is to convey to you across the long span of the century as clear an insight as is possible into the social, religious, moral, commericial and political affairs of Detroit.

It will be to you a testimony from living witnesses of the events which they chronicle and conditions which they describe. From testimony so transmitted you will be better able to discern what advancement you have made from the modest beginnings to which we are witnesses.

We are well aware that the century closing has been marvelous in its achievements and we might be fairly excused for believing that the limit of possibilities has been accomplished in many ways, but on the contrary, we do not so believe, because the past has taught us that what seemed so impossible has been already accomplished and we would therefore not be greatly surprised at greater accomplishments in the future.

We commmunicate by telegraph and telephone over distances that at the opening of the nineteenth century were insurmountable. We travel at a rate not dreamed of then. The powers of electricity have been applied marvelously, and compressed air and other agencies are undergoing promising experiments.

We travel by railroad and steam power from Detroit to Chicago in less than eight hours, and to New York City by several routes in less than 20 hours. How much faster are you traveling? How much farther have you annihilated time and space and what agencies are you employing to which we are strangers? We talk by long distance telephone to the remotest cities in our own country, and with a fair degree of practical success. Are you talking to foreign lands and to the island of the sea by the same method?

And so throughout the various pathways of human progress the papers in this box will bring to you notice acknowledge of present conditions, and possibly words somewhat prophetic of the future. How correct our prophencies may be we know not, for we write them in doubt and yet in hopefulness. We write them in the fervent belief that you will stand upon a vantage ground of experience, far higher and more resplendent than our own. We ask, therefore, for those who assume to prophecy, your kindest consideration and even, judgment, especially when we assure you that these prophets are not without honor, eve in ther own country and their own time.

If we may judge from the history of human life and all experience, very few, if any, of the three hundred thousand souls who are now inhabitants of Detroit will exist when you have opened this box which we have so solemnly closed, and yet it may be possible that much which we accept from faith may be to you then knowledge, and possibly that knowledge may come with consciousness that we may be witnesses and even listeners to the voices that will interpret the words we have written.

Begging that you will accept for helpfulness all that tends to your information and good, and look most kindly upon that which may seem at your time to be at fault, I close this tribute.

May we be permitted to express one supreme hope — that whatever failures the coming century may have have in the progress of things material, you may be conscious when the century is over that, as a nation, people and city, you have grown in righteousness, for it is that exalts a nation.

Respectfully and affectionately submitted,
William C. Mabury, Mayor of Detroit.

Just when we thought there were no shows we wanted to see:

Saturday May 8, Location: TBA. This show was canceled due to venue/promoter issues.

We first saw 16 Volt with Bile and Evil Mothers at the Majestic a hundred thousand years ago. And I think Chemlab opened for White Zombie at Harpos. Need to check the old stubs…

And, wow, you can download the entire 16 Volt back catalog for free. Time to replace those old/missing cds!

We’ve been lucky enough to help with this project, as detailed by the New York Times:

At home in New Bedford, Mass., [Peter] Pereira was contacted after the earthquake by the photographer Lane Hartwell. She asked if he would donate his work for use in “Onè Respe” (”honor and respect”), a 40-page publication intended to raise money for the victims. He did. So did Mary Ellen Mark, Chet Gordon, Kari Hartmann and Lindsay Stark.

Ms. Hartwell started working on “Onè Respe” the morning after the quake. By Friday, it was being sold for $12 through MagCloud, a project of the Hewlett-Packard Development Company, which describes it as a “virtual magazine newsstand in the cloud.” Because MagCloud is picking up the printing costs, all the receipts from the sale of “Onè Respe” will be passed on to the American Red Cross International Response Fund for Haiti.

All money will go to the Red Cross, and you’ll get a quality magazine with photography from some of the world’s best (Follow the NYT link above to see a sample of Peter Pereira’s amazing work in Haiti from November 2009, or just check out the preview at Magcloud). Pick it up today.

We just missed out buying this on the eBay, what a great photo:

We’ve purchased an hour of time on an FM station based in Highland Park.

Time/date TBA.

Time/Date TBA

Martin Atkins will be in Ann Arbor this evening giving a 90 minute lecture on the music business.

New site is here.  New release from Nawza coming.