Looking to kick off Memorial Day weekend with some beats? Head to Detroit for Movement 08, an annual electronic music festival set in the city's downtown Hart Plaza.
You'll have your pick of four stages and awesome acts like Moby, Cobblestone Jazz, Rex Sepulveda and Peanut Butter Wolf from May 24-26. Most shows begin around noon and continue till midnight each day. After the music, the after-parties: There are plenty to choose from each night where you can mingle with the 20,000 other electronic music lovers.
A weekend pass is available for purchase online for $40 ahead of time, and if you're inclined to go all out buy the $175 VIP pass and get private check-in, access to an area above and behind the stage, access to a private bar and 15 drink tickets, private bathrooms and a T-shirt.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Our acquaintance with the city of Detroit has been a bit tarnished by improbable and tedious layovers (grr, Northwest!), but we're turning over a new leaf in 2008. If only we had been paying attention, we could have been making a love connection by an overhead bin! And what better way to enliven a city that had been dead to you than to meet your true love (or true-love-for-now) there?
Just don't write her a crazy poem. This list should give you a head start:
Redcoat Tavern -- This dark and cozy restaurant famed for its onion rings is perfect for sneaking glances at family dinners. 31542 Woodward Ave., in Royal Oak
Poor St. Louis. What a short year it must've been at the top of the rankings of the United States' most dangerous cities. Detroit, it was announced Sunday, is back on top as the most crime-riddled metropolis in the country. Oakland showed up in the number four slot.
While a lot of people--in Motor City and beyond--don't find that very good news, we say go with what you know. Lots of dangerous places lure visitors looking for a thrill. And, hey, that can still include a visit to the Arch--St. Louis dropped from number one to number two on the list.
Who said raves were dead? Certainly not the thousands of people who will
pack into the Hart Plaza at The Riverfront in Detroit on May 26, 27, and 28
for Movement 07, Detroit's electronic
music festival. The lineup includes Detroit's own Moodymann, Juan Atkins and
Jeff Mills.
Where To Stay:
Various bed & breakfasts like the Corktown Inn and the Windsor Street Inn
might not appreciate you stumbling through the doors at 4 a.m., covered in
fluorescent paint and glitter. Stick with the affordable Milner Hotel or
the Shorecrest Motor Inn.
Where To Eat:
Greektown, of course. Head to the strip of restaurants on Monroe Street,
behind the casino. Though some of the buildings have seen better days,
anyplace that has Parthenon or Pegasus in the name is sure to satiate your
hunger for a quick souvlaki. On Monroe St., you can also stop by the Second
Baptist Church to repent for your earlier sins. It's one of the more
aesthetically pleasing buildings in the area.
Where To Lose Your Money:
If the MotorCity or Greektown casinos doesn't get every cent, cross the
Detroit River to Canada on the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry. Play a few
rounds of blackjack at Casino
Windsor while still feeling the drug-induced delusions of grandeur.
We're only saying you can do this, not that you should.
Get out of my dreams! Get into my car! Maybe that pick-up line wouldn't work so well in the Motor City -- given the current state of the local industry. Test your best lines at these Detroit cool corners:
Sweet Dreams Bakery: Cake won't do your Easter celebration justice? Pick up a cream puff tree for a phantasmagoria of sugary goodness, perhaps with a side of "love at first sight." (Sorry, not Pesach approved.) 3848 E. 13 Mile Rd.
Slows Bar-B-Q: This ribs 'n' fried catfish joint, which is known for its diverse arsenal of sauces, is open until 2 a.m. for those late-night dead-animal cravings. 2138 Michigan Ave.
The Henry Ford Museum: Okay, maybe the Billy Ocean line might work at this local attraction, which not only boasts car-themed exhibits like "The Automobile in American Life" and "Presidential Limousines," but also highlights industrial design milestones like Buckminster Fuller's futuristic Dymaxion House. It's just big enough for two! 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn
Koyaanisqatsi is a famous film--actually part of a series--from the 1980s. Featuring time-lapse photography of various scenes in nature and scored by Philip Glass, it was meant to be a "tone poem" about our world, and the fleeting imprint mankind makes upon it. Apparently, as this ode to Koyaanisqatsi shows, mankind also makes a fleeting imprint on Detroit's newly refurbished Wayne County airport. We're not so sure. What about the GM boutique, doesn't that have some real staying power?
Super Bowl XL may fade gently into that good night, but Detroit will never disappear from our minds. And foremost in our Motor City mad minds is the following: how much did actual fans--not execs getting freebies--pay for tickets to yesterday's game?
From an unscientific poll of fans conducted by the Detroit Free Press, it looks like there was a two-tiered pricing system. Anyone lucky enough to win the season ticket lottery paid face value for tickets, which was $600. Everyone else, either through ticket brokers or ebay, paid about $2500.
Also available on ebay for $2500? A 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, pictured above. We know which one we would rather have had, and it's not the one that involved Matt Hasselbeck. It's very hard to argue with a blue velour interior.
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by sedona
