The Mitten will be back soon.  Like when I get some furniture to sit on in my new house.  Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

-Quinn

Moving back to Michigan this year hasn’t always been easy. Without boring you with specifics, I’ll just say that the stark reality of the economy has made itself apparent in a variety of ways. But making this video has reminded me of one of the main reasons I moved back: The unassuming generosity of Michigan’s people.

I’d like to thank these specific Michiganders who made this video possible:

The Riders. I am still blown away by the generosity of Kristie, Sam, Kendall, and the two Scotts (all from Charlotte, MI). They had never met me or John, my camera guy (more on him in a moment), when we showed up to the Leota Trail on a Saturday morning. After I explained our intentions, they drove us out to two practice trails and let us shoot footage for more than an hour. All the moving shots were taken from the back of Kristie’s ATV (which she eventually let me test drive!). I’ll forever be grateful for their willingness to give up precious time from their weekend getaway to help two strangers shoot a video.

Michigan’s ATV Community.  In the week leading up to shooting this video, I spent hours on the phone with several leaders of Michigan’s ATV community.  Though none were able to ride on less than a week’s notice, they all offered tons of helpful information.  Special thanks to Tim Thurman (president of the ATV Offroad Club of Michigan) who invited me to go out riding the following week (though I couldn’t) and provided tons of insight on the changing landscape of ATV laws (before the WSJ covered the exact topic later that week).  Also thanks to Larry Reynolds of Lansing’s Dirt Mafia, who assured me I would find riders on the Leota Trail on a Saturday morning.  

Chris Bathgate. I spent countless hours listening to hundreds of songs by Michigan artists* before I came across Chris’s “A Flash of Light Followed By.” I was originally looking for something shoegaze-y, but when I heard the simple guitar line at the beginning of “Flash,” it struck me as strangely perfect. The distortion and horn filled climax at the end convinced me it was the song. I’ve never met Chris, but I emailed him to ask if I could use the song in the video (explaining that I didn’t have a budget to pay him). He quickly replied with permission and thanked me for asking. I can’t imagine this video without the song. I encourage you to buy it yourself if you like it.

John McCarthy.  Calling John my “camera guy” is grossly understating his role in all of this.  He is the director, camera operator, editor, and sound engineer.  Simply put, he is THE MAN.  But aside from his skills as a filmmaker, I am most thankful for his willingness to join me in each adventure I think up, no matter how random.  I can’t think of anyone else who would be willing to ride three hours north in search of ATV riders without knowing who or what we’d find.  Or drive to downtown Ann Arbor on two separate occasions in search of a street performer. Or downtown Ypsi in search of the origins of Superman Ice Cream.  I’m really proud of this video and I know it wouldn’t be nearly as spontaneous and organic without John’s willingness to fly by the seat of his pants with me.

* There was so much more great music than I could’ve ever imagined.  Stay tuned for a post with a playlist of my favorite Michigan bands.

This is not my video.  But I wish it was.  When I was living in Boston, I had several conversations with friends about starting an online late-night talk show.  I thought we could invite cool bands to perform and interview comedians in front of a small audience. Though I never got around to it (add it to the list), I’m glad to see someone in Detroit has.  His name is Steve Barman and his show is called The Steve Barman Show.  Here’s Episode 6:

(HT: Motor City Rocks)

Ice Cream Man Hits Michigan.  During my time on the rock festival circuit, I got to know Matt Allen, a guy who gives out free ice cream for a living.  For those unfamiliar with Matt (The Ice Cream Man), you really have to check out his website (featuring performances by really good bands from his ice cream truck).  He recently made a couple stops in Michigan for Rothbury and the Michigan Adventure amusement park.  Can’t  say enough about how great a guy Matt is.  

Me and Matt at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota, 2007

826 Shootout. I don’t know how I missed this, but my new friends at 826 Michigan hosted a film festival at this year’s Ann Arbor Art Fair. But rather than simply screen movies, they shot, edited, and screened them within the duration of the fair. Check out the winning film, Spaghetti Western on a Stick, featuring 826 program director Amy Sumerton getting killed):

PS: For those of you unfamiliar with 826, they are an UNBELIEVABLE resource for kids, providing writing instruction and support for teachers and a writing center behind their Robot Store in downtown Ann Arbor. The National organization was started in San Francisco by Dave Eggers and has sprouted up in Brooklyn, Boston and a couple other cities. We’re lucky to have them in Michigan.

Yo La Tengo Plays this Saturday in Detroit (For Free!)

Let me guess.  You’re freakin’ out about the impending chaos of summer festival season.  Sure there’s lots to do, but for every worthwhile event, there seems to be 48 worthless ones.  Don’t worry.  The Mitten is here with the first edition of WYSDTW.  You’re welcome.

Monday, July 13th

Berlin Fair:  Marne, MI

Ever been to Marne, Michigan?  Me neither.  But their Berlin Fair kicks off on Monday with beer tent that opens at 4pm and an opening night all-you-can-ride special on carnival rides for $12.  Sounds like a recipe for an amazingly dangerous Monday night.

Wednesday, July 15th

The Mindstream Project (Ann Arbor Art Fair, Wed. July 15 – Sun., July 19)

Most Ann Arborites have a love/hate relationship with the Art Fair.  Sure it’s huge and respected and brings tons of business to downtown shops. But it’s also crowded, overheated, and exhausting.  For those looking for something low-key and very cool to do, check out The Mindstream Project, where you can make your own stop motion animation.  They made this video at the A2 Summer Festival:

Thursday, July 16th

Ghostbusters, Moonlight Film Festival (free) 9:30pm

As a UM grad, I rarely advise heading to East Lansing.  But when it comes to a free, outdoor, public screening of Ghostbusters, I’ve got to make an exception.  Some think I jest when I rank this movie in my top 5 all-time.  I jest not.  It is a classic.  You’ve done well this time Spartans, but I still hope we kill you in football.  Looking for inspiration? Watch this:

Friday, July 17th

George Clinton, Chene Park

For those of you even considering going to see Kid Rock on Friday, come over hear so I can slap you.   And don’t tell me he’s a Michigan guy.  KR sold out to the red states long ago.  If you want to see a real Michigan legend, head to Chene Park to see the godfather of Detroit funk himself, George Clinton.

George Clinton plays Chene Park @ 8:00pm

Satuday, July 18th

Yo La Tengo (Concert of Colors)

How lucky are we, Michigan?  Yo La Tengo (one of the 5 best bands of the past two decades) only plays, like, 3 more shows in America this year.  Brooklyn, Chicago, and…Detroit.  And by the way, those other two shows cost $45 and $35 to see.  The price to see them at the Concert of Colors?  Free(!!!).  Then they take a break before touring Europe in November.  This may be the best show of the summer.   For inspiration, enjoy this hilarious old music video for Sugarcube featuring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk teaching Yo La Tengo at a Rock & Roll Academy (way before School of Rock):

UPDATE: Forgot that Saturday also offers the VERY cool Shadow Art Fair at Ypsilanti’s VERY cool Corner Brewery.   Can’t think of a better way to pre-game the Yo La Tengo show.

It appears Joe Dumars has hired somebody other than Bill Laimbeer as Pistons head coach.  Though this is undoubtedly a good basketball decision (given Dumars’ overall track record), it exponentially decreases the likelihood the NBA will become a league where players wear armor and punch each other while fans throw fireballs at them.  

Sigh…

I guess I’ll just have to watch this video and lament what might’ve been:

In other bad Pistons news, Detroit Bad Boys says Antonio McDyess probably won’t be around next year.  You’ll be missed Dice.

When Serious Eats described Superman ice cream, my favorite childhood flavor, as “a Michigan Thing,” I was both excited and reassured. Finally, I understood why I could never find it during my time on the East Coast.  A few phone calls to out-of-state friends and a quick google search provided validation that Superman ice cream is virtually unknown outside the midwest.  

But naturally, I wanted to know more. When was it invented?  Who whipped up the original recipe? What is that magical flavor combination?

As for that the last question, the Internet provides a response as varied and contradictory as the interviewees in my video (above).  I have scanned message boards and watched creepy videos featuring less-than-sober individuals attempting to isolate Superman’s flavor. The mystery remains.

Pinpointing the origins of Superman ice cream has proven to be equally elusive.  The blue appears to descend from Blue Moon, an ice cream originally made in South Haven, Michigan…or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, depending on who you believe.  But who was the first to mimic Superman’s colors by mixing the blue with the red and yellow?  

The best answer I’ve found so far comes from Jim Karnopp, owner of Ypsilanti’s Cafe Luwak, who says he’s pretty sure the original recipe came from Stroh’s, the famous (now defunct) Detroit brewery, who began producing ice cream during prohibition.  So should I thank prohibition for indirectly spawning Superman ice cream?  A deliciously bizarre possibility, but one I have been unable to verify through phone calls with representatives of Pabst (current owners of Stroh’s Beer) or Dean Foods (ditto for Stroh’s Ice Cream). 

Didn’t the Internet put an end to mysteries like this?  

Sure, there will always be BIG unanswerable questions (i.e. “Is there a god?,” “Who shot Kennedy?,” “Is Tom Cruise an alien?,” etc.). But the best thing about the Internet, aside from resurrecting the intro to Small Wonder, is that it put an end to those nagging, oft-debated, previously unverifiable questions.  Is there really a University of Michigan flag on the moon?  No (sadly).  Did Frank Lloyd Wright’s son really invent Lincoln Logs?  Yes (surprisingly).  But as to the origins of Superman ice cream, the web responds with deafening silence.  

Whoever thought it would be Superman ice cream to bring the Internet to its knees.  

Well, I may not have definitively identified its birthplace.  But I have seen a guy from Owendale reference Superman ice cream while (horribly) rapping about his hometown.  I have found a newspaper documenting its poplarity in Monroe in 1989.  I’ve even read the blog of a mom from Northern Michigan, who said this–

“Honestly, I can’t imagine raising a child in a world without Superman Ice Cream.”

–and I’ve arrived at the same description Serious Eats had already settled on: 

“It’s a Michigan thing.”

___________________________________________________

Bonus Material from the eDepths (BMfeD):  Ever wanted to see a tattoo of a Monkey eating Superman ice cream?  Me too.  How about a quiet and very sad short film where the main character connects with a dead parent…by eating Superman ice cream? Not so much?  How about a cute Baby eating Superman ice cream for the first time?  Awwwwwwwww. Never fails.

Me @ ROTHBURY '08

In my not-so-distant-past as a music blogger, I was sent from Boston to cover the ROTHBURY Festival on the west side of Michigan. Though the lineup featured mostly “jam bands” (a.k.a. bands appreciated by sweaty hippies), for which I have an admitted aversion, there were enough outliers (Black Lips, Modest Mouse, and…Snoop?!) to keep me entertained throughout. In addition to having a great time, I learned the following two lessons:

1) It turns out, most sweaty hippies are really nice people.  

and 

2) Not all Dave Matthews Band fans are sweaty OR hippies.  In fact, some of them rank among the coolest, funniest people in the world, and if you go to their shows you might be lucky enough to meet them(!):

Me and KG (aka Kyle Gass, aka Rage Kage)

Now here’s the irony.  This year, I live in Michigan AND write a blog about the state’s music/culture and…I’m not going.  And it’s not because of the decidedly jam-filled lineup (The Dead are still…alive?).  The lineup features even more outliers than last year’s (Broken Social Scene(!), Girl Talk(!!), and Dylan(!!!)).  No, the truth is that I’ve got family in town and am looking forward to playing some HORSE, eating some kind of grilled meat, and maybe watching Step Brothers (which my brother says is funnier than you’d think and worth watching as a family).  

So here’s to you sweaty hippies.  It’s nice to know you’re out there takin’ ‘er easy for all of us sinners.  

BONUS:  For everyone else at home, I recommend you keep up with ROTHBURY via the impressive and free live video feed.  Also check out these bloggers who are covering the event:

• Absolute Michigan
• Michigan Sweet Spot
• Jump the Turnstyle
• Glorious Noise
• Stereo Subversion

There’s no denying you got off to a great start as the Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations.  Your swift ascent from ex-athlete to sports exec god was, well, messianic.  No, you never turned water into wine, but you did trade a perpetually injured Grant Hill for the unheralded duo of Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins (who you eventually traded for Rasheed Wallace). Pretty close.  You assembled a team of scrappers (dare I say, “in your image”) and led them to the promised land.  For this, I will always be grateful.

But in recent years, you’ve fallen on hard times and yesterday you fired head coach Michael Curry.  I’ll let others debate the merits of that decision.  The reason I am writing you now is to tell you that your next decision should not be up for debate.

You must hire Bill Laimbeer.

I know what you’re thinking.  ”Hire Laimbeer?  My whining, flopping ex-teammate whose only coaching experience is with a women’s team?!”  

Yes.  And not just because he won two championships as your teammate and three as coach of that women’s team.  Not because he elicits simultaneously hilarious and fearsome nicknames like “Man of War,” “Prince of Darkness,” and “The Shocker.”  Not even because he’s the only guy on earth with the guts to follow up the phrase “Michael Jordan may be a very good, outstanding basketball player” with the word “but” (45 seconds into the video, priceless).  

You must hire Bill Laimbeer because he was the inspiration and namesake for the 1991 Super Nintendo game, Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball.  

What’s that Joe?  You were too busy playing actual basketball in 1991 to mess around with video games?  Let me fill you in.  Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball is a game featuring admittedly horrible graphics and astoundingly simple usability.  The Game presupposes it is the year 2030 and Bill Laimbeer has become the NBA’s commissioner.  This, as you can imagine, presents several fascinating possibilities:

“Seeing as he’s in charge, he fires all the refs and throws the rulebook out the window [sic] basketball the way he likes it. Now the players wear armor as weapons and mines are thrown from the stands, adding a whole new element to the game of hoops.” 

What I’m trying to say, Joe, is that by hiring Laimbeer, you will singlehandedly begin the NBA’s gradual evolution from a snooze-inducing-one-man-dribbles-and-shoots league into its future existence as a league in which armored warriors fly around and punch each other while fans throw fireballs at them.  And I can’t think of anything more entertaining than that.

Ignore Michael Rosenberg when he says Laimbeer should never coach in the NBA because he walked away from his job with the Detroit Shock.  C’mon Rosenberg! Do you really expect a guy who imagined a league where fans can throw mines at players to spend the rest of his career (forgive me ladies) in WNBA purgatory where fans barely even show up?  The man’s a visionary.  While other kids at his high school were flipping burgers for spare change, Laimbeer was cashing residual checks from his performance as a giant lizard-thing in the TV show, Land of the Lost.  I’m not kidding.

The power is in your hands, Joe.  The power to change the NBA forever.  Sure, you can hand over the keys to Avery Johnson and maybe he’ll be respectable.  But will he help bring about the eventuality of “space basketball?”  Think about it Joe.  You’ll be immortal.

Or at least, you’ll make the 2009-10 season entertaining.  

Sincerely,  

Quinn Strassel”

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HT: This commenter on MGoBlog

I think I was in high school when I first saw him.  I remember I was walking down Liberty Street with some friends and we stumbled upon a guy dancing to Michael Jackson songs in an alley by the Michigan Theater.  He was really good.  I mean he had the moves down.  I threw some change in his cardboard box and we kept walking, laughing about the randomness of the encounter.  

As an undergrad at UM, I came to realize that the encounter wasn’t so random.  As it turns out, the “Michael Jackson Guy” was an Ann Arbor institution, busking in that same alley all day, every weekend.  You’d hear talk of him in coffee shops and classrooms.  But unlike Shakey Jake, whom every Ann Arborite claimed to know and love, the Michael Jackson Guy was a mystery.  What compelled him to dance in the alley?  Was the guy homeless?  Why Michael Jackson?

A couple months ago, I moved back to Michigan after living on the East Coast for 8 years.  A month after my return, I found myself walking along Liberty St. with my wife and heard the sound of “Billy Jean” drifting onto the street from the alley.  I couldn’t believe it.  

“He’s still here,” I said.  

I had already been planning to create a blog dedicated to underground/indie culture in Michigan’s lower peninsula and it occurred to me that the Michael Jackson Guy would make for a great story.  Then on June 25th, as we all know, the actual Michael Jackson died.  Though the blog wasn’t (and still isn’t) completely ready, I found myself wondering, “how’s the Michael Jackson guy holding up?”  

I called up my friend John and told him to meet me on Liberty St. with a camera. Though we couldn’t find him that Friday (the 26th), we shot some test footage, which the Ann Arbor Chronicle found on YouTube.  On Saturday, John and I went back and, at 11am, there he was.

As it turns out:

The Michael Jackson Guy has a name and it is Brian Woolridge.  He is a very soft spoken and humble man.  He is not homeless.  He grew up in Ann Arbor, attending public schools and working for many years (until recent layoffs) at Meijer.  He is heartbroken over Michael Jackson’s death but is handling it ok and plans to keep dancing.  Like Michael, he sometimes feels lonely and isolated.  He began dancing downtown as a way of overcoming his shyness and is saddened when people sometimes snicker or think of him as a “street person.” He says people often stop and stare and then walk quickly away when the song ends.    

If you find yourself in downtown Ann Arbor on the weekend and pass the Michael Jackson Guy, do me a favor.  Wait for the song to end and ask him how he’s doing.  I think you’ll find that he’s happy to talk to you and will appreciate you taking the time.  

And if nothing else, drop some cash in the cardboard box.   

Links:  In addition their aforementioned coverage, the Ann Arbor Chronicle did a great in-depth piece on Brian this past May.  Looks like the A2 News also caught up with him later on Saturday and has a great photo gallery. An older article from the Daily is also worth a read.

Hey, friends and readers.

Thanks for stopping by The Mitten, a blog dedicated to exploring the unique cultural landscape of Michigan’s lower peninsula. For those of you who don’t know, my name is Quinn Strassel. I used to write for a blog on OurStage.com where I also worked as an…”on camera personality“…or “broadcast journalist” depending on the given day and assignment. That was in Boston.

I have since returned to my hometown of Ypsilanti, Michigan. In an attempt to reconnect with the people/music/food/etc. of my home state (while simultaneously reconnecting with the act of writing and making videos) I decided to start a blog covering its underground/indie cultural happenings and phenomena.

Due to circumstances involving, strangely enough, a video that tangentially relates to Michael Jackson’s death (post coming very soon), I’m opening the blog a little ahead of schedule. I appreciate suggestions and patience as I get it all together.

P.S.  Isn’t the mitten above the greatest mitten you’ve ever seen?  It was photographed by a really cool artist named Sarah Skeen.  Apparently, her mom sewed it in home-ec class as a thimble cover many years ago.  Sarah also has a blog AND makes jewelry which you can buy (along with photo prints) at her Etsy store.  I highly recommend her work.