Detroit Sightseeing along Woodward: GM, Tigers, DIA, Fox

I already posted about the Fisher Building.  This first picture, of the old General Motors Building (on the left), was taken from the Fisher Building.  On the horizon to the right of center you can see the new General Motors Building at the Renaissance Center.  It looks like:  ▟▖.  You'll see it close up at the bottom - but it will look completely different.



Then we drove a short distance to Woodward Avenue.

"I guess if I had to take somebody who had never seen Detroit, I'd start at the river and drive straight up Woodward. I can't think of a more expedient way to show the city," said Jerry Herron, historian and director of the honors program at Wayne State University.

Woodward offers work, play, most of our cultural institutions. It's the dividing line that distinguishes "east siders" from their west side counterparts and offers motorists a comforting geographical context. "Where are we? Oh, right, there's Woodward."    [From The Detroit News]

Our guide said, at one point, that he wanted to show us the parts of Detroit that would counter our stereotypes.  This section of Woodward was, he said, a gap that was rapidly filling back in.  And from the freeway we could see boarded up houses.  But on this tour, had I not heard anything about Detroit's housing woes, I would not have known anything was amiss. 





Our first stop on Woodward (5200) was at the DIA (Detroit Art Institute).  I posted on the DIA's Rivera courtyard murals in a previous post.  But there was much more.  I feel dumb because I didn't get the information on this Native American bead work.  I think it was from Kansas.  I got distracted because there were three cultures listed - Okvik culture, Punuk Culture, and Thule culture - in Alaska that I'd never heard of.  It turns out the most recent of them is listed as ending in 1200. 

Modigliana's long necked people have always intrigued me.





                              A Mastisse Poppy.














This is part of Fumio Yoshimura's wooden motorcycle.

Another piece whose description I didn't get.  It was in the Middle East section.

DIA underground parking

Then to the home of the Detroit Tigers (2100 Woodward)

Comerica Park 
Home of the Detroit Tigers

In October 1997, ground was broken on a brand new $300 million project to be known as Comerica Park. 

This amazing, and very modern, facility features a carousel, a Ferris Wheel and a mammoth water feature in center field. Liquid Fireworks, as the water feature is known, is a giant spectacular that synchronizes music to spraying water fountains. Over 60 percent of the projects funding came from private financing while the remaining funds were donated from public sources. Mitch Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers, had a big hand in the design of Comerica Park. And why not? After all, this is the home turf of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers.

Fox Theater is at 2211 Woodward, just across the street from Comerica Field.

The Theater, an awe-inspiring combination of Far Eastern, Indian and Egyptian styles, was the second largest Theater in the world. But it surpassed all others in grandeur.

The lobby of this mammoth 10-story structure, which was six stories high and half a block long, was surrounded by blood-red marble columns. Each column held its own jeweled figure representing various Asiatic Gods.
The decorative scheme used subdued tones of gold to contrast a riot of color. Hangings in the lobby were in golden damask and stage draperies combined regal-red velour and damask which were set off by a festooned drapery with a wide silken fringe.
Guests were greeted by notes from a small Moller organ situated over the entrance. . .

Detroit's Fox theater changed hands several times before Mike and Marion Ilitch of Little Caesar's Pizza closed a deal in 1987 for the purchase of the theater and connecting office building. A multi-million dollar restoration project, which included a new 10-story marquee, culminated in a grand reopening Nov. 19, 1988, when the curtain once again rose at the theater known as the "Temple of Amusement." [Detroit News]

We passed some  buildings - fortunately there was a sun roof on the car.





And finally, at the end of Woodward  on the river, we were shown new General Motors home away from home.

Rising 73 stories above the Detroit River, the GM Renaissance Center dominates the glittering downtown Detroit skyline.  The Ren Cen is five and a half million square feet in size, has seven towers, dozens of stores and services, four movie theaters, a financial center, two foreign consulates, a fitness center, a 1,300 room Marriott hotel, four of the city’s hottest restaurants and an 1,100 seat food court.

The Ren Cen is about business too. It’s General Motors’ global headquarters with 5,000 GM employees, as well as over 4,000 additional people who work in the Ren Cen for tenant companies, retailers, restaurants and professional service organizations.  [From the RenCen website]

I learned a lot in the tour.  Thanks, MC.

What Others Are Saying About Redistricting

I'm back, but I'm not ready yet to post more on redistricting.  They had their Anchorage public hearing on Monday while I was out of town and now they are off on trips all over the state for public hearings.

In the meantime, you can see what others (yes, others* are starting to write about this) have written:

• "Alaska redistricting plan offers 2 regional alternatives"  Alaska Dispatch (April 13)
• "Incumbents will go head-to-head in new Alaska House district"   Fairbanks Newsminer (April 16)
• "Gerry Mander in Alaska"  Ester Republic blog (April 18)
• "Odd mapping: Redistricting board has difficult task in Interior"  Fairbanks Newsminer editorial (April 18)
• "Redistricting Board Gets Earful in Anchorage" - Alaska Dispatch (April 19)

*Patty Epler at the Dispatch and Margaret Bauman have been to some of the Anchorage meetings.   The only things I've seen at the Anchorage Daily News have been two short revisions of the Board's press releases such as this one.  There's also been some brief television coverage.

UPDATE April 21:  I should have included the AFFR (Alaskans For Fair Redistricting) website which has reports on the Anchorage and Fairbanks post hearings, maps of Anchorage districts, and a list of pairings of incumbent legislators.

Over the Snow Covered Mountains into Sunny Anchorage

We left cold, rainy Detroit at 7:25am yesterday and soon were in cold, grey Chicago.  But then we were on our flight home.  It was a long flight, but the last hour or so offered spectacular views of Prince William Sound.  It's always breathtaking no matter how often I see these views.

 

 Flying into Anchorage mid-day means I didn't have the dramatic shadows 

of sunrise or sunset, or the pink and orange glow.

This one is looking down  Powerline Pass into Anchorage.

It was encouraging to see the luggage handler in short sleeves.

And here we are awaiting the bus in mid-50's warmth.  And while it was much nicer than the weather in Chicago or Detroit, Anchorage does still have leftover ice and snow in the shady spots.  I was too tired from sitting on airplanes to even post yesterday when we got home.  And today I raked leaves in the front yard before finally opening the computer.  Enjoying the sun while it lasts. 

The Art of Obituary Writing

This comes from an obituary in the Anchorage Daily News on page A8, Thursday, March 17, 2011:

Mike Lawless, 59, died March 2, 2011, at his home in Two Rivers. . .\ He was one of those unforgettable characters who was unlike anyone else, with his charisma, intelligence, quick wit, and unmistakable crooked smile. All will remember Mike as a kind, loyal and generous friend who was always willing to lend a helping hand.

He was a man of his word, strong in both body and mind and never allowed any hurdles to keep him from his objectives. He loved to "chew the fat." Mike was intelligent and well-read and fed his mind with knowledge of all kinds. Mike was a true patriot with a passion for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Mike was a devoted father. He considered his children his legacy and was thrilled each time a new grandchild was born.

He is survived by his siblings, Hosanna (Dixie) Lee and Katt Pinette; wife, Rose; children, Ira, Tiffany, Melissa, Jackson, Nathan, Marie, Bernadette, Jeanne, Antonia and Blair; many precious grandchildren; niece, Bethany Bogart; nephew, Daniel Lahaie; and his loyal dog, Kobuk, who was with him until the end.

Pretty standard obituary fare.   But the name sounded familiar.  I went back to page 3 to a story I'd just read:

FAIRBANKS -- A 19-year-old Alaska man has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the death of his father.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that Blair Lawless is being held on $1 million bail in the death last month of his 59-year-old father, Melvin "Mike" Lawless, at his Two Rivers home near Fairbanks.  .  .

Blair Lawless also faces charges of vehicle theft and tampering with evidence. He was arrested March 2 in Anchorage, after a day-long manhunt following his indictment on the murder charge.

I realize that for obituaries people tend to say nice things about the dead.  I think it should be possible to find things you can say without violating the truth.  Take this line from the obituary:

All will remember Mike as a kind, loyal and generous friend who was always willing to lend a helping hand.

 Apparently not all.  Even if his son Blair is not guilty, somebody apparently murdered him.  Someone who probably has a different view of the deceased.

I'm always a bit curious when no cause of death is listed or someone dies of 'natural causes' at age 45.  There was another obituary the same day with a unique cause of death.

Palmer resident Nick Charles Stachelrodt, 45, died unexpectedly March 12, 2011, in Ketchikan while protecting his parents.

I don't mean to make light of the situation in either case.  Two people have died and left behind people who will miss them.  And I decided to hold this post for 30 days  before pushing the publish button. 

Detroit Hospitality Includes Mid April Snow for Alaskan Guests

My son's future in-laws have been more than hospitable and we've met a lot of interesting and friendly folks.  We've been eating an array of delicious food, including a great selection of vegetarian fare.  I really needed a run this morning to make a dent on all those delicious calories. 

They were such good hosts they even provided snow this morning for their Alaska guests.  So with socks for mittens I went out for a refreshing run. 

My run Friday in Chicago was in cloudy, windy weather, but there were signs that spring was near. 

Great American Art: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry

Our host took us on a tour to counter our images of Detroit. There's no denying that Detroit is in trouble, but there are also signs that Detroit has been and will once again be a city of importance. Perhaps most symbolic of the people, the industry, and the art of Detroit, is the Diego Rivera mural Detroit Industry that covers four walls in a courtyard in the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA). It was the most satisfying part of the tour for me Sunday.

DIA - Diego Rivera S. wall - click to enlarge

From NPR:

In 1932 Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford and president of the car company that bears the family name, and William Valentiner, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, commissioned Rivera to paint two murals for the museum's Garden Court. The only rule was the work must relate to the history of Detroit and the development of industry.
Soon thereafter Rivera and his wife, painter Frida Kahlo, arrived in Detroit and began studying and photographing the Ford automotive plant on the Rouge River. The factory so fascinated and inspired Rivera that he soon suggested painting all four walls of the Garden Court. Ford and Valentier agreed and soon Rivera's commission was expanded.   .  .  .

The Controversy
Many people objected to Rivera's work when it was unveiled to the public. He painted workers of different races – white, black and brown, working side by side. The nudes in the mural were called pornographic, and one panel was labeled blasphemous by some members of the religious community. The section depicts a nativity scene where a baby is receiving a vaccination from a doctor and scientists from different countries took the place of the wise men. 

From the Detroit Art Institute website

Rivera was a Marxist who believed that art belonged on public walls rather than in private galleries. He found his medium in the fresco, where paint is applied to wet plaster. Its vast size allowed him to explore grand and complex themes, which would be accessible to a large audience. In Mexico, Rivera's murals tied modern Mexican culture to its indigenous roots, revealing the ancient Indian cultures as Mexico's true heritage. Similarly, Rivera's Detroit Industry murals depict industry and technology as the indigenous culture of Detroit.

 From the Detroit News:

Many rich patrons of the DIA balked at the idea that a gigantic image of a factory, Ford Motor Co's Rouge Plant, was going to be the centerpiece of the DIA, according to press accounts of the day. Dozens of religious organizations were convinced Rivera had mocked the Holy Trinity in a panel that depicts a child vaccination. The scene shows a young child with a horse, a cow and sheep at the infant's feet. The composition of the figures forms a triangle like that of a nativity scene.

Additionally, groups representing hundreds of thousands of Metro Detroiters demanded that any public funding to the DIA be cut due to Rivera's work. A front page editorial in The Detroit News on March 18, 1933, neatly summed up their anger:

"Rivera's whole work and conception is un-American … and foolishly vulgar," the unsigned editorial states. "It bears no relation to the soul of the community, to the room, to the building or to the general purpose of Detroit's Institute of Arts. … This is not a fair picture of the man who works short hours, must be quick in action, alert of mind, who works in a factory where there is plenty of space for movement. The best thing to do would be to whitewash the entire work (and) completely return the court to its original beauty."

As the threat became more real, the international press soon picked up on the drama.

The irony is that Rivera, so-called loyal socialist, was in complete awe of Henry Ford and Detroit's technology
"Henry Ford (is) a true poet and artist, one of the greatest in the world," Rivera said shortly before he arrived in Detroit, according to press accounts. Rivera, according to his autobiography "My Art, My Life," believed American engineers — creators of factories, skyscrapers and highways — were the nation's true artists and Detroit perfected the best expression of American art: the large-scale factory.
While Rivera had no intention of glossing over the misery in factories or Detroit streets, he was clearly entranced by its manufacturing muscle.

The section below shows tours for the middle class who came to watch the workers.  The iPad tours pointed out that Rivera had painted Dick Tracy and the Katzenjammer Kids. into this section.  The Tracy figure is to the left of the ladies in a triangle all on his own, the Katzenjammer kids are on the other side of the ladies.  Again, double click to enlarge all these pictures.

The Detroit Institute of Art has an online audio tour of the murals.  And, a surprise bonus, our Anchorage Museum membership cards got us in free and a discount in the bookstore.

Detroit - Fisher Building

We were taken on a quick tour of Detroit today.  The first stop was the Fisher Building.








From the National Park Service:

In the late 1920s, the Fishers hired master architect Albert Kahn to design a building as both a philanthropic and commercial investment. The Fisher brothers wanted to spare no expense, and Kahn designed a $9 million Art Deco masterpiece that lavished 1/4 of its expense on art work and luxury materials. Reflecting the wealth of its owners, the completed Fisher Building accommodated the needs of the automobile owner by "enabling its patrons to leave their cars, attend to all shopping needs . . . visit their doctor, dentist, banker or broker, attend the Fisher Theater, and return to their cars without having to leave the building."

Wikipedia on the Fisher Building:

 The Fisher Building (1928) is an ornate Art Deco skyscraper located on the corner of West Grand Boulevard and Second Avenue in the heart of the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. It was constructed of limestone, granite, and marble, and was financed by the Fisher family with proceeds from the sale of Fisher Body to General Motors. It was designed to house office and retail space.

Wikipedia on Fisher Body:

1960s Logo (from Wikipedia)

Fisher Body is an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan, which is now an operating division of General Motors Company. The name was well known to the public, as General Motors vehicles displayed a "Body by Fisher" emblem on their door sill plates until the mid-1980s.                    

Detroit1701 offers this history:

In the later decades of the Nineteenth Century, Lawrence P. Fisher built carriages to be drawn by horses in his shop in Norwalk, Ohio.  He fathered eleven children, including seven sons who would become extraordinarily rich by building bodies for the new automobile industry.  Lawrence Fisher’s brother, Albert,  had established the Standard Wagon Works firm in Detroit in the 1880s to build horse drawn wagons and carriages.

  In the early 1900s, two of Lawrence Fisher’s sons—Frederick and Charles—moved from Norwalk to Detroit to work at the C. R. Wilson Company, another Detroit carriage manufacturer.

Detroit’s early automobile entrepreneurs found it extremely difficult to raise capital.  Since they were short of funds, many of them basically assembled cars from parts made by independent suppliers—machine shops, carriage builders and the like.  Until about 1914, Henry Ford’s automobiles were basically assembled from parts made by the Dodge Brothers and other Detroit suppliers.  Henry Leland, who built engines for R.E. Olds’ Oldsmobiles and helped create the Cadillac Motor Car firm, may have been among the first to approach the Fisher Brothers about manufacturing bodies for cars.

Elevator Door

Frederick and Charles Fisher, along with their uncle Albert Fisher, formed the Fisher Body Company in Detroit on July 22, 1908.  Their firm was a quick success.  Five other Fisher brothers—Alfred, Edward, Howard, Lawrence and William—moved from Norwalk to work in the development of the firm.  All, or virtually, all early automobiles in the United States were open cars that provided some type of canvass that might be raised in inclement weather.  It was typically a good deal of work to put up that canvass with the isinglass windows.  If you have driven a soft top Jeep, you will be very familiar with this challenge.  The Fisher Brothers pioneered the development of an all-steel enclosed body and, I believe, Cadillac was the first vehicle firms to sell such cars.  This was a major step in making cars desirable since they could be driven in any weather, so long as the roads were passable.  The solid steel body and the electric starter encouraged women to drive and buy cars.

Abacus #1

[UPDATE Jan 2014 - I learned that Abacus has been closed for a while now.]

From The Abacus:

The standard abacus can be used to perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication; the abacus can also be used to extract square-roots and cubic roots.
The abacus is typically constructed of various types of hardwoods and comes in varying sizes. The frame of the abacus has a series of vertical rods on which a number of wooden beads are allowed to slide freely. A horizontal beam separates the frame into two sections, known as the upper deck and the lower deck.

When I taught in Thailand 40 years ago, a number of the shopkeepers did their calculations on the abacus.  Their fingers flicked beads up and down with lightening speed.

A quick check at Mandarin tools shows us that the characters on the menu are in fact abacus in simplified characters. 

Trad.	Simp.	Pinyin	English
算盤	算盘	suàn pán	abacus

A history page at Abacus tells us:

The abacus as we know it today, appeared (was chronicled) circa 1200 A.D. in China; in Chinese, it is called suan-pan. On each rod, this classic Chinese abacus has 2 beads on the upper deck and 5 on the lower deck; such an abacus is also referred to as a 2/5 abacus. The 2/5 style survived unchanged until about 1850 at which time the 1/5 (one bead on the top deck and five beads on the bottom deck) abacus appeared.
Circa 1600 A.D., use and evolution of the Chinese 1/5 abacus was begun by the Japanese via Korea. In Japanese, the abacus is called soroban. The 1/4 abacus, a style preferred and still manufactured in Japan today, appeared circa 1930. The 1/5 models are rare today and 2/5 models are rare outside of China (excepting Chinese communities in North America and elsewhere).
It is thought that early Christians brought the abacus to the East (note that both the suan-pan and the Roman hand-abacus have a vertical orientation). Aspects of Roman culture could have been introduced to China as early as 166 A.D, during the Han Dynasty, as Roman emperor Antoninus Pius' embassies to China spread along the Silk Road.

Where's this all going?  I ate at Abacus #1 in Chicago on Thursday night.  The restaurant is owned by Luci and Rachel.  They reflect, in my mind, what is great about American possibilities.  I've known Rachel's father since summer 1966 when we were roommates in Peace Corps training in DeKalb, Illinois.  Rachel is now married to Luci who is from Romania.  He's busy driving a cab and managing this new restaurant on Fullerton and Ashland.

So what's a Romanian doing running a Chinese restaurant in Chicago.  Well, they have a chef from Hong Kong - Jackie - and the food was very good - lots of flavor but not at all heavy.   I wouldn't call myself an expert on Chinese food, but we did live in Hong Kong for a year and in Beijing for maybe a total of five or six months and we had Chinese hosts who  made sure we sampled very good Chinese food.  We've eaten great Chinese food.

Abacus is not American-Chinese food.  It's Chinese, but with a modern twist.  We had vegetarian dishes and we thought we'd have plenty of leftovers to take home for Rachel's dad who couldn't make it.  But we had to order him another dish because the food was so good we ate it all.

I do occasionally write about restaurants so this isn't too unusual for me, but I want to be clear that  I wouldn't recommend even a friend's place if I didn't really like it.  We did eat with the owners so I'm sure the chef wasn't being careless.  But I got to talk to Jackie and I think he knows what he's doing.

If you like real Chinese food without the gooey sauces, but light and tasty, this is a great place.  And the prices are really inexpensive.   Chicken dishes $7 for the small and $9.50 for the large.  Beef, $7.25 and $9.75.  Vegetable $5.95 and $8.50.  And the rice comes as part of the order. 

 

And, as you can see, the decor is simple and tasteful.  The restaurant business is pretty hard, so let's see how well Luci does.  Will nearby DePaul students discover it and like it? 

BTW, you can use a digital abacus at Mandarintools.