DRIFTWOOD

It's no longer called The Driftwood Review, however it has returned! Driftwood is accepting flash fiction stories of exactly 100 words from Michigan writers. Click here for more information.

THE MOTH COMES TO DETROIT

Prepare yourself! Mark your calendar! The Moth is coming to Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Avenue, Detroit, on October 1st. They will be hosting five-minute story slams, some of which will air on WDET 101.9 FM. Click HERE to learn how to participate.

Upcoming themes at Cliff Bell’s are:

October 1st: Firsts
November 5th: Blunders
December 3rd: Cars

There's a $5 cover charge. Story slams start at 7:30 p.m.

Watch the above YouTube video of Adam Wade, a previous Moth Grandslam Champion, to get an idea of what it’s all about.

BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE DETROIT LIONS!

With Fall fast approaching—the changing of the weather and color of leaves—comes the arrival of NFL football and, sadly enough, the Detroit Lions. After last season’s .000 winning percentage (excluding the preseason), I’m not sure Detroiters are willing to call the Lions’ mediocre play a form of entertainment and/or escapism, even with Michigan’s nation-leading unemployment rate.

At the beginning of last year’s professional football season, a neighbor proudly displayed the Detroit Lions’ NFL flag at the top of his flagpole. Around midseason it flew at half-mast. Then after a few more losses, it flew at half-mast and upside down - the emblem of a Lion waving in the wind, flat on its back, paws in the air.

I’m not sure what’s in store for this season. I don’t really care about the win-loss record. I’m more interested in what my neighbor will do with his flag. Will he proudly fly it like past opening football seasons, or will he start what may become a new tradition?

If you’re a Detroit Lions' football fan I recommend you read Todd Hasak-Lowy’s short story "Silver and Blue" from Five Chapters. Click HERE for the link. I first discovered his story in "Best of the Web 2009" published by Dzanc Books in Westland, Michigan. Hasak-Lowy knows all too well what it means to be a loyal fan of the Detroit Lions. Get ready for heartbreak; get ready to cancel your DirecTV.

OCEAN OF PEARLS

With all the hoopla regarding healthcare, with all the hoopla giving tax credits to movies shot in Michigan, you would think "Ocean of Pearls" would be a box-office success; let me make myself clear: it’s definitely worth seeing and it deserves every penny it gets. Unfortunately, I counted nine folks in the audience (eleven if you counted my brother and me). Granted it was Sunday morning, a holiday for people of Indian descent, but I’m willing to bet most people reading this post have never heard of it. Until now.

How did I discover “Ocean of Pearls”? Trailer on television? YouTube? Newspaper article? Nope, nope, nope.

A coworker, someone I carpool with, someone with the same urologist as I, mentioned the movie on the ride to work. Without getting into his health issues, let me just say my passenger-friend sought out a doctor for a second opinion, and if he hadn’t, I’d probably be driving to work alone. Thanks to Dr. Neelam, my friend is still with us.

Dr. Neelam is also the movie director of “Ocean of Pearls,” most of which was shot in the Metro-Detroit area thanks to his access to hospitals and medical centers. There are also some familiar City of Detroit scenes as well. (Incidentally, he did not receive a tax break due to filming in 2006).

I’m in total shock that a main distributor has not picked up this film. Although the storyline is about a young doctor who questions his Sikh faith while moving from Toronto to Detroit, it’s also about the discovery of a seriously flawed United States’ healthcare system.

If you have the opportunity to see this film, please do. You will not be disappointed. In fact, if Dr. Neelam directs another full-length feature film, I’ll be first in line to buy a ticket.

Posted by JR

TAKE A MINUTE...IF YOU WILL

If you pass through this page, and we know you do because there is an embed counter to monitor traffic, nothing serious. it is a numbers only collector and not a tracking widget, I would like you to take an extra few minutes for me and answer a question or nine.

It doesn’t matter if you comment anonymously or with your call back logo because I am only interested in the answers provided.

1. Are you native born to the Detroit area, a transplant, or currently living somewhere else?

2. Did you leave Detroit and Michigan and would you move back?

3. What conditions made you leave and what conditions would have to happen before you would move back?

4. What is your impression of Detroit, when the word comes up what does your gut tell you?

5. Compared to where you grew up/live does Detroit compare favorably or unfavorably and briefly why?

6. Have you ever visited Detroit as a tourist destination? What did you come to see? Did it meet your expectations?

7. Did you encounter any violence while here either as a resident or a visitor?

8. What is your impression of the people you met or know in Detroit?

9. What would it take for Detroit to lose its reputation as a hardcore city?

OK that’s about it. I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer and thank you for stopping by. I am working on a few pieces of writing and I am trying a new tact in formulating them. I want the images your answers presented to me to filter through my brain and see what comes out the end of my finger tips.

Be Well and Be Kind

Mark C Durfee

aka

The Walking Man

Detroit from the Other Side

Detroit's downtown looks so beautiful from Windsor, from the Detroit River, skyscrapers and all. This is a still from the opening sequence of HBO's Hung. Can't see the desolation from afar. But up close, that's another matter . . .

In Detroit, 1942

Race relations. Often strained in Detroit and everywhere else. This photograph is courtesy of the Library of Congress, and has to do with housing wartime black workers. Nice.

Have we made progress since 1942? Yes, but it's been tough going. Is race more culture or skin color? The human race is one, so what's up? What about someone with "mixed blood," like Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez (Salma Hayek)? She may pave the way for the future, when we can all get along.

-- PM.