Hot Club@DJF & Obama

I love Detroit. My opinion may be skewed but I do love it. This past few weeks I have had ample opportunity to evaluate big cities and I know "the big D" is not perfect but don't tell me it is "dead"--because in one weekend we had the Grand Prix, The Jazz Fest, a home Tiger's game the annual Labor Day parade and HELLO!!! BARACK OBAMA!!! EEEEP!!!

Judging from the news reports (NPR) this morning, Detroit wins in my "pleasant place to be contest"-- even with it's defunct and lying "hip hop" mayor in jail, we still had fewer arrests than MSP who is hosting the GOP! And our Koegels (tm) kick Central Park Wienies any day! So speaking of public parks,Here I am in Hart Plaza. We were there for the music. Smoking jazz. mmmmmgood. Petey led and I followed. He was very happy. I was happy he was happy. We sat in the shade by the river and listened to Jazz all afternoon. It was all good. Grabbed a ruben at Foran's an Irish pub Chris & Gretchen favor. (with good reason!)
I especially enjoyed the incredible Hot Club of Detroit. HOLY CRAP!! They were amazing. We had fantastic second row seats (right behind Evan Perri's grandma!) and all they did was assure me that I LOVE THEM! They played a lot of cuts from their new album (which I got signed...swooon. They had a special guest, Kruno-- sit in for several songs and he sang... insert happy girl purr. But I did about melt into my shoes when Julian (accordion guy) was signing my CD-- I very shyly said--"tres bien" and his face lit up!! He went from "sign the CD and pass it down to Paul or Shannon" stock smile; a very polite and public smile --to a genuine grin of recognition and happiness. His face lit up!! I smiled back and tried to remember to breathe--god those boys are pretty-- but then his bandmate grabbed my liner notes and I was hustled along.


Saturday night was lovely and so was breakfast on Sunday. Pepper bacon in a buffet? Yeah, I like the RenCen. After an extra sleep in and delish breakfast we toddled back down to the riverfront full well knowing that it was gonna be NUTS, cuz BAYBEE
Barack was in da HOUSE!!! The above photo shows the screen onto which was projected his visage... and that dear friends was about all we could see. Couldn't hear a damn thing and we were only about...hmmm I'm gonna say 1/2 a block away. He was *IN* Hart Plaza proper, and we were mere feet away-- on the sidewalk by Zig's Mighty Fist--(I mean the Joe Louis memorial). We met some really cool people, but none of them were cool enough to have the "yellow ticket"--the "golden VIP pass". We saw Carl Levin and Blanchard walk by with THEIR yellow tickets--and watched city council people cruise on in--but alas...as important as we think we are--no VIP pass for us--or the 200,000 other General Admission types who waited in line for hours to watch TV.

humph--shoulda stayed at breakfast and watched the proceedings from the cafe TV--could have at least heard him! I had no idea what he even said till I read the Freep this morning! *sad panda*