I Watched Gran Torino

So Gran Torino was about as interesting as the filthy language throughout.


Clint Eastwood is old and lives in a bad neighborhood.


An Asian gang picks on people.


Particularly this dude and his sister.

So Eastwood gets himself killed by the gang in front of witnesses so they'll be locked up.

And a bunch of stuff about family, culture and regret. Plus, it's in Detroit.

6.6 out of 10 stars.

Detroit Mayor Is Earning More Street Cred

Translation: Kwame Kilpatrick, the ultimate poster boy of civic corruption and above-the-law attitude, is in jail.

One too many times he flouted the terms of his bail by leaving the country (across the river in Windsor, Ontario). The judge has ordered him back to jail until he either posts his full $75,000 bond or his attorneys somehow convince the judge to release him.

Why couldn't this have happened a couple days ago, on the eve of his corrupt mother's re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives? She barely squeaked by as it was, and this would surely have pushed her support too low for her to recover. Ah, well. We in Michigan take what good news we can get.

Robert Plant is Cool. Alison Krauss is Prim.

Last night we went to the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss concert in Detroit. What phenomenal show. On their album Raising Sand, their separately disparate sounding voices blend into haunting, beautiful, effortless harmonies. On stage, they sounded just as good.

Plant was the essence of groovy cool. Wearing a baggy button-up shirt over brown pants, his appearance could be summed up in one word: moobs. He took a rather free-form approach to his mellow movements across the stage, and looked like he was having a great time. Krauss stood out in stark contrast, wearing a more formal fitted waistcoat, and limiting most of her movements to her mouth and her arms (for the fiddle-playing). Krauss is clearly the more accomplished vocalist, but Plant's presence was decidedly key.

While all the music was excellent, my favorite highlight was Krauss' rendition of Down to the River to Pray, with Plant singing in the backup trio.

It was clear that at least 60% of the audience were predominantly Robert Plant fans. Quite a few were brandishing t-shirts from his concerts in ages past.

I think I'll pick up some more Robert Plant and Alison Krauss music. Outside of Raising Sand, I'm pretty ignorant of both.

Check out the few crappy photos I got.

Detroit Public School Graduates are Scarce

When you look at the latest batch of native Detroiters, it's no wonder the city is in such a huge mess. Latest of many cases in point: Detroit schools rank last in graduation rate.

Having graduated from a decidedly average California high school, I'm guessing that maybe 5% of my class didn't make it. In Detroit? That number is nearly 70%.

That makes the remaining 30% the best and brightest of the city. The leaders. The councilmembers. The movers and shakers. The next hip-hop mayor.

The future looks bleak for Detroit. And the ailing auto industry is the least of its worries.

Long Live Hip-Hop

America's first Hip-Hop Mayor has certainly lived up to the title in his six years in office. I'm not going to list the countless escapades of collusion, nepotism, murder, corruption, sex and infidelity associated with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration, but just express my disgust toward the man and the people who knew they were electing a thug in the first place. Yesterday he was charged with eight felony counts including perjury under oath, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, etc., etc. Here's his mug shot.

The woman is Christine Beatty, hip-hop mayor's...um...actually, I won't use the hip-hop terminology. But the word landed Don Imus in hot water.

And what does our lovely liberal governor have to say about the whole situation? Nothing, of course.

Welcome to Detroit - America's Most Miserable City

Forbes has released its list of most miserable of the nation's largest 150 metropolitan areas, and guess what – Detroit is number one. But then, why wouldn't it be?

Motown is the worst in the country when it comes to violent crime, with an annual rate of 1,251 crimes for every 100,000 residents. Unemployment in the area is below the double-digit rates it hit in the early 1990s, but at 8.5% over the past three years, it is still the second-highest in the country among the 150 largest metro areas.

While Detroit doesn't provoke the sunniest outlooks among its residents, those hundreds of thousands uneducated workers who are still sitting pretty on cushy union jobs have little to gripe about. Even if they get laid-off, it will be in the form of a buyout worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. If worse comes to worse they can depart at will to their lake cabins up north and wait for brighter economic times.

No, I don't have a chip on my shoulder.

And the Detroit Circus Continues

Cirque du Soleil is coming to Detroit. That was pretty big news here during the last couple days. But once again, the circus that is Detroit city government has taken the spotlight.

Who is at the center of it this time? Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, of course. Yes, the guy who is ground zero for annual scandal--yet whom a moronic voting public continues to keep in office. From charges of wild stripper parties at the mayor's city-owned mansion to nepotism to misappropriation of resources, the story never seems to end.

Yesterday it was revealed that the good mayor lied under oath in last year's highly publicized trial where he was accused of firing cops who knew too much about his extramarital affair with his chief of staff. The cops won upwards of $9 million from the cash-strapped city for wrongful dismissal, though the mayor repeatedly denied under oath that he had had an affair.

So what appears yesterday? A bunch of text messages between the mayor and his lover, directly contradicting both their testimonies. And now they could each face up to 15 years in prison. It's no wonder people have long been saying that Detroit is run by thugs. It's hard to clean up a crime-infested city when the infestation starts at the top.

Is It Any Wonder Detroit is a Mess?

In Michigan, every night the evening news gives you a good dose of the repeated hijinks, bunglings and corruptions of Detroit city officials. Why are these people voted into office? The latest sideshow involves Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick utilizing city resources to facilitate late-night liaisons and extra-marital macking.

Apparently, the Mayor used his security guards/police escort to take him to meet his lady a-la-carte, and then stand watch. When two of those individuals raised an issue about misappropriation of city resources, they got demoted or fired. Yesterday a jury awarded them almost $7 million, to be paid by the city. As if the city isn't already financially strapped. Way to go, Mayor.

Also significant is the mayor's reaction to the verdict:

"I think my reputation rests with the city of Detroit," Kilpatrick said. "Being that there was only one (juror from Detroit), I guess I will have to talk to her. But everybody else needs to understand, this city understands who I am. They understand why I ran. They understand what I'm doing.

"But it's impossible if you can't get a trial where people look at the facts, the significant facts in this case, and render a decision."

Here's Detroit Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson's take on that:

OK, so he didn't come right out and say "Whitey stuck it to me." But public figures around here rarely talk like that; it's almost always subtle, and understood. But the implication's clear, and for Kilpatrick in this case, it's just counterproductive."

The sad thing is that this type of news is par for the course in these parts. Whether it's the Detroit teacher's union going on strike every other year in spite of bloated benefits and a rapidly declining student population, or an "education activist" pelting school board members with grapes, the nightly news reads like a David E. Kelley dramedy. Sprinkle that with frequent and senseless Detroit violence, and it ends up more like a Tarantino flick.

2007 NAIAS Auto Show - Detroit

Yep, I went to the 2007 North American International Auto Show yesterday. Kind of a birthday present to myself (though the tickets were free through work.) It was pretty cool, though I'm not much of a car guy. Just a reminder of everything I'll never afford. But it was still fun to look at the shiny fenders and flashy lights.

Check out my flickr photoset of the event.