Happy New Year!
At midnight, DDays was in Detroit and rushed to the window to listen in on the celebration, which involved about 10 solid minutes of gunfire. We even heard a few automatic weapons, which is a bit unusual amid the "pop-pop-pop" of handgun fire. We know it's an ancient tradition, but, come on, there has to be a better way to celebrate than to empty a clip into the air. Those bullets come back down. And, second of all, ammo is expensive. Don't waste it!
And It Goes On and On, My Friend!
The DDays crew made its weekly visit to Hamtramck's Painted Lady and saw the worst movie ever, a project called Telepathic Telephones, by the band Death Cat. Hey, guys, it's great you want to be creative, but please give us the option to watch or ignore your hour-and-a-half video production. Do not, repeat, do not play it at such high volume that people can't have a conversation if they preferred. That said, it was a diverse crowd with a definite Ypsi feel to it, but included such longtime Detroiters as Lyman Woodard Jr. and such newcomers as New Center's Joseph Shapiro. We finally left after only four or five drinks — and the movie was still going...
Rapper Big Sean's Grandmother Dies at 93
Here's a bit of local news we missed due to being in a holiday haze: Rapper Big Sean's grandmother Mildred V. Leonard passed away just before Christmas, at the age of 93. He took to Instagram to tell the tale, mixing his words and a series of slideshow images of her. Leonard was one of the very first African-American women in WWII to serve as a captain. In her professional career, she also served as a police officer, a teacher, and a counselor in Detroit.
The New Infatuations
A couple weeks ago we reported that Infatuations lead singer Caleb Gutierrez had decided to leave the band. It wasn't the first time the band has switched out their frontman, in fact, they've had a number of leads come and go over the years, all the while continuing their success. Just after Christmas the band had a show at the Magic Bag and both Gutierrez and the band's new lead singer, Kendrick Hardaway were there. Gutierrez and the band seemed amicable in their split. The Infatuations announced via Facebook that they wish their former lead singer much success in his solo career.
Honestly ...
Last week news broke that "Honest" John Thompson sold his bar, Honest John's, to Sugar House owner Dave Kwiatkowski and people were either really excited about it or really excited to make comments about how hipsters ruin everything. Before the story broke, Thompson had given us a ring, which we missed, and left us this message: "Hello, this is John Thompson calling from Honest John's and I wanted to say thank you very much for being the last person to write an article about my bar. I just sold it. Thank you very much, tell everybody I said thank you for 30 years of fun." Thompson was referring to a Burger Quest column written by Michael Jackman.
How Sweet It Is
Congratulations to former State Rep. Rashida Tlaib on her new position at Sugar Law. — mt
Got some gossip? Send DDays the word on the street to [email protected].
