Detroit Zoo animals will receive an extraordinary treat on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, when Buddy’s Pizza delivers specially created “enrichment pizzas”.  Prepared in collaboration with the Zoo’s animal welfare staff, the pies will be topped with such culinary delights as fish, peanut butter, bones, bugs and worms.

The special delivery is to kick off a multi-year agreement between the Detroit Zoological Society and Buddy’s Pizza recognizing the restaurant group as “Proud Pizza Partner of the Detroit Zoo”.

 Detroit Zoo visitors are invited to watch the animals devour their pizzas at the following times:

    * 9:30 a.m. – polar bears (tundra) – giant pizza with fish and peanut butter
    * 10 a.m. – snow monkeys – personal pan pizzas with cereal, honey, craisins and crackers
    * 10:30 a.m. – wolverines – pizza with bones, meat and scents
    * 11 a.m. – tigers – meat lover’s pizza
    * 11:30 a.m. – reptiles – vegetarian pizza with bugs, worms and veggies
    * 1 p.m. – penguins – frozen pizza with fish and krill
    * 1:30 p.m. – meerkats – pizza with baby food and meal worms
    * 2 p.m. – coatis – pizza with honey and crickets
    * 2:30 p.m. – anteaters – pizza with avocados, oranges and bananas

Enrichment is provided daily at the Detroit Zoo to help make the environments of the animals more dynamic and engaging.  It includes the introduction of novel and sometimes unpredictable elements such as objects, sounds, scents or other stimuli that give the animals choice and control in their environment and encourage them to respond in species-typical ways.

 As the Detroit Zoo’s pizza partner, Buddy’s Pizza will provide discount coupons to Zoo guests who purchase tickets to rides and attractions such as the Tauber Family Railroad, Wild Adventure Ride and Wild Adventure 3-D/4-D Theater.  Buddy’s will also subsidize field trips to the Zoo for underserved elementary students throughout Metro Detroit.
James Cooper & Noreen O'Leary
ADWEEK

In the first six weeks after Chrysler launched its “Imported From Detroit” commercial on the Super Bowl, the Wieden + Kennedy spot generated nearly 10 million views on YouTube alone. Never mind that it was made by a Portland, Ore., agency for a company run by Italian Fiat executives who have been moving Chrysler’s manufacturing base to Mexico. The original two-minute commercial struck a patriotic chord, offering a defiant response to the city’s—and its eponymous industry’s—demonized image in popular media.

Last month, new Census data provided even more ammunition to the death of Detroit story. It showed that the city lost 25 percent of its population over the last decade, reducing it to the size it was in 1910, just after Henry Ford began selling his first Model T. Detroit inhabitants continue to flee a city of ravaged infrastructure and public services, bankrupt schools, abandoned buildings, and an industry that can no longer support them.

A city once emblematic of America’s industrial might will never return to its golden era of manufacturing. The formerly liberal electorate is turning to political outsiders–businessmen like Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder—to turn a place built on union muscle into something more modern: businesses aligned with intellectual capital and services, technology, and entrepreneurial endeavors. But there’s still a small circle of nostalgists and optimists who believe in Detroit and in automobiles: the American adman.
 
There may not be a more co-dependent relationship in the marketing business. Advertising not only created the vast demand for new cars, but it also celebrated car culture. Having a car account was the sine qua non of agency status. You couldn’t be in the advertising big leagues without a major auto brand.

Arguably, as goes Detroit, so has gone the ad agency business–its former bravado and profitability laid low by Detroit’s long decline. A fair corollary might also be: If the executives of Detroit screwed up the business, their faithful admen retainers didn’t do the business any favors either.

But now it is not only a new set of auto execs trying to reinvent a new, albeit much smaller, American auto industry, but a new set of admen trying to reclaim, however wistfully, the Big Car Account, prompting the obvious question: Can you go home again?

Toby Barlow, the chief creative officer at Team Detroit, WPP’s joint venture of agencies dedicated to Ford, came to Detroit nearly five years ago after working in New York and San Francisco. He’s one of Detroit’s most vocal supporters–the industry and the city. He lives downtown in a Mies van der Rohe townhouse he bought for $100,000 and is part of a group of young entrepreneurs and artists moving into the city. He rides his bike on Detroit’s quiet, wide boulevards, the first to be built in America. He passes by urban ruins like the empty Michigan Central Depot–once the tallest rail station in the world–which remains majestic in its decay. There are blocks of once-neat rows of houses, structures that now stand burned or abandoned.

“As you ride, you get the feeling that this city was built for something great, that this was truly the American dream. Actually, this wasn’t a dream; it was the actuality of it. You could be an immigrant and get into the UAW and have a nice home and a place up north,” Barlow muses. “This city is a tragedy of success. The people who won left, and the people who were left behind are always the ones left behind. The decline in the perception of the automotive business and the decline of Detroit are inextricably connected.”


Click HERE to read the rest of this article!
Photograph by Danny Clinch

Esquire Magazine

Five musicians dressed in the season's best jackets and jeans, one great American city, and a simple challenge: write, perform, and record an original song inspired by our phrase.


Why Detroit: When we started thinking about where we would base our songwriting contest this year, we had nothing but options. Los Angeles, Austin, Asheville: All warm and welcoming and rich with jukebox cred, but none of them felt right, at least not right now. None of them reflected the social and economic forces transforming American life today, and none of them embodied the very things that inspire our favorite songs. Love. Loss. Redemption. Hope. Cars.

So we came to Detroit.

Click HERE to read the rest of this article!


Our Date for Friday, April 29th is about what is the Absolute Best in the Detroit Region!

This is the largest Metro Times party of the year to celebrate their Best of Detroit issue!

The party is invite only and all you can eat and drink from the area’s finest restaurants. 

Last year’s party still has people talking! Don’t be the one that misses out this year!

Details:

Winners receive two V.I.P passes to the Metro Times Best of Party at Soundboard at the Motor City Casino Friday, April 29th 2011.

Official After Party at Amnesia Ultra-Lounge at 11 pm.

You Must Sign Up As a Dater By Friday, April 22 2011!


Voting Begins at 9am Monday, April 25th!

Directions To Register:
1.  Go to http://pickmidate.com
2.  Click on the “Register To Date” Button
3.  Fill Out The Most Hilarious Dating Form Online
4.  Click “Submit”
“Dining in the D,” a locally-produced show featuring Detroit area restaurants known for exemplary food, service and atmosphere, will premiere on WTVS/Detroit Public Television/Channel 56 on Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m.

“After a four-episode run on CMNtv, we’re pleased to be picked up by WTVS to bring a positive show about the Detroit culinary community to a much wider audience,” says “Dining in the D” Executive Producer Michael Whitenack, of Troy.

“Dining in the D” will continue to highlight four area restaurants in each episode. Host and chef consultant, Tom Keshishian (known as Chef Tom to viewers), takes viewers from the front of the house to the kitchens and talks with owners and chefs about their restaurants, signature dishes and the interesting stories behind them.

“This has been my first foray in TV, and I’ve really enjoyed talking chef-to-chef with some of the truly remarkable talent in the Detroit area,” says Keshishian, of Walled Lake. “There are so many interesting stories about what goes on in these places, especially the food, that foodies can’t get anywhere else. Plus, the owners and chefs we’ve met have made conscious efforts to stay in the Detroit area and have found ways to stay viable and even open during the last few economically challenging years. We believe this is a show that WTVS viewers, and we hope many new viewers, will enjoy.

Restaurants featured on “Dining in the D” range from elegant, white tablecloth establishments to everyday family-friendly fare.

“Good food doesn’t necessarily mean expensive or exotic food; it’s available at a variety of price points, cuisines and dining styles,” Keshishian says.

WTVS has signed “Dining in the D” to a 10-episode contract. The first 30-minute episode will feature Berkley Bistro and Café in Berkley, Lily’s Seafood Grill & Brewery in Royal Oak, and Woodbridge Pub in Detroit.

Of the 39 restaurants to be featured in the series, 16 are in the City of Detroit.

 “We want to show there are great restaurants in Detroit that are worth the drive to visit,” Keshishian says. “It’s an area that needs the support of the surrounding community in order rebuild and prosper.”

Underwriting opportunities to support the show’s spring-summer season are available.

For more information on “Dining in the D,” visit the show’s website at http://dininginthed.com.
For information on underwriting, contact Whitenack at michaelw@dininginthed.com.
 

Drum Roll Please.....Pick Mi Date is Sending Their Next Round of Daters to the Detroit Music Awards!

This isn't just any Awards Show...it's the 20th Anniversary and will be Amped to 11!

They can't let all the secrets out, but can say Mayer Hawthorne (a PMD fave) will be performing!

Click HERE to listen to our favorite song!

That's not even the Most Exciting Part!
The winners will be sitting at a VIP table, surrounded by all the nominees, musicians, and celebrities!

What are you waiting for?!

Register Already!

Go! Go! Go! Click HERE!

About Pick Mi Date:

Part game show. Part match-making. AND all fun! Pick Mi Date is a whole new way of meeting people.  We put eligible singles online and let the public have their say about who should hook up. The winning match ups will be sent on an all-expense paid date to one of Detroit's sweetest establishments.  Best of all, the tab is on us!

For more information, go to PickMiDate.Com
Associated Press

The Michigan Film Office says the HBO series "Hung" has been approved for tax incentive worth about $1 million for the show's third season.

The film office said in a release Tuesday that the series was awarded the incentive based on about $2.6 million of projected in-state expenditures. The series is set in suburban Detroit and is partially shot in the area.

Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed setting an annual $25 million cap on the tax credits, which currently are unlimited. The Republican-led Legislature still must approve the GOP governor's plan, but the film office is operating under the $25 million target.

The statement says "Hung" is the third project approved under the new policy and guidelines.

According to the Detroit Free Press, filming should begin this month.



This is a plea to Ellen Degeneres to have Detroit Dog Rescue on her show. They need to raise money for Detroit's first no-kill shelter and help the 50,000 - 100,000 stray dogs in Detroit. Come on Ellen!!! We love ya!
Margarita Barry, the creative force behind the popular I Am Young Detroit website, hopes to open 71 POP—Detroit's first ever collaborative pop-up retail solely dedicated to emerging designers--which she calls a "pop-up shop with a twist" coming this summer. 71 POP will provide emerging designers with an affordable and hassle-free retail space to sell their products. By providing the space, the infrastructure, and tools needed, someone with little to no experience could have their own retail shop. Connecting local designers with brands to install a temporary pop-up shop, other designers can show in the space at a low cost, or with artist grants.

“Detroit is bustling with young entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders who are ready to take advantage of the great opportunities the city has to offer. In fact, I started my blog I Am Young Detroit (www.iamyoungdetroit.com) to highlight just that. However, the average creative just getting started, can’t even think about owning and running their own retail space. Most of them are forced to work their day job just to maintain their bills. They pursue their real passion as a side hustle, often setting up an etsy.com shop and attending local fairs to sell their wares,” said Margarita Barry, publisher of I Am Young Detroit.

She added, “I surveyed over 400 local designers with products to sell, and 90 percent of them were dissatisfied with the number of opportunities they’ve had locally to pursue their entrepreneurial passion. Because of that, I saw a need to provide a new and innovative model for these emerging creative entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their locally made products.” The ultimate goal is to showcase 71 local artists and designers who would otherwise not have the opportunity to own their own retail space—this might include low income, emerging, or student artists. 71 POP’s companion website 71Artists.com will highlight its impact by documenting the artists living, working, or showing in and around the 71 POP space.

Here’s how it will work:
1.) Designers will submit an application to detroitpop.com.
2.) Select designers will be chosen to team up with local and national brand sponsors. The sponsors will offset much of the costs for these designers. Student and low-income designers will have the chance to apply for full or partial shop grants, while others will pay a nominal fee to set up shop in the space.
3.) All designers will have the opportunity to design a custom “shop” around their brand and aesthetic.
4.) All operations will be handled, including marketing, e-commerce sales, and launch event consulting. 71 POP will also provide optional paid services to help take the designers’ brands to the next level.

In addition, out of over a hundred applicants, Barry was named the Arts & Culture winner of the IDEA: Detroit Conference, sponsored by Crain's and Advertising Age. During the conference on March 23rd, she had the opportunity to publicly announce her 71 POP concept to the masses. The IDEA: Detroit conference brought business leaders from around the country to share successful stories and learning that exemplifies thinking about traditional business differently with an emphasis on Detroit and Michigan natives who have built successful businesses in other corners of the world and are passionate about bringing their thinking to their hometown.

To jumpstart 71 POP’s inaugural year, she’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to provide artists grants for the first year of shop owners, as well as to raise funding to cover the costs of the space, equipment, and operations. She gathered a few of Detroit's leaders in the creative and fashion community to produce a video for the campaign.

She's asking the Detroit community at large to consider supporting by backing the project on Kickstarter. "This is something that's going to impact the entire community,” Barry said. “We could use more distinct shopping experiences in the city and emerging creatives need more options to turn their passion into a profit.”

Kickstarter is a community tool to fund and follow creativity that allows users all over the world to discover and support projects that spark their enthusiasm and interest. Donations are made to the project in exchange for tangible rewards from the artists, while they retain full creative control of their work. To make a contribution or help the spread the word, check out this link.

The home for 71 Pop will be located at 71 Garfield, a former abandoned property that has been converted into a combined housing and studio space for artists. Situated in Midtown, the area is known as Detroit’s Cultural Center. Within its boundaries is The College for Creative Studies--one of the leading art schools in the country, Wayne State University--home to thousands of young urbanites, and the newly named Sugarhill Arts District that houses the Museum of Contemporary Art, and The George N’Namdi Art Gallery, it’s an innovative spot for Detroit’s up and coming young, creative class. Aside from being a great property with great foot traffic potential, 71 Garfield is completely green: geothermal, solar and wind and water retention systems will reduce net energy consumption and the waste stream to near zero. For additional info on 71 POP, please visit the website at www.detroitpop.com or visit us on Twitter and Facebook.

Related links:
http://www.detroitpop.com
http://www.twitter.com/detroitpop
Wayne State University's Athletics Department is gearing up for "W" Week, a community service initiative celebrating 36 years of women in WSU athletics. As part of the campaign, the Athletics Department has partnered with Wayne Cares, DO Foundation and Covenant House Michigan to organize a Basic Needs Drive, April 4-20.

The groups will collect travel-size toiletries to be distributed to the homeless in areas surrounding Wayne State University during "W" Week, April 25-30. Additionally, donations will go to Covenant House Michigan for distribution to the youth they serve, as well as to the DO Foundation's "Hit the Streets" outreach mission.

The goal is to collect enough items to assemble 1,000 toiletry kits for those in need. For a complete list of suggested donation items and drop-off locations, visit http://govaffairs.wayne.edu/cares/basic-needs.php or call Candice L. Turner at 313-577-3048.
By Kelly Dwyer
Yahoo Sports

As it was 25 years ago when the Detroit Pistons drafted him out of a small college in Oklahoma, Dennis Rodman didn't come to Detroit this week as much of a basketball player.

He had spent a good portion of the week doing what Dennis Rodman does now -- making personal appearances at product releases, in casinos, surrounded by filtered libations, flashing lights and flirting lasses. Prior to Friday's ceremony to retire his No. 10, Rodman took part in a pregame news conference sporting a hat with a clothing manufacturer's logo prominently featured. He's a pro at this now, to use one of his favorite words, "bro."

Something changed on Friday, though. Perhaps it was the shot of a young Rodman on the marquee outside the Palace at Auburn Hills, unfettered by jewelry or skin-and-ink artistry. Maybe it was the Palace setting itself -- the building was rightfully hailed as years ahead of its time when it debuted in 1988, but now even some of its gaudier elements seem quite tame. Perhaps it was the nostalgia, which has a way of both humbling and enervating even the person that's being paid tribute to. For whatever reason, as it was 25 years ago, the Detroit Pistons turned Dennis Rodman into a basketball player again on Friday night.

Detroit couldn't help it. They'd seen from afar the tattooed Rodman, the guy with the crazy hair and outlandish (for the 1990s, at least) style who courted Madonna and posed nude on the cover of his bestselling books as he played for the Spurs and Bulls. But Detroit never knew that guy. No, they knew the shy and sensitive Rodman that sheepishly made his way onto the Pistons roster as a 25-year-old rookie in 1986.

Click HERE for the rest of the article!
PR Newswire

The Harlem music teacher whose real life story inspired the Academy Award-nominated film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep, will visit to Detroit to share her expertise with local music students and their teachers.  The public is invited to attend this free event titled "A Roberta Guaspari Masterclass" on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at Cornerstone Schools.

A renowned ambassador of music education, Guaspari was also the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Small Wonders. Guaspari and her son, cellist Nick Tzavaras of the Shanghai String Quartet, will lead two days of string workshops and hands-on clinics. Students and teachers from Cornerstone, as well as a dozen Detroit public and charter schools are participating. An Informance, a student finale concert, concludes the event on April 9 at 5 p.m. 

A violinist, Guaspari galvanized her community while teaching in East Harlem in the 1970's. When funding was cut in 1991, parents, city leaders, philanthropists and world-class musicians including Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern and Quincy Jones rallied to save it.

Today, Guaspari continues teaching at the Harlem School of Music.  She has been featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, the New York Post and Vogue magazine. 

For more information or to attend this event co-hosted by the Michigan State University College of Music, please visit www.cornerstoneschools.org.

'Do Something Reel' film series explores food, environment, activism
By Clay Evans
Boulder Daily Camera

Excerpt:

Whole Foods' inaugural "Do Something Reel" film series celebrates Earth Month with six documentary films that explore green issues.

"(W)e want to raise awareness of environmental and food issues and support filmmakers who are creating films that inspire people to question the impact our choices have on our health, body and environment," says Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. "We see film as an inspirational medium that can spark an active dialogue and encourage people to take action locally."

"Urban Roots" Directed by Mark MacInnis. 94 minutes. An exploration of the emergence of hundreds of urban farms in the most unlikely of places, inner-city Detroit. Once an industrial powerhouse, the Motor City was considered the most affluent and modern of metropolises. Now, it has lost half its population and the resulting civic collapse is evident in thousands of abandoned buildings, home and neighborhoods that litter the landscape. But urban farmers, who, against all odds, have risen out of the ashes and are creating "a vibrant, healthy and robust farming culture that already feeds thousands."

Photo from mtv.com


Yobi TV

Yobi: Act With Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino
Co-star in the Random Talent web series with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino!


Random Talent is a hilarious spoof of TV talent shows. Mike will play the role of a famous hip-hop star who is asked -- begged, actually -- by the producer to be the lead judge.

The burden of keeping Mike's character happy falls to the second judge, played by YOBILaugh Season One Winner Ben Green, who was sent from England (where the show originated) to create a successful US version based in Detroit.

The YOBIAct winners will play the third judge and the Director-Producer of this hilarious series where the judges have nothing in common but need to find the next huge talent before the producer loses the show sponsors!

Voting is now open - Get your entries in HERE!

*Please keep in mind that this is not an audition for Jersey Shore.


Photo from iamyoungdetroit.com
Urban centers draw more young, educated adults
By Haya El Nasser

USA TODAY

Educated 20- and 30-somethings are flocking to live downtown in the USA's largest cities — even urban centers that are losing population.

In more than two-thirds of the nation's 51 largest cities, the young, college-educated population in the past decade grew twice as fast within 3 miles of the urban center as in the rest of the metropolitan area — up an average 26% compared with 13% in other parts.

Even in Detroit, where the population shrank by 25% since 2000, downtown added 2,000 young and educated residents during that time, up 59% , according to analysis of Census data by Impresa Inc., an economic consulting firm.

"This is a real glimmer of hope," says Carol Coletta, head of CEOs for Cities, a non-profit consortium of city leaders that commissioned the research. "Clearly, the next generation of Americans is looking for different kinds of lifestyles — walkable, art, culture, entertainment."

In Cleveland, which lost 17% of its population, downtown added 1,300 college-educated people ages 25 to 34, up 49%.

"It tells us we've been on the right track," says David Egner, president and CEO of Detroit's Hudson-Webber Foundation. Three anchor institutions —Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center — recently launched "15 by 15," a campaign to bring 15,000 young, educated people to the downtown area by 201
5.

Among the lures are cash incentives: a $25,000 forgivable loan to buy (need to stay at least five years) downtown or $3,500 on a two-year lease.

Preference for urban living among young adults — especially the well-educated — has increased sharply, data show:

Click HERE to read the rest of this article!
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