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Rudy says he's a sarcastic joke-bomb manufacturer that happens to own a camera.
It also appears that he's a runner who sometimes finds cool things like old firetrucks and old tractors ... and a unique way of framing common scenes. Check out his Top 25 slideshow.
Happy 4th of July folks!
Drummond Island by soniabellophotography
In order to defend against American attacks and protect British trade with Indians, Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall moved his garrison from Fort Michilimackinac closer to Canada in 1815. He named the island after Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond, commander of all British forces in Canada.
In November 1828, Fort Drummond, the last outpost of British occupation in America, was turned over to the U.S. For the next twenty-five years, only Native Americans inhabited Drummond Island.
In 1853 Canadian Daniel Murray Seaman and his family left the Mormon community on Beaver Island (more) and made their home on Drummond. Joined by two other Mormon families, they established a settlement. Daniel Seaman died in 1863, leaving his wife Betsy to take care of the sixteen children. As a former schoolteacher, Betsy gave her children a sound education and a strong sense of morality and tradition. The Seaman family thrived under the nurturing manner and watchful eye of the island’s matriarch.
George Warren Bailey brought his wife and six children to Drummond Island in 1880 to make his living from the huge tracts of hardwoods and pine trees. If the Seamans were viewed as being restrictive, reserved and austere (consistent with their Mormon beliefs), the Baileys would be seen as their opposites─boisterous, demonstrative in their behavior, fun-loving, and well acquainted with the bottle and tobacco.
While these two clans intertwined in commerce and family, a woman on a mission stormed ashore in 1902. Her Finnish name was Kreeta Kontra, but she was known as the spinster Maggie Waltz. Waltz wanted to create a utopian community safe from the dangers of mine disasters, alcohol and brawling. By 1913, there were hundreds of Finnish settlers in three communities living in comfortable dwellings, successfully farming the thin soil and lumbering the forests. Waltz improved their lives with a post office, schools, a community hall and a cooperative grocery store.
The descendants of the Seaman, Bailey and early Finnish families are well represented on Drummond Island. Today, approximately twelve hundred residents call Drummond home and welcome visitors to enjoy the fantastic wilderness still offered by the island.
For more Michigan summer destinations, look for the current issue of Michigan History magazine. For information call (800) 366-3703 or visit www.michiganhistorymagazine.com.
If you'd like to visit Drummond, start planning at Absolute Michigan keyword Drummond Island!
Wheeling You In by One Foot Over The Moon
Although we try and keep you posted every month about great Michigan festivals and events, this month we'll try and give a little extra special love to all of Michigan's cool summertime and early fall festivities.
We started it off yesterday with our Rothbury ticket giveaway and we're talking with other festivals about similar giveaways. As always, our July calendar is full to bursting as well!
Who knows, we might even get to some ourselves!
Anyway, please use the comments to shout out your own favorite Michigan festival (large or small) or anything else that seems to fit here!
Jacqui Balogh is an intern with Motion Marketing & Media who just graduated Michigan State in May. She hoped that one last time before she "had to become a real person and get a real job" she would get a chance to kick it out, have some fun and maybe make herself a more complete candidate for that real job. Add to that the fact that her college graduate-level email writing skills were quite persuasive and we hope understand why our random and arbitrary criteria led us to pick Jacqui!
Rob Forever - Pillar of Autumn
by Aaron Fortin
For the entire month of July, Absolute Michigan will be focusing of Michigan festivals celebrating music, art, food and the other things that make Michigan fun.
To kick it off, we're having a spur of the moment Rothbury Ticket Giveaway courtesy of the folks at GM Next Plug In! To enter, just send an email to absolutemichigan@gmail.com with the subject Why I Wanna Go to Rothbury. We'll pick a winner of two tickets based on our own random and arbitrary criteria and post it tomorrow afternoon! (scroll down for the details)
More about Rothbury
The inaugural Rothbury Music Festival takes place July 3-6, 2008 in Rothbury, Michigan (near Muskegon). Four days of music on six stages feature some of the biggest musical acts around including D
ave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, John Mayer, 311, Phil Lesh, Trey Anastasio (also at the fest will be Jon Fishman & Mike Gordon of Phish), Primus, Snoop Dogg, Michael Franti, Gov't Mule, The Black Keys, Mickey Hart and about a jillion others!
The festival also features "Circus & Theater" with all kinds of crazy shows, fairs and other experiences, and the Rothbury Think Tank that will be focused on finding energy independence and feature:
...a mix of provocative keynote presentations, panel discussions, workshops, film screenings, and audience Q&A sessions throughout the festival site to offer insight into these and other questions. Interactive participation, both face-to-face and through the use of multi-media technology enable the ROTHBURY community to engage with the Think Tank at multiple levels.
GM Next Plug In
GMnext Plug In is a celebration of the 100+ year relationship between cars and music. From AM to FM, 8-track to cassette, compact disc to mp3, music is almost always a part of the driving experience. It's part of GMnext, GM’s centennial program that includes a series of Web-based activities aimed at engaging a new generation with behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the people of GM and the future of transportation ... and also through some of the biggest music events of the year that will feature some of the hottest bands and artists.
If you aren't selected in the giveaway and can't make it, tune into the GMNext YouTube channel for interviews of bands backstage at the Rothbury by Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass. Here's Kyle, Flyin:
The Details
A Handfull of Cherries by Julie70
Remember the sights, sounds, and smells of a summer celebration in your hometown when you were a kid? Well, happy days return to Traverse City's beautiful Lake Michigan shores July 5-12, 2008, during the National Cherry Festival featuring over 150 events including free air shows over the Bay, colorful parades & marching bands, music shows, sporting events, rides & carnival games on the midway, pie-eating contests, clean blue skies, warm sunshine, crowds of smiling faces, and loads of luscious cherries prepared every way you can imagine! For more information call. (231) 947-4230
A Short History of The National Cherry Festival
The Cherry Festival began in 1926 as the Blessing of the Blossoms Festivals in the spring. In 1933 it was renamed the National Cherry Festival and moved to mid to late July in order to coincide with the cherry harvest. It was then later moved again to early July in order to simultaneously occur with the Fourth of July weekend. The festivals annual attendence is now over 500,000 over the course of eight days. The National Cherry Festival has played host to many special guests and dignitaries, including President Gerald R. Ford, Former Astronaut James Lovell, PGA Touring Professional Dan Pohl, Jerry Mathers, and an assortment of Michgian governors.
More National Cherry Festival Links
A Colorful Display by SNWEB.ORG Photography
June 2008 will be remembered as one of the worst in terms of weather for many a year, so there probably won't be too many who are sad to see July roll into town!
The highlight of the week is of course the 4th of July and a great resource for those thinking about attending a fireworks display is MichiganFireworks.com. In addition to all the parades and Independence Day hoopla around the state, our Absolute Michigan July Event Calendar says that the Ann Arbor Summer Festival continues this week and this weekend features Comerica Cityfest 2008 in Detroit, the 2008 Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival, the Silver Leaf Renaissance Faire (also in Battle Creek), the massive Rothbury Music Festival and our featured event, the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City:
The annual celebration of all things Cherry features over 150 events including free air shows by the Blue Angels over the Bay, colorful parades & marching bands, music shows, sporting events, rides & carnival games on the midway, pie-eating contests, clean blue skies, warm sunshine, crowds of smiling faces, and loads of luscious cherries prepared every way you can imagine!
Dale says that this is the water fountain outside of the Ren Cen in Detroit and that it was warm, and a wonderful day to run thru the fountain.
He's from Brisbane, Australia and this is part of his USA 2008 set.
Grown in Detroit by ellievanhoutte
Since our 'Michigan History' article featured the Detroit Zoo today, it made sense (at least to me) that while there you take advantage of another one of Detroit's great attractions. It seems it would be easy to spend an entire day at the Eastern Market and it's surround area, so between the two it could be one heck of a fun weekend. Be sure to pack a cooler so you can take home some of the wonderful bounty at the market!
Detroit Eastern Market is the largest
historic public market district in the United
States.Every Saturday, Michigan's largest and
most colorful market is host to more than
150 farmers and vendors from Michigan,
Ohio, and Canada offering a cornucopia of
fruits, vegetables, breads, baked goods,
jellies, jams, honey, apple cider, cheeses,
spices, herbs, plants and flowers.Since 1891, Detroit's Eastern Market has
been home to an amazing community of
farmers, merchants, restaurants, unique
shops, food lovers and residents. On any
given Saturday, more than 26,000
Detroiters, suburbanites and tourists shop
elbow to elbow, sharing experiences from
generation to generation.
Here is an interesting video on the restoration efforts going on within and around the market - via Model D.
Directions:
Polar bears frolicking in a glass tunnel surrounded by 300,000 gallons of crystal-clear water; kangaroos bouncing about in a simulated Australian Outback; or hundreds of amphibians living in the world’s only amphibian conservation center--a place the Wall Street Journal described as "Disneyland for toads." These are some of the experiences visitors can enjoy at the Detroit Zoo.
Celebrating its eightieth anniversary this year, the 125-acre Detroit Zoo is located in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak and draws one million visitors annually. Special events are planned to celebrate this milestone in August.
When established, it was the one of the first zoological parks in the nation to have bar-free animal exhibit areas. Over the years, it has maintained the same location, while preserving some of its architecturally significant buildings and original exhibits.
Visitors will experience a free-flight aviary, featuring exotic hummingbirds and butterflies; eighteen-foot-tall giraffes against a backdrop of ancient Egypt; two 4,000-pound white rhinoceroses hanging out together; a Kenyan native and a former safari guide who roams the African Veldt exhibit area telling children African tales. Add to that bald eagles, camels, prairie dogs, trumpeter swans and even warthogs.
Meanwhile, parents can feel good about the zoo’s mission today. According to Ron Kagen, director of the Detroit Zoological Society, which owns the Detroit Zoo, "Years ago, [zoos] were just places of entertainment. Now, they’re wonderful sanctuaries for animals. For all of us, the challenge is to make a visit to the zoo something that is wonderfully enriching and healthy for people as well as animals."
For a visual tour of the Detroit Zoo check out this slideshow from the Detroit Zoo flickr pool.
The Detroit Zoo is one of a many great Michigan attractions featured in Michigan History magazine. For information call (800) 366-3703 or visit www.michiganhistorymagazine.com.
In keeping with Absolute Michigan's 'Weird Wednesday', we present 'White Pine Trail Mascot' as captured by photoshoparama. His flickr page adds:
Or is it an idol?
I don't see any sacrifices or burnt candles so I think it is more like a trail mascot.Between southern trail head and West Michigan Whitecaps Baseball Stadium.
Want to see the details?
This defintely belongs in my "Between the Streets" pool.Taken a while back, just cleaning off my laptop. Yes, it looks different this week.
The mascot is quite the Blair Witch meets skate punk mashup...
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detroit zoo by ercy