V day.

Taking a break today; I’m in Fort Wayne for a graduation party, and not coming home until Monday.

Until then, this is what’s happening in Detroit: “Transformers 4” is shooting downtown. But Detroit isn’t Detroit. The production constructed an elaborate set in a vacant lot — of Hong Kong. There are photo galleries at Deadline Detroit and the dailies, certainly better that this crappy shot I grabbed Saturday after my bike ride. But you can see the Chinese billboards (fake) and the Tom Ford sign (ditto). Somewhere back in that mess is Mark Wahlberg and Michael Bay, making a shitty movie.

See you Tuesday.

20130804-220323.jpg

Posted at 10:06 pm in Detroit life, iPhone |
 

38 responses to “V day.”

  1. brian stouder said on August 4, 2013 at 10:19 pm

    Well, it was certainly a gorgeous day for a graduation party. Friday we had a pouring rainstorm; the girls and I stopped at the Arby’s drive-up*, and even with the building 2 feet away, and my windo only 1/2 way down, I was being soaked by the wind-blasted deluge.

    Today we visited our marvelous zoo, and although it was sad to see Juan the bobcat’s empty display, we had a particular treat when we visited the Bo the python, on the way to see the orangutans in the Indonesian rain forest. I think we saw Bo display more physical activity today, than the grand total of all other visits there, combined. He reached up to the lights at the top of his display, and slithered across the display (atop the lights) and then came down on the other side, looking right at us….and he continued from there.

    Shelby, our soon-to-be high school freshman, snapped many funny photos, that are probably on the Facebook machine even now, although they might as well be buried in the backyard for all the good fb does me!

    1012 chars

  2. brian stouder said on August 4, 2013 at 10:23 pm

    *forgot the asterisk; Pam requested Arby’s specifically for their “salted caramel shake” – which I thought was ‘meh’ – but which she liked

    138 chars

  3. Dexter said on August 5, 2013 at 12:09 am

    I have been grumbling for a couple days to anyone who will listen: TWCable pulled the plug on Showtime, home of my Sunday night entertainment, “Dexter” and “Ray Donovan” , as well as the upcoming new seasons of “Shameless” and “Homeland” and a bunch of other programming , which is why I dropped STARZ for Showtime in the first place. A friend in Kansas City said she received an email from Time Warner, apologizing and offering a refund. We got one STARZ channel as a consolation prize, no refund. The squabble is over a rate hike which CBS is going to charge Time Warner. Younger, much younger friends watch bootleg movies on their computers and phones and find ways to pirate premium cable shows to their devices as well.
    I want nothing to do with that crap, and I do not want to watch TV on my computer. The last damn thing I want to do is have that damn DirecTv back in my house with an ugly-ass antenna on my roof. One week. Then just watch me. Another antenna.
    I addition, the Cincinnati Reds were slaughtered once again by St. Louis. I just cancelled my plans to go see them in 13 days.

    1105 chars

  4. Kaye said on August 5, 2013 at 1:37 am

    Thanks for the sweet corn ideas Dexter and Bassett. My go-to method had been to drop freshly shucked ears into boiling water for just a couple minutes, until it smells like corn. It will be fun to try new methods as well as the lime/chili seasoning ideas.

    257 chars

  5. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 2:37 am

    Lots of recipes for corn on the cob with various seasonings online. Here are two collections.

    Five recipes from Parade: http://www.parade.com/52493/lorilange/5-corn-on-the-cob-recipes/

    Lots of recipes from Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=Corn+on+the+cob&type=simple&threshold=53&sort=1

    336 chars

  6. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 5, 2013 at 5:35 am

    My preferred way to make corn on the cob is to go to the Ohio State Fair, Hartford Fair (currently on thru Saturday, 155 years of livestock & elephant ears!), and Millersport Sweet Corn Festival. Between those three, I’m good.

    230 chars

  7. Brandon said on August 5, 2013 at 6:46 am

    Transformers 4 could never be as bad as The Lone Ranger.

    70 chars

  8. Joe K said on August 5, 2013 at 7:42 am

    They did make a good movie in Detroit, it’s called the Giant mechanical man I watched it this weekend on Netflix
    It was great, never made any money but was a wonderful movie
    Pilot Joe

    186 chars

  9. beb said on August 5, 2013 at 7:57 am

    I don’t know why a CGI heavy movie like Transformers would bother with on location filming. Since so much of the movie is going to be computer animation matted into live-action why not just all-out and do everything with CGI?

    225 chars

  10. Julie Robinson said on August 5, 2013 at 9:20 am

    Brandon for the early win!

    Transformers was the source of many frustrations and late arrivals during our time in Detroit. Never any warning, detour signs, or helpful people directing traffic. When we complained, we were told “They’re filming a movie!”, as if that magically made it all better. It did not.

    We had a pretty emotional weekend, as we are all still feeling the pain of our friends who were in the horrible accident. We had a wonderful and healing service Friday night and raised emergency cash for the family. On Saturday we went to see our son perform in Les Mis again, and anyone who doesn’t leave that show feeling verklempt has ice water in their veins.

    Dexter, you might be less frustrated by getting a Roku and watching your shows via Hulu+ and Netflix. Or there’s the new Google Chromecast, though it doesn’t have Hulu capacity yet. You do have to have a TV with an HDMI port.

    Sweet corn fixed any way at all is good with me as long as it’s freshly picked. As a kid, we put the water on to boil and only then walked out to pick it. Anything over a day old just doesn’t cut it for me, but luckily there is a local source nearby and I’ve never had a bad ear from them.

    Did Jeopardy fans out there see this: http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/2013/08/04/kid-says-was-cheated-over-jeopardy-spelling/1KotvJG1MvFn5peTC6i4jJ/story.html?
    Kid gave correct answer on final jeopardy but misspelled a word, and was ruled incorrect. I don’t follow closely enough to know the rules well, but I know we have at least one former contestant out there. I’m pretty legalistic about spelling, how feel you?

    1631 chars

  11. brian stouder said on August 5, 2013 at 9:30 am

    Wow. He mis-spelled the word emancipation – in a response that was looking for ’emancipation proclamation’?

    Maybe I dreamed it, but I’d swear I’ve seen scrawled answers that are illegible, if not mis-spelled, and which get credited.

    And – the school kid is from Newtown, Ct?

    Ay yi yi

    293 chars

  12. brian stouder said on August 5, 2013 at 11:19 am

    Since so much of the movie is going to be computer animation matted into live-action why not just all-out and do everything with CGI?

    Gotta be a vestigial tax incentive thing, yes? Nancy reported that that Michigan law has since changed, but I betcha contracts were already signed on this one.

    And speaking of movies…

    Stand By Me, in real life?

    http://www.wane.com/dpp/traffic/incidents/fort-wayne-boy-killed-by-train-in-ohio

    446 chars

  13. LAMary said on August 5, 2013 at 11:19 am

    The spelling and pronunciation rulings on Jeopardy seem a little arbitrary to me. I think there’s a guy backstage who flips a coin.

    132 chars

  14. Kaye said on August 5, 2013 at 11:33 am

    I think the Jepoardy may indeed employ a coin flipper. As I recall the tournement rules this kid wouldn’t have won any more $ if his answer had been ruled correct as the second and third place finishers win a set amount of $, not the amout they have accumulated.

    263 chars

  15. Charlotte said on August 5, 2013 at 11:33 am

    I love my Roku. And for about $100 a year we get MLB.com on it — can watch all the games we want, with their hometown feeds (my Red Sox fan is happy). Also have an AppleTV and don’t like it as much — more expensive, clunkier interface, and the Roku has some weird feeds of foreign and indie movies that I like. HuluPlus also worth it — especially as they own the entire Criterion Collection — when there’s nothing else on you can watch a long, black and white, foreign flick.

    479 chars

  16. Julie Robinson said on August 5, 2013 at 11:56 am

    Roku just added the Smithsonian channel, too, or at least we just discovered it. We watched a science show last night that the hubs enjoyed immensely and I found unobjectionable. Charlotte, thanks for the tip; we’ll have to explore Criterion next.

    I remember a contestant answering (or is it questioning?) Alex Baldwin and getting it wrong because it’s Alec. Presumably Alex Trebek is a little touchy on that subject.

    420 chars

  17. beb said on August 5, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    I hear that Time-Warner is having a spat with CBS television over who pays what to whom for rebroadcasting CBS network content. This seemed like a terrible lose … until I tried to remember what the last CBS show I actively watched.

    233 chars

  18. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    I’m a Roku fan too. Lots of choices and easy to use.

    52 chars

  19. Dorothy said on August 5, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    So Dexter, you’re a Ray Donovan fan? So are we! We find it mesmerizing and a little creepy and highly entertaining. Jon Voight is just fab in his role as the worst kind of father/role model there can be. The actor playing the brother Terry is heartbreaking. And Liev Schreiber was on Letterman recently saying he likes playing this part because he only has about 8 lines per show. He wasn’t far off. Has anyone here gotten “Orange is the New Black” yet from Netflix? We don’t have a fast enough internet connection to see it that way, so we’ll get it via snail mail eventually. My daughter is highly recommending it. It’s in my queue. During my last ten days home post surgery I got to see all but the last two episodes of Season four of the original Upstairs, Downstairs. The war stuff was dated but also very moving. The dialogue felt like it was hitting a little too close to home a few times.

    906 chars

  20. Julie Robinson said on August 5, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Dorothy, when we first got Netflix I watched the entirety of Upstairs/Downstairs, since I was at college without a TV when it was originally on. It was great fun, but I did find that some of the plot gaps I’d wondered about were actually gaps in the show, not the result of me missing episodes.

    We haven’t watched any of Orange yet but we still haven’t made it through House of Cards. It’s kinda depressing.

    Has anyone seen Graceland on USA? Our daughter follows Aaron Tveit, who was mostly known for Broadway work, and also played Enjolras in the Les Mis movie. I just found it on Hulu+ but haven’t watched any yet.

    623 chars

  21. Bitter Scribe said on August 5, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    David Carradine once remarked that he fully realized how nuts the movie business was when he became aware of two movies, shooting at the same time. One was set in Beijing, the other in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

    The movie set in Chinatown was being shot in Beijing, and the movie set in Beijing was being shot in Chinatown. This was, in both cases, to save money.

    366 chars

  22. Charlotte said on August 5, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    I’m up to episode 5 on Orange is the New Black — it gets better as it goes along (it’s my treadmill show at the moment, and since the weather cooled off, I’m trying to walk outside, in the air and the sunshine). I couldn’t stand House of Cards — it seemed like a big fat Kevin Spacey vanity project to me. Toothmarks all over the scenery. And I loved loved loved Graceland —

    And thanks for the tip on the Smithsonian channel. When it gets too hot we like to watch documentaries on the arctic — the last one was soiled by the odious Werner Herzog smearing himself all over it. Ugh. Also felt that way about Chasing Ice — we were far more interested in the subject than we were about James Balog hero-icizing himself.

    725 chars

  23. Prospero said on August 5, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    House of Cardds is the only thing I have ever thought Kevin Spacey is any good in. Surely a grossly overrated actor. Orange is terrific. Superb ensemble acting, led by Natash Lyonne, playing a junkie prison philosoper (sort of the Morgan Freeman Shawshank role). She knows the junkie part pat from her previous ex-child-star past immersed in drugs. Her performance in this is a revelation. Even Laura Prepon is good in this. The weak link is Jason Biggs who whines constantly and acts as if his fiance’s prison term is harder on him than it is on her. What a tool.

    Man, sombody at MLB sure warned the Tigers about Peralta being toast. They signed Jose Iglesias off the RedSox. Out of the blue, this career .250 hitter is hitting .330 this year, but if he returns to form, he more than makes up for Perata’s lost offense with his superb fielding. Miles better SS than Peralta, and will help Cabrera’s performance at 3BAnd ARod should just go away. It’s interestin and a little downheartening to see Nelson Cruz and Peralta bail on their teams for postseasons in the interest of jacking their free agent hauls for next season. I’d say MLB should do something to prevent that as part of their punishments.

    Graceland is pretty good. I turned it on originally because of Daniel Sunjata, who was excellent as Franco in Rescue Me. The season finale of The Killing was very strange, and sad. I am really enjoying (?!) The Bridge.

    1428 chars

  24. Prospero said on August 5, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    Battle of the sexists. LinkedIn, guilty as charged. The advertisers, maybe. A riddle wrapped inside a conundrum.

    When Norman fracking Ornstein calls Congressional GOPers out for acting like dickheads and displaying nearly-treasonous behavior, the enormity of the GOPer malfeasance is on display. If Granny Starver pulls this heinous stunt, he’s given up hiding behind Constitutional oddities and attacked our form of government, our actual sitting government, and the American people. You’ve tried everything in the legal book and failed, you are out of tries you little jerk.

    991 chars

  25. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    I’m watching OITNB too and am finding it very engaging. Started this after watching all the episodes of Breaking Bad, which I missed on first go-round, over the past few weeks. Wanted to finish before the new episodes begin next weekend. It’s hardly news to say that the acting in BB is a revelation, but, really, it’s incredible. I don’t think there’s a weak link in the whole ensemble. Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler, said in a TV interview last week that the last episodes are intense–that they “don’t give the viewer a break.”

    528 chars

  26. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    Almost forgot: Bryan Cranston will be on Leno tonight. The promo appearances I’ve been seeing (by Cranston, Gunn, and writer Vince Gilligan) have been kind of lame), but I’ll probably check it out anyway.

    204 chars

  27. Dorothy said on August 5, 2013 at 3:39 pm

    Oh Jolene I had that pleasure last year – I overdosed on BB when they ran all the episodes for a couple of months, and was all caught up by the time the first part of the final season came on last summer. Recently they re-ran the last five episodes of season 3, and this coming Friday they’re re-running all of season 4 starting at 3 PM. Even though I’ve already seen them I’m going to OD again because the show is so much better than much of what is on these days. I’m both dreading and avidly anticipating the start of the last 8 eps this coming Sunday. I’m convinced Walter White will be deceased in the last episode. The only question mark is who will do the deed? My money is on Jesse.

    693 chars

  28. paddyo' said on August 5, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    I, too, thought some Jeopardy! answers were so illegibly written that spelling couldn’t have mattered . . .

    My favorite final-round controversy of Jeopardy! will always be as presented in one of many great episodes of Cheers: I never fail to crack up at Cliff Clavin’s answer . . .

    377 chars

  29. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    Another big change in the media world: The Washington Post has been sold to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE

    262 chars

  30. brian stouder said on August 5, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    Jolene – Wow.

    Citizen Bezos, eh?

    Forget tech (which is, afterall, only the means and not an end in itself); this tells me newspapers will continue to survive for the rest of my lifetime.

    Lots of folks – especially ego-centric billionaires – wants the last word.

    There’s a book here, for sure (and one that Amazon will probably sell) – but it is merely the newest revision

    385 chars

  31. beb said on August 5, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    And the NYT sold off the Boston Globe at a 93% loss.

    And the inconceivable has been conceived
    http://www.freep.com/article/20130805/ENT05/308050114/dia-art-christie-s-detroit-bankruptcy
    Christie’s getting $200,000 to evaluate the worth of the collection.

    260 chars

  32. adrianne said on August 5, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    Aaron Tveit is a native of Middletown, NY, very talented and nice guy, comes back to the high school regularly to talk with the drama club kids.

    And on the Bezos and John Henry purchases – after 20-plus years in the paragraph factories, I’ve had it with soulless corporate ownership of newspapers. They’ve nearly destroyed the village in order to save it. I’d much rather be a billionaire’s plaything.

    404 chars

  33. brian stouder said on August 5, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    I’d much rather be a billionaire’s plaything.

    Adrianne – if Julie hadn’t already nominated a thread winner, this would be my pick!

    And the truth within the comment is unassailable…change the ‘b’ to an ‘m’, and that’s where I exist; and it is not a bad place at all

    283 chars

  34. Little Bird said on August 5, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    A brief note on that dog vomit slime mold Deborah mentioned yesterday. We had MORE this morning. Deborah picked it up and disposed of it. We already have two NEW “puddles” of it. I did some research and it causes allergenic rhinitis in those susceptible to it. Which would be me. I thought it was ragweed causing misery. I may need to pick up more Zyrtec.

    361 chars

  35. Prospero said on August 5, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    Well Brian, You know there is tech and there is “content”. I despise this word as it applies to the net. It’s as mealy-mouthed as architects that never give a direct answer about how to do something or what material to use and why. They always “suspect”. Content is non-existent without actual reporters gathering informatiion. Even if they are lightweight dumbasses working for entertainment coverage.

    402 chars

  36. Julie Robinson said on August 5, 2013 at 7:06 pm

    paddyo’, what a great clip. I never saw that one.

    Little Bird, eww, eww, eww!!!

    Adrianne, it’s great to know that about Aaron Tveit. I love his voice, and will confess that he’s easy on the eyes, though the wrong generation for me, not that I’m looking.

    259 chars

  37. Sherri said on August 5, 2013 at 7:24 pm

    If I were a writer for the Post, I’d like my chances much better with Bezos than with a publicly held corporation. Bezos has consistently shown that he doesn’t care about quarterly numbers; after all, Amazon didn’t even turn a profit for 7 years.

    246 chars

  38. Jolene said on August 5, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    A useful perspective on the sale of the Post from one of its business/economics writers. He seems to agree with Sherri and Adrianne.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/05/jeff-bezos-is-buying-the-washington-post-heres-what-that-means/

    258 chars