Life on Big Beaver Road

w/ the Spirit of Detroit

I had an absolute blast for two weeks in Detroit.  Right from the moment the plane landed on Sunday night (a few of us traveled to the Motor City after our closing matinee in Chicago), I felt at home.  The whole visit was full of family, friends an familiar places.  I may have been the only member of the company who was sad to leave Detroit...

The title of this post comes from the location of our lodging in metro-Detroit.  The Residence Inn in Troy is a hefty drive from the Fisher Theatre, but the last two minutes make the trip worthwhile.  The next to the last instructions on my google directions told me to take: "Exit 69: Big Beaver Road".  Genius.  It's my second favorite set of directions ever.  (My favorite is also a Michigan special and involves I-69, the "Penetrator" and Dickman Road.)  

TVFMHRW - Residence Inn, Troy

The Residence Inn was wonderful.  I had a two story flat with fireplace and felt right at home.

The first Monday morning, I set out to visit my family.  My first stop was in Chelsea to visit Grandma Curtis.  She fell and injured her shoulder several months ago and was living and doing her rehab in a facility in Chelsea.  When I arrived, Grandma was actually on the phone making plans for her move to a more permanent assisted living facility in East Lansing.  Her recovery from the fall has been smooth and relatively speedy.  I hadn't seen her since Casey's wedding in June and was glad I got to spend two hours catching up with her.  I also got a short visit with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Kirk who had also come to see Grandma.

After visiting with Grandma, I headed north to have dinner at home with Mom & Dad.  I was surprised to see that they've done a fair amount remodeling to the house!  Mom's built herself a master suite and given Dad a den in what used to be my brother's bedroom.  They've also cut a pass through into the wall between the kitchen and the formal dining room.  All the changes look great, but I was surprised to learn that they did all this work on the house before the holidays and kept it a secret "so they could see my face".  Dinner was wonderful - home-cooked meals are rare enough as I tour, but to have my parents make me one was special.

Our opening night in Detroit marked the official return of Jeff Dumas to the company.  Jeff was our original Patsy and came back to us after a year away at the end of Brad Bradley's contract.  I like Jeff a lot and was happy to see him back on our stage.  We took an afternoon in Detroit to do some more publicity photos - we hadn't taken any for nearly a year.  While the professional photographer worked from out in the house, Francesca got out her camera in the wings.  She got some absolutely amazing photos, including this great shot of Jeff.

It was fun to play another town that I had some familiarity with.  Though I was born and lived the very early part of my life in the Detroit suburb of Redford and I have been visiting the Motor City as long as I can remember, there were still plenty of new things to see and do around town.  Karl and I visited the Motown Museum one morning before work and I really dug it.  Berry Gordy built a recording empire and created an entire musical sound from a few houses along Grand Avenue.  Even when the Motown Sound was at its zenith, the whole operation had a very family feel (or at least, that's how the museum portrayed it).

Roy and I visited the Ford Rouge Plant and watched members of the UAW build F150 pick-up trucks.  To watch Ford crank out 1 truck a minute was absolutely fascinating!  It did make me wonder who, exactly, was going to buy a truck every minute; especially since, when we visited the Rouge, they were building only crew cab and extended cab versions - the standard two door truck is built somewhere else.  The scale and complexity of the plant was amazing - it really made me appreciate the size of the auto industry as a whole and the size of the fix that they're in.

I also got an up close look at the auto manufacturing process courtesy of my friend Andy.  Andy (last name withheld to protect the guilty) is an engineer at the Ford Rawsonville Parts Plant and invited me to come and see what it is that they do there.  After a tiny bit of fibbing about my occupation and reason for visiting the plant, I was watching the safety video and donning a pair of glasses and yellow vest to venture where the merely curious are not allowed.  Andy is one of the engineers responsible for designing and maintaining the machines that make starter motors for all manner of Ford vehicles.  It was fascinating to watch all the machines and their operators at work turning out parts for countless vehicles.  Andy even let me operate one of the robotic arms that assembles the tiny gears inside the motor as he tested out a new fitting for the machine.  Cool stuff.  I'm often surprised that people find the day to day operation Spamalot so interesting (after all, it is jut my job), but I absolutely loved the peek into Andy's profession.

Of course, there was some great eating to be done in Detroit as well.  No visit to the D would be complete without a stop in Greektown!  Hellas may be gone, but there's still plenty of tasty mediterranean bites available along Monroe Street.  David and Karl joined me for big plates of octopus, pastichio and, of course, saganaki!

Opa!

A bunch of us also went over to Hamtramck for no joke Polish food.  My friend, Katja, introduced me to Polish Village when we were home visiting in June, and I took along Gurr, Suzanne and Roy for a between shows feast.  Everyone ordered something different and we all stuffed ourselves to the breaking point.  We weren't too full, however, to stop by a Polish bakery on our way back to the Fisher to load up with boxes full of angel wings and Kolaczki (tiny filled cookies - sort of the Polish answer to rugelach).  Heaven.  The only disappointment was that were a few weeks to early for paczkis...

Speaking of Katja - I got to hang out with my old college roommate quite a bit while I was in town.  Katja and her husband, Jeff, invited me to the opening night of Jeff's show: Rabbit Hole.  I loved seeing Jeff work (and sitting in the audience, for a change).  The production was quite good and Jeff's work in a difficult part was great.  Later in the visit, they came to see Spamalot and took me out for drinks at an old haunt from their Wayne State days just up the street.  While Sheila Marie was in town, Katja hosted us at their home and made a huge dinner for us between shows!  While Katja drove me back to work, Sheila Marie got to stay and read stories to Ella, Katja and Jeff's beautiful daughter.  That my friends have such amazing children still freaks me out a little, but I adore Ella.

Katja gets Ella ready for bed - but not before Sheila Marie snaps a photo!

I also got to spend quite a bit of time with some more old friends - Paul and Jenny entertained me all day during my Monday off in Hockeytown.  Paul took a day off to hang out with me, which I though was exceptionally cool of him!  We ate olive burgers downtown (why hasn't the rest of the country caught on to this delicious Michigan-ism yet?) and explored the amazing Guardian Building  Then we checked out the Pewabic Pottery studios and bowled several games at the oldest continuously operating bowling alley in the US, Garden Bowl.

Paul and Jenny in the banking lobby of the Guardian Building.

The Guardian Building is an absolutely amazing Art Deco skyscraper in the heart of downtown Detroit.  Built for the Union Trust Corporation in 1928-9, it is the jewel of the many Deco buildings in Detroit.

w/ Paul "The Pin Terminator" Fanson at Garden Bowl

Later that night, we met up with Andy and Steph for dinner.  All four of them also came down to see the show and hang out with Sheila and I during her visit.  They took us to Slow's Barbecue for great BBQ and an enormous selection of both beers and bourbons.  Between Andy and I, we sampled 5 different bourbons, each distinct from the last.

Steph, Andy, Jenny, Paul and JV as we bundled up to leave Slow's.

Seeing all these friends was amazing.  I've known Paul as long as I can remember and we became good friends in high school.  I was there when he met Jenny and when our mutual friends tried to set them up on their first date.  Steph and Andy were more friends I met in college who I've grown closer to as we age.  Katja was one of my roommates at 565 Stoddard and is one of the people I know I can call for anything.  To be able to spend time with all of those people made Detroit a magical stop on the tour.

Before I left town, I got another chance to be with my family.  Sheila Marie and I drove up to East Lansing to visit Grandma in her new digs.  This visit was a little shorter, but no less wonderful.  That same evening, Mom and Dad drove down for a between shows meal.  We met up at Mario's with my cousin, Shannon, and his wife, Jen.  My Mom adores Shannon (along with his brother, Charlie) and we always have a good time when we get together.  We all share a sense of humor and can get each other laughing in no time.  I'm only sorry that we could only spend such a brief time around the dinner table.

Mom, Jen, Shannon, JV & SM at Mario's

While others only saw Detroit's shortcomings, I realized what a soft-spot I have for the city.  There are plenty of wonderful things about the town, it just takes a little more work to uncover them than some other places.  Granted, everything is spread out all over the place and you have to get in a car and drive (sometimes for quite a while) to get from one thing to the next - but this is the Motor City after all.  I do fear for the city, however, in the current economic times.  Times are tough everywhere, but Detroit is obviously taking a beating.  I'm hopeful, though, that Detroit can weather the storm and emerge stronger for it.

Some extra pics:

I made a pilgrimage to "the corner of Michigan and Trumbull", as Ernie Harwell always used to identify the place, to visit the origination of my fascination with baseball.  I remember several games with my family when the tickets were bought as Fathers' Day gifts for my Grandpa and watching my brother pick out batting helmets for his collection from the vendors around Tiger Stadium.  It hurts my heart that the Tigers have moved out (especially since so many new ballparks have features lifted from this great old park - Citifield, the Met's new home, has a rightfield corner lifted straight from Tiger Stadium), but I'm glad an effort's being made to preserve the park.  The oldest sections of the grandstand (some from when it was Navin Field) have been spared the wrecking ball and will see use for high school play-offs and the like.

 

Strangely, I did a lot of bowling in Detroit.  In addition to the Garden Bowl adventure, Paula arranged a Spamily bowling night.

 

Take a showgirl bowling...

(Another of Francesca's amazing snaps)

JV