Hipsters!

I thought the short blurb about the Garden Bowl Bar in the Essential Guide to Detroit was really funny.

You're probably so sick and tired of the word "hipster" by now that you're ready to wring someone's neck. Well, put on the fingerprint-proof gloves and wring away because the Garden Bowl Bar has more hipsters than a Strokes/Franz Ferdinand double bill held in a thrift store on New York's Lower East Side. Hipster bartenders, hipster DJs, hipster bowlers, hipster hair-dos, hipster bands playing free shows. All your favorite MySpacers will be there!

Gap Years

This article about college graduates taking a year or two off after graduation certainly reflects what a lot of people I know have decided to do. Although I think grad school and certain gap year jobs can shield you from the quick lessons you learn from a more permanent, fulltime job, I definitely see a lot of value in a gap year. I wonder if this will continue to increase in popularity?

The Farmer's Diner

Yesterday, the Splendid Table on NPR profiled Tod Murphy, the creator of The Farmer's Diner, in Barre, Vermont. The company pays a profitable rate for fresh product to farmers within a 70 mile radius of the diner. The fresh product is then processed at the Farmer's Diner Commissary before it arrives at the restaurant in a form that restaurant workers are use to handling. The restaurant's prices are set to compete with a typical diner.

Although he said that they are currently only making a small profit, there are plans to open two more 150-seat restaurants in Vermont before the company starts to expand throughout the New England region. The company's goal is a nationwide network of restaurants, each one buying from local farmers, and the website lists potential social and economic gains of buying and eating locally grown food. Cool.

Pontiac Solstice

I hope that Bob Lutz's first three cars for GM (Chevy HHR, Hummer H3, and Pontiac Solstice), all of which have gotten great reviews, are signs of what's ahead for General Motors. I liked the review of the Solstice in the New York Times. Brian Emeott and I agreed that the end was the best part:

When you buy a Solstice you don't pick a color but an attitude. In Pontiac's paint scheme, red is called Aggressive, silver is Cool, gray is Sly and black is Mysterious. Then there is Envious. That is green, and it will be the color of your friends.

INSIDE TRACK: American beauty.

Michigan Deserves Better

This article ran on the Model D website last week. A lot of good things are happening in Midtown. Sue Mosey's comments really sum up my feelings for Detroit.

“There’s great people in this city, there’s great history, there’s great architecture … and metro Detroit deserves a major city. It doesn’t act that way. But it needs one. … There are a lot of good people around who aren’t naysayers — people working on a lot of great things. Even though it’s really challenging and will try your patience all the time, there are enough good things going on and good people to keep me feeling passionate about it.”

We deserve better.

Oh Darko

"I was supposed to take care of those tickets, and I thought I did, but actually I didn’t."

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm6653_20051013.htm

The Silver Lining

Amid all of the depressing news articles coming out of Detroit about the Delphi bankruptcy, I've really enjoyed Tom Walsh's two most recent columns in the Detroit Free Press. I think he's right that this state can learn from Delphi's recovery.

I was also happy to see that Walsh's second column featured former University of Michigan president James Duderstadt drumming up concern for where Michigan is headed. Duderstadt came and spoke to one of my classes last term about what a university will look like in the future (http://milproj.ummu.umich.edu/home/). His lecture featured really innovative ideas, so I hope that he can help this state address problems that are rooted in ideas and cultures that have long been unwilling to change.

Young Professional

I have so much free time at work that I decided I'd start a blog.