JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

We zig-zagged around the city for the next hour, going back and forth across Woodward. We covered areas like Ferry St, the New Center, Boston-Edison, ground zero for the 1967 riots, Hamtramck and so on. Almost missed the Motown Museum - I thought it was on the other side of the street and the view was blocked by several tour buses. It's one of those places you've always intended to visit, but never get around to. Should have marked that as a New Year's Resolution... One comment that kept cropping up as the others saw more of the city was how they now understood why musicians from the region like Eminem were so angry. The abandoned landscape led to thoughts about the decayed inner cores of American cities versus healthy ones like Toronto (some American exceptions were mentioned, like Boston, SF or NYC). The decay struck a nerve, especially when we crossed into the suburbs and saw the landscape change immediately. The lack of visible minorities in the burbs was duly ...

Hours of fun in the sandbox to come! Photo taken July 1978 - JB

Brought a carload of friends back to my hometown this weekend, a chance to get out of the city for a few days. Covered a lot of ground, which will take a few entries to tell. FRIDAY Had an easy drive out of the city. Stopped in Woodstock at Dairy Queen, where we sat in the parking lot with the local teenage population. Drove through London, past several sketchy strip joints ("sketchy" was a term thrown around often during the weekend) and into a livelier-than-I-remember downtown London. Maybe the place is now dead by day, alive by night, like Windsor. Arrived in A'burg around midnight, watched an episode of the Muppet Show, then collapsed for the night. SATURDAY Things got off to a good start at the border, where the guard joked around with us, asking if the girls were dragging the guys along for shopping. More proof the guards are friendlier at Detroit than along the Niagara River. Once across, we swung around the Hotel Yorba, then grabbed lunch at Armando...

Spent Friday night/Saturday morning on the airwaves for the first time in several months. I didn't forget how to use the equipment, though more of it was in less-than-functional order (now both turntables and one CD player need a manual cue - the board will only send the sound out). Things seem to be in better order around there these days - they have finally started to catalogue the new releases and make it easy to figure out if anything has gone for a walk. Good new material is available, not missing after a week. Record library's still a mess, but don't think that can be helped. It's scary to still see signs posted in there from my attempts to rearrange the place...seven years ago. Nobody called, so I can't be sure if anybody was listening. Whenever I do a late-night fill-in, there's usually a drunk or stoner who'll call in and keep pestering for stuff. Still remember the first call I ever got at the station - it was before my first show, and a ...

Updates and news... 1) The test laboratory in the basement has picked up a newfangled gizmo called a digital camera. Results of its tests will appear in the next few weeks. 2) I'll be on the road the first two weeks of August, travelling across the continental. Updates may appear, if only to keep straight the places I've been. 3) Chateau Cola is still a mystery (May 20th). Any leads are appreciated. Other family members recall having root beer, grape and orange. 4) Looks like one miscarriage of musical justice has finally been rectified, according to the latest issue of MOJO magazine. In Britain, it looks like Neil Young's On The Beach has legitimately entered the digital era (June 11th). 5) No more sushi for me. Another food through trial and error that i have discovered no longer agrees with me. However, discovered the cure the tummy woes may be lazing around a hotel pool all afternoon and going out for a nostalgic dinner with siblings. Confused? L...