Joe Bright Blog!

Good thing that happened today.  My talented illustrator of a husband has finally got himself a blog to chart his musings and ideas on his way to making a living out of the thing he was put on this earth to do...

joebrightillustrator.blogspot.com

Wednesday 22nd - Motown!

Today we went to the Motown Museum, the place where all the Motown greats learned their trade and recorded the hits.  We were taken around by Eric who told us all the history, including how it stated with a $800 loan which resulted in $20 million profits 7 years later.  Stevie Wonder, Jackie WIlson, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Jackson Five.  Not only were these young (many 15 -18 years old) people from the local neighbourhood given the chance to use their talents to make records, they were also taught how to survive/be a success in the white world of music, to turn around the many misconceptions that a lot of white people had of black people at the time. It was really interesting to hear about the massive marketing and pr stuff that went on by the family who set up the labels to make sure the music was more likely to be noticed and enjoyed by white people in a time of racial segregation.  For example, some referred to it as the Motown Finishing School, and in the beginning, the record sleeves didn't have pictures of the bands on the covers - just other artwork - because the much white audiences wouldn't have bought the music if they had known it was made by black people.

We were shown the echo chamber (a hole in the ceiling) where all the lovely claps and tambourine sounds were made and walked through the apartment and offices as they were left in 1972 (I think), so lots of cool furniture and equipment. We ended up in Studio A, where all the magic happened.  I popped my head into the control room to find that they used only a 2 track recording process for years, putting the music on one track and the vocals on another.  They later upgraded to a 3-track, but only ever got to an 8-track.  Amazing.  

On the way to the museum I noticed that the houses each had business signs on the lawns.  It turns out that not so long ago, black people weren't allowed to rent business premises, so if they wanted to set up businesses they had to do it in their own homes, and this is why there were businesses in peoples houses and still are today.  This is also why the man who set up Motown did it in a house in the area where he lived.  

We finished the tour with some singing and dancing in the studio.  Much to Joe’s delight.  

On the way home we went to a proper Mall.  It was massive.  And we had our first Taco Bell and it wasn’t that bad!  

In the early evening, Galina took us to the private view of her friend’s painting exhibition in the local cancer hospital.  One thing I’ve noticed about the hospitals is that they look like hotels.  For tea we had “Mediterranean” which was kebabs, rice and humous.  This was really good.  We had a beef kebab and the meat was so tender and delicious, not chewy at all.  We went to bed early, ready for our drive up north, early next morning

Tuesday 21st - Canada & Coney Dogs

We went to Canada!   For lunch.  Once we got through immigration.  Stephen had hassle at passport control because of a minor teenage misdemeanor.  So we spent about half an hour in the immigration office, feeling guilty for nothing while Stephen was grilled in the interview room.  I chatted to a man with a false arm and a woman chasing him around the US who was trying to escape from her to Canada.  

After we were through to Windsor (via a tunnel under the river), we went to Deputy Dog and had a Coney Dog (a hot dog with chilli and onions on top).  Stephen took us to Ceasars Palace Casino.  Oh my word, this was huge, with a sea of gambling machines as far as the eye could see.  

We drove back to Detroit over the bridge and to the Renaissance Centre or “Ren Cen”, the international headquarters of General Motor Company and a collection of tower blocks making up the focal point of downtown Detroit.  It’s a modernist dream of interlocking towers and walkways comprised of offices, shops and apartments on the waterfront.  And that was it.  Detroit downtown is very strange.  It was 3pm in the middle of a big city and it was dead, just a few people milling around.  A ghost town.  We took the People Mover, a monorail that loops around downtown, costing 50c per person for the round trip.  It was empty.  From this we saw the rest of the city, pretty run-down, once prosperous and glittering 1920s skyscrapers, now empty with missing windows.  It reminded me of the area in the film "Batteries not included".  Stephen tried to be positive and say things are looking up and improving, but it didn’t feel that way.  I felt like it was how we try to convince others and ourselves that Sneinton is getting better and not as bad as it seems in places, and I know that deep down you know it’s not that true.

For tea we went to the Californian Pizza Company - this was yummy.  Amazing pizza.  I couldn’t eat it all, so I took what was left home in a box!  Neat.  Then Joe and I went to the Old Navy shop, recommended to us by Joe’s big sister.  This was a cool shop.  I bought jeans and cords and other stuff.  Such good value and the style you can’t really get in England at the moment.

The pizza restaurant was on what we'd call a retail park, along with other restaurants and shops next door, huge shops, with car parks all around.  These areas were dotted regularly around the suburbs and this is where people go, rather than the city centre or downtown for shopping and eating out.

Monday 20th September - Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum

After a breakfast of some yummy fruit and yoghurt and a great night sleep, I met Isabella before she went to playschool.  

We drove around Detroit and this is a BIG industrial city.  All the “mile” roads coming out of downtown, including 8 Mile where Eminem came from.  These are massive highways dissecting “sub-divisions”/housing estates of once grand looking houses, now deserted. These are the run down suburbs that were deserted by the white middle class after the race riots and collapse of the motor industry and are now the dilapidated deprived areas of the city.  We saw the big Ford Motor Company Headquarters. 

Stephen took us to Dearborn, the village where the Ford Car company started and still is.  We spent most of the day  at Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Musuems.  The first was an entire village of Henry Fords favourite buildings that he had  dismantled and moved from their original location to his musuem, where he rebuilt them!  It’s laid out like an old American town, with the house Henry Ford grew up in, and the laboratories where Thomas Edison came up with many of his inventions.  

The Henry Ford Museum was filled with old cars from the first ones to the present day.  My faves were the cars from the 1950s.  They also had an exhibition on the history of Civil Rights in the US, including the bus on which Rosa Parks made her protest.  I sat in the seat where she sat.

At lunch, Joe and Stephen had pulled pork sandwich in the cafe and we all had refills on the fizzy drinks.  This really happens!

For tea we had thai take-away, which meant we had food in those little square boxes you see on American TV programmes and films!  After tea, Galina took us shopping at Kohl’s, a big value department store.  OMG, we had bargains galore on jeans, hoodies and trainers.  I got a pair of Vans for about £12.  

In the area where Stephen and Galina live, there are no footpaths, car is king.  There is no town centre, just retail parks at various points along the highway, including the post office, doctors, daycare, banks.  All the houses are detached and set in their own area of grass, no fences or walls marking the boundaries.  The vehicles are very big.  Most people have 4x4-type cars.

Photos from 18th Sept - Prince Frederick to Chesapeake Beach to Baltimore and baseball

First 4 photos are out of chronology.  Sorry.

Fish-eye photos courtesy of Marjorie - thanks!

Chesapeake Beach

Baseball Action

Old and new Baltimore buildings

Bank of America building

Small town house

Chesapeake Beach

Chesapeake beach house

Chesapeake beach house

Our hotel in Baltimore

My fave Baltimore building - Bank of America building

Going to the baseball game

"A dollar a bottle, you'll pay 4 inside"

First view of the stadium

Outside the stadium

Queue

Going in

The game

The crowd

The score - the home side lost (Baltimore Oriels v NY Yankees)

Arty shot of interesting buidling

Count Jocula

Photos from 17th Sept - DC to Prince Frederick and the wedding

Breakfast

DC House

Your average lorry

DC House

DC House

Soda refills

"Economy" Car

An actual yellow school bus

The wedding venue - Running Hare Vineyard

The wedding ceremony

The beautiful bride and groom

The butler

Some photos of our day in Washington DC - 16th Sept

I really wanted these photos to be in chronological/geographical order, but can't get the blog formatted to do so without pulling my hair out, so hopefully you don't mind too much.

The Washington Memorial - it's rather huge 

The Washington Memorial from the Reflection Pool that's in front of the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial - site of numerous significant history-making speeches and protests, including Martin Luther King Jr "I have a dream" speech and the anti-Vietnam protest

Us in front of the Capitol Building, hot and jet-lagged

Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Memorial

The Capitol Building from the Washington Memorial

Bold squirrel who ran right up to us to check us out and give us a little pose

Korean War Memorial

Star-spangled Joe at the Washington Memorial

Washington Memorial.  Peter would hate this.

The World's steepest and longest undergroup escalator at Adams Morgans metro station

My first proper American burger and the 24-hour diner in Adams Morgan.  Deeeelish.

Joe's first burger.

The Whitehouse, it's quite small