Detroit's Newest Soul Man: Mayer Hawthorne

I had heard of Mayer Hawthorne but until recently I hadn’t listened to Mayer Hawthorne. I assumed he was some techno DJ or Hip Hop player; genre’s that aren’t on my musical radar. Sure enough, that was his scene in his previous incarnation as DJ Haircut.

The Ann Arbor native, currently living in L.A., has a silky soulful voice reminiscent of Motown and sports a nerdy 50’s-esque image. I must say, I’ve developed a bit of a crush.

Hawthorne’s debut album, A Strange Arrangement, came out in September and his influences include Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield. Hawthorne said that the album is “heavily Motown inspired but it’s also new music for a new generation, it’s also very hip hop influenced.”

Mayer Hawthorne is actually his porn name; his real name is Drew Cohen. Mayer is his middle name and Hawthorne is the street he grew up on.

I always thought that your porn name was your first pets name and the street you grew up on. In which case I would be Maybe Hawthorne. So, perhaps we are related? No. Maybe we grew up on the same street? Nope, I grew up in Warren. Ok, I just thought I’d mention the similarity.

For those wondering Maybe was the name of my first dog. My Dad thought he was being cute, “maybe we’ll keep her, maybe we won’t.” Yeah, we kept her for 14 years. As a side note, going on Mayer Hawthorne’s porn name formula, I don’t have a middle name. Neither do my parents or my brother. So, I'd be Hawthorne, a one named wonder just like Madonna.

Even though Mayer Hawthorne infiltrated my twitter stream for months, I never clicked any of the links. I didn’t listen to him until last week when a blog I read, the Detroit Drinks blog, had this video on it. 

You know the ills of this world, they can get you down

But then you get back up

I was hooked. Soon after I was at the iTunes store plunking down my $9.99 and I am not disappointed. I realized, for whatever reason, that I needed the video right in front of me, or I may have never listened to Mayer Hawthorne. That’s why I’m sharing it with you. Or maybe you’ve never heard of him.

It should be noted that the above video is not an official video; just what a 19-year-old kid from the UK put together when he noticed there wasn’t an official one for that song. Fantastic!

In a Detroit Free Press article this past May, Hawthorne said, 

I'm so fortunate to be able to represent the Detroit area that ... everywhere I go, I'm reppin' Detroit as hard as I can. I'm so grateful to have grown up where I did. I don't think any of this would have been possible if I didn't grow up in the Detroit area. It has such an incredible impression on you. I feel bad for people who did not grow up in Detroit.

Yep, I’m crushing even harder after reading that.

And maybe it’s just me with Detroit on the brain, but the chorus of The Ills just screams Detroit. There are so many problems here, so much that can get us down, but we get back up. We get back up.

I don’t know much about music; I just know what I like. I like Mayer Hawthorne. You can read a more comprehensive review of A Strange Arrangement at Frying in Vein.

Mayer Hawthorne is playing at The Magic Stick on Saturday, December 19^th. Click here for tickets. I’m hoping to be there, are you?

Detroit Moxie's Weekend Roundup

So, we’ve had our first snow dusting of the season. Some named it “Death Storm 2009” and “Storm-Apocalypse.” In the end, it wasn’t much of a storm, at least not in my neck of the woods. I have heard of downed trees and power outages, though, so I can’t mock it too much. Does it feel a bit more like the holidays now that the white fluffy stuff is on the ground?

Weekend Roundup

1. Holiday Ice Festival in Downtown Ferndale - Featuring over 40 ice sculptures, live reindeer, and trolley rides. December 12.

2. Breakfast with Santa at the Detroit Zoo - A waffle breakfast complete with a gift for each child! Plus a special visit from Santa and a few of his wildlife friends. December 12 & 19.

3. Holiday Tea & Tour at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House - Start off with a tour and then head to the Tea Room for delicious sandwiches, treats, and tea. December 12. 

4. Shop Detroit - The 6th annual shopping event offers free shuttle service from Downtown to Midtown, the New Center, and Eastern Market. Special events are happening around the city. December 12.

5. Wayne County LightFest 2009 - This is the Midwest's largest and longest light show and includes over 35 animated displays and over one million lights. Through December 31st.

Do you know of a great event going in on Metro Detroit this weekend? Add it to the comments and share it with us! 

Positive Detroit, Local Female Bloggers, and Operation: Kid Equip Collaborating to Provide Dictionaries for Area 3rd Graders

Part of my job here at Detroit Moxie is to tell you about cool things going on in metro Detroit. The other, and more important part is to try and make a difference in the lives of others.

Female bloggers from the local Detroit area are joining PositiveDetroit.Net, in collaboration with Operation: Kid Equip, to provide at least 25% of Oakland County Schools with dictionaries for third graders.

Erin Rose of Positive Detroit, Nikki Stephan of Essential Elements, Jennifer Wright of Looking Glass Lane, Lauren Weber of Staircase to Earth's Loveliness and I spend much of our time writing on our respective blogs. We want to help give the same opportunities to local students as we were given in our writing classes as children. We want to help our local students become better writers.

With the assistance of Operation: Kid Equip and its participation with The Dictionary Project, we will be distributing dictionaries specifically written for third graders who are at the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn.

Now through March 15, 2010, we are raising money to provide roughly 2,700 third graders in Oakland County with brand new dictionaries. To give you an idea of the impact you can make, for a $20 donation, you can supply at least 8 third graders with dictionaries. 

An anonymous donor has graciously offered to match donations, dictionary-for-dictionary, up to the first 100 dictionaries. Can you just see the excitement on their faces and hear the kids when they receive these gifts? Just think - your donation today can double the amount of children that are being served tomorrow. 

I was a funny kid and I don’t mean that I was a comedian. I went to kindergarten when I was four and was sent to the first grade class for reading during recess. I was advanced, they said. It didn’t bother me one bit that I missed recess. I loved reading! Yes, I was that kid. The written word took me on adventures and showed me endless possibilities. In third grade I found a book I adored, “Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More To Life” by Maurice Sendak. I checked that book out of the library continually. For three years! I mean, I don’t think any of the other kids even saw the book, let alone had a chance to check it out. I told you, I was that kid. These days I spend much of my time writing and it’s hard. If I didn’t have the use of a dictionary you would find many more errors than you already do. I want children to have the tools to become the best writers they can be.

Here is how you can help:

1. Click Here to make a PayPal donation for $100, $50, $20 or $10 

2. Mail a check payable to:

Operation: Kid Equip
PO Box 364
Royal Oak, MI  48068-0364

Be sure to write Dictionary Project in the memo line.

3. Contact menachem@operationkidequip.org to make a credit card or
other form of payment outside of PayPal.

4. If you would like to join the female bloggers collaboration
with your blog, contact Erin Rose at positivedetroit@gmail.com.

About Operation: Kid Equip
As an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit community benefit organization, we realize that to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, we have to meet some very basic, yet overlooked needs. Operation: Kid Equip acts as a conduit for collecting and distributing tangible educational and school supplies to school-aged children. Operation: Kid Equip effects long term improvement in the community by providing at-risk kids with the core necessities they need to prosper in school and in life. Visit our website at www.operationkidequip.org

About The Dictionary Project
The Dictionary Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The goal of this program is to assist all students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionary. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come.

Postcards from (old) Detroit

While at City Bird a week or two ago, I happened on a box of old postcards of Detroit. I flipped through them for a bit, or ages by the way my husband was pacing, and found two that called out to me.

I’ve been waxing on about the Belle Isle Ice Tree, as I have come to call it, since I first caught a glimpse of it last February. Something about it has me mesmerized. If it spoke, I would listen.

I didn’t become smitten with The Guardian Building until a few months later, during the summer. The gloriousness of the building coupled with how little recognition it receives mystifies me. This building should be celebrated!

So, of course, the two postcards I picked were of The Guardian Building and of a predecessor of the Belle Isle Ice Tree. 

The predecessor of the Ice Tree was the Ice Fountain on Washington Boulevard, which I briefly mentioned in my original post. 

Ice Fountain on Washington Boulevard, Detroit.

The blurb on the postcard reads:

ICE FOUNTAIN, WASHINGTON BOULEVARD. One of the unique features of Detroit in winter is the famous ice fountain on Washington Boulevard. Several jets of water are allowed to play all winter, and the result is a massive berg of ice which sometimes reaches a height of nearly thirty feet and contains many tons of crystal.

I didn’t realize until I got home that I was holding a postcard that was originally sent in 1910. The postmark reads June 20, 1910, to be exact. It was sent to a Mrs. J.H. Beck in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. No street address was included, just “To Hospital,” at the bottom. 

The writing on the postcard is faded and quite difficult to read. The salutation is “Hello Sister.” I believe it starts, “How are you? Hope you are feeling fine.” It may or may not ask how long she is staying in the hospital and what is John doing. 

The postcard from The Guardian Building is titled after its old name, “Union Guarding Building, Detroit, Mich.” The blurb on the backside reads:

This building located on Griswold, Detroit’s Wall Street, is 30 stories tall and is in the bizarre Mayan architecture. Its towers are flooded at night with many colored lights. 

Union Guardian Building

The postmark is September 29, 1950 and is addressed to a Mr. and Mrs. Lisa in Los Angeles, California. On the bottom of the card it says Lisa Beauty Parlor in parentheses. The card reads:

Hello: My trip east has been most delightful. The whole country seems at its best this time of year. ‘Harvest Time.’ Sincerely, Greta M. (and her last name, which I can’t make out)

The first thing I thought of when reading these postcards was that there was an Ice Tree or an Ice Fountain in Detroit since 1910! I told you, I’m obsessed with this thing.

But then my thinking drifted to the Detroit of old, both in 1910 and 1950. Detroit was the “Paris of the West” and an industrial leader. People flocked to our city for jobs and opportunity.

Questions flooded my brain.

Who were these people in these snapshots of Detroit? Did Mrs. Beck make it out of the hospital? Who the heck is John? Was it a brother or sister that sent her this postcard?

And what of Mr. and Mrs. Lisa, is that their real last name? How did Greta know them? Were they her hairdressers? How very Californian to send a postcard to your hairdressers!

What will people say about our Detroit in 60 or 100 years? Will they mourn our demise or marvel at our ingenuity, perseverance, and innovation? That is up for us to decide. Choose carefully.

The Guardian Building: Detroit's Beauty

Other buildings in Detroit such as The Fisher, The Penobscot, and the GM Renaissance Center might get all the attention but The Guardian Building is the true gem of Detroit skyscrapers.

The building was first known as The Union Trust and opened in 1929, just before the big crash. Details of the buildings initials, “UT”, can still be found throughout, including the doorknobs of the boardroom. Wirt C. Rowland, the buildings architect, also designed the Buhl Building, the Penobscot Building, and Kirk in the Hills church in Bloomfield Hills.

The banking hall at the Guardian Building.

Rowland was told to spare no expense and he obliged. The building features Pewabic and Rookwood tiles, marble, stone, a Tiffany clock, Monel metal, and a five-story mural. The Guardian Building was nicknamed “The Cathedral of Finance” and it held most of Detroit’s riches during its heyday.

"We no longer live in a leisurely age…the impression must be immediate, strong and complete--color has this vital power.”   Wirt C. Rowland

To experience the beauty and grandeur of the building stop in anytime the building is open, the lobby and massive banking hall are open to the public. The hall features shops such as Pure Detroit, a café named after Rowland, and of course, a bank.

From the banking hall you can view the five-story mural of Michigan by Ezra Winter, the glorious ceiling, and the archway into the banking hall featuring the Monel metal grille and the Tiffany clock. Well, two Tiffany clocks, one on each side.

But to truly enjoy the building you must take a tour! Christopher Roddy, the concierge of the building for the last 6 years, leads guests on tours daily. Roddy, formerly worked security at the Buhl Building and rushed to apply for the concierge position when it became available.

Christopher Roddy, the concierge at The Guardian Building.

Roddy, impeccably dressed in his uniform and shiny black patent leather shoes, brings the building to life. His enthusiasm and smile are worth the tour alone but he is also the gatekeeper of the building and his knowledge shines through.

The tiles around the window were laid to look like an Indian headdress.

Besides the banking hall, the tour led us downstairs to the vault. Two weeks ago a film crew was using this space for the remake of Bruce Lee’s Game of Death starring Wesley Snipes.

The hallway leading to the vault.

We also went up to the 6^th floor where the original boardroom sits, looking out onto the Buhl Building. The wood paneling is stunning, impressing my carpenter husband.

The tour usually features the hall on the 32^nd floor but it is still being renovated. I was a bit sad that we missed this, hoping to see spectacular views of Detroit and Canada. Roddy said that the tour would start going up there again sometime in January.

Mural of Michigan by Ezra Winter.

In 2003 the building was nearly empty, earlier this year it was filled to 60%, and now that Wayne County is moving their staff to the building, Roddy said that it should be close to 100% inhabited by the new year. That’s pretty impressive for an 80-year-old building in Detroit.

The tours are free and available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. For a day filled with wonderful views and Detroit history, combine this with a tour of the GM Renaissance Center.