the hounds below

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How a music blog brought me back to Michigan

December 28, 2009 in Culture, Detroit media | No comments

http://thehoff.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/jackson5_l.jpg

Greetings, team blog readers:

Today I’m taking a reprieve from my usual task of writing about statues and old cemeteries and bringing you something a little different: the story of the music blog that brought me back to Michigan at the end of August.

The best part: it’s also a mix CD.

You can visit the music blog that brought me back to Michigan, read the post and download the mix CD here.

And while we’re talking collateral, you might also be interested to know:

1. That my mom, Joan Ginsberg, is running a comment drive over at her blog, HR University. She’s brand new to the blogosphere, so stop over for a visit if you’re interested in human resource practice, HR and the law, social media and the law, best practices for social media in HR policy or the new wave of human resource philosophy in general (and if you didn’t know there was such a thing, I definitely advise you to learn more, starting with my mom and her blogroll).

If you leave a comment on her blog or my blog (it’s her way of saying “thanks!” for my persistence and enthusiastic suggestions that she get involved with social media) before January 2, she’ll enter you in a drawing for $100 and a copy of Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon.

And you thought the world was upside down when your mom asked to be your Facebook friend.

Seriously, though. Blogging moms are the best moms.

2. That an article I wrote about Jason Stollsteimer of The Von Bondies and The Hounds Below ran in the Metro Times last week. It’s my first byline for Metro Times since they published a poem I wrote in their 2003 Summer Fiction issue, which I think was my first byline ever.

Happy reading. We’ll be back in a couple of days to celebrate the birthday of Mad Anthony Wayne.

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Changes afoot

November 9, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

ship and dragon plaque fw

This weekend — with its unbelievable 60 degree weather, a healthy serving of historical adventuring and a rollicking season finale of Mad Men — was one of the best ever. The Hounds Below got down with their howly selves at the Majestic Cafe, we took in a month’s worth of accumulated recyclables, we witnessed the bowel-shaking power of the colossal pipe organ at Old Mariner’s Church and watched a 100-year-old retired sea captain ring one of the eight tolls of the bell to commemorate lives lost on the Great Lakes, and part one of our self-guided itinerary from History of Detroit for Young People (published in 1933) was a success.

I took lots of pictures and will share them soon, BUT: I must warn you that I am taking more decisive reigns at this blog and moving to a self-hosted server, which will give me more autonomy in the way the site looks and feels. BONUS: I am doing most of the technical work myself, and teaching myself how to do it, from building a custom header to exporting my existing database. So it may look a little wonky for a while.

I didn’t want to make this move until I had a solid sense of what I really thought I was doing, blogging here, but now that I’ve spent a month or so clearing up my voice and trusting my instincts and chasing what excites me, I think it’s become pretty clear. Thanks for slugging through the uncertainty.

This week: downtown and Campus Martius, then (from the treaty at Fort Lernoult to the razing of City Hall) and now (where is Oliver Hazard Perry’s cannon?); Farmington’s Pernambuco Hollow; more of the usual scratching around in old cemeteries.

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