Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
Wild At Heart
Well, only one more day left until the new year. It seems like time has been going so fast. It has been 7 months since my mom passed away which has made the holidays a little sadder than previous years. I am usually up north while my parents are heading south but now I have my dad up here so I won't be going to as many concerts or movies the next few months. Still, I can't complain too much and it is nice spending time with him even though he drives me crazy. If it wasn't for football season and car shows on cable, I don't know what I'd do.
You have a lot of list out there of best of this and that so I thought I would do one of my top 5 things of 2012.
5) Made the move to Dish. After a good decade or two of not having cable, I got it for my dad so he had something to watch. I don't catch a lot of TV shows which I mostly watch on Hulu or get from the library (like season 7 of Dexter and season 2 of American Horror Story) but I have enjoyed the Velocity Channel with all the car restoration shows, shows like Pawn Stars (love learning the history of all the odd things that come into the store) and being able to watch all my college basketball and football games. The price is still way to high for all the crap channels but it does come in handy at times.
4) Toronto Fan Fest. It has become a staple event every year. This year I went to their comic con in March where I got to see the entire original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation which was a lot of fun. In The summer, I had a great, if abbreviated time checking out all the cool artwork (both local and national), seeing all the great fan costumes, looking at all the cool toys (both new and old), getting tons of free things and meeting some of the biggest names in science fiction/fantasy like the Terminator's Linda Hamilton, Gremlins director Joe Dante, Knight Rider's David Hasselhoff and cast members of both Walking Dead and Orphan Black to name a few. Walking on the field across from the convention center and seeing a TARDIS on the hillside is one of those cool moments and going into restaurants and watching patrons stare at people dressed like various magna characters and super-heroes is priceless.
3) Finding the website openlibrary.org which had an extensive collection of ebooks you can read online and some you can get through their lending library. I am loving this because I have a list of science fiction books that I started back in 1986. I have about 45 books I have been unable to find for reasonable prices or at various libraries. I recently read Stanley Weinbaum's "New Adam" and just started Mark Clifton's "I'd Rather Be Right" and they have a couple other books on my list which I look forward to reading. The site can be a bit unstable at times and I am not a huge fan of reading on the computer for large chunks of time, but it is nice to be able to track down some rare books in the comfort of my own home.
2) Rochester Jazz Fest. Sure Michigan has a more solid traditional jazz base, But I have really enjoyed the diversity of acts this festival gets such as singer Youn Sun Nah, the Dirty Dozen Jazz Band, Dr John, David Byrne w/St Vincent, clarinetist Anat Cohen, Trombone Shorty and so many others. There is a lot of experimental jazz and international acts which I really enjoy plus some good national acts thrown in. It is a great time and well worth the money.
1) The museums of Toronto. The cultural life of Toronto from theatre and restaurants are incredible, as well as awesome concerts (like New Order, Nick cave and the Bad Seeds, etc) but it is the museums that really stand out to me. This year I saw the Patti Smith photography exhibit and David Bowie exhibits at the Art Gallery Of Ontario, the wonderful Mesopotamia exhibit (closes Jan 5th) at the Royal Ontario Museum and the amazing David Cronenberg exhibit at the TIFF (which is still going on until Jan 19th so catch it quick) not to mention the many smaller galleries around the area. I love working with these establishments and bringing you interviews with the various curators, etc of some of my favorite places to visit.
I hope you all have a safe holiday and Happy New Year!
Here are a few shows to catch this week if looking for something to do
Tuesday (12/31) - Gories @ Magic Stick, Zac Brown Band @ Joe Louis Arena
Wednesday (1/01) - Zac Brown Band w/Trombone Shorty @ Joe Louis Arena
Friday (1/03) - Ana Popovic (Anti-Freeze Blues Festival) @ Magic Stick
Saturday (1/04) - Bettye Lavette (Anti-Freeze Blues Festival) @ Magic Stick
A last minute reminder: I want to be sure you are all aware that this year’s 2014 Kresge Artist Detroit Fellowships are in Dance/Music and Film /Theatre. There are $25,000 awards for Metro Detroit emerging and established artists. The deadline for applying is January 31, 2014 and the instructions and application can be found here http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/apply/ so please pass this along to any eligible artists as this is a wonderful opportunity to be recognized and funded for your art.